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Signs you've mastered the art of docking

Kerbart

By Kerbart
in KSP1 Discussion

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alacrity

alacrity

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I tend to use jettisonable rcs kit. I never did manage to maintain control tight enough to dock without RCS but have a few designs for rcs gear that blows off after docking. (Lost a couple of solar cells that way but worth the lower part count.)

Alacrity

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Bandock

Bandock

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I've docked with and without RCS before. The latter is definitely a challenge, especially if you're docking with something that has no control whatsoever. One form of a docking that is a challenge is side docking (even with Control From Here, it can be quite a challenge). However, it is quite fun and handy once you learn that form of docking since you can use specially made modules that take advantage of side docking repairs.

Heck, I remember doing that back when 0.18 was just around where I had to replace or repair certain modules that required side docking (which used hull-based docking ports).

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ravensoul6@hotmail.com

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When you get within 1000m while still sub orbital, and the circularisation burn is your final docking manoeuvre.

I'm getting there, but not quite there yet. I will say I'm several orders of magnitude more efficient than I used to be, so much more so that I don't actually find the need to do docking nearly as much anymore-ironically slowing the pace at which I improve.

Career mode has made me completely rethink and re-engineer everything. I went from gulping RCS to barely using any (docking with less than 5 units as oppossed to a few hundred) and only putting it on one ship in any given array, I used to put it on everything. Soon I won't have a use for it-soon.

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SkyRender

SkyRender

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:sticktongue: When you're confident enough to dump on Scott Manley...

Really, that's not so hard when it comes to certain things. He's pretty mediocre even at his best when it comes to docking and landing. Also, I'm not sure if it's intentional for the theme of his Interstellar Quest series, but lately his skills seem to have deteriorated considerably.

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ravensoul6@hotmail.com

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Really, that's not so hard when it comes to certain things. He's pretty mediocre even at his best when it comes to docking and landing. Also, I'm not sure if it's intentional for the theme of his Interstellar Quest series, but lately his skills seem to have deteriorated considerably.

Agreed, he did make a sort of disclaimer in the first video on his interstellar series about how he was going to attempt to play the game as a normal person would. I enjoy the series, although he does seem to be having some problems adjusting to FAR.

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SuperBigD60

SuperBigD60

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Agreed, he did make a sort of disclaimer in the first video on his interstellar series about how he was going to attempt to play the game as a normal person would. I enjoy the series, although he does seem to be having some problems adjusting to FAR.

You are right, but his celebrity in the KSP community seems to provide immunity to criticism in regards to his skill.

Anyway, docking things back inside a cargo bay is quite interesting.

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Lone K.

Lone K.

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Several times I've tried to get a base on the Mun, each time I forgot to quicksave, so what happened? I had to keep docking the same antenna over and over and over again with the base module. It was becoming tiresome, but that's when I realized, "Wow, I really docked this same thing over and over again? Give yourself a pat on the back, me, you've done some good docking."

I've used a tug to transport 4 fuel tanks to their docking ports on a station, whereas it became harder due to the fact that it became unbalanced as each fuel tank docked. It was hard, but I had fun.

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boomerdog2000

boomerdog2000

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I don't know about mastered but one of my favorite dockings was replacing a station core with a new model. I undocked all the the separate modules, slid the old core straight out the bottom and the new core right in the top, everything went flawlessly... the 3rd time...

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User Unrelated

User Unrelated

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A few days ago I docked in complete darkness, using only the green highlight as I hovered my mouse over the target port, and 4 little green lights on batteries around the other port.

screenshot123_zpsacfd8c2d.png

it took me only 20 minutes, maybe a bit less, I think, to orbit, rendezvous, and dock a habitation module, and a portion of the ascent stage that still had a bunch of fuel (which is going to be used to relocate the power module from this station to a station around the Mun so I can replace the kerbin station power module with a bigger one)

On the rendezvous burn, I got within 700m of the station without trying too hard, it was FLAWLESS. (even I was surprised!)

WITH RCS, but still... I'm working on it!

Edited by User Unrelated
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ComradeGoat

ComradeGoat

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Career mode has made me completely rethink and re-engineer everything. I went from gulping RCS to barely using any (docking with less than 5 units as oppossed to a few hundred) and only putting it on one ship in any given array, I used to put it on everything. Soon I won't have a use for it-soon.

I'm not a career mode person, but my drive to build light, efficient SSTO planes for Laythe has driven me to building them with only one roundified tank (40 RCS units), and docking using a round 1 unit.

If there was a 20 unit tank, I'd be using it.

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ComradeGoat

ComradeGoat

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Docking without rcs? I feel like I've got a pretty good handle on docking, but you guys are nuts.

It's a fun party trick, but TBH I don't find it that useful. For frugal missions, maybe only add RCS to one ship if you're doing mothership and lander. Docking without RCS to a large station, where it takes ages to reorient the station, is annoying.

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chuangatronic

chuangatronic

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It's a fun party trick, but TBH I don't find it that useful. For frugal missions, maybe only add RCS to one ship if you're doing mothership and lander. Docking without RCS to a large station, where it takes ages to reorient the station, is annoying.

If you have to reorient the station you're doing it wrong. You have to be able to dock without RCS without reorienting your target also, otherwise it's a useless endeavor.

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Seret

Seret

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If you have to reorient the station you're doing it wrong. You have to be able to dock without RCS without reorienting your target also, otherwise it's a useless endeavor.

How so? I always turn the target port to match the direction of approach of the other ship. It makes docking quicker and simpler and doesn't use any fuel if you just use reaction wheels. Seems like a no-brainer to me...

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jsfalconero

jsfalconero

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I always turn the target port to match the direction of approach of the other ship.

Quite right, but a large station with heavy parts pointed off in random directions is liable to experience unplanned explosive disassembly if you try and maneuver it too much. The real skill in a main engine docking is when you don't need to rotate the target to get your alignment (and you can shoot the gap between your obnoxiously placed NERVAs to hit the Sr. Docking port in the middle. Redesign? No need...)

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