A Question on Docking Mode

[Invisionary]

Hello! I'm fairly new to the game and was making an attempt at docking. The problem is that the ship I'm piloting has RCS thrusters, yet when I'm in LIN docking mode, I seem to have no movement at all. ROT mode works, yet when I try to strafe in LIN mode, or try to move forward, nothing happens at all. This is a very frustrating problem. What are some of the reasons that this might occur/ what might I be missing?? Thanks!

Edited December 11, 2013 by Invisionary
Answered

[Sirrobert]

With docking mode you can switch between strafing and rotation with the spacebar.

I just use normal staging mode while docking. Rotation with QWEASD, and strafing with IJKLNH

N is back, H is forward

[kzauner]

RCS turned *ON*? The Control on the lop left of your navball should be highlighted.

And I'm sure you have RCS fuel left, don't you?

[Invisionary]

RCS turned *ON*? The Control on the lop left of your navball should be highlighted.

And I'm sure you have RCS fuel left, don't you?

I have a bunch of RCS modules on the ship, no monopropellant though.. is that necessary? It's just weird because the rotation controls work, but none of the strafing works, even when the dials are showing that I'm making inputs.

[Rhomphaia]

I have a bunch of RCS modules on the ship, no monopropellant though.. is that necessary? It's just weird because the rotation controls work, but none of the strafing works, even when the dials are showing that I'm making inputs.

Yep you need monopropellant fuel for those RCS ports.

Rotation will work through reaction wheel torque

[Invisionary]

WOW! Thanks so much! This is the problem. Thanks

[700NitroXpress]

Yeah, you need fuel for the RCS engines to work, slap on some monopropellant and then just use the default translation controls. IKJLHN, once you're used to it, you'll never need/want to switch to docking mode.

[Taki117]

I also highly advise getting NavyFish's Docking Port Alignment Indicator. It's nothing more than a little pop up window that appears whenever you select a docking port as a target. It's very intuitive to use.

[Invisionary]

If the normal translation controls are available when not in docking mode, then what does docking mode actually do??

[Taki117]

If the normal translation controls are available when not in docking mode, then what does docking mode actually do??

Currently? Provides a headache, I assume that the little box thing is supposed to give you some kind or orientation readout, but as far as I can tell it doesn't to anything. Linear mode does however disable reaction wheels, making it useful for Rovers.

[700NitroXpress]

If the normal translation controls are available when not in docking mode, then what does docking mode actually do??

Docking mode switches the WASD controls to JLHN, or maybe JLIK, I'm not really sure what the exact swap is, but it's one of those. So basically the regular translation controls get swapped into the WASD, which is kind of useless once you learn how to dock with the regular translation controls. I only used it once and never went back.

[Invisionary]

Ahah! I did it! yes.. it was much easier to avoid docking mode altogether. Thanks a bunch all, a lot of useful information. Much learned

[kzauner]

Objection.

Both Modes have their use. But 'Docking Mode' ist especially useful for docking (surprise! maybe hence the name?). Because in docking mode your controls are NavBall-relative, not ship-relative as IKJLHN in staging-mode. No need to switch to 'chase view' or the like. If you are docking using the navball, docking-mode is the way to go. If you are docking looking at your ship: yes, then staging mode.

I'm usually quicker going docking-mode, with less fuel consumption - because there is no need to 'kill all your relative velocity', ... bla bla stuff. When closing in, just use AD SHIFT CTRL to move your relative direction marker onto the target (or better: slightly off, so you get over the port you are aiming for).

And it gets you the better screenshots; you can easily place the cam in front of your vehicle aiming back - so you captures of your vehicle closing in from a viewpoint slightly above target. No need to remap controls in your brain. That said: in about 3/4th of all my dockings I go docking mode. Some especially trivial stuff, I don't care switching (Like: Apollo style - separation - 180° turn - dock).

[Tank Buddy]

It is much easier just to switch the translation controls to something easy to remember like the arrow keys and right shift and control, like I did. That way you can use rotation and translation at the same time with easy to remember keys.

[Sirrobert]

Objection.

Both Modes have their use. But 'Docking Mode' ist especially useful for docking (surprise! maybe hence the name?). Because in docking mode your controls are NavBall-relative, not ship-relative as IKJLHN in staging-mode. No need to switch to 'chase view' or the like. If you are docking using the navball, docking-mode is the way to go. If you are docking looking at your ship: yes, then staging mode.

I'm usually quicker going docking-mode, with less fuel consumption - because there is no need to 'kill all your relative velocity', ... bla bla stuff. When closing in, just use AD SHIFT CTRL to move your relative direction marker onto the target (or better: slightly off, so you get over the port you are aiming for).

And it gets you the better screenshots; you can easily place the cam in front of your vehicle aiming back - so you captures of your vehicle closing in from a viewpoint slightly above target. No need to remap controls in your brain. That said: in about 3/4th of all my dockings I go docking mode. Some especially trivial stuff, I don't care switching (Like: Apollo style - separation - 180° turn - dock).

No, IJKL is still fully navball relative. I'm in staging mode all the time and I only ever look at the navball. Except when orientating the docking ports, but I do that before I start the final docking

[Rusty6899]

Docking mode doesn't work for me, I just use normal staging view.

The only thing I use Docking mode for is taking screenshots (on Mac). The number of times I have gone "Ctrl + Shift + 3... Oh **** the throttle!"

[fastbikkel]

What is LIN and ROT mode?

I never use docking mode btw, i didn't know it worked, i always use : hnjkli and that works like a charm.

Only thing i do not see work is the "fine control" by using "caps lock", it seems nothing happens, at least i do not see the famous "puffs" nor do i see movement.

[Rhomphaia]

What is LIN and ROT mode?

I never use docking mode btw, i didn't know it worked, i always use : hnjkli and that works like a charm.

Only thing i do not see work is the "fine control" by using "caps lock", it seems nothing happens, at least i do not see the famous "puffs" nor do i see movement.

LIN - "Linear" ie. translation

ROT - rotation

Allows you to switch modes while keeping the throttle and staging locked.

Seems .23 has fixed S.A.S in docking mode

[Blackstar]

Only thing i do not see work is the "fine control" by using "caps lock", it seems nothing happens, at least i do not see the famous "puffs" nor do i see movement.

Fine control mode puts RCS thrusters in 'balance' mode, which works best if you have two sets of thruster blocks far from the center of mass. It attempts to throttle back the individual ones to compensate for less than perfect placement. The idea is that even with unbalanced RCS blocks, fine control mode can translate without introducing (much) rotation.

If you have a single set near the COM (but not quite perfectly aligned), it usually ends up reducing your thrust to near 0, since it's trying to solve an equation that there is no solution for: you're going to get some torque no matter how far back you scale the thrust. So it's not very useful in that case since you'll get almost no force at all out of them.

Note that while in fine control mode you often won't be able to see the puffs, even if you do get translation (and said translation will usually be a lot slower than running them full blast).

Fine control mode also seems to disable or at least significantly reduce the automatic use of RCS for orientation control when SAS is turned on, depending more on reaction wheel torque. I do often notice a very small (0.1 or less) resource drain with SAS on, so I'm not certain if it's completely shutting it off, but it definitely is a lot less wasteful.

Edited February 20, 2014 by Blackstar

[allmappedout]

Docking mode does unfortunately serve no purpose currently. The controls you need are all available within staging mode, so there is no benefit to switch to docking mode. What docking mode should do is provide you with the same control set up (because who wants to learn to sets of controls?), but add information like the crosshair (which of course, it already adds but doesn't tell you too much more than the Nav ball) and an alignment indicator, just like mentioned earlier. Adding something like that would definitely benefit the mode, and would personally make me want to use it, because as it stands, it's more intuitive to stay in staging and simply use ASDW IJKL HN.

[Max Grant]

I have a bunch of RCS modules on the ship, no monopropellant though.. is that necessary? It's just weird because the rotation controls work, but none of the strafing works, even when the dials are showing that I'm making inputs.

LOL. This is the problem. You have some built into each capsule but you will use that up almost immediately.

[Max Grant]

Objection.

Both Modes have their use. But 'Docking Mode' ist especially useful for docking (surprise! maybe hence the name?). Because in docking mode your controls are NavBall-relative, not ship-relative as IKJLHN in staging-mode. No need to switch to 'chase view' or the like. If you are docking using the navball, docking-mode is the way to go. If you are docking looking at your ship: yes, then staging mode.

I'm usually quicker going docking-mode, with less fuel consumption - because there is no need to 'kill all your relative velocity', ... bla bla stuff. When closing in, just use AD SHIFT CTRL to move your relative direction marker onto the target (or better: slightly off, so you get over the port you are aiming for).

And it gets you the better screenshots; you can easily place the cam in front of your vehicle aiming back - so you captures of your vehicle closing in from a viewpoint slightly above target. No need to remap controls in your brain. That said: in about 3/4th of all my dockings I go docking mode. Some especially trivial stuff, I don't care switching (Like: Apollo style - separation - 180° turn - dock).

I tried using docking mode ONCE. I hated it. I just use the same mode throughout.

I usually dock the first time right away unless my ship is wobbly, or I've made some stupid design mistake (left a docking port mated to a docking port because I was checking how the ships would look put together). Other than that, I point to target, burn off relative velocity, burn to target, lather, rinse, repeat.

[fastbikkel]

LIN - "Linear" ie. translation

ROT - rotation

Allows you to switch modes while keeping the throttle and staging locked.

Seems .23 has fixed S.A.S in docking mode

Thanks, i had no clue :-)

[fastbikkel]

Fine control mode puts RCS thrusters in 'balance' mode, ...

Awesome, thanks for clearing that !

[fastbikkel]

I guess the key thing in all docking is "patience", especially for us newcomers.

Now i feel comfy in docking, it feels very very rewarding to do a good steady docking.

Yes it was a surprise when i selected "control from here" on a docking port on top of my ship. The controls "flipped". I realised it, but it took a few seconds.

WIth some "common sense" and "calmness" i finished the job.

That is my personal advice, pretend it is real, so you will be taking it easy.