Quirky docking ports in the latest version?

[PTNLemay]

So it's been a while that I built a big space station with multiple docks, and I decided to try one for the first time in 0.23.

Things were going fine until I got to the part where I had to separate the station module from the delivery craft. I noticed that there's this cool new retraction animation that some of the docks do now when you decouple them. Strangely though, sometimes the docks that do that break off once the separation is complete.

http://i.imgur.com/sXvXDIM.png

http://i.imgur.com/yxTRywi.png

http://i.imgur.com/L1Q7aHj.png

Is this dock retraction thing not actually an animation but some sort of bug? I built a station with this sort of triple-dock back in 0.21 I think, and I never saw a break like this before.

Edited March 22, 2014 by PTNLemay

[Starstrider42]

By any chance, did you assemble the ship by attaching the top three ports, followed by the bottom three ports, followed by the 3-adapter on the bottom? KSP vehicles can't have any loops of connected parts, so I'm pretty sure your whole ship was being held together by the docking port on the lower left. The other two ports were attached only to the docking port above them, and not to the adapter below them.

Not sure about the best way to prevent this. I'm assuming you don't have access to a senior docking port if you're doing this trick in the first place, and since detached ship parts can't be edited in the VAB, I can't think of an easy way to force the docking ports to be attached to the lower adapter. Maybe if you made the station module the first part, then added the capsule to the top? I'm pretty sure fuel tanks can be used as roots...

[PTNLemay]

I haven't researched the senior yet, but even if did have it I don't want to use it because there's no way to guarantee proper alignment. I'm a bit OCD about stuff like that, I want my space station parts to be neatly facing the right sides, or at clean 90 degrees from others. Even if you're really really careful with the singular senior docks you inevitably end up with tons of wiggle in your space station's central axis and all of the things you attach to that axis end up looking like the spindly branches of a skinny tree (see Goon Station for a fine example of this). I think there might be a way to edit the parts files and force all of the docks to be aligned along a common value, but I consider that cheating at that point. Multi-docks is the only "legit" way to ensure everything is straight.

I think the reason I managed it back in 0.21 was because I gave every single module it's own command pod, every part of the station was it's own small independent spacecraft, which helped me put the thing together. The problem is that at the end I had a ridiculous amount of redundant parts that weighed the whole thing down (all the same it looked pretty cool... http://i.imgur.com/THKJ975.png). Here I'm trying to make most modules "dumb", but that seems to be what's breaking the multi-docks. And yeah, I did another test, it's not a special animation it's just the dock sinking into the separated spacecraft as it breaks off. Any triple dock that isn't part of the "main" craft snaps right off when you disconnect them. Except for the main "branch" that was holding it together. http://i.imgur.com/eedL02z.png

Edited March 22, 2014 by PTNLemay

[Kasuha]

Even three docking ports don't guarantee you proper alignment. It's better to use Sr. and spend a while on aligning the roll.

There was no change since last versions. Proper way to construct multiport is to use some kind of spacer, then remove it when you have your ports installed:

Note though, that these may not snap together on launchpad. You may need to add struts to the two ports which are not part of the ship's spine to hold them for alignment.