What did YOU feel like after your first docking?

[mythic_fci]

The title says it all There is a poll above to rate your answers.

My first docking:

It was a normal rendezvouz practice with an SSTO of mine; the first docking was planned for a capsule/rocket design. After bringing the intersect down to 1.1km, I noticed I could actually see the station and that I wasn't moving that fast relative to it. So, after some course corrections using the rockets, I was 20m away from my equivalent of the Skylab/Tiangong/Salyut/Whatever the heck ya wanna call it. Anyway, I activated RCS, toggled the docking port and moved in on one of it's 5 docking ports. It was actually easier than I thought; I simply pushed the SSTO's port into the port of the station and BAM! First docking complete! I was excited as heck about this new accomplishment, as it opened up at least 100 new doors in what to do next in KSP.

[Daid]

Took 2 hours, felt like an awesome accomplishment.

[Skorpychan]

With mechjeb: Relief that I could finally do something new.

Manual, after a mechjeb rendezvous: Excited and accomplished, both at doing it MYSELF, and for having done it better, quicker, and more efficient than mechjeb.

[RoCkEtZoMbIe]

My first docking was an amazing accomplishment for me. After hours and hours of failed attempts, when the two docking Ports finally aligned correctly and the camera zoomed out and showed my whole ship i just leaned back in my chair with my hands on my head and stared at my screen for at least a half hour, that feeling was so good, unlike any other feeling I've had in any game.

[GROOV3ST3R]

My first attempts at docking were frustratingly miserable. So I went back to the drawing board and designed a 3 module station made with largest diameter parts, including a refueling module with capacity of 4 orange tanks. so my first ever successful docking attempt was a god-knows-how-heavy space station using clampotron senior docks.

It took me at least 30-45 minutes, if not longer, of just attempting an approach with the largest bulkiest module available, because my more nimble module ran out of RCS...

Needless to say, I was sooo relieved when it finally clicked into place that I just didn't know what to do with myself. I then docked the rest of the station together and simply admired it for the best part of 15 minutes. It was insane, literally the largest thing I have made to date. I must revisit it sometime soon ^^

[WillHop]

Mine was a bit of a fluke. During a rescue mission from the Mun, I ran out of fuel in Munar orbit and had to send a refueller. I had no idea how to rendezvous, and after hours of frustration I just burned toward the target. I also had no idea about the translation controls and just attacked the ship with my RCS . But it worked!

[NecroBones]

My first docking was pretty nerve-wracking, but didn't take overly long. I was assembling a ship in orbit, to head off to another planet, towing a lander. I didn't think I could lift the whole thing into orbit at once, so did it with two launches. It was hard, but not as hard as I expected, so it got me over that initial fear. Now I dock frequently without any trouble.

Subsequently, I did manage to lift the entire ship (for another destination) in one launch though, to save the extra steps.

[Jasel]

I tried a few times...then I figured out I had the docking port Sr. on backwards. I was so mad I went through the effort of creating a deorbiter just to watch it burn up in the atmosphere and crash to the ground.

After that I had the ports on correctly it was a bear, but then I,J,K,L just clicked and I was able to dock for the first time...in revers.e

[DunaRocketeer]

It was completely nerve wracking, but when I finally accomplished it, I felt as good as when I did my first landing. I used a large lander that I had used for Mun and Minmus missions, and docked it with a big orange fuel tank with a couple of LV-N's strapped to it: it became my very first Duna mission spacecraft! From that point, you just realise that the whole solar system is at your fingertips, it's an amazing feeling!

[lajoswinkler]

I still have the screenshot.

It was very frustrating.

[95tiger59]

Was 2nd best feeling i had playing ksp only my first rocket in orbit is ahead of it

[Jouni]

I delayed my first docking attempt for a long time, because I was afraid that I would ram the target and break both ships. When I finally tried it, I was quite disappointed. I had completed a rendezvous, flown the ship close to the target, and brought it to a stop a couple of meters from the docking port. Then, just as I was starting the docking attempt, some mysterious force just pulled the ships together.

Docking didn't feel that hard even for the first time. Once I had learned the controls, flying a ship was similar enough to some games I had played in the 90s, so I could park the ship next to the target easily enough. The hard part I had expected wasn't necessary, as the magnetic forces pulled the ship for the last meter or so. Even a cautious approach wasn't really necessary, as it's hard to cause any damage by ramming a ship.

[bigdad84]

I never had a problem with docking or rendezvous, I was more amazed by "holy cow, this feature is finally added" rather than, "holy cow, I just docked!"

[regex]

I think I would have "got it" sooner if I hadn't been trying to use docking mode... What a waste of RCS.

[Bishop149]

I did a fair few: "Get two ships with in spitting distance of each other and then EVA a Kerb between them" missions before I went for a proper docking. These were usually to rescue Kerbs stranded in unlandable ships in orbit.

These taught me about syncing orbits, and the finer points of Kerb EVA control, when I went for my first proper docking my main thought was "This would be SO much easier if a ship handled with the same controls as the EVAing Kerbs!" I also thought oh well "Docking mode" that's what its for right. . . . wrong!

I recall screwing up by only putting 2 parallel RCS jets on the module. . . had to rotate the ship by 90 degrees every time I wanted to switch from up/down to left/right. . . . it was a major pain in the proverbial.

I did finally get it (No MechJeb but with Engineer Redux) see below:

Haven't tired again since but I have some missions in the workrs for which docking is a major part so I will be getting some more practice

[Nepos]

Took 2 hours, felt like an awesome accomplishment.

pretty much that same here. Adding to the challenge I forgot to add RCS on my docking craft.

1. Craft I was docking with was dead in space as I forgot that once I detached the capsule there was no probe core or another capsule to command the station.

2. The craft that was doing the docking was built backwards so all my inputs were reversed. ( I did not know what the control from here did so I did not use it)

3. That same craft had no RCS so I had to dock with main engines only.

I never had to use any of my quick saves but did have to pause and review youtubes a bunch during the docking process

[Amaroq]

Where is "exhilirated" -- I yelled so loud I woke my wife at 2:00am.

[Javster]

Rendezvous was far harder.

[Rhyunix]

I don't think that there is an opinion for me on the poll- I enjoy docking but find it easy, not boring

[The Destroyer]

Honestly, It wasn't hard. Set vessel as target and launch at right time, wait till closest appraoach is enough, switch to target mode, burn at the X, then the purple circle, etc.

Ineffecient and easy!

I wanted something in-between sweating hard and cool but boring, it wasn't boring, it was fun and cool.

[me3]

"Now I can actually call it a space station."

[PDCWolf]

"oh wow they pulled themselves into each other, what's wrong with this thing"

I had previously done it in orbiter, knew what to expect and how to approach and stuff, but never expected the craft to actually have magnetism from such a relatively large distance.

[BLFonsworth]

It took some working at it, watched some videos on youtube to see how others were doing it and just kinda followed along. The biggest hurdles for me were finding out that you can change your speed indicator to show your speed relative to your target and how to translate my orientation into the RCS controls to go in the right direction. I still struggle with that part, I always hit the wrong button and have to immediately counter it. I practiced it in sandbox mode, I even started to play around with design ideas and space station building before I took it to career mode.

However, after my first dock, I celebrated by throwing my hands in the air, scaring my roommates cat, taking a bong rip and then smoking a cig afterwards.. Yea, I was that happy about it.. It was only a couple days ago too..

Once I knew how to dock, I went to career mode and began to design an orbiter to refuel from. I sent up an orbiter and then sent a fuel tank to dock with it. Since then (like 2 or 3 days ago) I ahve successfully docked and refueled 2 probes, 1 manned lander and 1 rover delivery lander.

I would vote, but I'm new to the forums and not allowed to vote yet.

[A Fat Pokemon]

"Oh yes finally! Took me so long! Oh no... No no no stop spinning.." I was excited when I first 'docked' two ships, but since landing legs were the only thing to 'dock' with at the time (.15 I believe), they had some side effects..

[Biker Joe]

After I had successfuly docked for the first time I was relieved to have done it, I'm like a serial docker now I love doing it!