Docking mode vs staging

[Rabid Bat]

Is there any advantage to using docking mode? I have not been playing that long, but I have not found any reason to use it, am I missing something?

Edited July 17, 2014 by Rabid Bat

[Master Tao]

For docking, docking mode is easier to use one-handed, since the translation and rotation controls are the same keys. You switch between them with the spacebar.

It also has an advantage for rovers: you can control the rover without rotating it with torque. You could also remap rover controls to I, J, K, and L.

[Mefi282]

You can control all RCS axis with docking mode. But since you wrote staging vs. docking mode I assume you need to dock once first Staging is all you need for missions without docking...

Here is a tutorial how to dock:Basic Docking KSPWiki

[ohlookabirdie]

i never use docking mode... even when docking...

[MircoMars]

for me it should be renamed rover mode

[Epthelyn]

for me it should be renamed rover mode

Pretty much

I learned how to dock without knowing there was an option to switch to a docking mode. By the time I found out that such a mode exists I was comfortable using the staging controls, to the point that even now I'm not entirely sure what the docking mode actually does because I've never bothered using it for anything other than a lazy way to drive rovers without remapping the drive controls.

[QuesoExplosivo]

I don't use it because I like to translate and rotate at the same time.

[Rabid Bat]

Thanks for the info. Since I'm used to using staging for docking (3 times lol) no point in confusing myself.

[Blind Dead McJones]

Docking mode is mainly useful for people who use joysticks, because it allows you to switch between rotation and translation with the space bar. For people who don't use joysticks, it's less useful because docking controls are WASD for rotation (left hand) and IJKLHN for translation (right hand). To me, having both at the same time is too valuable so I remain in staging even while docking.

As someone said, it can help drive rovers around because if you use the docking mode translation controls, rovers don't apply rotation torque so they don't try to flip themselves over as they sometimes do on low gravity bodies like Minmus. But honestly that's all I do with it.

[MockKnizzle]

I play with a keyboard, and I've never used it. I dock using the Navyfish docking plugin so I don't need to mess with moving the camera, leaving me free to use both hands for rotation and translation.

I also remapped rover controls to IJKL, so no need for docking mode there either.

[allmhuran]

I use a joystick and have never used docking mode.... pitch yaw and roll stay on the rudder and stick and I use a hat switch (well, 2 hat switches) for translation, which makes sense as long as translation controls are not able to be throttled, which is true as of 0.23.5.

Sounds like I should try docking controls for rovers though... rovers and joysticks don't mix.