Self-aligning docking port

[tater]

It would be nice to have an advanced clamp-o-tron where if the docking is made within a few degrees of perfect, the ships rotate until they lock with 0 degrees matching 0 degrees on the ports. They'd have a visible notch you'd set via rotation in the VAB, and you'd still have to eyeball the docking, but if it was within say 5 degrees, the 2 ships would rotate as they docked until they were spot-on.

[r4pt0r]

better still, keep the magnetism on, but don't lock the ports until we click some "lock" button. then when you are magnetically attached, rotate the way you want, then lock the port. I think that would be more versatile

[sumghai]

Already discussed extensively here, along with additional options to allow emulation of real-life docking ports with multiple allowable discrete docking orientations:

http://forum.kerbalspaceprogram.com/threads/46442-Extend-ModuleDockingNode-with-options-for-rotational-alignment-increments

[astropapi1]

I don't like the idea of automatic rotation. It would be very annoying if you purposely wanted to dock that way and they didn't let you. I think r4pt0r's suggestion is better.

Nice suggestion, though!

[tater]

I'd think that real ports would have a simple, mechanical system, where an asymmetric element could slide freely into a notch. Simple, and positive. While rotation is possibly useful for different reasons, for assembly, I want it to be the way it was designed. Guess there is another thread. These suggestions disappear quickly, however.