Docking idea

[Recognize-Me-]

Got an idea for a part and I want to get a few opinions on the concept of the part before I start modeling it. I want to make A box that will be radially attached to your ship that will deploy a platform that has a magnetic force that only attracts one other part, the landing legs that will attach to a smaller ship that can then land on the platform in orbit and stick to it. Just want to get a few ideas on weather or not you are able to make the parts kind of like docking ports, but one being a platform and another being a special pair of landing legs?

[FreeThinker]

Interesting, this would be great for a mothership with (multiple) reusable landers.

[artwhaley]

Hmmm. Yes. Sort of. With a bit of a hack. You could make an 'invisible docking port' that is part of your landing gear setup, then put another 'invisble docking port' on your lander platform. You would set both of their docking module size's to the same thing... so TECHNICALLY... two landers coming together gear to gear could dock... and two of the platforms could dock together. There's no way, without a plugin, to make a gendered docking port where port a only binds with part b, though with clever design you can make it only work the way you want it to. This is how FASA creates the Apollo male and female connectors. Technically, if you could jam two of the same gender together they'd dock, but the shape of the attachments makes that impossible.

If you get the parts built, post back and I'll help with more details on how to get the docking modules working!