This is how docking actually works in 0.09378

[Trafalgar]

First, ignore the green box, it isn't accurate. The docking module alone holds an 11x11x11 area centered on the ship's core, and the first enhancer boosts this to 15x15x15. All enhancers for the dock should be contiguous (touching another), having three lines running ftom the module will not work right currently, and each enhancer after the first that proceeds in a straight line along an axis will add 4 tiles to that axis (2 on each side of the core).

If your ship's core is not in the center of the ship, then even if the size of the docking area is the same as your ship's dimensions, it will not fit because the docking area is centered on your core - It doesn't just check your ship's size. Thus (non-tiny) ships with non-centered cores require more enhancers to extend the box to reach the rest of their ship (and at the same time are expanding it in the other direction away from the core into empty space).

11x11x11 test ship in a dock with no extenders:

Extenders should be in connected straight lines like this:
E
E
EEEEE
E
E

Or an L, etc. Like power.

This is bad:
EE
E
EE

This is also bad:
E
E
MEE

They do not need to be near or touching the module, just linked to it (c/v).

 

[ne3zy]

thanks for helping with that

 

[Veldcath]

Actually, the green box is accurate - we\'ve just been looking at it incorrectly. And thanks to your description of how the docking enhancers work, I was able to spot it!

When you first start out with your 11 block zone, the box it shows is 6 blocks along each side - the core plus five in any given direction. 5 + core + 5, or (2 * 5) + 1 = 11. When you add the first ehancer, the box grows by one on each side in width and length and two in height. So the new box is 8 blocks long on each side, which is core plus 7. (7 * 2) + 1 = 15.

What the green box is showing us is the maximum distance from the core that blocks can be in each dimension.

Also worth noting, for planning ships and docking, where X is the number of enhancers for width, Y for height, and Z for length:

Maximum Docked Ship...
Width = 11 + (4 * X)
Height = 11 + (4 * Y)
Length = 11 + (4 * Z)

Maximum Docked Ship Distance From Core...
Width = 5 + (2 * X)
Height = 5 + (2 * Y)
Length = 5 + (2 * Z)

 

[Trafalgar]

It appears that distance from core on the height dimension is starting at 11 rather than 5, and increasing by 4 per enhancer instead of 2 (both above and below the core). Width and length are what I said they are in the OP.

In other words, you can dock a 11x23x11 ship on a docking module alone with a centered core, or make a 11x12x11 turret with no enhancers, or dock a 15x31x15 ship with a centered core using one enhancer.



Since I unzipped my backup of .09378 to recheck this there and found the same behavior with that version, it appears I missed this in my original testing, rather than it being a new behavior. Not sure if this is intended, or a bug, but either way, I missed it the first time around.

 

[Zaflis]

That has got to be a bug :S Doesn\'t make any sense.