Trouble: "Hidden" Extending USD Arm

[AeonAnomaly]

So, I'm having issues with a USD arm, that I have hidden inside a ship, but can extend when wanting to dock with other ships or stations. I like this idea more than having an actual dock on the outside of the ship, because I'm trying to recreate ships from a table top space game, and want the ships to look as close to the models as possible.

So far, it works splendidly if I have small ships with exposed USDs to dock to the ship in question, but if I want to dock the ship to a station or another ship, I've run into a problem. I can't seem to use the Rail Docker properly. No matter what Rail Docker I put on my hotbar, when I try to activate it, it undocks the extending USD from the ship, rather than try to dock to a new entity. I'm assuming chain docking of this nature is not possible then. I'm guessing I can have these ships contact dock, which might actually work for what I'm ultimately planning, but that would take a lot of precision piloting.

Has anyone tried making something like this, or simply understand how the chain docking mechanics works, and have advice? Or am I right in assuming I will only be able to contact dock ships with these extending USD arms?

A couple pictures.

 

[CyberTao]

Objects can only dock to 1 thing at a time, Thats just the way it's always been. If the tube is docked to the first ship (which it would have to be, if it was moving), it could not dock to another, meaning other ships would have to dock to it.

You could try some fancy engineering with contact docking, basically undocking the Docking tube and then docking your ship to it temperary, but I doubt that'd be desired really.

 

[AeonAnomaly]

I see. That would explain why I could dock my shuttle craft to the docking arm. However, if I'm correct, as long as I'm using USDs, I can still contact dock with other entities, as it would be using its docking block to dock to the rail I have on the docking arm. If I'm understanding you though, I wouldn't be able to dock to another extended USD though, as they would both be docked to its own ship, and therefore unable to dock to other things, right?

 

[AeonAnomaly]

Well, after extensive testing I've come to this.

An extended docking arm can't contact dock with other entities, be it station or otherwise. It's useless to have a docking block on entity that is on rails and is currently docked.

That being said, other ships can dock to rails on the docking arm. Therefore, the solution is something someone else suggested on Reddit when I asked there as well, making a Male-Female docking system. I'll probably have them right next to each other, so any ship has the capability to dock to one another. One will have to extend the Male docking arm, that would fit into the female docking port. I can hide both, and have the hull open based on what is needed. The only thing to keep in mind, is that female port needs to actually be apart of the entity itself, like any other USD on a ship. It'll just be behind the hull.

When docking the larger ships to stations, I'll just have to make sure the the docking ports on stations leave space to dock into these female ports, and use those to dock to the stations.

 

[Asypha]

Just wanted to flag this whole thread as useful. Spent an evening struggling with this EXACT issue. Wish it had been mentioned in the USD video.

 

[AeonAnomaly]

Asypha, I'm glad it was useful. If you'd like some inspiration, here's some pictures of what I came up with as an alternative.


Works perfectly for my purposes, so I hope it inspires you with an idea that might work with you.

If you have any questions, feel free to ask.

 

[Asypha]

Thank you. Is that a retractable dock on the ship or a station? Is the solution to simply remove the docker and only rely on the rail for the movable dock on a ship?

 

[AeonAnomaly]

The pictures I included are the same ship, just two carbon copies. Each ship has a Docking Port, and a Docking Arm on each the Port and Starboard sides of the ship. I am to have this Port/Arm docking section on each ship, frigate sized and higher. One ship extends their docking arm, while one ship opens their docking port. The ship the docking port will need to use their rail docker onto the other ship's docking arm in order to initiate the dock. When I make stations, I will need to make sure the docking ports are either extendable/retractable or simple made to be permanently extending out, as ships will have to use their docking port which is one two blocks into the hull, in order to dock to stations.

As long as these docking sections are on the edges of the ships, any ship will be able to dock with any ship regardless of size and shape.

 

[Asypha]

So there even in your solution, there is no way to magnetically dock a docking arm to a port? Bummer. We were having an issue since the arm is on a ship and the port was on a station, there was no way (that I know of) to actually fire the port's docker at the ship's arm. Thank you for all of the info.

 

[AeonAnomaly]

Well, in my solution, it would be difficult to do a magnetic dock because the fit is perfect, and blocks don't like rubbing up against each other.

In your case, I'm not sure if you can fire rail dockers from a station, can you? I'm assuming not. That's why I decided to go along with a Port and Arm on the ships.