Better Docking

[Dolmashin]

The current problem with docking, is the docking module wants to be directly above the core of the docking ship. This causes problems with non-XY symmetric ships requiring large amounts of vacant space for docking. This makes these ships very difficult to dock in confined spaces that would dock symmetric ships of the same size normally. Shown in image below.

http://i.imgur.com/WRWgkpr.jpg

A fix for this would be to have the docking module connect to the center X and Z coordinates of the docking ship. This way, there would be a max of 1 block of vacant space per plane. Another small annoyance is ship orientation is not controllable when docked. It is common for ships to be docked upside-down or backwards. Giving user control would be a nice usability upgrade.

Perhaps in the future this could be accomplished by implementing a simple docking GUI with options to dock centered or core-based. Another possible fix is to require a docking module on both ships and have them connect to eachother on their active faces.

Comments welcome.

 

[Mortiferum]

The real trouble is using that tiny docking beam to dock a large ship.... Near impossible.

 

[Dolmashin]

I agree with that

 

[Valiant70]

Dolmashin makes a good point. Many ships are asymmetric about their cores, especially front-to-back. Combat-ready ships often put their cores toward the back of the vessel to protect them better from whatever they\'re shooting at. This ends up requiring a much larger docking space than it should.

By the way, what\'s up with being able to shoot the docking module from insanely far away? That\'s not a gameplay \"problem\" per se; it just doesn\'t make a lot of sense. I\'d rather, say, click the core module to activate \"Docking Mode\" which opens the green boxes in the HUD and then have the ship dock at the first box it touches. To cancel docking, one would just click the core module again to disengage Docking Mode. This would make landing feel a lot more real, without making it difficult.

For more advanced players, there could also be a config option to require the ship to be within a certain number of degrees of the orientation it would dock in. (I would probably set it at about 80 degrees.) This would could prevent a ship from just docking completely backwards. Set to -1 to allow ships to dock regardless of orientation.

 

[johnrekhyt]

Another greivence is the very limited docking area. if you are making a light carrier ship, and therefor have smaller fighters, the default docking area height is a headache. If you only use up half the vertical height, then you should be able to configure the docking area to only go half the default vertical height. you should be able to place down the needed number of docking enhancers and then determine how Long/Wide/Tall the docking area is via an interface. This would allow for better docking dynamics, and the inclusion of \'blast doors\' (PlexDoors) on smaller ships.

 

[Creeper__God]

i give this my full support i think that instead of extending the docking beam it should just originate from what ever cockpit you are in instead of coming from the core all the time.

 

[Borr]

Simple docking block should be enough. Docking block should match with docking port and docking beam should be shot from that block. God damn it Schema, how much coding power it needs to rewrite this?! SERIOUSLY!

 

[Captain Fortius]

That\'s the way to solve this particular problem.

 

[Encryptum]

The docking without the core having to be right next to the docking module has been fixed. However, it does not work with turret docking, only ship docking (green ones).

I also have a suggestion for carrier ship docking. Is it possible that in the future, you can add a function to bind a set of A.I. controlled ships/fighters to a parent ship. That way you can add the undock function to the numeral keys, release the fighters that will engage pirates/enemies, and when completed, they will return to their previous docking port (the docking modules obviously have to be on the outside). It would be a great feature as you normally have to leave your ship and manually re-dock every fighter that is launched.

 

[jzimmerman4]

I agree with this 100%. I also really like Valients post. Personally the original box is smart so people can\'t cram ships together on a carrier, since that is unrealistic and can be OP. For regular docking modules I don\'t like that enhancers are needed since in sci fi moves any ship can land on a dock as long as it doesn\'t colide with the objects around it.

 

[Angus and Alexis]

I just want a damned longer docking beam for my capital ships.