Docking beam comes from camera

[Creeper__God]

So for the longest time (before rails) the docking beam came from the core of a ship, so in order to dock you had to get the dock within like 50m of the core, which made docking big ships a pain in the a**. It finally got changed so that the docking beam came from the camera that the player was currently using, which made docking way easier and involved was fewer collisions from ships slamming into bases while the pilot spent way to long flicking the ship around to get the docking beam to hit the dock.

Now that we have rails, the docking beam comes from the rail block so we have the same problem as we had before. Lag from ships being flicked into stations in order to dock. The simple fix to this would be to have the docking beam originate from the camera that is currently in use by the pilot.

 

[TheOmega]

Seems like a good temporary fix until magnetic docking.

 

[Crusade]

Since the beam emits from the rail docker, ive taken to putting a camera in the same orientation as the dovker, either next to, or behind it. this makes docking a lot easier, as you can aim exactly whete you need to without 'flicking'

a problem i see with emitting from the camera is figuring out which docker beam it is that you are firing if your ship has more than one docking point.

 

[FatCobra]

Since the beam emits from the rail docker, ive taken to putting a camera in the same orientation as the dovker, either next to, or behind it. this makes docking a lot easier, as you can aim exactly whete you need to without 'flicking'

a problem i see with emitting from the camera is figuring out which docker beam it is that you are firing if your ship has more than one docking point.

I think the best way to fix this would be the ability to name cameras.

 

[Crusade]

I think the best way to fix this would be the ability to name cameras.

I think you mean naming dockers, not cameras.

 

[FatCobra]

I think you mean naming dockers, not cameras.

Actually both. For instance if you're using the USD which has a camera built in naming the camera would be nice to know you're looking out the camera you want. But yes naming the dockers is needed as well to differentiate on the hot bar.

 

[Crusade]

Very good point. Also linking certain weapons/dockers to certain cameras would tidy things up too, but that's another bag of worms.

 

[Tecdude88]

Actually both. For instance if you're using the USD which has a camera built in naming the camera would be nice to know you're looking out the camera you want. But yes naming the dockers is needed as well to differentiate on the hot bar.

I have to agree that naming cameras solves the issue of identifying the docking module target. This also presents an additional RP feature in that you can label cameras for their purpose or for whatever internal rooms / systems they are viewing. You will be able to monitor the activity in your ship which can serve multiple purposes. It can help with the monitoring of crew when this feature comes. It can also be used to locate borders in your ship during battle so that you can come up with a strategy to defend that area. These are only a few examples of the practical application of camera naming but I think there is a lot of value to showing the name of the camera on the corner of the screen as you toggle through them and this would not be very labor intensive to implement.

 

[nightwalker_007]

Now that we have rails, the docking beam comes from the rail block so we have the same problem as we had before. Lag from ships being flicked into stations in order to dock. The simple fix to this would be to have the docking beam originate from the camera that is currently in use by the pilot.

This will break ships that have multiple dockers. You may want to build a ship that can land on a platform, and also connect to a side universal docking port on a station-- which would need two different dockers, one on the side of your ship where you have your airlock door, and one on the bottom of the ship for the platform docker.

You can always put a camera next to your docker for better aiming.

 

[kiraen]

You can always put a camera next to your docker for better aiming.

Or behind. That's what I usually do. Of course, there are sometimes alignment issues. Cameras need more rotations, but that will come eventually (i hope).

 

[Creeper__God]

This will break ships that have multiple dockers. You may want to build a ship that can land on a platform, and also connect to a side universal docking port on a station-- which would need two different dockers, one on the side of your ship where you have your airlock door, and one on the bottom of the ship for the platform docker.

You can always put a camera next to your docker for better aiming.

How would it break ships that have more than one docker? The game would still dock your ship to which ever docker you have selected on the hotbar.