Read by Council Fixing ideas for the Pickup Point

[JRL101]

I've been trying to get this to work for ages now, and i have a few solutions.

(1) I tried to switch out the pickup point for a "Shootout Rail" but for some reason it wouldn't let me. Later i found out its button functionality was to turn it on and off.. not practical, i would prefer that functionality be ditch and just keep the replace rail style with everything else.

(2) The Ships keep forgetting or acting like the pickup point is a position without orientation maybe give the block the ability to rotate the ship correctly.

(3) Let connecting the "Pick up point" to a "Pick Up Rail" with C+V so the block can have a more precise location to send the ship next.

(4a) Ability to connect the core (like the wireless blocks) to the "pickup point" block with C+V to designate the ships docking point.
(4b) Alternatively you could do it in the ship using a docking block laser on the "pickup point"

I'm making these suggestions because the current system seems broken, i either need more information or its not possible to do this right yet. Are my suggestions promising? Any other ideas?

 

[Crusade]

Do it like this.

Pickup point on top of the rail you want it to dock to (ignore the rail orientation, quick thing)

 

[Lukwan]

Like rail-basic the pickup-rail can be oriented so that ship changes direction (of movement...not orientation) as it glides along. To avoid drones colliding with your ship: start the pick-up point far away and at a tangent from the line of your hull. Use a serpentine route to reel in the drone to it's mother-ship. The path can be three dimensional (all axis) just use the arrows to turn 90 degrees.

Always start the pick-up run with the same orientation you want the drone to end up with. It will face the same direction regardless of the direction of its travel along the rail. I hope this is helpful. :D

 

[JRL101]

Do it like this.

Pickup point on top of the rail you want it to dock to (ignore the rail orientation, quick thing)

:O ... what... thats not how i thought they worked. I thought it was just another rail. This is most helpful thankyou! I've been putting it on the end.

EDIT: the orientation of the pickup point, does it effect it in any way? (because you can chage its orientation in advanced and that seems pointless if it does nothing.)

 

[kiraen]

Officially, orientation doesn't matter.
Unfortunately, it doesn't always work. Sometime your drone (or whatever) just won't trigger the pick-up point. Trying different orientation will eventually get it to work. No specific orientation that I have been able to determine.

 

[nightrune]

:O ... what... thats not how i thought they worked. I thought it was just another rail. This is most helpful thankyou! I've been putting it on the end.

EDIT: the orientation of the pickup point, does it effect it in any way? (because you can chage its orientation in advanced and that seems pointless if it does nothing.)

Its supposed to mean nothing but currently there is a bug that it does not work in all orientations due to overlap with the activation bits. So right now if its not working plop down an activation module slave the pickup point to it, and activate the activation module. It is now active and you can remove the activation module.

 

[BiGEdge]

Works perfekt if you would try it the right way around ^^

The Arrows lead to the Rails that point to the same direction.

And the Drone/Shuttle Exit look like this

Hope that helps

The Ship where you can test it is here Fenn Drone-Carrier WIP

Greez BiGEdge

 

[kiraen]

Works perfekt if you would try it the right way around ^^
The Arrows lead to the Rails that point to the same direction.

We're not talking about the pick-up rails (green), but the pick-up point (blue). Often time it will simply ignore any attempts at docking.

Its supposed to mean nothing but currently there is a bug that it does not work in all orientations due to overlap with the activation bits. So right now if its not working plop down an activation module slave the pickup point to it, and activate the activation module. It is now active and you can remove the activation module.

And now I know why and how to fix it without fiddling with it for 10 minutes. Thank you.

 

[JRL101]

Works perfekt if you would try it the right way around ^^

The Arrows lead to the Rails that point to the same direction.

Greez BiGEdge

Thats how i've been trying to use the blue "pick up points" but apparently thats wrong. It's meant to go ontop of the end rail/pickup rail, see Crusade's post higher up.

 

[StormWing0]

Strange mine placed at the end worked fine last patch, will have to check again to see if that's still the case.

 

[kiraen]

Thats how i've been trying to use the blue "pick up points" but apparently thats wrong. It's meant to go ontop of the end rail/pickup rail, see Crusade's post higher up.

Pick-up points dock you to the nearest rail within 3 blocks of the pick-up point. Whether you put it at the top, end ,or bottom, it will be within that radius. But the pick-up point does not actually have to even be touching the rail.

 

[JRL101]

Strange mine placed at the end worked fine last patch, will have to check again to see if that's still the case.

Mine worked the first time i did it on the end, then it refused to dock again. I tried everything, then after "Clearing docking coordinates" it refused to remember them again.
[DOUBLEPOST=1465001892,1465001581][/DOUBLEPOST]

Pick-up points dock you to the nearest rail within 3 blocks of the pick-up point. Whether you put it at the top, end ,or bottom, it will be within that radius. But the pick-up point does not actually have to even be touching the rail.

If thats true, it should work. but it isnt. I can dock most things, with a pickup point on the top side of a basic rail, but if i remember correctly it grabs the docking entity from 3 blocks away. Not "tell the docking entity that the rail is within 3 blocks". Which is quite confusing because it should be "This is how you are meant to orientate your docking rail, to this rail, just copy me." kind of instructions

 

[Mork2]

The pickup point grabs the docker if its within 3 blocks and places the docker on the pickup rail or normal rail. The rail it puts it on is adjacent to it so that the docker matches the direction of the rail. It might be possible for it to dock to a rail within 3 but if I put it next to a rail block that is where it will go. This with the tip below allows me to pickup something and reverse it back into a bay.

The pickup rails also are not limited to the same plane like the normal rails. The docker will follow the pickup rails as long as there is an arrow on one of the faces on the cube its going to. This allows for instance for the docker to go down relative to the rest of the rail

Rail arrows would be on top of the ">" and left side of the "V".
"P" is pickup and "H" is hanger.
V
P>>>>V
V
>>>>>>>>H

This would allow a docked entity to move down two 2 levels of blocks.

Or to pickup and reverse direction: Here the rail is on the right hand side of "V".

V
V<P
V
>>>>>>>>H

Since the rail is reversed next to P the ship lands facing to the left then the rail makes it go down 2 squares down then it is reversed back into the hanger.

Hope this helps.