Fleet Style Auto-Docking / Named Docking Points

[Edymnion]

One issue I end up having with larger ships is trying to dock them to a station. It either ends up being rather awkward with either having to have oddly positioned cameras to keep the beam in sight, or worse yet if the ship and the station are large enough I get rubber banding where it will take several minutes and multiple failed attempts to get close enough to the docking point to latch onto it.

I'd love to see something along the lines of fleet docking combined with named docking points (via pickup rails maybe?) so that I could bring my ship into the sector with the station, open a menu, and tell it "Dock to Docking Point 7" (by picking the named Docking Point 7 from a menu, like we do with Transporters) and let the AI fly the ship in server side.

 

[YamiHikari]

If I could like this 1000 times, I would. Fleet docking and any sort of auto docking would really come in handy (and what we already have really needs a lot of work). The thing about it is defining syntax and working out the actual code. If I were to suggest a syntax, I would probably suggest it be a two-part phrase composing of the ship/station name (which we already know must be unique in the world it is in) and the dock's name (which will also wind up needing to be unique to the entity). Where issues come in is when you involve docked entities. If you are trying to dock to a moving landing pad that is docked to a station, you will end up needing to specify the landing pad's name instead of the station. An ideal scenario will allow you to simply specify the station's name and the name of the dock on the landing pad.

 

[Valiant70]

I think this would be a nice feature to add to autopilot when that comes around.

We also need engine optimizations so wonky stuff like rubberbanding doesn't happen...

 

[Antikristianos]

add the docker on your ship you wish to use for docking to the list of options for the auto docking

I Like it.

Hope the AI update will make these kind of things possible because now it would be just crashflying headlonmg into anything...

 

[YamiHikari]

add the docker on your ship you wish to use for docking to the list of options for the auto docking

I Like it.

Hope the AI update will make these kind of things possible because now it would be just crashflying headlonmg into anything...

Actually, you just gave me an idea, which somewhat stems off of what Elite: Dangerous does. What if you had to go into the menu and select the ship option, which would then display an option titled "Docking." Selecting this would then display a list of all nearby (within the sector) ships/stations with rails. Then you could select the entity you want to dock to, which opens a dropdown menu of the available docking locations, which upon selection of one opens another dropdown menu of which docker you would like to use on your ship. This would be an interesting, technical, and immersive format for "requesting" docking and then docking your ship. Of course, the whole docking procedure would only be available if you are using a specialized chamber on your ship that allows auto docking (for balance).

Lancake, you've surely thought about this previously. Do you have any ideas for an auto docking system setup?

 

[Antikristianos]

how about using a bobby ai module on the ship for that instead of another giant chamber that eats space and RC?

 

[Edymnion]

Hope the AI update will make these kind of things possible because now it would be just crashflying headlonmg into anything...

Oh yeah, this is definitely a "later" kind of thing.

Right now the AI spends more time spinning like a top over the pickup point than it does actually docking. But eventually we'll get back to rewriting the AI (once all the system and universe updates are done for it to make use of), and then it'll get good enough for things like this to happen.

I hope...

 

[YamiHikari]

how about using a bobby ai module on the ship for that instead of another giant chamber that eats space and RC?

Three reasons:
-Bobby AI deactivates when the player enters the core because it would otherwise compete with the player for control over the ship
-There would be no way to specify how, where, or with what dockers to dock
-A chamber would be the best way for these kinds of major ship modifications to be added. I doubt auto docking will end up requiring a lot of RC, likely 2.5 or 5%. Maybe even 0%. Like gravity, it is a minor convenience that doesn't have a huge impact on the ship, and therefore shouldn't need a lot of reactor space.

 

[Antikristianos]

Three reasons:
-Bobby AI deactivates when the player enters the core because it would otherwise compete with the player for control over the ship
-There would be no way to specify how, where, or with what dockers to dock
-A chamber would be the best way for these kinds of major ship modifications to be added. I doubt auto docking will end up requiring a lot of RC, likely 2.5 or 5%. Maybe even 0%. Like gravity, it is a minor convenience that doesn't have a huge impact on the ship, and therefore shouldn't need a lot of reactor space.

sorry but "bull****"
if you have auto docking the ship will fly on its own anyway...
my point is to make a bobby ai module present on the ship (active or not) nessecary to use a auto docking feature..
and activating the auto docking feature could as easyly activate the ai_module regardles of a player in the ship... because the player just activated it in the menue...
and not to add another Chamber to the reactor system. because even in small setups they eat a lot of space in the ship...

 

[Edymnion]

Agreed, it makes little sense to have AI tied directly to chambers. I know its a cool new toy, but we don't have to put everything into them.

 

[Nosajimiki]

Or you could make it a function of wireless controllers. Put a wireless controller on the rail and one on the docker and link them. Them add an input to the one of the wireless blocks and as long as you are in docking beam range, it will auto dock you.

That way it does not need bulky chambers or realy on buggy AI ramming

 

[Edymnion]

Honestly a perfectly good stopgap measure for me would be letting us hit intangible pickup points with the docking beam.

That way we could move the pickup point WAY outside of the station and just let it take a minute to fully pull the ship into the bay.

Or even change the origination point of the beam to your current Point of View (so while the docker might be on the bottom middle of the ship, it would look like it was coming from your core or your camera to make aiming it easier, and then have your ship snap to the rail at the normal docker point).

 

[Antikristianos]

too sad we cant aim at pickup points on the invisible pickup rails...
they can easyly placed way away from the ship station to make it easyer for the ai to dock. but for manual docking you always need a camera with your docker in view so you can flay it close enough to the pickup point.

 

[YamiHikari]

too sad we cant aim at pickup points on the invisible pickup rails...
they can easyly placed way away from the ship station to make it easyer for the ai to dock. but for manual docking you always need a camera with your docker in view so you can flay it close enough to the pickup point.

This same thought occurred to me a while ago.
AGREE!
[doublepost=1518269349,1518269221][/doublepost]Actually, what would be nice is being able to select a pickup point using F and then hitting some other key to activate an auto pilot that flies you to that pickup point.

 

[Antikristianos]

Actually, what would be nice is being able to select a pickup point using F and then hitting some other key to activate an auto pilot that flies you to that pickup point.

i think this is just what this suggestion is about lol