Pad Hogging

[Talarin]

Why not an umbilical option, for providing fuel and interacting with the bulletin board? You only actually need to be on the pad for outfitting and cargo unloading.

First come, first served still applies - but might be useful for players who don't need full station services.

Could also act as part of a queuing system, where players are automatically dragged onto the pad when it comes available in order of arrival.

 

[Benny Mac]

Why all the talk about time limits? That's such a top-down control method. Better - and much more fun- would be for the station to impose per-second demand-based pricing. Players could then choose to stay for longer or leave quicker as they saw fit. Capitalism FTW.

 

[Jockey79]

Why not an umbilical option, for providing fuel and interacting with the bulletin board? You only actually need to be on the pad for outfitting and cargo unloading.

First come, first served still applies - but might be useful for players who don't need full station services.

Could also act as part of a queuing system, where players are automatically dragged onto the pad when it comes available in order of arrival.

Oh, I like that idea. Could also work for large ships as well, a mooring station for large ships just to fuel, use contacts and gal net.

 

[Oogie Boogie]

Usually I send a message to the pilot, that he should leave the pad within 2 min. Otherwise I would land with full pips on sys on his ship. Until now this worked fine for me.

 

[Stahll Amatin]

Oh, I like that idea. Could also work for large ships as well, a mooring station for large ships just to fuel, use contacts and gal net.

Courier drones would be an interesting concept as well- perhaps even allowing you to offload your conda/T9 at an outpost albeit slowly having to allow the drones to fly back and forth between station and ship. and make the drones scale to the compartment.. give up a bigger internal for a bigger drone bay, drone carries more cargo per trip. (this would also leave you sitting vulnerable outside the station tho and i'd say even make the drone targetable and 'drop' some of its cargo if killed)

 

[Jockey79]

Courier drones would be an interesting concept as well- perhaps even allowing you to offload your conda/T9 at an outpost albeit slowly having to allow the drones to fly back and forth between station and ship. and make the drones scale to the compartment.. give up a bigger internal for a bigger drone bay, drone carries more cargo per trip. (this would also leave you sitting vulnerable outside the station tho and i'd say even make the drone targetable and 'drop' some of its cargo if killed)

See, again a nice idea - but I'm not convinced with drones yet.
The way I understand them, they are like limpets - 1 use and take up hold space. So, I'll have to wait and see - if they are like that, you'll need 1 drone for each ton you want to move

 

[Stahll Amatin]

See, again a nice idea - but I'm not convinced with drones yet.
The way I understand them, they are like limpets - 1 use and take up hold space. So, I'll have to wait and see - if they are like that, you'll need 1 drone for each ton you want to move

They should be reusable IMHO. the idea of giving up a whole internal slot for a 'bay' is a big enough compromise to balance it; especially if like i said the drones scaled in relation to the bay size. you can choose more cargo space and use smaller slots for the drone bay (drone only carries 1 or 2 tons per trip) or you can use a big slot and give up a big cargo rack fro drones that move 5 or 10T per trip.

(these are my ideas/suggestion tho, not speculation in FD's implementation)

 

[Agarthan]

Should be a timer on outposts with traffic and an actual queue. If someone else requests permission to dock, a countdown should start, and when it's up, the station launches your ship for you.

I think for open play this is perfectly fair.

 

[norty303]

1 pad per hangar makes no sense whatsoever. Even today we have parking systems that stack cars in multiple parking slots based on one or two entry points. Aircraft carriers manage to store multiple aircraft per lift... it just makes no sense that the pads aren't simply multiple access points to a common grander hangar space.
In fact, if you enter the hangar, it makes not much sense that you would leave by the same pad you arrived by - you'd simply go off via the closest available one.
Given that landing permission and pad assignments generally tend to happen quite early in the docking process, its not difficult to see how they can allocate and block pads based on requests to launch and land.

 

[Jockey79]

1 pad per hangar makes no sense whatsoever. Even today we have parking systems that stack cars in multiple parking slots based on one or two entry points. Aircraft carriers manage to store multiple aircraft per lift... it just makes no sense that the pads aren't simply multiple access points to a common grander hangar space.
In fact, if you enter the hangar, it makes not much sense that you would leave by the same pad you arrived by - you'd simply go off via the closest available one.
Given that landing permission and pad assignments generally tend to happen quite early in the docking process, its not difficult to see how they can allocate and block pads based on requests to launch and land.

I don't get having to be turned around yet if you're not using the outfitting.
The times I've been facing the right way, hit to take off, so then it turns me around leaving me the wrong way - and all is does is turn the landing gear locks off... what difference on an outpost does it make what way you face ???

But yes, when I first started playing, I assumed the pad was still used while people were in the outfitting - after all, it does put another landing pad up there

 

[CMDR Ellegon]

Usually I send a message to the pilot, that he should leave the pad within 2 min. Otherwise I would land with full pips on sys on his ship. Until now this worked fine for me.

I would simply hit "Enter Hangar" and take a good long coffee break (without logging out) - I hate blackmailers.

 

[Jockey79]

I would simply hit "Enter Hangar" and take a good long coffee break (without logging out) - I hate blackmailers.

I hit enter hangar the moment I land out of habbit, so they wouldn't even know it was me

 

[babelfisch]

If you are doing something you should be allowed to stay as long as you want. The other player can switch to solo or search for another station. But I have no issue with an AFK system. If you are not doing anything for 5 minutes you get automaticly switched to solo.

 

[Tarman]

I put my imaginary vote on this topic behind the AFK timer dropping people to Solo or out of session. Force-undocking players on an arbitrary timer when they're actually doing things just because someone else wants to land is asinine. The incoming ship doesn't have more rights than the ship on the pad.

 

[Armour]

I've grown to like the idea that was posted earlier on here, about going over your docking time having a financial penalty. I think that docking should cost money anyway, the amount rising in proportion to local traffic. Unpopular areas could waive the fees.

 

[TruffleSnout]

I always thought that the yawning chasm under the landing pad was an elevator shaft with multiple "parking spots" for several ships per landing pad. And it was just game-graphics-shortcut-hand-waving that always shows us going into the top spot. Would be kind of cool to take the elevator all the way down to (and back up from) spot 12 or whatever. Then pad squatting can be dealt with simply by letting the station manage if you are "auto-hangared" or not.

 

[shadragon]

Icelandic club rules apply. When you are sitting, it is your seat. Get up to dance and someone else sits down, it is now their seat for as long as they occupy it.

If desperate for a pad:

Log off.

Log on Solo (or private group) and land.

Log off.

Log on Open and carry on.

 

[Aquamonkey]

Looking at it from an immersive point of view, if there was only one hanger to one pad, wouldn't that mean stored ships would be taking up a slots at stations? Also what happens to your craft when you log off, where would that be stored?

Ships disappear when you log out, freeing up the pad. When you log in, the game probably puts you in a different instance where the pad is available. Even open is split up into different instances.

 

[Bain]

Get in line! I'm park'n here!

 

[Morbad]

I am now recording the names of all CMDRs I encounter who are taking overly long on outpost pads, especially the sole medium pad, and will treat them the same way I treat CMDRs who interdict, fire upon, scan, or ram my vessel.