I can't believe there are still people who are saying this can be avoided. The chances can be DRAMATICALLY REDUCED, but not totally avoided. Only by sitting just inside the no fire zone for a good TEN MINUTES, you give yourself a very good chance of avoiding them completely, but even then, on little potato moons, they can take that long to come down.
NOoooooooo! death by falling skimmer
- Thread starter Whiterose
- Start date
Nobody can "guarantee" anything, of course. The point is reducing probability of it happening low enough that you can at least continue playing.
I completely agree. Which is why I haven't changed my tactics whatsoever. I go in at the same speed and do the same things I always did when landing at planets and I've still only been hit the once. I see the skimmer rain almost every time. It's all about how much you WANT to avoid it and what lengths you are prepared to go to. I'm not prepared to add even one minute of flight time to the already drawn out planetary approach, so I have to accept that it might happen to me again. I'm rarely flying anything with more than a 5m rebuy anyway.
Lost three Belugas because of this bug, but I just got complete compensation after submitting a ticket for lost items. Frontier sent me the following email:
"Thanks for getting in touch. We're looking into this skimmer bug as a matter of priority but in the meantime you can avoid them by not using autodock and by slowing your descent into planetary stations, causing the skimmers to collide harmlessly with the ground.
I've restored all credits, data and vouchers lost as a result of deaths caused by this bug.
Please let me know if I can help any further."
I'm not going to dock at planetary stations anymore until the bug is fixed.
Lost three Belugas because of this bug. I just got complete compensation after submitting a ticket for lost items. Frontier sent me the following email:
"Thanks for getting in touch. We're looking into this skimmer bug as a matter of priority but in the meantime you can avoid them by not using autodock and by slowing your descent into planetary stations, causing the skimmers to collide harmlessly with the ground.
I've restored all credits, data and vouchers lost as a result of deaths caused by this bug.
Please let me know if I can help any further."
I'm not going to dock at planetary stations anymore until the bug is fixed.
"Thanks for getting in touch. We're looking into this skimmer bug as a matter of priority but in the meantime you can avoid them by not using autodock and by slowing your descent into planetary stations, causing the skimmers to collide harmlessly with the ground.
I've restored all credits, data and vouchers lost as a result of deaths caused by this bug.
Please let me know if I can help any further."
I'm not going to dock at planetary stations anymore until the bug is fixed.
Lost three Belugas because of this bug. I just got complete compensation after submitting a ticket for lost items. Frontier sent me the following email:
"Thanks for getting in touch. We're looking into this skimmer bug as a matter of priority but in the meantime you can avoid them by not using autodock and by slowing your descent into planetary stations, causing the skimmers to collide harmlessly with the ground.
I've restored all credits, data and vouchers lost as a result of deaths caused by this bug.
Please let me know if I can help any further."
I'm not going to dock at planetary stations anymore until the bug is fixed.
In case there's anyone who hasn't yet seen just how high up these things can spawn, and how long they take to descend, here's a couple of them caught on camera a few evenings ago. Between the dark background and the canopy pillars (and possibly YouTube's compression) it's easy to lose sight of the first one until it hits the ground, but the second one with its running lights and/or thrusters all aglow is pretty hard to miss as it streaks in.
[video=youtube;h04L0WgwHhA]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h04L0WgwHhA[/video]
[video=youtube;tqqpPCOxgJg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tqqpPCOxgJg[/video]
I can't completely rule out the possibility that a skimmer may spawn or maneuver beyond the bounds of a box equal to their surface patrol routes + a ~250m margin by ~5km high or so, but I've never seen it happen in about two-hundred landings at surfaces bases since I became aware of this bug, nor have I heard anyone else credibly claim to have seen such a thing.
An unwillingness to avoid the problem is a far cry from the problem being unavoidable.
An extra 60-120 seconds is no skin off my teeth. Losing cargo, NPC crew, or tens of millions in rebuys, and having to pester support more than necessary, is.
The lower the gravity the more time you have to allot for the process.
I can't completely rule out the possibility that a skimmer may spawn or maneuver beyond the bounds of a box equal to their surface patrol routes + a ~250m margin by ~5km high or so, but I've never seen it happen in about two-hundred landings at surfaces bases since I became aware of this bug, nor have I heard anyone else credibly claim to have seen such a thing.
An unwillingness to avoid the problem is a far cry from the problem being unavoidable.
An extra 60-120 seconds is no skin off my teeth. Losing cargo, NPC crew, or tens of millions in rebuys, and having to pester support more than necessary, is.
The lower the gravity the more time you have to allot for the process.
Indeed. One missed me by what had to be inches today. I had tried to wait as long as I could, staying as high up as I could, and then when I had given everything about 30-45 seconds after entering the no fire zone, I began the landing process, and as I approached the pad, it whooshed by, and I nearly lost control of the ship. This is why I try not to take any planetary landing missions. I hope they fix this soon.
Nobody is suggesting otherwise. But let's not lose sight of the fact that this process, straightforward though it might be, even if it arguably adds gameplay in terms of manoeuvring and situational awareness, is in response to a bug. An acknowledged bug that has remained in the game for weeks because the developers, for reasons unknown, are unable or unwilling to patch it until the next point release. A bug that is catching unaware players for the first time on a daily basis.
If FD didn't want support to be pestered, maybe they should have sought a way to patch the bug.
Yes, it's a bug. It should not have existed in the first place. It should have been fixed much sooner than whenever it gets fixes. Problems it causes are entirely Frontier's fault. No one has suggested otherwise here either.
It's still possible to work around the bug and just flinging one's self into situations where it's applicable, after one becomes aware of it, and relying on support (who aren't responsible for, and cannot write or deploy, patches) to fix things after the fact is still a waste of that player's time and of support's time...time they could be using to help players that aren't yet aware of the issue and how to avoid it.
Had this happen yesterday evening. I was on final approach to the settlement and as I strafed to the right for final alignment out of nowhere an impact that sent my Corvette hurling towards the ground. I might have recovered had I not then been engaged by the settlement and blown the hell up. Not only did I lose my ship, I lost the three additional payloads I had to deliver still. The worst part wasn't even the $25,000,000 insurance claim, I lost the only hot looking NPC fighter pilot I have come across (looked remotely like Natalie Portman)
And before any smart asses ask, yes I dropped a ticket..........for my fighter pilot to be resurrected.
And before any smart asses ask, yes I dropped a ticket..........for my fighter pilot to be resurrected.
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