General LANDING PAD TIMER

[JetsonRING]

Too often in OPEN mode I am confronted by a ship, most often at outposts just sitting on the landing pad and either accidentally or deliberately blocking access to the pad, preventing anyone else from landing or departing, forcing other players (like me) to switch to SOLO game mode in order to land and complete a mission or whatever.

I have in the past suggested a fairly simple solution (as have other players) but it seems to fall on deaf or uncaring ears, so here it is again:

LANDING PAD TIMER

Every landing pad needs a timer that starts when a ship lands. A countdown timer could appear in the ship's INFO panel, not otherwise used in-station. If that ship does not depart the pad within five (5) minutes it is automatically dropped into a hangar, freeing up the pad for other players to use. Five minutes is plenty of time for a CMDR to decide whether they need to hangar their ship or, just perform a quick turnaround task or two and depart.

As a gentle reminder to the offending CMDR, any CMDR whose ship is automatically placed into a hangar is denied access to the elevator for five (5) minutes, giving other CMDRs the opportunity to land and/or depart. The warning could appear in the INFO panel, with a countdown timer showing how long it will be until the CMDR regains access to the pad. This would almost eliminate players blocking landing pads or at least, force pad-blocking to become a cooperative venture.

If FDev wanted to complicate it a little, on regaining access to the elevator, if the offender raises a ship, any ship to the landing pad he or she would have only one (1) minute to depart the pad, to a mandated distance for a mandated period of time or the ship gets automatically lowered back down into the hangar again for another five (5) minute wait (what a concept, more grind for bad-boys/girls!).

It would really float my boat to see this change or similar being implemented in the 2020 update. o7

 

[metatheurgist]

Yeah, dropping into a hangar doesn't free a pad. And the pad blocking message is about blocking a pad that isn't assigned to you, if you're on it, it's a assign to you.

 

[JetsonRING]

It should, though. Should an outpost, or even a space station only have room for a single ship per pad? Then why no floor in the elevator shaft? Why then even have elevators at starports at all since there is atmosphere in the docks (except that the elevators are really just disguised wait-screens)?

PS: Good point about the warnings. o7

 

[metatheurgist]

Yeah, but imagine the situation of one guy sitting on the pad blocking 4(or how ever many) commanders in the hangar. I'm reminded of the days when people were salivating at the thought of keeping commanders in their holds after capturing their escape pods.

 

[Morbad]

Been advocating a timed docking queue for five years.

Should an outpost, or even a space station only have room for a single ship per pad?

Yes. What you see is what you get, there isn't physically room for more ships in the stations.

This wouldn't be a problem if the station were willing to evict pad hoggers in high traffic scenarios.

 

[Captain Willard]

You already have the perfect solution.
Drop to pg or solo, no waiting lines.

 

[nanite2000]

You already have the perfect solution.
Drop to pg or solo, no waiting lines.

Yes - we already know that. It doesn’t invalidate the OP’s suggestion in any way.

 

[Captain Willard]

Yes - we already know that. It doesn’t invalidate the OP’s suggestion in any way.

Sure it does. A five minute timer? You could switch modes, do your thing and switch modes back in less than five.
Only booting them from the game would work. I bet that would go over well.

 

[Stabby_Dave]

I didn't realise that going into the hanger didn't clear the pad. Surely that could be addressed.

 

[MickyG1982]

I can't agree with this suggestion. Given that it happens what, once per per play through if that, and more often than not it's an NPC, not a player blocking the pad.

The op could, of course, use some communication skills and (politely) ask for the pad to be freed up. Maybe display some patience, or do as they already do, change to another mode.

On the "pad blockers" side, if they are away from the keyboard, the game should take action and drop them to solo or the main menu. If the player is still there and active then there is no reason why the game should do anything. There are activities that can take longer than 5 minutes to complete, and require the player to be landed to do so.

There are also players of differing abilities that may require extra time to do what they need to do. Why should they be subjected to what the OP suggests for doing nothing more than playing the game as they can?

 

[Linnunrata]

There are activities that can take longer than 5 minutes to complete, and require the player to be landed to do so.

Pretty inconsiderate to do such activities on stations/megaships that lack pads.

"Wait, I need to fix my livery on this CG megaship with one Large pad. Brb."

 

[MickyG1982]

Pretty inconsiderate to do such activities on stations/megaships that lack pads.

"Wait, I need to fix my livery on this CG megaship with one Large pad. Brb."

And?

If FD did not want players using those facilities then they should not have allowed those facilities on that ship.

In any case, that doesn't cover players that may need more time to do normal tasks. Should they be expected to suffer the punishment that the OP suggests just because they can't do things in a time scale that the OP feels is appropriate? Or should the OP just appreciate that there are other options available that get around the situation entirely?

 

[777Driver]

I didn't realise that going into the hanger didn't clear the pad. Surely that could be addressed.

How do you address that? An outpost is not a Tardis, the hangar section for maintenance is a fixed size, each pad and hanger fits a single ship.

Moving the landed ship to another instance is not a good option for anyone who is flying with friends, that leaves adding extra pads at outposts, something that has been requested for 4 years now.

 

[Linnunrata]

If FD did not want players using those facilities then they should not have allowed those facilities on that ship.

Bet it was more of a typical oversight, and they should maybe consider designing a megaship with multiple Large landing pads if they want to do CGs like this. Lucky that the issue is easily circumvented by dropping to solo.

In any case, that doesn't cover players that may need more time to do normal tasks.

I kinda struggle to imagine what kind of disability would allow you to actually play Elite but require you to spend over five minutes fiddling the menus on a CG. I have a hunch that the vast majority of pad camping is caused by CMDRs who go AFK to take a dump, make a cup of coffee, walk the dog or chat on Discord.

Though I agree in a sense that the best solution to this rather mild inconvenience of pad hogging would be automatic hangar drop and hangar lollygagging not reserving the pad. Probably a lot of work for a small detail though.

 

[Linnunrata]

An outpost is not a Tardis, the hangar section for maintenance is a fixed size, each pad and hanger fits a single ship.

I'm guessing there could be a carousel like on real elevator car parks, but it sure would be a lot of work for an issue that could just be solved by adding a pad or two.

(Can't shake the Tardis image though, considering the stations are Tardises. I wonder how many Vettes and Cutters are stored on Jameson's ).

 

[777Driver]

I'm guessing there could be a carousel like on real elevator car parks, but it sure would be a lot of work for an issue that could just be solved by adding a pad or two.

(Can't shake the Tardis image though, considering the stations are Tardises. I wonder how many Vettes and Cutters are stored on Jameson's ).

Take a look at the design in VR, it's just not going to happen. The hangar section is a fixed size, no more room. On Orbital and service bases we have the same issue, a pad is blocked when a ship is in the hangar. When a cmdr goes offline (or switches instance) the pad becomes free.

You are correct though, whilst Orbitals and surface ports have plenty of room for ship storage, the location of the ship storage areas at outposts is best not thought about

MB (he's left now) stated that they would add extra pads to outposts, that was 4 years ago.

 

[Gully Foyle]

I didn't realise that going into the hanger didn't clear the pad. Surely that could be addressed.

Sounds like a simple fix to me.

 

[VR SenseiMatty]

Too often in OPEN mode I am confronted by a ship, most often at outposts just sitting on the landing pad and either accidentally or deliberately blocking access to the pad, preventing anyone else from landing or departing, forcing other players (like me) to switch to SOLO game mode in order to land and complete a mission or whatever.

I have in the past suggested a fairly simple solution (as have other players) but it seems to fall on deaf or uncaring ears, so here it is again:

LANDING PAD TIMER

Every landing pad needs a timer that starts when a ship lands. A countdown timer could appear in the ship's INFO panel, not otherwise used in-station. If that ship does not depart the pad within five (5) minutes it is automatically dropped into a hangar, freeing up the pad for other players to use. Five minutes is plenty of time for a CMDR to decide whether they need to hangar their ship or, just perform a quick turnaround task or two and depart.

As a gentle reminder to the offending CMDR, any CMDR whose ship is automatically placed into a hangar is denied access to the elevator for five (5) minutes, giving other CMDRs the opportunity to land and/or depart. The warning could appear in the INFO panel, with a countdown timer showing how long it will be until the CMDR regains access to the pad. This would almost eliminate players blocking landing pads or at least, force pad-blocking to become a cooperative venture.

If FDev wanted to complicate it a little, on regaining access to the elevator, if the offender raises a ship, any ship to the landing pad he or she would have only one (1) minute to depart the pad, to a mandated distance for a mandated period of time or the ship gets automatically lowered back down into the hangar again for another five (5) minute wait (what a concept, more grind for bad-boys/girls!).

It would really float my boat to see this change or similar being implemented in the 2020 update. o7

I see it extremely hard to achieve it, what if you are doing some outfitting or with (if) legs? I would modify your proposal:

Let's make it very simple:

1. Applicable only to Rescue Mega-Ship or CG's involved Mega-Ship. Not to stations, it would be against common sense. If I have several activities or I just want to stay docked for my own needs I don't have to give any justification to the station authorities as those starports are kind of public places. If we really get legs what will happen to my ship while I'm drinking at the bar? Will it be ejected into space?
Mega-ships are private facilities so I would accept limitations for specific situations.

2. Five minutes is too much. I would rather switch mode. Take the scenario of an Emergency Evacuation or a simple Trading CG. You just need to dock, drop the stuff and leave. 60 seconds are more then enough. After 50 seconds a message and a count-down inform you of the automatic launch. At 60 seconds menus are automatically closed, the pad goes out of the hangar (if it was in) and the ship is decoupled from the magnets. After the launch you only have 10 additional seconds to clear the landing pad before being fined for loitering (fine should be 1% of the ship value).

3. This would be applicable to all game modes (SOLO, PG too): I can imagine it's easier to implement in the game code and it's better immersion.

 

[777Driver]

Sounds like a simple fix to me.

It really isn't, unless you have a good idea that doesn't involve moving one of the cmdrs to another instance, or redesigning the outposts. It's not an easy problem to be fixed, should have been addressed a long time ago. The devs themselves said they would redesign.. It never happened though.

 

[Linnunrata]

If we really get legs what will happen to my ship while I'm drinking at the bar? Will it be ejected into space?

I'm pretty sure that when and if we ever get space legs, your ship will be despawned as soon as you walk out of the hangar and to the common area or whatever it will be.