Afk medium pad blocking on outposts

[Semris]

Hello,

relatively new player here, playing for like 2 weeks now, got myself a nice ship, doing missions, making credits and generally having fun... Well until last few days...

Yesterday is a nice example - I have spent like hour and half waiting for afk players to leave medium pads on outpost. Of course waiting for like 30 minutes, messaging the players asking them to please finish their business and leave the pad for others (I behaved well considering the situation), later on turning lights on and off on my ship to blink to their faces and eventually simply battering into their ships when the level of frustration got to it´s peak (two missions in same sector, both outposts blocked by afk players).

So I asked friend over Discord about what I´m supposed to do (if this was EVE online PvP would be the solution, I would simply hire a ganker to shoot them off the pad (since in my last case both afkers were on the pad and not even in hangar) or if the player would extraordinary me off, I would hire mercs to take care of them for few weeks). The answer was - switch to the single player.

Well I play this game for open play (I won´t even touch VR and for single player the X series gives way more options). I will never touch single player or private group and there is no debate about that. So I have just one simple question - why aren´t inactive players on stations (and especially on outposts, didn´t have issue anywhere else) automatically logged off let´s say after 5 minutes of inactivity?

I do not mind waiting for a few minutes till player before me finishes their business. That´s even kind of immersive and I´m perfectly fine with that.

In general this reminds me of Warhammer online before they removed collision detection in city (bank blocking). But this game has been out for a while and still this was not addressed...

Seriously this may be a game breaker for me, the fatal flaw I might leave the game for.

CMDR Semris

 

[Punished Mobius]

Then log to solo mode to dock. That simple. If that's still to hard for you than bye I guess.

 

[Bortas]

So I asked friend over Discord about what I´m supposed to do (if this was EVE online PvP would be the solution, I would simply hire a ganker to shoot them off the pad (since in my last case both afkers were on the pad and not even in hangar) or if the player would extraordinary me off, I would hire mercs to take care of them for few weeks).

Isn't even possible. Ships are invulnerable once docked... even if they weren't, they would be unreachable when inside the hangar.

The answer was - switch to the single player.

Unfortunately that's the only solution as it stands.

 

[Semris]

Unfortunately that's the only solution as it stands.

That is kind of sad. I think I will take some time off the game, cool down a bit and consider things. Probably will just delete it and move on in the end though. Too bad, seemed like a fun game to hang with (and spent some money on, already bought some skins). Oh well, I guess I´ll just wait for Star Citizen (heh, no comment...) and X4.

 

[Gunnet]

You don't have to actually play in solo. The odd time a pad is blocked you can just switch to solo right outside the station and then switch back to your preferred mode immediately after docking.

It would be nice if ships on pads were moved to a hangar X minutes after somebody else requested docking. But it's clearly not high on Frontier's list of things to change.

Luckily this is very far away from being Eve.

 

[Lanceor]

@OP: I don't know your reasons for refusing to touch the other game modes, but pretty much all players switch to solo for docking at times like these.

To answer your question, players may appear AFK for any number of legitimate reasons - looking on the internet for outfitting or trading help, adjusting their Teamspeak settings, organising a wing in Discord. Coming back to find that you've been logged out (and kicked out of your wing) unexpectedly would be far more annoying than having to mode-switch to get a parking spot.

Also, logging out players isn't going to free up any landing pads - the game creates as many instances as necessary to accommodate all the players in a given location. It will try to put you in the same instance as other players as that's the point of multi-player. This means that there will always be more players than medium pads at busy outposts.

There is a way to get an empty instance all to yourself however - by logging in to Solo.

 

[Semris]

Luckily this is very far away from being Eve.

EVE would be pretty good if it wasn´t pay to win (community is toxic, but you can find your friendly "micro-community"). But this getting off-topic.

I read somewhere that by switching to single player, you are forever locked out of something - I know that´s vague, but I do not remember any details. If it´s true it´s even more weird Frontier wouldn´t solve this - the solution is so simple for crying out loud...

 

[Semris]

@OP: I don't know your reasons for refusing to touch the other game modes, but pretty much all players switch to solo for docking at times like these.

To answer your question, players may appear AFK for any number of legitimate reasons - looking on the internet for outfitting or trading help, adjusting their Teamspeak settings, organising a wing in Discord. Coming back to find that you've been logged out (and kicked out of your wing) unexpectedly would be far more annoying than having to mode-switch to get a parking spot.

Also, logging out players isn't going to free up any landing pads - the game creates as many instances as necessary to accommodate all the players in a given location. It will try to put you in the same instance as other players as that's the point of multi-player. This means that there will always be more players than medium pads at busy outposts.

There is a way to get an empty instance all to yourself however - by logging in to Solo.

I would conclude that if you program a multiplayer game, that is not playable in multiplayer and forces players to play through single player mode to finish trivial tasks, you did something very wrong...

I give up, right now...

 

[lokvette]

So out of the X amount of stations and outposts plantey and space you find one with a player on it who is afk..I agree of they were going to be afk even more so if they are playing in open then yeah maybe they should of logged off, but come on it takes a few seconds to log into solo dock do what you need to do relog back into open if that's where you want to be and carry on.

I dont play in open but I play in systems with a lot of outposts, but even if I did play in open the traffic flow down here and the surrounding systems is all me ,I know this by checking traffic and working out the amount of times I jump in and out and in what ship.

So getting peed at a one or two time event due to one or two afk players I think your right in asking your self is this the game you want to be playing, as if you get peed at that ..and I mean no offence and I do agree with your time limit to afk players, but as said by me and others log into solo problem solved move on with the game.

 

[BigF]

As others have said its the only current way to get a pad at a busy location, I agree it's frustrating though, I'd love to be able to atomise them on the pad.

 

[Snarfbuckle]

Since a landing pad to a station is similar to an entrance to a garage I find it incredible stupid that once landed the ship is automatically docked in a hangar.

This should be automatic the moment a docking queue is created since the station makes money on ships docking and would not allow one idiot block the entire landing site for X size of ship.

The station or outpost decide when and where someone is allowed to stay or move, not the pilots.

 

[StonedThoughts]

Since it seems OP refuse to switch to solo for landing (imho a bit childish but not my buisiness though)... couldnt he just Low-wake or relog to switch the instance?
Just a suggestion not sure if it works cause... Solo ;-)

 

[Star Admiral]

That is kind of sad. I think I will take some time off the game, cool down a bit and consider things. Probably will just delete it and move on in the end though. Too bad, seemed like a fun game to hang with (and spent some money on, already bought some skins). Oh well, I guess I´ll just wait for Star Citizen (heh, no comment...) and X4.

I hear it's coming real soon™ You should buy the $18000 ship bundle right now. It's a bargain.

 

[Snarfbuckle]

I hear it's coming real soon™ You should buy the $18000 ship bundle right now. It's a bargain.

Pfft.

Its no more than a standard 60 USD game and was even cheaper before.
Since all ships are available in game there is no need to buy anything more.
Sure, you can get a head start by upgrading your ship but there is no need.

Hell, I backed Elite for 120 USD and started with a Cobra MKIII - I cant say I see the difference between the way of funding.

After all, it's not like anyone is FORCED to spend hundreds of dollars on internet space ships or you know, paintjobs and decals.

 

[bootsam]

It takes seconds to switch modes and your reluctance to do something everyone else does is strange. You will soon see that mode switching is an inherent part of ED for more than just docking, but also stacking missions and regenerating the boards. Please reconsider as it is 100% normal practice.

 

[Semris]

It takes seconds to switch modes and your reluctance to do something everyone else does is strange. You will soon see that mode switching is an inherent part of ED for more than just docking, but also stacking missions and regenerating the boards. Please reconsider as it is 100% normal practice.

Well to be honest at first I thought I´m joining a sandbox space MMO (EVE online done differently). Later I have found out limits of open play, but I was still okay with those (flaws aside). But if I knew this is basically a single player game with some multiplayer options (certainly closer to this than to MMO), I wouldn´t have bought it in the first place.

I don´t want to play this game in single player mode, it feels like cheating (same like doing ALT+F4 during combat). Heck, friend even told me he moves valuable cargo in single player mode...

All in all I think I got my 60 hours of gameplay for around 60 bucks, which is perfectly fine and time to move on.

And about Star Citizen - I was joking, thus the text in brackets. I might not even buy X4, X Rebirth was horrible. X3 is still the best sandbox single player space game though.

 

[Aewarin Jameson]

All in all I think I got my 60 hours of gameplay for around 60 bucks, which is perfectly fine and time to move on.

Glad you got your moneys worth - shame you wont use the most obvious workarounds to "fix" other selfish players, but that's your loss .. cya !

 

[graeme.firth]

That is kind of sad. I think I will take some time off the game, cool down a bit and consider things. Probably will just delete it and move on in the end though. Too bad, seemed like a fun game to hang with (and spent some money on, already bought some skins). Oh well, I guess I´ll just wait for Star Citizen (heh, no comment...) and X4.

Log out, log in, 30 seconds wait - such hardship. Bye then.

Alternatively enjoy your immersive wait.

 

[DukeIronHand]

That is kind of sad. I think I will take some time off the game, cool down a bit and consider things. Probably will just delete it and move on in the end though. Too bad, seemed like a fun game to hang with (and spent some money on, already bought some skins). Oh well, I guess I´ll just wait for Star Citizen (heh, no comment...) and X4.

Whew. If that all it takes to sour you off ED then yes you had better take time off and/or delete it now.
Obviously you will end up doing it anyway. Avoid the rush.

 

[Marshall...]

Can I have your stuff?

Seriously, leaving the game over something so trivial is bonkers. Fly out to Widows Light or Wonga, there is no traffic there.

God help you if you were to ever enter a CG system and experience all of its delights....