Comically wonky auto landing with a Mandalay. Is this supposed to be funny, FDev..?

[Moirai]

So, the other day I decided, out of pure Christmas laziness, to blow the cobwebs off the auto dock dohicky, enable it, and fly back to my FC. On arrival, I requested a lading pad, zeroed the throttle, and awaited a pleasant, relaxing docking experience. What followed was intensely brow furrowing and 'funny' for all the wrong reasons.

My Mandy swooped over to the pad, twisted around to head down to it, and then proceeded to get in a muddle trying to rotate around, very very sloooowly, gave up part way, landed at an angle, banging the tip of its wing into the pad, and then finally rotated around to line up with the pad and settle down.

Befuddled, I swapped to my T8, took off, and tried the same thing. That landed perfectly, exactly as it should, lining itself up smoothly and landing absolutely level, like a champ. I swapped back to the Mandy again, in case it was a odd one-off event, and was yet again treated to more buffoonery as it made another clumsy ham-fisted attempt at a landing that would have been mildly entertaining if it had been accompanied in the background by Yakety Sax from the Benny Hill show.

Seriously, FDev. What the flippity heck is going on here?

I know the Mandy had missing collision meshes on its wings initially. But did someone not adjust its landing parameters when they were added in, or something..?

Further testing reveals that it occasionally gets confused at starports as well, and ends up landing at an angle before correcting at the last moment.

If my T8 can auto land properly, then why can't the Mandalay. How did you get this wrong...? Please fix.

In the meantime, I guess I shall have to go back to investing considerable time and effort manual landing again, until you get this sorted that is. storms off to find a pram to fling large quantities of toys from



Seriously though, please fix. It looks dumb. Thank you.

 

[Nekozji]

Cobra V can't auto land either. Nor can a Cutter auto launch through a mail slot.

I expect no fix, NGL

 

[Mr Lindsay]

I've noticed the Mandalay and Cobra V both hitting their wings on landing. I know there were some bugs with the Docking Computer in the past, so don't know if it's related, but it seems to massively underestimate how much roll it can use. It has plenty of time to correct and land perfectly, but just doesn't and hits the wings unless it was already close to aligned on that axis.

I put it in the category of thing that FDev should be looking at fixing, as it sets a bad impression for new and returning players, but personally I find quite amusing.

 

[Cmdr Snuffler]

My replica original cobra mk3 build does something similar. Always lands at a 30 degree angle and clips the "wing" tips.

 

[Moirai]

Cobra V can't auto land either. Nor can a Cutter auto launch through a mail slot.

I expect no fix, NGL

I demand one...immediately!

Pretty please...

 

[Moirai]

I've noticed the Mandalay and Cobra V both hitting their wings on landing. I know there were some bugs with the Docking Computer in the past, so don't know if it's related, but it seems to massively underestimate how much roll it can use. It has plenty of time to correct and land perfectly, but just doesn't and hits the wings unless it was already close to aligned on that axis.

I put it in the category of thing that FDev should be looking at fixing, as it sets a bad impression for new and returning players, but personally I find quite amusing.

Kind of bonkers that the last two new ships are incapable of performing such a basic task properly.

Very much a Friday afternoon effort there.

 

[Neilski]

My Mandy swooped over to the pad, twisted around to head down to it, and then proceeded to get in a muddle trying to rotate around, very very sloooowly, gave up part way, landed at an angle, banging the tip of its wing into the pad, and then finally rotated around to line up with the pad and settle down.

Have seen this kind of nonsense happening a few times lately, mostly with my big ships. Not sure if it happened yet with my Mandalay.
When it occurs, it's so insanely slow to roll the ship to the (almost) correct orientation that I normally just resume manual control for a moment to shake it out of its coma...
But yeah, this is just one facet of the very broken autodock/launch stuff. Haven't you had your ships leave the pad and then crash into the station somewhere near the slot?

 

[Mr Lindsay]

Kind of bonkers that the last two new ships are incapable of performing such a basic task properly.

Very much a Friday afternoon effort there.

As I'm currently out of the bubble doing lots of planetary landings with the Mandalay, it's worth noting that it hasn't happened once out here. Only on Landings Pads.

 

[Tifu]

I did notice my Keelie was bumping into things occasionally in stations with metal scaffolding or protrusions in the scenery on my auto-take offs. Chalked it off to weird inside station geometry. Just half an hour though, my very sprightly Sidey banged on some stronghold carrier superstructure before settling down correctly on it's landing pad. Some weird stuff going on for sure, maybe much more for the Mandalay and Cobra mk5 than others because of those glorious wings.

 

[Moirai]

As I'm currently out of the bubble doing lots of planetary landings with the Mandalay, it's worth noting that it hasn't happened once out here. Only on Landings Pads.

So it hasn't tried landing upside down on a planet yet? Well, that's encouraging.

Seriously, it's good to know that some of the landings for the Mandy work...

 

[Moirai]

I did notice my Keelie was bumping into things occasionally in stations with metal scaffolding or protrusions in the scenery on my auto-take offs. Chalked it off to weird inside station geometry. Just half an hour though, my very sprightly Sidey banged on some stronghold carrier superstructure before settling down correctly on it's landing pad. Some weird stuff going on for sure, maybe much more for the Mandalay and Cobra mk5 than others because of those glorious wings.

Definitely weird with those two, it seems. But the fact that my big lunking T8 lands like a pro, and the more svelte and graceful Mandy acts like a confused halfwit is rather irritating. More so when you consider that it, and the Cobra, are brand new ships.

 

[Moirai]

Have seen this kind of nonsense happening a few times lately, mostly with my big ships. Not sure if it happened yet with my Mandalay.
When it occurs, it's so insanely slow to roll the ship to the (almost) correct orientation that I normally just resume manual control for a moment to shake it out of its coma...
But yeah, this is just one facet of the very broken autodock/launch stuff. Haven't you had your ships leave the pad and then crash into the station somewhere near the slot?

I remember that my Python, occasionally, on auto launch, if the pad was close to the slot, had a tendency to experimentally bump its nose into the station below the slot. That was some time back. Haven't done autos for a while now...

 

[Moirai]

My replica original cobra mk3 build does something similar. Always lands at a 30 degree angle and clips the "wing" tips.

Sounds like there's two sets of landing parameters. One that's wonky, and one that works. In this case, the Mandy (and, apparently, Cobras) got the former and the T8 the latter.

 

[metatheurgist]

Both ships also have (premium paid for) unusual agility. Maybe this is throwing the code off?

 

[vanFace]

This slow rotation and angled landing is happening to other ships, too. Had it for Phantom, DBX, iCourier. Interestingly enough, all of them had loadouts to make them agile. I guess this is what throws the code off.

 

[Tifu]

Both ships also have (premium paid for) unusual agility. Maybe this is throwing the code off?

This slow rotation and angled landing is happening to other ships, too. Had it for Phantom, DBX, iCourier. Interestingly enough, all of them had loadouts to make them agile. I guess this is what throws the code off.

I can confirm that my upgraded Sidewinder exhibited both the slow rotation & angled landing after banging against the superstructure of the stronghold carrier it was landing on.

It had Farseer's enhanced Class 2 thrusters engineered to G3 Dirty drive level and was like a bat out of hell after the upgrade.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

What i've found is unengineered engines on ships don't have an issue.

When you G5 dirty drive them the auto dock/landing can go wonky. My fastest ships slam down hard and others often land at an angle.

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Nor can a Cutter auto launch through a mail slot.

My Cutter goes through the mail slot just fine every time.

 

[SergMx]

Further testing reveals that it occasionally gets confused at starports as well, and ends up landing at an angle before correcting at the last moment.

I have autopilot on my Mandalay too and it always lands sideways (with a roll), but it doesn't bother me.

 

[Koma Pahu]

I notice this the other day. I don’t remember it being an issue when I first got the Mandy, but I’m often alt-tabbed when auto landing.

I’d just put it down to the same jankiness that makes my cutter head-but the station on exit from time to time, but maybe it happens all the time and I’ve just not noticed.