But like other have said, they may not know that someone is waiting. They may not see the message.
FD can you please come up with a soultion to CMDR's blocking the pads at the outpost?
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But like other have said, they may not know that someone is waiting. They may not see the message.
Like the GTA online timer, as long as you are active and click something within 10 mins, you stay in the session, if no activity is detected you get moved to Solo play. Still think they should just add more pads, open really isn't that busy, we just need more than 1 pad for med ships at outposts.
There are legitimate reasons for people spending a long time at a pad, remote engineering alone is reason enough, I have also spent a fair bit of time docked at an outpost in the outfitting menu. When it comes to Megaships (during the Thargoid rescue ops, I don't bother texting, I hail them on voice comms, at least that way you can tell if they are actually AFK as opposed to just missing a text message.
So we're agreed it's difficuly ... cN we give fd a break niw then pls?
If your going to sit there and board-flip, then take a peek out the windscreen once in a while...
Anytime someone has blocked the pad on me, I always make a point to position myself where the other cmdr can easily see me. Sometimes flash the lights once in a while...
I'll do my best to make myself visible, and my intentions known, if you'll take the time to check if you are blocking me...
I've flashed my lights, tried hailing the other cmdr. Typically, if its an issue, the other cmdr just basically doesn't give a crap (at least not for anyone but themself). Doesn't matter if I have a timer on my mission either. The attitude is that its just their pad until they are done with it...
This is one reason why I don't play in PVP. This also happens fairly frequently in Mobius at popular outposts (Wu Guinagi/HIP 10716). Just because they aren't shooting at you doesn't mean they are going to be reasonable. People are selfish no matter where you find them...
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I've always thought the hangers should be able to hold 4 ships. So when land, you have to enter the hanger or leave within 2 mins. If you enter the hanger you can see three other ships docked there. It would be interesting in open mode. We could have a chat with other players in the hanger.
See, I've had someone do that to me not 30 seconds after I'd landed.
So I kept the pad until that player moved off, he waited there a good ten mins before giving up...
I'd have been done in a couple of mins had he actually been patient enough to wait for me to lift off...
OP, are you sure it was a commander? There is a long standing bug where an NPC will be parked on your pad.
And the NPC shows up as a hollow square on scanners?
What if we would have to pay for the time spent on the pad?
Docking on S: 100 credits for access, 20 credits per minute docked
Docking on M: 1000 credits for access, 200 credits per minute docked
Docking on L: 10.000 credits for access, 2000 credits per minute docked
I know, i know, for the billionaires out there this is nothing, for casual low budget players it can be much, but at the end it would make people maybe more sensible for blocking pads and rather exit to the main menu if they need to make fresh coffee, doing housework, going to eat etc.....
Just my 2 cents ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Docking on S: 100 credits for access, 20 credits per minute docked
Docking on M: 1000 credits for access, 200 credits per minute docked
Docking on L: 10.000 credits for access, 2000 credits per minute docked
I know, i know, for the billionaires out there this is nothing, for casual low budget players it can be much, but at the end it would make people maybe more sensible for blocking pads and rather exit to the main menu if they need to make fresh coffee, doing housework, going to eat etc.....
Just my 2 cents ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
No way. I once saw a CMDR in a Clipper stick the nose of the Clipper under the body of a landing vehicle and flip them away from the pad because the offending commander cut in line. This was on xbox during the Oracle evacuation.
I think FD just need to have more reasons to get back out there instead of just sitting on the pad anyway.
I think FD just need to have more reasons to get back out there instead of just sitting on the pad anyway.
Then YOU are part of the problem...
So what if someone flashed their lights at you 30 seconds after you landed on the pad? Maybe they just wanted you to know they were there and waiting. Did you acknowledge them by flashing back or hailing them, or just decide to childishly show them "who the boss is"?
The point is, I can take as much time as I want on that pad, had the other player been a little more polite about it I'd have finished what I was doing & flown off.
Because he or she wasn't, I didn't. I'd have been gone in a minute or two otherwise...
It seems common courtesy is lacking in some people. I was at an outpost, landed did my stuff and took off. The guy behind me waiting to land thanked me for being quick. Manners it seems these days needs to be taught rather than come naturally as it should do.
Grumpy old git signing off.
Grumpy old git signing off.
Frontier made pads a limited resource on purpose. It's intentional. Including outposts and mega-ships. Either frontier believes their player base has actually shrunk to the point this isn't actually an issue for the most part any more; or they want to allow commanders the ability to lock down pads in open. Or they just assume everyone is in PG/ Solo now (since that's what the entire forum keeps screaming).
Personally? I think Frontier doesn't really concern themselves with practicalities like this; actual mechanics experience - that's our problem to solve now. Including someone hogging the pad because they potentially had any number of sudden reasons to step away from the computer and haven't returned in a timely fashion. Probably just being a on purpose, though, right?
It's pretty clear where Frontier's focus is; that may have no relationship with what's actually practicable given the current game state. So I guess, go to solo, break the wing, take the medicine? It's not like this is going to change.
edit: trying to be polite
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Pretty much this. I remember a dev diary video saying and DB getting excited about commanders being attacked if they sit on occupied pads (e.g. your mission timer running down and you can't dock at an outpost because of pad "hogging", so pewpewpew the "hogger"). Unfortunately this mechanic has fallen by the wayside, first because of OP'd station responses (to prevent station griefing -- I remember those days) and, second, the new C&P/ATR being borked (imo).
It would be great if FDev could improve the docking pad mechanic.
A 30-sec or 1-minute timer before the ship is automatically pulled into the dock, and taken out of the instance, freeing up the pad for someone else.
This will mean that some ships will have to wait up to 30 secs before they can launch again during busy periods, but that feels like a reasonable compromise if it keeps everyone together in Open.
A 30-sec or 1-minute timer before the ship is automatically pulled into the dock, and taken out of the instance, freeing up the pad for someone else.
This will mean that some ships will have to wait up to 30 secs before they can launch again during busy periods, but that feels like a reasonable compromise if it keeps everyone together in Open.
Ideally I don't think pads should be cleared by de-instancing (ejected into space maybe). Charges, if they can be implemented, or anything to incentivise Cmdrs to clear pads .. but the idea of outposts/stations having unlimited docking space is pretty lame imo, even if a blocked pad is annoying.
Prioritisation - of an ally waiting to land or someone offering a higher value transaction than the pad occupant is doing - would be my blue sky thought, with the silent ship ireturned to surface, FA turned off, 3 secs vertical thrust. AFK players find themselves in open space, at risk of NPC pirate attack but are obviously able to re-dock once people with business to transact have gone on their way.
Deinstancing makes more sense in Coriolis etc, stations that would have more physical space for garaging and the game-engine intervention is disguised. What I'd like to know though is what are people doing, in real life generally speaking, when they're pad blocking? FDev would have the data on that .. if you're actually outfitting or working station services, fair enough. If you went to the real life shops, eject eject eject.
Prioritisation - of an ally waiting to land or someone offering a higher value transaction than the pad occupant is doing - would be my blue sky thought, with the silent ship ireturned to surface, FA turned off, 3 secs vertical thrust. AFK players find themselves in open space, at risk of NPC pirate attack but are obviously able to re-dock once people with business to transact have gone on their way.
Deinstancing makes more sense in Coriolis etc, stations that would have more physical space for garaging and the game-engine intervention is disguised. What I'd like to know though is what are people doing, in real life generally speaking, when they're pad blocking? FDev would have the data on that .. if you're actually outfitting or working station services, fair enough. If you went to the real life shops, eject eject eject.
Worst one I ever had was a guy who was sat on the pad at an outpost, in Open, for two days.
Seriously, 40-odd hours just sat there.
I forget the exact circumstances but I was trying to help somebody unlock an engineer who needs to you become allied with some faction or other.
It turned out that there was only one orbital platform in the system that was giving out the missions required to achieve this.
And every time we showed up to take/hand-in a mission, there was this bloody Python sitting on the only medium pad.
As a result of this, every time we completed a mission, he had to hop into Solo to hand in the mission.
This was a bit frustrating, too, because it meant I couldn't easily discuss which missions he should pick next.
In the end we adopted a "system" where we'd arrive at the platform, I'd go into Solo first, dock, take a quick look at the mission-board, go back into Open, discuss with him which missions he should pick if he gets them and then he'd go into solo, dock, hand in his missions, take more and then go back into Open.
The only "good" thing about it was the same instancing mechanics that caused this Python to continually appear in our instance meant that we almost always ended-up in the same instance of open as each other as well.
Presumably, there weren't a lot of ED players in the area so the game just spawned a single instance every time.
Seriously, 40-odd hours just sat there.
I forget the exact circumstances but I was trying to help somebody unlock an engineer who needs to you become allied with some faction or other.
It turned out that there was only one orbital platform in the system that was giving out the missions required to achieve this.
And every time we showed up to take/hand-in a mission, there was this bloody Python sitting on the only medium pad.
As a result of this, every time we completed a mission, he had to hop into Solo to hand in the mission.
This was a bit frustrating, too, because it meant I couldn't easily discuss which missions he should pick next.
In the end we adopted a "system" where we'd arrive at the platform, I'd go into Solo first, dock, take a quick look at the mission-board, go back into Open, discuss with him which missions he should pick if he gets them and then he'd go into solo, dock, hand in his missions, take more and then go back into Open.
The only "good" thing about it was the same instancing mechanics that caused this Python to continually appear in our instance meant that we almost always ended-up in the same instance of open as each other as well.
Presumably, there weren't a lot of ED players in the area so the game just spawned a single instance every time.
I'm surprised no-one has suggested the Block function yet - it's usually to go-to for any adversity, according to some posters.