Newcomer / Intro Fighter won't dock....keeps flying far far away

[Jaggid Edje]

Using a ship with a fighter bay for the first time and I just had an issue at the end of a CZ (we won and the enemy fled) where the NPC crew member wouldn't dock. She just kept flying away from my ship and saying "i can't do that" when I issued any commands. I tried the dock command, the follow me command, the hold position command....negatory to all of them. Eventually she just flew out of range and the fighter was destroyed.

What...am I doing wrong?

I tried googling "Elite Dangerous Fighter won't dock" and got pages of hits with nothing specific to what happened to me..

 

[Jaggid Edje]

Update: Did a few more CZ's (won 2, fled like a coward from 1..hahaha) and my fighter pilot NPC's followed dock commands at the end of each one just fine, so I guess the problem I had was just a wierd one off. Was my first time using the fighter so I thought it was me.

Flying a Krait Mk 2 with a fighter bay is pretty fun. My first time doing CZ's too, all my combat before this has been pirate hunting and compromized Nav beacons. CZ's are so much more intense...this game is great!

 

[Chris Simon]

Just don't die. You'd lose your fighter pilot. If you level them up to at least Deadly, they are SOOO much better!
And yeah, CZs are really fun.

 

[Jaggid Edje]

Just don't die. You'd lose your fighter pilot. If you level them up to at least Deadly, they are SOOO much better!
And yeah, CZs are really fun.

I hired her at harmless (I'm cheap) so she's got a lot of leveling to do. Looking forward to seeing her progress. I hear NPC Crew level up in combat way faster than players, so that's good.

Not dieing is definitely the plan.... hahaha. The Krait build I"m running has a ton of hull points and I turn-tail as soon as my shields go down, so I think I should be good. The CZ I did flee got a bit scary....I had gotten so focused on my current target that I didn't notice the battle going south for the side I had chosen until it was just me and 2 green blips surrounded by about 15 red ones. Still I made it away with 97% hull strength as I jumped out.

 

[Oblivion]

The issue was most likely due to the fighter having it's engines destroyed, in that case, you won't be able to retrieve it (unless there's an option for repair/reboot that i'm not aware of).

 

[Jaggid Edje]

The issue was most likely due to the fighter having it's engines destroyed, in that case, you won't be able to retrieve it (unless there's an option for repair/reboot that i'm not aware of).

Ahh! I bet that was it exactly! She did get really beat up during the battle, it was her screaming into the radio about the fighter's condition that first caused me to tell her to dock. I take it the fighter just keeps drifting in whatever direction it was flying when the engine is destroyed? Oh, and is there a way I can actually look and "see" that is what happened?

 

[Chris Simon]

Ahh! I bet that was it exactly! She did get really beat up during the battle, it was her screaming into the radio about the fighter's condition that first caused me to tell her to dock. I take it the fighter just keeps drifting in whatever direction it was flying when the engine is destroyed? Oh, and is there a way I can actually look and "see" that is what happened?

Like in many cases, Elite kind of sucks at communicating important info towards the player. I think the only option would be switching to the fighter and checking. You can also target the fighter and check its modules on the left panel, but it's not gonna tell you much either.

 

[Northpin]

Yea, CZ are really nice, especially High Intensity ones.
You can make some nice credits out of them. If you get allied with one of the factions you can pick up massacre wing missions that pay up to 45 millions for 70-80 destroyed ships.

And yes, boost away or wake away as soon the odds are bad. I lost an almost Deadly and an Elite crew and it kinda hurts.

 

[Chris Simon]

Yea, CZ are really nice, especially High Intensity ones.
You can make some nice credits out of them. If you get allied with one of the factions you can pick up massacre wing missions that pay up to 45 millions for 70-80 destroyed ships.

And yes, boost away or wake away as soon the odds are bad. I lost an almost Deadly and an Elite crew and it kinda hurts.

On the other hand, this mechanic is pretty much the only thing that adds risks to the game. Money being abundant and we being for all intents and purposes immortal means there's not much one would care about. Losing a pilot whom you've been training for weeks or months hurts and it makes us more careful, which I think is great.