Newcomer / Intro How to: Landing request Macro

[Harrass]

Ok, first of all: It is silly. And not just silly, it is silly by design.

Most games give your landing clearance by a click or two.

ED gives it after some menues, and to top it all the last one needs to be paged down.
Come on. Who needs "Lock Target " ???? That´s what the key "T" is for.
If the Landing request was at least the first option you would hit space two times and be done with.

Ok, im new to Dangerous (not to Elite though, and i DO remember docking with just "D") and there might be some strange reason for it.
Maybe they get a share of the profits of Voice Attack or something.

Which brings me to the next point: I will NOT buy it. My wife already thinks i´m crazy playing silly games, she will kill me if i start to utter silly commands to my Computer.

So since many people seem to have some macro for it, I played along and created one, using autohotkey.
Whenever i punch my 4th mouse button it will happily type "1ee s esc" now.
Great. Works perfectly.
Erm, not in game though.
I keep pushing and it keeps ignoring it.

SO, where do i get a macro that is silent, does not cost a fortune for some odd hardware and will work with Elite Dangerous ?

 

[Solsticide]

If you haven't already, try using SetKeyDelay in your AutoHotkey macro. It may be sending the keypresses too quickly for the game to acknowledge them.

 

[Para Handy]

Why do you think you need to "Lock Target"?

Left hand UI panel
Tab to contacts
Select station (it is at the top)
request docking


macro that any way you want

 

[cmdr milesred]

Lock Target is needed for a couple reasons, but the most vital one is that for some dumb reason Fdev has not made it consistent, often especially at engineers bases the station is NOT at the top where it is for all other stations....


anyway..to the macro..I use ctrl F4, sub your mouse control for that....
^F4::
;Auto Dock, ctrl+F4
;
setkeydelay, 50, 50
send, 1ee s qq1
;
Return


Also it may help if you are using game in non window, full screen, just in case you are not...there is a solution for either way though..
And it will help some to also include this at the top of your macro.
#IfWinActive, Elite - Dangerous

with that, the macro or the following lines will only execute if the active window is Elite Dangerous.

I will assume that you are using the correct macro code for your mouse button #4 ? lets hope...

And for the guys that call cheat - be aware - voice attack and every hotas out there uses macros, so don't waste effort here complaining about UA breech.

 

[Tyres O'Flaherty]

Lock Target is needed for a couple reasons, but the most vital one is that for some dumb reason Fdev has not made it consistent, often especially at engineers bases the station is NOT at the top where it is for all other stations....


anyway..to the macro..I use ctrl F4, sub your mouse control for that....
^F4::
;Auto Dock, ctrl+F4
;
setkeydelay, 50, 50
send, 1ee s qq1
;
Return


Also it may help if you are using game in non window, full screen, just in case you are not...there is a solution for either way though..
And it will help some to also include this at the top of your macro.
#IfWinActive, Elite - Dangerous

with that, the macro or the following lines will only execute if the active window is Elite Dangerous.

I will assume that you are using the correct macro code for your mouse button #4 ? lets hope...

And for the guys that call cheat - be aware - voice attack and every hotas out there uses macros, so don't waste effort here complaining about UA breech.

Sorry. Could you tell me when it's advantageous to lock the target for docking? To clarify, I always use a DC and - touch wood - it's never had an issue.

 

[cmdr milesred]

if you are doing it manually, you always select the station, then request docking permission...simple and it won't matter the order of ships or station on the panel because you actually see and select the station...
when using a macro you can also do this, but if the station is not the first item or the only item on the list, then you may end up requesting to dock to a ship, that won't work. and if you watch you will see that engineer stations are not always at the top of the list, so if you use a macro, unless you make the macro smarter, to try each item on the list until it gets an ok, it will fail.
If you select the station first with T or G and make sure that it is the station and not a ship, then when the macro runs as it gets to the contacts screen the item you pre-selected with T or G is already highlighted and the macro then simply clicks it to get docking permission.
You have to try it in slow mo to see it in action, replace the first 50 with a 500 and you can see it in action easier.
The jist is that if you do not pre-select then it will default to either the last thing you selected or to the item on the top of the contacts list, and in the case of many engineers bases it is not at the top, so it will fail.
It was never an issue or necessary pre engineers to select the station before running the macro as all stations were always listed at the top, so without or with a macro you could do it blindly and always have the request go through.

To assist in being clear, it is not the DC that has the issue, it is the order of the items on the contacts list, look closer next time you are at an engineer and see for yourself that the station is or is NOT at the top of the list. if its always in the same place on the list, selecting first does not have to happen, but it moves down the list, depending on which station it is...
Most people would only notice this if they made an attempt to automate the entire docking procedure. I did simply because after thousands of times of doing it manually it became quite tiresome to type it, and when I realized that hotas sticks all use macros or at least have the option to use macros built in, I then thought ok, if they can use macros and its ok, then so can I.....I don't use hotas, I use KBD & M

 

[Para Handy]

.......
It was never an issue or necessary pre engineers to select the station before running the macro as all stations were always listed at the top, so without or with a macro you could do it blindly and always have the request go through.

To assist in being clear, it is not the DC that has the issue, it is the order of the items on the contacts list, look closer next time you are at an engineer and see for yourself that the station is or is NOT at the top of the list. if its always in the same place on the list, selecting first does not have to happen, but it moves down the list, depending on which station it is...
.......

Hmm - you live and learn, I have never noticed the station not at the top of the contacts list - I thought it was fixed there so that proximity / ttg / whatever it is they order by doesn't alter the station position.

 

[Harrass]

Thank you, it was indeed the key delay that was missing

 

[Greybeard_LXI]

Lock Target is needed for a couple reasons, but the most vital one is that for some dumb reason Fdev has not made it consistent, often especially at engineers bases the station is NOT at the top where it is for all other stations....


This was listed as a fix for 3.0

[QUOTE
Engineers

• Fixed an issue where engineer bases would not always occupy the top position of your Contacts Panel by default

Source:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/409060-Elite-Dangerous-Beyond-Chapter-One-3-0

 

[cmdr milesred]

yes, and like numerous other consistent/persistent bugs....NOT fixed.

 

[Clicker]

Sorry. Could you tell me when it's advantageous to lock the target for docking? To clarify, I always use a DC and - touch wood - it's never had an issue.

Sometimes, you need to target the station prior to running a macro to req docking.

DCs are kinda-ok if you’re in a hurry or speed trading or whatnot, however, I would recommend everyone learn how to dock manually in each and every ship they own. Also some PvP groups/gankers will shoot to kill anyone they see with a DC...so beware if you fly in open and have a DC.

Clicker

 

[RS_1]

Can anyone tell me what Im missing here please?

I've installed the mod. I did this by clicking on the StreamDeck plugin file. I see all the Elite commands for my Streamdeck and the buttons do seem to work. There's no images on any of them and nothing reacts to anything happening in game.

I feel like Im missing an instruction here but I can't see it in the install instructions which seem rather limited. Any help please?

 

[Dubz]

I have a Redragon keyboard with macro function. I just entered in the key presses needed to make the docking request. Now it’s one button and it’s done. Fortunately the left hand panel tends to default to a certain screen and so you set macros from that. Sometimes it doesn’t work if you went to a different section of the left hand panel as the macro is just set key presses actions. Would love to do more macros but it requires the panels to be in the same state upon opening so the key press actions go direct to menu item. Subsystem targeting by one button press would be most handy.

 

[Kissamies]

Yeah, a button to reset the panel first so that the macro always gets it right would be nice. FDev seems to frown upon using macros, but the greatly beloved Voice Attack that functionality. A lot of loud members of community would complain if they were disabled. Therefore FDev appears to tacitly allow the use of macros, but does nothing to make them easier.

Works well enough, though. The panel reset to default on jump. I like to ask docking request out loud. Feels more authentic. I also like to boss my fighter pilots around and have macros for launching them. Third one is simple power plant targeting by 6x previous subsystem key. Not exact, but close enough. I just correct it manually. There's also pip management macros, but I rarely use them.

 

[Dubz]

I think if Frontier allowed to set more hotkeys then there would be no need for macros. Especially in combat one shouldn’t be diving into menu screens. Of course with voice attack you can voice command everything.

 

[Kissamies]

I think the only thing in combat you really have to use menus for is launching the fighters, and that is if the one you lauched before starting combat got exploded and you have to launch a replacement. Everything else, fighter commands and subsystem targeting included, has options for hotkeys.

 

[Dubz]

I think the only thing in combat you really have to use menus for is launching the fighters, and that is if the one you lauched before starting combat got exploded and you have to launch a replacement. Everything else, fighter commands and subsystem targeting included, has options for hotkeys.

Unless I am mistaken for targeting subsystems there is only next and previous. You can’t hotkey for example target power plant.

 

[Kissamies]

Unless I am mistaken for targeting subsystems there is only next and previous. You can’t hotkey for example target power plant.

You are correct, but it's still better than going through a menu. It's fairly predictable where the power plant is so one can utilise some muscle memory or macro + fine tuning.