Is the docking computer safe for larger ships? any ships? It does have strange hickups...

[n13L5]

If you fly from station to station a lot, its nice to get a micro break during docking, to drink coffee or do some other thing to sustain your life expectancy at a gentle slope.


But the docking computer seems to have issues:


1) It slams the Zorgon Hauler into the side wall of Stations' air lock every so often, upon which it quickly flies back outside again, to do it perfectly on the second try.
I have not lost shields to this bug yet, but its nonetheless concerning.

2) On the outpost in Eotienses, the docking computer flies to great altitude above the landing pad and then sits there for 2-3 minutes, with the speed indicator sometimes changing between 0 and 1, but mostly sitting at 0. When the time left to dock reaches 7.00 minutes, it suddenly starts to move around a bit, followed by a jittery descent to the landing pad, with the speed indicator wildly switching between negative and positive speed.

Given the absolutely smooth curve in which it descends to landing pads in stations, this is a rather strange performance



- Have you had any trouble crashing into things with the docking computer?

- Had any other failures?

- Has the docking computer ever destroyed your ship?

- Does FD restore your ship if its loss is due to their docking computer?



Not asking this to bug FD, I just wanna know if its safe to use with a T9.

 

[Eagle Eye]

Yes. As long as you dont activate it while at full boost 2km from the entrance & about to crash, it will work fine. Just be sensible on the location and speed when you relinquish control. It is getting a major revamp in 1.3 and works much better (mostly).

 

[HipToss]

Go into the 1.3 sub-forum. There are some videos showing the updated DC. It looks MUCH better.

 

[Colonel North]

If you fly from station to station a lot, its nice to get a micro break during docking, to drink coffee or do some other thing to sustain your life expectancy at a gentle slope.


But the docking computer seems to have issues:


1) It slams the Zorgon Hauler into the side wall of Stations' air lock every so often, upon which it quickly flies back outside again, to do it perfectly on the second try.
I have not lost shields to this bug yet, but its nonetheless concerning.

2) On the outpost in Eotienses, the docking computer flies to great altitude above the landing pad and then sits there for 2-3 minutes, with the speed indicator sometimes changing between 0 and 1, but mostly sitting at 0. When the time left to dock reaches 7.00 minutes, it suddenly starts to move around a bit, followed by a jittery descent to the landing pad, with the speed indicator wildly switching between negative and positive speed.

Given the absolutely smooth curve in which it descends to landing pads in stations, this is a rather strange performance



- Have you had any trouble crashing into things with the docking computer?

- Had any other failures?

- Has the docking computer ever destroyed your ship?

- Does FD restore your ship if its loss is due to their docking computer?



Not asking this to bug FD, I just wanna know if its safe to use with a T9.

It actually seems to be happier with bigger ships than with small ones. Although this could just be my experience if the issues were 'fixed' whilst I've been working my way up through ships.

Back in the days of using a T6 with docking computer I had some problems (again these may to be fair have now been sorted).

Outposts. Not usable. It just stopped and just sat there until retaking manual control.
Stations: Usually ok. Sometimes at stations it would crash into the side of the docking bay and get stuck until manually re controlled. The shields buzzed but it never took any damage. It seemed this happened when assigned pad that were not at placed North/ South/ East/ West of the post box. The non 90 degree pads seemed to be the ones that caused problems (if that makes sense.)

Since then with larger ships (T7, T9, Ananconda) never an issue. Obviously outposts not applicable. With stations perhaps the issue is corrected by only being able to land on the biggest more directly placed pads.

tbh - in hindsight I wouldn't bother with a dc on anything other than the T9 or conda. From a trading/ grind point of view the time and cargo space lost is not worth it.

- - - Updated - - -

Sorry OP. To answer your question more succinctly:

Yes. Definitely recommend dc on a T9.

Great for trading/ grinding. Drop out of supercruise chuck on the auto dock and put the kettle on... ;-)

 

[HipToss]

Here you go:

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=148934

 

[Comenius]

I agree with everyone, much better now except at outposts. I have it on my anaconda and it used to scrape the roof on the way in the slot but now it works perfectly every time. I kick in the docking computer then pull up my galaxy map to plot my course to my next trading stop so all I have to do is drop off cargo, pick up cargo, and launch! It frees up all that landing time if you like to turn and burn. If you have voice attack then its even sweeter, after you take off and get through the slot just use the command "get clear and jump" and that frees up even more time to make notes or work out profits, etc.

 

[777Driver]

1.1 scraped the roof of the conda, the landing itself was fine. 1.2 lands the conda and T9 perfectly.

1.3 speeds up the whole process and flys the 'approach' much smoother.

In previous updates the approach angles seemed strange.

 

[n13L5]

It actually seems to be happier with bigger ships than with small ones. Although this could just be my experience if the issues were 'fixed' whilst I've been working my way up through ships.

Back in the days of using a T6 with docking computer I had some problems (again these may to be fair have now been sorted).

Outposts. Not usable. It just stopped and just sat there until retaking manual control.
Stations: Usually ok. Sometimes at stations it would crash into the side of the docking bay and get stuck until manually re controlled. The shields buzzed but it never took any damage. It seemed this happened when assigned pad that were not at placed North/ South/ East/ West of the post box. The non 90 degree pads seemed to be the ones that caused problems (if that makes sense.)

Since then with larger ships (T7, T9, Ananconda) never an issue. Obviously outposts not applicable. With stations perhaps the issue is corrected by only being able to land on the biggest more directly placed pads.

tbh - in hindsight I wouldn't bother with a dc on anything other than the T9 or conda. From a trading/ grind point of view the time and cargo space lost is not worth it.

- - - Updated - - -

Sorry OP. To answer your question more succinctly:

Yes. Definitely recommend dc on a T9.

Great for trading/ grinding. Drop out of supercruise chuck on the auto dock and put the kettle on... ;-)

Thanks a lot

No need to apologize, all the details are interesting!

- - - Updated - - -

Here you go:

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=148934

haha very polite will check that out ^^

- - - Updated - - -

I agree with everyone, much better now except at outposts. I have it on my anaconda and it used to scrape the roof on the way in the slot but now it works perfectly every time. I kick in the docking computer then pull up my galaxy map to plot my course to my next trading stop so all I have to do is drop off cargo, pick up cargo, and launch! It frees up all that landing time if you like to turn and burn. If you have voice attack then its even sweeter, after you take off and get through the slot just use the command "get clear and jump" and that frees up even more time to make notes or work out profits, etc.

Voice attack is nice, have to set it up for ED...

- - - Updated - - -

1.1 scraped the roof of the conda, the landing itself was fine. 1.2 lands the conda and T9 perfectly.

1.3 speeds up the whole process and flys the 'approach' much smoother.

In previous updates the approach angles seemed strange.

A little strange, sometimes, yes... I guess it goes looking for specific markers on the station to get its precise location and bearing. The way it twists around after locating the markers is a bit perverse too ^^

The landing once inside is usually very smooth and natural...

I wish I could land like that, but you don't get the pad display from high enough up to know where you're descending to...

So the fastest way to land for me is like an airplane, just very steep to avoid complaints from the pads you pass, kinda like this ƒ shape

or this ʥ if I'm feeling artistic

 

[n13L5]

Yes. As long as you dont activate it while at full boost 2km from the entrance & about to crash, it will work fine. Just be sensible on the location and speed when you relinquish control. It is getting a major revamp in 1.3 and works much better (mostly).

hmm wait, I'm always at full boost at 2Km... I run out the landing gear at ~300 meter for a massive breaking effect... must be the extra drag??

But its a funny idea to try and purposely screw up the docking computer might produce some great stuff for Youtube.

but I'm really disappointed, that the docking computer stops working when you go into external camera mode... I destroyed my Cobra trying that... because I had set the camera to look at my Cobra from the front, I didn't see it coming either! Hit the station wall, parts were flying off, then flames erupted but it didn't fully let me watch the rest of the explosion, the game blacked out the screen much too soon!