Landing Pad Lights - Quit Hiding Them

Kramster · Dec 29, 2014

I land almost exclusively on the compass, my only other aid is a map of where the pads are front/middle/rear
The compass is 3D if you know how to use it.
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Lower gear before entering station
Full stop just inside and drop down away from entrance.
Line up the target on the vertical centre line using roll/yaw with the dot in the lower part of the compass
Fly level and forward until the dot is at the base of the vertical line
Stop and thruster down to pad
Make minor adjustments during descent.
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It really isn't hard and you can see down...stop and pitch really simple, just don't rush it if the lights are out.
I post this to be helpful, not as part of an argument in favour of no lights, the lights will get fixed they are not meant to be this way.
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Below is a list of pad numbers in relation to the entrance, the list does not reflect the horizontal positions as pads vary in size and I have them in numerical order for quick reference
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Rear of landing bay
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04.08.15.19.23.30.31.38.45
03.10.14.18.25.29.32.40.44
01.07.22.28.37.43
02.06.09.12.17.21.24.27.33.36.39.42
05.11.13.16.20.26.34.35.41
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Entrance to landing bay
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GerminVermin said:
The compass is 3 dimensional. When the marker is solid, it's in front of you. When the marker is hollow, the target is behind you

Thanks forgot to point this out

GerminVermin · Dec 29, 2014

DarQik said:
No, you don't need them, you could look for the tiny numbers and find your spot too. At least their not that cruel to us.

Ok, the compass helps sort of. It's one dimensional (arguably 2D). I need to navigate in 3 dimensions. I need at least second compass. I'm lined up with the compass as demonstrated in the video, but still off by so much I totally miss the pad. If the landing thing appeared early and showed me way off base rather than wait until the last moment to appear. That plus the compass would work.

The instrumentation must work for it to be useful. This compass only gives some orientation--visual alignment is still required. Which is hard when you can't see down. Meaning I am going to have to approach inverted and then roll to land.

Pest, I especially like the outpost station approaches that have you narrowly avoiding clearly important station structures. We have facilities built that way today due to botched architectural planning; the delivery trucks have a great time with it. I guess poor corporate engineering happens in the future too.

How do you even function? The compass is 3 dimensional. When the marker is solid, it's in front of you. When the marker is hollow, the target is behind you.

You need to practice with the compass, which works flawlessly and excellently. Learn to use it. You seem to be having problems with something that functions profoundly well that almost literally no one else has problems with.

This isn't that hard. Come on. Try.

You use the compass to identify which pad is yours, then you use your surroundings to get your ship close enough to the pad for the radar to be replaced with the landing pad graphic. This is NOT difficult. Seriously, how can you be having problems with something so mind-bogglingly trivial?

DarQik · Dec 30, 2014

GerminVermin said:
How do you even function? The compass is 3 dimensional. When the marker is solid, it's in front of you. When the marker is hollow, the target is behind you.

I smash down hard, rather often--kind of like the auto landing computer. I really appreciate the discussion. I'm not having that many problems that I don't cause myself by simply going too fast. I'll also admit that I'm mostly being argumentative because I dislike the compass control mechanic for landing. I'll let you have the sales speak and accept 2D+front/back as 3D. I like the compass for spatial nav wayfinding, just not landing. It's a crude directional guide and landing requires precision. Why not mark the pad on the HiRes positional radar? (I like the compass so much, I wish we had a combat one for the targeted vessel, but that's probably only useful in Conflict Zones when the radar gets really busy and you lose your target in the clump.)

Since you've pointed it out, I've started working with the compass on station landings. Line up it up directly below, get to the point where it flips forward/backward (filled/hollow), get slightly ahead of filled and drop (too close to the flip point and you are short of the pad and may collide with obstacles). I still find it crude and slow. I'm much faster with the map of pads and visual ID from the landing lights than the compass.

It could be that I'm still trying to dock like I'm landing in a plane sim (aircraft approach with a vtol drop). It's 0G, and I don't need wing airflow to stay aloft. I should use the ability to float and move in all directions. ...[tested]... Yep, a nose down strafing approach with the directional thrusters is much faster, accurate and clean. Thanks for that thought too! The mental concepts built by a lifetime on planet are harder to break out of than I thought.

Kramster · Dec 30, 2014

To avoid 'smashing down hard' use the down thrusters in short bursts of 1 to 2 seconds at a time.
If you use them for too long it takes proportionately long to slow down

rdizz · Dec 30, 2014

GerminVermin said:
In my experience, the landing lights around the pad are lit properly 95% of the time. It's only very rarely that I am landing on a pad that is not lit. In those situations, the compass points to my pad anyway so it's no big deal. The people screaming that the pads are never lit or hardly ever lit are sensationally exaggerating.

they constantly turn off for me. Stop sucking

GerminVermin · Dec 30, 2014

rdizz said:
they constantly turn off for me. Stop sucking

So learn to use your compass and move past it.

rdizz · Dec 30, 2014

GerminVermin said:
So learn to use your compass and move past it.

I don't have a problem with docking easiest thing in this game. I have a problem with you talking down to everyone like you are some elite god and pulling fake statistics out of your docking bay "95%" of the time.

GerminVermin · Dec 30, 2014

rdizz said:
I don't have a problem with docking easiest thing in this game. I have a problem with you talking down to everyone like you are some elite god and pulling fake statistics out of your docking bay "95%" of the time.

I don't mind you having a problem with that. I have a problem with people whining about a non-problem as if it's somehow game breaking or such a big problem that, until it's fixed, orphans and puppies and kitties are all needlessly dying. This forum is absolutely chock full of people complaining about non-problems (see my sig) and it absolutely drives me up the freaking wall. My posts are SIGNIFICANTLY white washed. I'm not allowed to say what I really want to say on these forums. If I could, I would make people cry.

Dukov Nook · Dec 30, 2014

GerminVermin said:
In my experience, the landing lights around the pad are lit properly 95% of the time. It's only very rarely that I am landing on a pad that is not lit. In those situations, the compass points to my pad anyway so it's no big deal. The people screaming that the pads are never lit or hardly ever lit are sensationally exaggerating.

This. One million times this.

watching the compass is also the only correct way to tell if they put you in a landing bay right at the front of the docking ring.

rdizz · Dec 30, 2014

GerminVermin said:
I don't mind you having a problem with that. I have a problem with people whining about a non-problem as if it's somehow game breaking or such a big problem that, until it's fixed, orphans and puppies and kitties are all needlessly dying. This forum is absolutely chock full of people complaining about non-problems (see my sig) and it absolutely drives me up the freaking wall. My posts are SIGNIFICANTLY white washed. I'm not allowed to say what I really want to say on these forums. If I could, I would make people cry.

OK, point made.

WiZZyWiGG · Dec 31, 2014

It is proper annoying when this disappears on you if you are not paying attention, its made me get used to using the compass more and more which is a good thing in the long run.

This is the kind of bug that will annoy new players though trying to learn the game.

Vendraen · Dec 31, 2014

monci

The pad # holograms seem to be simply bugged. They're there "most of the time" but other times not, and I can't work out any rhyme or reason to it. Just make it a simple UI option "show them" or "not show them." If you pick show them they're on 100% of the time, without fail, and if you pick not, they're not. Very, very simple.

SirGirard · Dec 31, 2014

GerminVermin said:
It's a video game not real life where hundreds of lives are at stake. Stop sucking.

Wow what a weird response?

GerminVermin · Dec 31, 2014

SirGirard said:
Wow what a weird response?

It was a ridiculous reply, yes, for a ridiculous assertion.

I don't ever use the landing pad illustrations.
I always use my compass.
I am constantly using my compass in combat.
I am constantly using my compass while jumping between systems.
I am constantly using my compass while overshooting stations in SC because a lot of the time I make stupid mistakes on approach or get distracted.
I am constantly using my compass while landing.
I always use my compass.

It's probably one of the most used, most valuable HUD elements ever. I find it preposterous that people avoid using it or don't know how to use it or don't depend on it. How can you not use your compass all the time considering how useful it is in so many situations?

Dukov Nook · Dec 31, 2014

GerminVermin said:
I don't mind you having a problem with that. I have a problem with people whining about a non-problem as if it's somehow game breaking or such a big problem that, until it's fixed, orphans and puppies and kitties are all needlessly dying. This forum is absolutely chock full of people complaining about non-problems (see my sig) and it absolutely drives me up the freaking wall. My posts are SIGNIFICANTLY white washed. I'm not allowed to say what I really want to say on these forums. If I could, I would make people cry.

You're from NN, aren't you.

I thought I recognized your name.

GerminVermin · Dec 31, 2014

Dukov Nook said:
You're from NN, aren't you.

I thought I recognized your name.

No, I'm not from NN. That place was a vile gutter of the internet. I visited there a few times to see what the hubub was about. You probably recognize me from OT and Xerq.

Pigpen · Dec 31, 2014

It's a bug that snuck in in one of the Gammas, 1.03 I think. It used to be fine before then.

Simon Darkstep · Dec 31, 2014

GerminVermin said:
In my experience, the landing lights around the pad are lit properly 95% of the time. It's only very rarely that I am landing on a pad that is not lit. In those situations, the compass points to my pad anyway so it's no big deal. The people screaming that the pads are never lit or hardly ever lit are sensationally exaggerating.

I don't believe that's entirely accurate.

The flicker of the landing lights to me looks very much the same as in other games where multiple layers of transparency are causing layers behind to not appear at all. The stations have some fog inside, and there may be other invisible/transparent things going on around outposts as well.

Transparency problems can be very tough to catch, and the way I understand them, vary greatly with what GPU is being used.