Landing pads in open play...

[Jamey]

I remember reading something on here (back when I was a lurker) where somebody talked about how they found it annoying when players in open play land in a station and don't enter the hangar but stay 'hogging' the pad so nobody else can land there and it made me wonder about something...

Let's say, hypothetically, player A lands on a pad and enters the hangar. Then player B lands on the same pad and stays there. Then player A wants to launch/return to surface, what happens? Does the game give them a message to say they can't as the pad is in use? Or does the station have some way of transporting them to a new, unused pad? What if the station is massively popular and all pads suddenly become filled with CMDRs?

 

[Conch]

entering the hanger still counts as occupying the pad.

 

[coca_fr]

Even if the player go to the hangar it doesn't free the pad.

Just switch to solo when station is full.

/problem solved

 

[Ian Skippy]

I remember reading something on here (back when I was a lurker) where somebody talked about how they found it annoying when players in open play land in a station and don't enter the hangar but stay 'hogging' the pad so nobody else can land there and it made me wonder about something...

Let's say, hypothetically, player A lands on a pad and enters the hangar. Then player B lands on the same pad and stays there. Then player A wants to launch/return to surface, what happens? Does the game give them a message to say they can't as the pad is in use? Or does the station have some way of transporting them to a new, unused pad? What if the station is massively popular and all pads suddenly become filled with CMDRs?

Going into the hangar does not clear the pad. Its a myth, ignore it. When the station is busy, its polite to just do your stuff and leave asap rather than eating a pizza and enjoying the soundtrack.

 

[777Driver]

If player A lands and enters the hanger, no other players in that instance will be able to use that pad. On dropout to a station two things can happen, you either join the same instance as player A, forcing you to wait, or the game will drop you out in your own instance.

 

[Requiem Mortis]

If the bay is full then you won't be offered the pad unless it's Occupied by a NPC Beluga then you just have to cancel your reqeust leave the station and try again . If your time critical and pads are blocked swap to 'Solo'.

 

[Morbad]

I've been complaining about lack of a docking queue and timer for years, but the prevailing opinion is that it's more reasonable for players to have to mode switch to use outposts than for outposts to evict idle or dallying CMDRs, which is something that I find to be absolutely ludicrous.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

Station-stuffing is a great way for large number of people who want to disrupt CG's without ever firing a shot or picking up a fine - just park and wait.

 

[777Driver]

I've been complaining about lack of a docking queue and timer for years, but the prevailing opinion is that it's more reasonable for players to have to mode switch to use outposts than for outposts to evict idle or dallying CMDRs, which is something that I find to be absolutely ludicrous.

Personally I don't think it would be fair to kick anyone from a pad. If somebody wants to spend an hour or more on a pad waiting for mission boards to refresh then so be it. Not everyone wants to mode switch to refresh the board.

The game will try to move you to a new instance on dropout at a busy station.

 

[Jamey]

Cheers all. Sounds like a simple case of what I read previously being wrong then, easily cleared up. Thanks.

 

[Morbad]

Personally I don't think it would be fair to kick anyone from a pad. If somebody wants to spend an hour or more on a pad waiting for mission boards to refresh then so be it. Not everyone wants to mode switch to refresh the board.

I categorically refuse to mode switch for any reason other than technical issues. I'm not asking people to mode switch to refresh mission boards, I'm saying that stations should kick their asses out if they are backing up traffic. If a CMDR isn't finished, they can reenter the queue and dock again when others are finished with their business.

If you need a safe place to idle, there are quintillions of cubic kilometers of empty space around any station where no one will ever find you, if you are sensible.

All in-game objects should have the capacity to function as if there were no instancing at all and starports and outposts letting people idle for significant periods of time when traffic is waiting to use the station is quite possibly the singular most absurd aspect to the game.

The game will try to move you to a new instance on dropout at a busy station.

No it won't.

As far as I've been able to tell, it applies the same instancing rules to stations as it does elsewhere. If it's crowded to the point of there being instancing issues, and there are no other lightly populated instances, and no instances with a friend or someone you were recently instanced with in them, then you might get your own. However, it only takes one CMDR to tie up all of the medium pads on an outpost, and the game is more likely than not to prefer instances with people in them over empty ones.

 

[Ian Skippy]

Personally I don't think it would be fair to kick anyone from a pad. If somebody wants to spend an hour or more on a pad waiting for mission boards to refresh then so be it. Not everyone wants to mode switch to refresh the board.

The game will try to move you to a new instance on dropout at a busy station.

IMHO a queue doesnt mean you kick people, it means you dont have to spam the docking request button all the time. First come first serve and all that.

 

[Morbad]

IMHO a queue doesnt mean you kick people

That's why I want a queue with a timer. The timer starts when someone else requests permission to dock and gets shorter the deeper the queue gets, to some reasonable minimum (say 3-5 minutes). When it expires, you are launched.

 

[Kerrash]

entering the hanger still counts as occupying the pad.

/Thread

 

[Spaceburger]

One of the funniest moments I can remember from Elite came from being in a queue to dock when I first started the game. Met some cool CMDR's, we all had a good moan at whoever was hogging the pad. It was fun. I was really nervous waiting outside the outpost with Illegal cargo and ended up switching to solo just to land after 15 or so minutes. I thought it was cool and hoped to see more little queues with CMDR's talking but I haven't really seen that since leaving the starter systems.

I'm not sure if it can still happen but I got kicked off a pad in a Coriolis once. If you enter the hangar and then return to the landing pad facing the takeoff - way and then wait long enough, it'll randomly release you from the pad... I was relaxing watching ships come and go and it was a bit of a surprise.

 

[777Driver]

No it won't.

As far as I've been able to tell, it applies the same instancing rules to stations as it does elsewhere. If it's crowded to the point of there being instancing issues, and there are no other lightly populated instances, and no instances with a friend or someone you were recently instanced with in them, then you might get your own. However, it only takes one CMDR to tie up all of the medium pads on an outpost, and the game is more likely than not to prefer instances with people in them over empty ones.

That is what I meant, at a busy CG the game won't keep stuffing people into the same instance. If the instance is rammed at a busy station chances you'll be put into another instance anyway. Can count on one hand the amount of times I have been denied docking request at a large port.

That's why I want a queue with a timer. The timer starts when someone else requests permission to dock and gets shorter the deeper the queue gets, to some reasonable minimum (say 3-5 minutes). When it expires, you are launched.

How would auto launching a cmdr that is browsing the board a good thing? First come first serve.

 

[Micha]

I've been complaining about lack of a docking queue

This is desperately needed! Don't want to keep spamming docking requests, I want to be told I'm #2 in the queue and to please hold station away from the approach. ETA is x minutes.

The timer starts when someone else requests permission to dock and gets shorter the deeper the queue gets, to some reasonable minimum (say 3-5 minutes). When it expires, you are launched.

Yikes! Absolutely not! Once safely docked and in the hangar is the time to deal with the passengers (SWMBO), head to the heads, and refill beverage containers, amongst whatever else has been put off.

What I thought happened, and based on this thread doesn't, is that when you enter the hangar, you enter your own private instance, and hence no longer take up the pad. Seriously, what's the point, other than some visual fluff, of entering the hangar then?

Alternatively, how about each pad serving multiple underground hangars.

 

[777Driver]

What I thought happened, and based on this thread doesn't, is that when you enter the hangar, you enter your own private instance, and hence no longer take up the pad. Seriously, what's the point, other than some visual fluff, of entering the hangar then?
.

Perhaps you don't have any friends? For the rest of us we don't want to be moved into a separate instance every time we dock. The hanger is connected to the landing pad, it's not a multi storey car park.

 

[Morbad]

Can count on one hand the amount of times I have been denied docking request at a large port.

The problem is most acute at outposts. Countless times I have been prevented from landing because someone had a medium ship in the only medium pad for hours on end.

Mode switching, or blocking and reinstancing, to create a parallel universe because stations are happy to let people tie up their limited hangar/pad space indefinitely, is the most immersion breaking thing ever. It was the first major absurdity I noticed when I started playing, and has never changed.

How would auto launching a cmdr that is browsing the board a good thing? First come first serve.

First come first serve doesn't mean you can just sit there forever.

How would an outpost even function if four people landed and then refused to move? Ships with necessary supplies show up and are turned away because those already there are too busy sleeping, bedding prostitutes, hanging out at the pub, or whatever.

Apply that logic to an airport and see how ludicrous it sounds to let people park on the runway and not have to ever leave.

What I thought happened, and based on this thread doesn't, is that when you enter the hangar, you enter your own private instance, and hence no longer take up the pad. Seriously, what's the point, other than some visual fluff, of entering the hangar then?

Alternatively, how about each pad serving multiple underground hangars.

Stations aren't tesseracts, what you see is what you get.

 

[MickyG1982]

I once had someone sit there, lights on over my head when I landed on the pad, after I'd been there roughly 10 seconds. He hurled "hurry up" messages at me like there was no tomorrow after I'd been there for 30 seconds.

So I just sat there for an extra few minutes until he got the hint...