Horizons Nav LOCK

D.D.Hariman · Oct 1, 2018

Said here >>> https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/448869-Wing-Ops << I was going to do research..

Read stuff in these forums, Reddit and Steam and how Nav Lock works and how it is related to and interacts with Wing Beacon is clear as mud.

This LOCKED DISCUSSION From Jan this year >> https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/399915-Wing-nav-lock-question << shows this.

The easiest way is to nominate (informally I mean, there's no mechanic in-game) one person as the leader.
The leader turns on their Nav Beacon only.
Every follower enables Nav Lock.
If you both enable Nav Beacon and Nav Lock, then yes, you may get the weird drop up/down issues. In Theory everyone can have Nav Beacon on at once, but you need to intelligently toggle on/off Nav Lock. If starting just do as above.

Once you've set up the leader and follower(s):
- leader drops into normal space at destination
- their beacon is automatically On (per game session), and visible from supercruise.
- followers target Nav Beacon from supercruise
- fly at max speed (no need to slow down), and will drop onto the beacon when within range

To jump to another system:

- Leader selects jump destination
- leader jumps away
- followers target wing wake signal
- spool up FSD and it'll jump automatically

If you're travelling multiple jumps (eg: some hundreds of light years) it is easier to just select the target system manually, and ignore all the wing mechanics (apart from being in a wing party). You can see a wing teammate's location in the galaxy map, and their system from the wing HUD in-game, but as this may cut off if too long, the gal map is better.

So, with this information in mind, I am off to get both my Ships/Commanders in the same system and do some testing.

D.D.Hariman · Oct 1, 2018

Ok,, First test..

Have D.D. fly to the system where Mac was and see if Nav Lock would drop D.D. onto him.. NOPE.. D.D. had to drop manually.

Second test..
Have Mac select a target body in the system and go into supercruise and have D.D. automatically follow. NOPE.. D.D. FSD did charge,, but was inhibited by Mac (interesting that Mac was not inhibited by D.D.) D.D. had to manually throttle up to engage the FSD.

Third test:
See if D.D. would automatically drop if Mac dropped. YEP.... This worked as advertised.

10/2/18 update.

For the above tests both ships had their BEACON's on.

Greybeard_LXI · Oct 2, 2018

D.D.Hariman said:
(interesting that Mac was not inhibited by D.D.).

What ships were they flying? The FSD is inhibited when a ship of larger mass is too close.

FrogsFriend · Oct 2, 2018

D.D.Hariman said:
... D.D. had to manually throttle up to engage the FSD.
...

That's normal. As long as the following player has Nav-Lock on the leader, their FSD will start to charge when the leader jumps, but they do have to be throttled up as per a normal jump.

D.D.Hariman · Oct 2, 2018

Greybeard_LXI said:
What ships were they flying? The FSD is inhibited when a ship of larger mass is too close.

They are in near identical Cobra MK III.

D.D.Hariman · Oct 2, 2018

FrogsFriend said:
That's normal. As long as the following player has Nav-Lock on the leader, their FSD will start to charge when the leader jumps, but they do have to be throttled up as per a normal jump.

Does this happen if both ships are in Super cruise too??

Humnnn,, What I remembered was that as soon as Mac started charging his FSD, the FSD on D.D.s ship started charging but very slowly. We were in normal space.

One of the "issues" often reported is that the following ship(s) always ended up way behind the leading ship.

FrogsFriend · Oct 4, 2018

D.D.Hariman said:
Does this happen if both ships are in Super cruise too??

Humnnn,, What I remembered was that as soon as Mac started charging his FSD, the FSD on D.D.s ship started charging but very slowly. We were in normal space.

One of the "issues" often reported is that the following ship(s) always ended up way behind the leading ship.

That lag in the following jump is because the second ship's drive doesn't start charging until the first ship actually jumps. Over a series of jumps the lead ship needs to loiter a little after each to let the followers catch up again.

D.D.Hariman · Dec 5, 2018

D.D.Hariman said:
Does this happen if both ships are in Super cruise too??

Humnnn,, What I remembered was that as soon as Mac started charging his FSD, the FSD on D.D.s ship started charging but very slowly. We were in normal space.

One of the "issues" often reported is that the following ship(s) always ended up way behind the leading ship.

OK, Tested this again at a range as low as 500m. Dd not seem to have any MASS LOCK effect on the first ship going to SC.