Never see other ships in hangar elevator

[JetsonRING]

[yesnod] Completely frivolous I know but, I never see any other ships go by in the hangar elevator, even on outposts where I know there is only the single M landing-pad and I know other ships are docking.

I think it would be awesome if a pilot could see other docked ships going down into the pit on the elevator as they sit in their ship in the hangar. Their worst enemy could go by and it would mean nothing since weps are disabled on the stations. They could wave as their nemesis went by.

Even better: Make the hangar 4-sided, turn it into 4 hangars, in cruciform structure with the turntable/landing pad in the middle so ships can be stuck in 4-ways. Pilots could look across at 3 other ships, wave to their worst enemy heck, MOON your worst enemy, chat with your worst enemies and friends and wave to your friends if they happen to be there. In reading this I decided to add that obviously, this configuration could be altered to fit imagined volumes.

 

[Nic727]

Good idea about the 4 sided hangar.

 

[Willa Allason]

I've seen NPCs go down the elevators in large stations.

 

[JetsonRING]

I've seen NPCs go down the elevators in large stations.

While in the star port sitting on the landing pad yes, but not after the ship has been lowered into the hangar, as seen from the hangar. Have never seen anything in the elevator, from the hangar except clouds.

 

[Rygir]

Especially in the large stations, where pads are placed side by side, a four way might be problematic since it would intersect with nearby other pads. However I don't see a problem with stacking them several levels deep.

Also, why do outposts have turntables? Any direction to leave is fine. And why do they let you go down if there is not outfitting or shipyard? Would be cool to have just a concrete slab and nothing more to land on, no fancy moving parts, for the really cheap installations.

 

[JetsonRING]

Especially in the large stations, where pads are placed side by side, a four way might be problematic since it would intersect with nearby other pads. However I don't see a problem with stacking them several levels deep.

Also, why do outposts have turntables? Any direction to leave is fine. And why do they let you go down if there is not outfitting or shipyard? Would be cool to have just a concrete slab and nothing more to land on, no fancy moving parts, for the really cheap installations.

Elevators exist on small outposts to clear your ship from the (usually) single Medium landing pad while other pilots land so that your ship is able to remain in station and do business there. A pet-peeve is pilots who hog the pad and refuse to call for the elevator. Damn no-fire zones! I always figured the elevator was obviously for stacking hangars but then why would anyone design it in such a way as to not maximize storage capacity? One ship per level/elevator? Since there is a turntable and tracks, obviously multiple hangars per level is more efficient and stacking levels of hangars even more so. It is farther than you think, over to that landing pad next door and besides, who is to say the pads are not/cannot be staggered to accommodate the volumes or even angled/turned? It does not have to be all right-angles. Plus, you have noticed that the pad slides on rails so it could easily be shifted a few feet if hangars actually intersected. Also, since it is not reality and it does not matter if the hangars "actually" intersect (since we never see them from the outside) it would just be a very small fudging of the gaming mechanic to make it work. The game's entertainment value would be increased immensely. Player interaction would increase and I for one would enjoy feeling like the station is actually working around me and not just playing .wav clips of "working" clank-clunk noises.

In fact, I just had a thought: Why does a station need all those landing pads? On large stations I have never seen more than a small percentage of pads being used at any time. Why would even a large station need more than 3 or 4 landing pads of each size if, (in large stations) instead of the elevator dropping a ship into its own personal, wasteful hangar volume, the elevator drops onto a linear track with hangars on both sides and simply slides down the track to the ship's "assigned" hangar. Now, when a landing pad is slid into its hangar a pilot could look out his canopy window and see the 3 or 4 ships across the tracks from him/her and possibly interact with the (if) human pilots, and a single landing pad could handle dozens of hangars! Doubled if stacked. Or possibly, since it is not actually reality, the ships could be dropped into a circular "ring" track with rows of hangars going AROUND the station (under the floor of the port). That would take care of the pilots that are commenting their ships are departing from different hangars/landing pads than the ones they landed at, as well as the "side-by-side" landing-pad problem. This way, when you call the elevator to be taken to or from the surface a pilot would get a little slide show of parked ships (labeled of course, with the CMDR names!) and empty hangars going by as they are transported to the surface pad or to their hangar. Different sized landing-pads and hangars could share a single "track" so a Sidewinder pilot could look out his canopy window at the Beluga or Anaconda sitting in the hangars across from them. The curve in the floor would have to be barely noticeable, too.

 

[goemon]

(1) Elevators exist on small outposts to clear your ship from the (usually) single Medium landing pad so other pilots can land while your ship is able to remain in the station.

i actually don't think so. you can't land if a second ship is in the hangar, because there is only one hangar. you can test that with a friend.

 

[JetsonRING]

i actually don't think so. you can't land if a second ship is in the hangar, because there is only one hangar. you can test that with a friend.

Strange, I have asked commanders to clear the pad at Outposts, their ship disappears into the Outpost interior, the landing pad reappears and I land. Go figure. I do not recall if I have never actually tested whether I can enter the hangar with another ship inside or not but I can land on the pad.

 

[goemon]

Strange, I have asked commanders to clear the pad at Outposts, their ship disappears into the Outpost interior, the landing pad reappears and I land. Go figure. I do not recall if I have never actually tested whether I can enter the hangar with another ship inside or not but I can land on the pad.

they will have logged off or switched mode. you can't land on the pad the while a second ship is in the hangar.

 

[X-Terminator]

I think all Landing Pads should allow both orientations on Ship Landing as it can then workout the turns needed if it requires for the hanger but not necessary if we do not descend.

 

[Komemiute]

Also, why do outposts have turntables? Any direction to leave is fine. And why do they let you go down if there is not outfitting or shipyard? Would be cool to have just a concrete slab and nothing more to land on, no fancy moving parts, for the really cheap installations.

Standardization- the manufactoring company finished the "turntable" one and didn't want to spend extra R&D cash in the static ones!

 

[JetsonRING]

i actually don't think so. you can't land if a second ship is in the hangar, because there is only one hangar. you can test that with a friend.

If there is only supposed to be the single hangar, then why is there a big, empty elevator shaft under the landing pad in front of the hangar? Makes sense that hangars would at least be stacked a few layers deep but if not, why leave a big, empty hole? Why not just install a floor in the elevator shaft?

 

[Nic727]

I would like to add a couple of things.

1. NPC never go into hangar. They are staying at surface for 10 sec. before taking off.

2. I don't know what's happening with other players, but I'm able to scan them even if they are in the hangar (underground).

3. About other players too, if someone is in Hangar 02, if I'm going into my hangar for 1 min. and going to surface after, the other player will be in Hangar 04. It happened to me yesterday. I don't know if it's just because the other player decided to change hangar or it's a bug, but that was weird.


Finally, I think there is a lack of players in stations, planets, etc. I don't know if it's just because the starter area is empty, but I can only find 5 NPC and 2 players each time.

 

[JetsonRING]

I would like to add a couple of things.

1. NPC never go into hangar. They are staying at surface for 10 sec. before taking off.

2. I don't know what's happening with other players, but I'm able to scan them even if they are in the hangar (underground).

3. About other players too, if someone is in Hangar 02, if I'm going into my hangar for 1 min. and going to surface after, the other player will be in Hangar 04. It happened to me yesterday. I don't know if it's just because the other player decided to change hangar or it's a bug, but that was weird.


Finally, I think there is a lack of players in stations, planets, etc. I don't know if it's just because the starter area is empty, but I can only find 5 NPC and 2 players each time.

Seems like I start in a different numbered hangar each time I start the program but never really cared about it. Pilots have no apparent control over which docking bay they spawn into from the "hangar". Seems like "hangar" is sort of generic for "everything under the dock". If you (or they) have exited and re-started the program and then clicked the "Return To Surface" button, your pilot will likely be slotted into whatever landing pad is available in that instance at that time. It also may be that from the "other" player's perspective, he or she may not have changed landing-pad numbers at all. You might be seeing them on pad #11 but as far as they are concerned they may think they are on pad #05.

 

[TwoHeadedDevil]

Agreed, I got to an outpost after another human player on one occasion and had to wait for them to leave the outpost (both wanted the only medium pad) before my docking request would be approved.