New starters - PLEASE enter hangar as soon as you dock

[flint read]

we need space horns and a better coms system for local targets all of em then busy stations could sound like a new york traffic jam

 

[worldoflard]

we need space horns and a better coms system for local targets all of em then busy stations could sound like a new york traffic jam

During the beta I heard of people hovering just beyond the parked player's canopy, flashing their landing lights, but to no avail!

 

[Zplintz]

Never remained that staying up on deck case causing a delay for landing pads.
Will enter hangar from now on, thanks for heads up.

You don't free up a pad by entering the hanger.

You can stay on the surface where it is pretty or go into the hanger where it is safe (and makes launching quicker too).

Makes no difference to anyone else docking.

(If you are in a busy station and want to free up a pad, make your stay as quick as possible).

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..... does it actually free the slot when you enter the hangar?

No it doesn't

 

[FX2K]

Ah, that is bad news indeed. Could you add a link to your source of that info for the time being? Hopefully we may get a dev response which paints a brighter picture.

My source is me playing the game for months

Target a ship before you dock and enter the hangar... you will see its info still (even better if its a player)
Look in the top right window, you will see contacts come and go.

 

[Scharmers]

Or here's an idea:

Leave the LHS 4337/Eravaste/Etc. area

Trust me, there's other places you can pick up D class beam lasers, lol

Another nasty effect of superbusy stations is that even if you're cleared for a dock, it may not register when you try to land it in. You have to clear your request and try again.

 

[Lokes]

External refuelling pads would solve the problem. Hey ho!

Turn on your distress beacon and pay the refuelling fee.

 

[Darzil]

You also always appear in the Pad you docked at. If someone had docked at your pad while you were underneath that couldn't be the case.

For now you will have to send "Hurry up I need to pee really bad......" messages to Cmdrs who overstay their bays.

I'm very sure I've come up on others, as I've landed on small pads and taken off on large ones.

 

[Noxia]

Thanks for this, I have now made it my routine.

 

[FX2K]

External refuelling pads would solve the problem. Hey ho!

Fuel Scoop to the rescue!

This docking kerfuffle is only a problem if you stick to the same systems where everybody spawned.. spread those wings... explore
400 billion systems and only 10 of them have docking problems (well probably more) of course not all have stations either, but thats just a minor detail

Turn on your distress beacon and pay the refuelling fee.

Magic pixies delivering fuel was taken out.. its not back in the release version is it?

 

[Dyro]

I've been waiting outside heartsfield plant in the portriti system for 20 mins now, keep getting denied. I'm switching to solo for now, this 'realism' annoys the hell out of me.

 

[Feldspar]

I encountered a huge traffic jam at a little station last night, a dozen Sidewinders and Eagles all sat around waiting for space. I wondered if it was worth throcking the docking request for a while and hoping to get lucky, but time is credits and I spent enough time in a traffic jam trying to get home. So my solution was to log out, log into solo play, dock with no problems, and then sign back into open play. Not the most elegant solution, but frustration solved.

 

[Kalearne]

I've had some success quitting to menu and starting open play again, not sure if I caused an instance jump or I got lucky. I'm sure someone will qualify for me lol

 

[Dyro]

I've had some success quitting to menu and starting open play again, not sure if I caused an instance jump or I got lucky. I'm sure someone will qualify for me lol

Well I've tried that a few times, but I guess if the station is popular enough, it'll be queued for a while in any instance..

 

[manny72]

I've found if they there for more than 10mins on surface, lock target, reverse till your out of no fire zone, only couple km's and use seeking missiles... They either go Boom... Or hightail it out of there... Makes pad free either way. Or, if your a bigger ship than them.... Ramming works well too, depletes their shields and eventually they go boom.

 

[Zplintz]

Fuel Scoop to the rescue! .....

Slightly off-topic but does the Fuel Scoop make anyone else jump when they trigger it by accident by getting too close to a star?

 

[DCello]

Slightly digging this thread out of the graveyard, but I always had the impression that the hangar feature was supposed to work like those automated parking buildings. So you would land on the pad and have some 3 or 4 hangars below the ground.

Maybe what we could have is 3 or 4 hangars below ground and a timer for those who stay on the pad. Say you can stay on the pad for 1 minute before automatically entering the hangar. That gives you enough time to refuel, repair, restock ammunition and pick up bounties, then launch again without loitering for minutes on end. If you want to take a break (and for some reason quitting to desktop or to main menu is unthinkable), refit, change ships, or whatever else, you will be below ground in one of the hangars and the pad will be free for landing/take-off/quick refuel.

Regarding the actual use of the pad for takeoff, its a matter of request. You queue the requests, so the one who asked first goes first, the second goes second, etc.

I must say, for a game that prizes immersion, jumping open-to-solo bats that right out of the window. I find remarkably frustrating having to sit there while someone occupy the landing pad for minutes on end.

 

[MatuX]

That's something I don't understand. Every pad should contain multiple hangars, by making every pad contain two hangars you're already doubling the amount of crafts a station can contain.

It's like a parking garage, you may have a few entrances, yet dozens of places where to park.

Also, given this aims for realism, the most common scenario for parking would be, I dock, I leave the craft, go to a cafe, drink something, read the news, do some exercise (after hours being sat down you need this), then you get back to your ship. I mean, does it really make sense to have a huge station that probably harbors thousands of people with just three hangars?

 

[HoshiQaVam]

Having multiple hangers per-pad is precisely what I always expected to be the case as well, so do most people it seems, otherwise it makes the entire garage a rather redundant feature.

Although the rest of the threat is old, I would just like to confirm; entering the hanger does not free up the pad. So if a player is hogging the pad it really doesn't matter if he's sitting on the surface or in the garage.

This is especially frustrating for medium pads at outposts. Yesterday I reached Bain outpost in Anlave only to see another player land on the medium pad. After waiting for more than 20 minutes I eventually had to quit to solo mode - and then had to wait a further 5 for an NPC to get out of my way.

Very frustrating.

Personally I think that if a request to dock is made and there are no free pads, then it should do a timer check on docked players. If they've been on the pad (or garage) for more than a few minutes then they should be sent to a different instance freeing up the pad.

If it's an NPC hogging the pad then the second a player requests docking the NPC should be ejected.

That would completely solve the issue.

 

[AgamemnonWhen]

Slightly digging this thread out of the graveyard, but I always had the impression that the hangar feature was supposed to work like those automated parking buildings. So you would land on the pad and have some 3 or 4 hangars below the ground.

Looking at the station architecture, I think you're right here - that's how I saw it as well. The 'cage' that moves you down from the service is a lift (elevator), so there's no reason why that lift can't service a number of levels of parking (depending on the 'thickness' of the staion hull, which seems to be HUGE). In-game you always end up on the first level (presumably for ease of animation), but your stored ships or other service users could be on subsequent, deeper levels.

As for the original "waiting for a space" to get to a landing pad post... I've not tried it, but can't you nudge ships out of the way by sidling up to them and using your thrusters?

 

[DCello]

If it's an NPC hogging the pad then the second a player requests docking the NPC should be ejected.

That would completely solve the issue.

You're a rascist, man =P