The Docking Computer thread.

Samosa

Samosa
Steve50 said:
Personally I'll never use it, I enjoy docking and it takes next to no effort to do. If docking was as hard as the BBC days then I'd probably grab one, until then no. But if you're too lazy to dock manually go for it. :)
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I don't think of it so much as lazy, more as forum reading time. There's not much skill or entertainment in trading... I only ever even turn the sound on if I'm in a RES.

Nothing's immersion-breaking if you don't get immersed. :D
 

Banana's_Are_Good_For_You

Banana's_Are_Good_For_You
Will probably stay manual until I start having issues with it but not currently.
Biggest I have is a Vulture.
I do wipe my patootie from time to time but never really causes any damage or major financial loss.
I probably would care more if far more expensive though. There will always be try first though, only if I'm struggling would I consider it and I haven't got there yet.
 
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askavir

askavir
Banana's_Are_Good_For_You said:
Will probably stay manual until I start having issues with it but not currently.
Biggest I have is a Vulture.
I do wipe my patootie from time to time but never really causes any damage or major financial loss.
I probably would care more if far more expensive though. There will always be try first though, only if I'm struggling would I consider it and I haven't got there yet.
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If you played the game long enough to get a Vulture and always landed manually, you will never need a docking computer.
 

xaisis

xaisis
vonDutch said:
Agreed 100%. So we both agree on the fact the docking computer is pretty obsolete?
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Both yes and no.
-I do think a player should ace docking first and not use it for afk breaks.
-A trader who is docking all the time. maybe he likes to be able to use the DC so he can check his next trade rute or maybe his notes. (where is the in-game notepad? >.<)
-Another person may find landing too easy and not worth the bother. (assist off helps sometimes).


I would really like an advanced autopilot with lots of settings and its own HUD display, where we can change all kinda of things/sittings to the spacecrafts flight assist software.
So we have more control over how the craft behaves, maybe i only want 25% thrust on stabilizing with assist on from the sides and 75% from the front etc.

But mainstream does not allow this, so i will dream about it instead.

But maybe we can get a notepad? :)
 
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Ralph Vargr

Ralph Vargr
The docking computer saved me again last night. Canopy blown out on Victoria The Vulture, after a particularly nasty conflict zone. Got away with 14% hull. Made it to an outpost, got permission to dock. The DC did not fail, and it had taken damage! Two minutes of O2 to spare.

The DC is not just for "lazy" pilots. Thank you, SJA.
 

Blairvoyach

Blairvoyach
I'm a die hard manual docker since beta days but today I thought I'd try the DC just to see what it's like. I must say I am very impressed. It's a bit "frisky", wouldn't like to ride it for real but it certainly gets the job done and I think i'll keep it installed, after all, you don't have to use it all the time.
 

CMDR Ellegon

CMDR Ellegon
Docking Computer still sucks for the Clipper

In 1.2, the docking computer flew very "angular" and only worked if you had line of sight of the mail slot. But at least it did not crash my ship into the station.

With 1.3, the docking computer generally became quite a bit more capable (boosting, no line of sight required). On my Python, it works very well. However, on the Clipper it still flies like a drunk monkey and crashes the ship into the station wall, usually backwards. :eek:

While this does not happen every time, it happens between 5% and 10% of all docking attempts. Sufficient damage is often done to take out the shields and cause some hull damage. I wonder if this will ever be fixed...
 

CMDR Kantos Kan

CMDR Kantos Kan
Docking computer. Dumb?

I've tried the docking computer yesterday on my Clipper. I like to do the landings myself but I thought I would try it to see if it's faster than me. Of course, it is, when it's not dumb enough to smash my Clipper in the station!

Is there a specific way to position your ship to avoid this? I usually try to approach the station while in SC to have the opening right in front of me when I drop from SC. But that seems to confuse the docking computer. I think out of maybe 20 landing attempts, it did crash the Clipper 4 or 5 times. At the end of the evening, I was not trying to position the Clipper the best way possible, was just flying directly to the station then drop. Seems the docking computer was better in that situation.

Anyone has any tip? I just use it because it's faster and my play time is a bit limited these days...
 

Yomamas Fett

Yomamas Fett
No idea, I did what you did, fitted a docking computer on a Clipper to see if it was any better than me.

8 minutes doing crazy moves outside the letterbox while "Waiting in Queue" was enough for me to turn the computer off and take her in with seconds left....although I did get to hear a lot of the "blue Danube" in those 8minutes.
 

FunGas

FunGas
Engage it as soon as you can ie:- between 7 and 7.5km out.

Keep an eye on it until you are inside the cage, sometimes it gets confused.

Usually dropping out of supercruise, hitting boost once and waiting for 7.5km before engaging does the trick.
Best way to get into trouble I find is to engage it too late while going too fast, although it's better than it was before...
 

CMDR Kantos Kan

CMDR Kantos Kan
Thanks for the tips, guys, I'll try that next time. You would think that the computer would be a lot smarter and faster. It's quite fast when it gets it right but there are still some non-efficient moves performed that left me perplexed a bit.
 

tetra

tetra
I think SJA said there were some issues with it on the clipper that will be fixed soon. Seems to work fine on every other ship I have tried it on as long as you don't blast full speed towards the station and then try to engage it in the final few seconds or something silly.
 

Yomamas Fett

Yomamas Fett
tetra said:
I think SJA said there were some issues with it on the clipper that will be fixed soon. Seems to work fine on every other ship I have tried it on as long as you don't blast full speed towards the station and then try to engage it in the final few seconds or something silly.
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Clipper..check.
Full Speed...check.
Last Momnet....check.

Looks like you've found exactly what I was doing wrong :)

(Although I don't think boosting is an issue, you've got to be at zero throttle for the computer to kick in, but I guess 2km perfectly lined up is too close and led to the strange movements)
 

CMDR Weatherwax

C
Yep, let it go from just after getting docking clearance and it will do the boosting for you. The main annoyance is it's polite and waits in a queue rather than barging in straight away. That's why it sits outside for a little while in a holding position. You can always retake control if it needs a bit of speeding up and re-engage when you get through the slot, but then again extra blue danube is always good.
 

tetra

tetra
Yomamas Fett said:
Clipper..check.
Full Speed...check.
Last Momnet....check.

Looks like you've found exactly what I was doing wrong :)

(Although I don't think boosting is an issue, you've got to be at zero throttle for the computer to kick in, but I guess 2km perfectly lined up is too close and led to the strange movements)
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Hmm shouldn't be an issue at 2k even boosting, was kind of referring to trying to get it to kick in when you were just approaching the letterbox at full boost at some awkward angle and expecting it to save you lol. Either way just do what FunGas suggested, it will boost on it's own and it's pretty rapid even from 7.5km out when you can first request permission. Either that or if you want to do it even faster just fly the approach and letterbox yourself then zero throttle as soon as you get through it and it will plonk you down on the landing pad nice and quickly.
 
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