This is what I mean about FDev being "spiteful"...

[Stealthie]

Hands up if you've been to Rackham's Peak and managed to get docking permission for the medium pad without having to wait for that T6?

Nobody?

Thought not.

I took 20,000t of booze up there and I've been shipping it to the platform in my Python, 292t at a time, so I've made a lot of visits to the platform... and never once got docking permission immediately.

So, I decided to investigate more closely.

I took my 900m/sec Viper, jumped into Rackham's Peak and, sure enough, the medium pad was lit up, indicating a ship has landing permission.
My Viper can cover ground pretty quickly so I was able to get TO the station and there were still no ships within 7.5km.
I headed toward the group of "flickering blobs" >7km distant and, sure enough, there's a T6 inbound, about 10km out, heading for the medium pad.

So, what's going on here?

The medium pad was lit up as soon as I arrived.
The T6 was landing on it so that means the T6 must be the ship that gained docking permission and caused the pad to light up.... even though it was still 10km away when I intercepted it, which took about 10 seconds, so it was, presumably, even further out when it gained docking permission.

Why do poop like this?

Somebody has obviously just programmed the medium pad (all pads, I think) AT RACKHAM'S PEAK to be booked as soon as a player drops into the instance, forcing us to hang around for a couple of minutes before docking.
Why would somebody think this is a good idea?
To me, it just seems spiteful and sadistic.

 

[Gysburne]

There are rare moments where this happens. I mean... we have a background simulation working, we got npc's doing theyr jobs to feed the npc kids and help the npc grandparents to survive in the npc nursing homes. So don't act like an npc-Karen Waiting times can happen.

 

[BelExandor]

no sir. not all medium pads.
i've run missions to and from plenty of them where i gained immediate clearance to land.
there is a player that squats on a very popular (and lucrative) medium pad though. can't kill them b/c they never take off. I dislike blocking cmdrs but i had to block him to finish missions. not an isolated incident either as i've seen him parked their several times.

i think a couple more pads on these medium outposts would work wonders.

 

[Stealthie]

no sir. not all medium pads.

Correct.

As I said in my previous post, I was talking specifically about Rackham's Peak.

Was I not clear enough about that?

 

[BelExandor]

Somebody has obviously just programmed the medium pad (all pads, I think)

which is why I said "not all pads."

 

[Mrc_NorthEast]

This happened to me as well when I took a FC trip (not my FC) up to Rackhams peak. I have had to wait once in the bubble for a medium pad on an outpost. Up at Rackhams it is 3-5 minutes each landing. Someone had to do that on purpose and I was in SOLO! Open would have been brutal. I also noticed a near total lack of security and I got interdicted with or without cargo almost constantly up there, very different place. View is GREAT however. And liquor, beer and wine will make you $$$,$$$,$$$

 

[Gully Foyle]

Hands up if you've been to Rackham's Peak and managed to get docking permission for the medium pad without having to wait for that T6?

Nobody?

Thought not.

I took 20,000t of booze up there and I've been shipping it to the platform in my Python, 292t at a time, so I've made a lot of visits to the platform... and never once got docking permission immediately.

So, I decided to investigate more closely.

I took my 900m/sec Viper, jumped into Rackham's Peak and, sure enough, the medium pad was lit up, indicating a ship has landing permission.
My Viper can cover ground pretty quickly so I was able to get TO the station and there were still no ships within 7.5km.
I headed toward the group of "flickering blobs" >7km distant and, sure enough, there's a T6 inbound, about 10km out, heading for the medium pad.

So, what's going on here?

The medium pad was lit up as soon as I arrived.
The T6 was landing on it so that means the T6 must be the ship that gained docking permission and caused the pad to light up.... even though it was still 10km away when I intercepted it, which took about 10 seconds, so it was, presumably, even further out when it gained docking permission.

Why do poop like this?

Somebody has obviously just programmed the medium pad (all pads, I think) AT RACKHAM'S PEAK to be booked as soon as a player drops into the instance, forcing us to hang around for a couple of minutes before docking.
Why would somebody think this is a good idea?
To me, it just seems spiteful and sadistic.

It is the Way. Challenge accepted.

 

[Stealthie]

It is the Way. Challenge accepted.

Technically, I supposed it might be possible to go after it in an armed ship and dust it before it reached the no-fire zone, then you probably wouldn't need to wait.

I'll wait until after I've finished unloading my booze to try that, though.

 

[colprice2002]

I didn't have problems with my Alt Cmdr's Sidewinder....
(Apart from having to hitch a ride there!)

My main Cmdr's AspX had to wait a few moments, but not long

 

[Bottom Hat]

They might have increased the traffic in the area to make it busier, and this is just a symptom of this? Not giving an excuse for the annoyance, but it was a thought

 

[Stealthie]

They might have increased the traffic in the area to make it busier, and this is just a symptom of this? Not giving an excuse for the annoyance, but it was a thought

Well, that's the thing.

If they want to make it seem busy, they need to do that by, y'know, adding more ships.
If it looks busy I won't mind waiting.

As it is, though, it seems like somebody at FDev either wanted to make it seem busy with the least possible effort, by making the pad(s) booked as soon as the player arrives instead of actually adding more traffic, or somebody was just being a Richard.

Also, being the massive pedant that I am, I've hung around often, after un-docking, and there's no other ships waiting to dock, after me, on the medium pad.

Bottom line, though, is that I can get to the platform and all pads are booked even though there are no ships within 7.5km so the NPCs are either cheating or they've got some kind of fancy-pants pre-booking deal going on.

 

[goemon]

well, i have been at rackhams (day it got live) - and got dockign access directly ... but i was in a dbe, small pad.

interesting thing you investigated!

i wonder, whether npc can request docking from further out (wasn't the original coding anyway 20km around a station?).

something i have found some days ago, was two npc ships after th other departing from a medium pad - didn't thought that possible.

(btw. - there are a lot of weird routine-breaks of npc around rackham, as they have nowhere to jump to. i have followed a trader for 250km).

 

[efoo]

Bottom line, though, is that I can get to the platform and all pads are booked even though there are no ships within 7.5km so the NPCs are either cheating or they've got some kind of fancy-pants pre-booking deal going on.

Probably the same as the NPC pirates who know you are carrying cargo and which destination you are heading to, so they are already waiting at your destination to interdict you. NPC have access to this secret communication network and wormholes to travel that us human commanders don't

Have you tried carrying cargo in a Small ship there and try to land? Do you also encounter the same scenario where you have to wait for other NPC small ships to dock first?

 

[Semivivus]

This is what happens when you entrust building a big project to a mere billionaire.

 

[Jack Schitt]

Sounds like one of those odd NPC edge-cases rather than a deliberately malicious decision. The game's instancing has always been odd, in that when instances are formed NPC ships can be "there" in the overall simulation but not actually "there" in the instance until the player arrives. One obvious example that springs to mind, 'cos I had one this afternoon, is the mission wrinkle who asks you to "follow them down", drops a wake, and only when you drop onto the wake signature does their ship spawn in. It's annoying and immersion-breaking but I suspect if there was anything FD could do about this they'd have done it by now.

Maybe the simplest way to deal with NPC oddities at Rackham's is just to remove their ability to spawn there altogether. The system is remote enough that traffic should be minimal anyway. Researchers, suppliers and sightseers only. Having only CMDRs in the instance(s) would add to the sense of isolation. I'm sure this can be done; remember in the early days when NPC pirates used to spawn all over the galaxy?

 

[Stealthie]

well, i have been at rackhams (day it got live) - and got dockign access directly ... but i was in a dbe, small pad.

interesting thing you investigated!

i wonder, whether npc can request docking from further out (wasn't the original coding anyway 20km around a station?).

something i have found some days ago, was two npc ships after th other departing from a medium pad - didn't thought that possible.

(btw. - there are a lot of weird routine-breaks of npc around rackham, as they have nowhere to jump to. i have followed a trader for 250km).

Fair comment.

All I can really report is my experiences with the medium pad cos I've been hauling booze in my Python.
So far I've made 51(!) trips to Rackham's and the Medium pad has ALWAYS been booked upon arrival.
Most of the time, it seems like the small pads are booked too but there's another Small pad on the opposite side so I can't always see that.

I wouldn't mind if the place was actually busy, and it was just luck of the draw whether you got docking permission quickly or not.
As it is, though, all they've done is create a verifiable "NPC cheat" by allowing pads to be booked by NPC ships >7.5km distant.

Like I said, though, the main thing is, who could possibly have thought it'd be a good idea to just force players to wait for 2 minutes after arriving?

 

[goemon]

As it is, though, all they've done is create a verifiable "NPC cheat" by allowing pads to be booked by NPC ships >7.5km distant.

plus - if you have a manifest scanner - check what they are trading!

 

[Bottom Hat]

Well, that's the thing.

If they want to make it seem busy, they need to do that by, y'know, adding more ships.
If it looks busy I won't mind waiting.

As it is, though, it seems like somebody at FDev either wanted to make it seem busy with the least possible effort, by making the pad(s) booked as soon as the player arrives instead of actually adding more traffic, or somebody was just being a Richard.

Also, being the massive pedant that I am, I've hung around often, after un-docking, and there's no other ships waiting to dock, after me, on the medium pad.

Bottom line, though, is that I can get to the platform and all pads are booked even though there are no ships within 7.5km so the NPCs are either cheating or they've got some kind of fancy-pants pre-booking deal going on.

Sure, I can't argue with what you have found dude. I just thought of a reason why you might have found what you have, although there are a million and one things they may have done.

To be honest, I suspect it's just bad luck or something along those lines. I've had similar with certain systems in our PMF's mini bubble where similar things happen. I always put it down to confirmation bias, but thinking more about the situation you've found, these have been systems with only outposts, or in the case that first came to mind, a single outpost. That's the same as yours, isn't it?

Anyway, as said, I'm not trying to make an excuse for what you have found, I just thought it might make you feel better?! I can totally sympathize with how annoying it can be though!!

 

[BL1P]

If there is an NPC ship on your pad do this :-

1. Target NPC
2. Request docking
3. Wait while NPC leaves
4. Request docking and dock

When you request docking while the NPC is targeted, the NPC will leave the dock.
Sometimes it doesn work first try just target it again and request and it will work.
I have never had to do it a third time.
This works 100% of the time for me.

 

[Stealthie]

Sure, I can't argue with what you have found dude. I just thought of a reason why you might have found what you have, although there are a million and one things they may have done.

To be honest, I suspect it's just bad luck or something along those lines. I've had similar with certain systems in our PMF's mini bubble where similar things happen. I always put it down to confirmation bias, but thinking more about the situation you've found, these have been systems with only outposts, or in the case that first came to mind, a single outpost. That's the same as yours, isn't it?

Anyway, as said, I'm not trying to make an excuse for what you have found, I just thought it might make you feel better?! I can totally sympathize with how annoying it can be though!!

I'm normally a beleiver in the saying "Never attribute to malice what can be explained by incompetence" but, here, there's too much that's the same for it to be coincidence.

You never rock up at the station and find a ship already on the pad, or a ship just leaving the pad.
It's always exactly the same thing; you drop into the instance (at a distance of around 15km), the pad is already lit up, you fly up to the platform, you wait and then a minute later a T6/Keelback/AspS trundles along, lands and then you have to wait a couple of minutes before it clears off again.

The way it's done, it creates a couple of "cheats", though.
The drop-in distance, at Rackham's, appears to be 15km at the moment, due to the megaship next to the platform.
If I arrive 15km out and the pad's already lit up, surely no ship that arrives at the same time should be able to request docking because it'll be 15km out too?
Conversely, if we're to assume the NPC ship was already, say, 5km out and on it's way to docking, how come I can arrive at the station before it's docked?

Superficially, it's plausible but I guess FDev never anticipated that somebody with borderline-OCD would bother to use a 900m/sec ship to investigate more deeply.

I'd bet money that it's a scripted event... which, again, begs the question of why anybody would think it's a good idea to implement something like that.