What happened to the docking computer?

viper666

V
Yeh I know real pilots land manually. Now I'm old and lazy I bought a few of the advanced docking computers. Advanced my Arx, talk about useless, worst is outpost stations, the final roll is incredibly slow, and the actual landing is usually at a 30 degree angle to the landing pad. I've seen the Mandalay ground a wingtip more than once.

Was it always this bad?
 

Dillon Fallon

Dillon Fallon
At times its been worse. It used to be a nice relaxing pastime at stations like Jaques in Colonia to sit back and watch T-9s and Belugas get repeatedly nailed by station guns as they got wedged in the slot. Asteroid stations were pretty bad too for some reason.

I think its simply a case of recognising that a docking computer will work in the vast majority of occasions, but will occasionally need a prod or hand over the controls just in case the AI goes a bit HAL 9000 and decides find ways to murder any organic life aboard the ship.
 

Nidoboros

N
They were coded with smol ships in mind, see: type 10s always scraping the mailslot.

Truly need a revolution in Autopilot technologies. Like a single module where you can have multiple modes added on!
 

Nadreck

N
IIRC, the docking computer recently lost the ability to change pip settings. So it's a good idea to leave 4 pips on ENG before engaging it, to make the ship less sluggish.
 

aRJay

aRJay
Well when I joined pre the advanced version the Docking Computer was in full homicidal mode. So things have been worse.

There was a thread I was reading earlier today or yesterday about this which seems to show a correlation between ship agility and how engineered for speed your drive is.
The poster was having issues with the Mandalay but not with the T8 swapping the drives swapped the issues. The ship with the G5 Dirty Drag drives had the issues of some sluggish manoeuvres and touching down at an angle the one with the Clean Drive with Thermal was handled acceptably by the ADC.


Edited to add the thread.

Comically wonky auto landing with a Mandalay. Is this supposed to be funny, FDev..?

So, the other day I decided, out of pure Christmas laziness, to blow the cobwebs off the auto dock dohicky, enable it, and fly back to my FC. On arrival, I requested a lading pad, zeroed the throttle, and awaited a pleasant, relaxing docking experience. What followed was intensely brow furrowing...
forums.frontier.co.uk forums.frontier.co.uk
 
Last edited:

Tabryn

T
The docking computer is bloody awful at flying my Cutter (dirty/drag thrusters) and has been for all the years I've been playing.

Engage it while perfectly aligned with the slot? Autodock will veer in some other direction and increase velocity before eventually trying to correct itself. I say "trying" because when already close to the slot, Autodock will veer and thrust right into the station exterior.

Landing at a Coriolis station with tall obstacles (tower, construction, etc) near the pad? Count on Autodock to hit at least one of them.

Launching from any enclosed starport? Good luck. Autodock will crash into other ships roughly 20% of the time, and even with a completely clear exit path, will happily ram into the walls around the slot once or twice before finally exiting.

It's especially aggravating on my cargo Cutter when running with no shields. I can afford the repairs, but that's no excuse. I wish I could have the manufacturer arrested for gross negligence and endangerment.

Go home, docking computer. You're drunk.
 
Last edited:

varonica

varonica
The docking computer is a very limited AI, they don't dare make it any better in case it decides the pilot of the ship is just more waster material and ejects him through the canopy.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom