So I have been playing around with missions in open, and I go to land at an outpost, but the pad is blocked (medium pad - only one at the outpost and I am in my Python, so I would like that spot). I message the commander...wait...no response. Go to solo, do my business and fly away. Many minutes later, a mission takes me back, and I get the same instance and the ship is still there. Play your way as a frozen mime or a sloth I guess is an option, but I was wondering if there is anything one can do besides mode switching? If a Commander wants to squat on a pad, is that really a way to play?
What to do with pad squatting?
- Thread starter CMDR PRJeff
- Start date
Not saying it's a nice thing to do, but maybe they simply had some R/L business to attend to and hadn't had time to log out? I really doubt someone would deliberately sit on the pad for hours just to mess with someone else.
Frontier limit the number of pads at some locations to create artificial scarcity. It's been like this, since the beginning. Frontier did this to allow for various things to happen. People can sit on them and AFK. Even if there's like one pad at a mega-ship. None of this is problematic, as far as the developer is concerned, to the best of my understanding.
Inconvenient? Sure. But you share the galaxy with others and if that's an ongoing source of frustration then hop into a PG with friends, or head into Solo when you need reliable pad access; it's a shared and limited resource, on purpose. But they've offered a solution, if that's not agreeable.
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An auto-logout mechanism, which logs players back to the main menu after idling 5 mins on a pad, would probably be a good idea.
Not sure, what you are trying to suggest... docked ships are immune to damage, so suicide would indeed be the only possible result. The AFK player won't even notice it.
Not sure, what you are trying to suggest... docked ships are immune to damage, so suicide would indeed be the only possible result. The AFK player won't even notice it.
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Curses! Foiled again.
That's what the forums are for.
Just log into another mode and dock. Outposts only have one medium pad, so even if every commander vacated landing pads quickly, there would still be a pad shortage any time two players with medium ships are instanced together.
Funny, isn't it? Loitering above the pad for 30 seconds is a death sentence. Loiterig ON the pad indefinetely is perfectly fine, though.
Nah; there's a trivial way to guarantee access to a pad, and this doesn't force everyone else to be less important to accomodate. Switch modes; takes seconds and even if AI are on the pad, they will release it to a CMDR.
You can't ever possibly know why someone is idling for a few minutes on a pad, and it'd just create frustration, never mind frontier then has to frequently check if a player is doing one of many possible things whilst docked to ensure they don't log them out mid-action. Programmatically checking a bunch of things every $time_interval just to free up a pad that may not even be required, when this is isn't a consistent problem anyway, is probably overkill, imho.
YMMV. o7
You can't even dislodge them by wedging the nose of your ship under theirs. The outpost starts getting irritated when you try this.
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You can, however, often 'land' near the pad if it's an outpost (stations get stroppy, but planetary and orbital outposts won't). Targeting the ship, deploying weapons whilst directly in front of it, then sending a message in comms to say "I've come a long way for what's in your hold, don't try to run!", or "If you just give me 3 teady bears, this can all stop!!!1". Taking off again and rolling in place, for extra merit.
Apparently. I am reliably informed. I, of course have never done this. Multiple times. Because I am innocent and would never do such a thing. How very dare you.
:>
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Easily bypassed with about 30 seconds of effort. A simple macro that mimics benign keystrokes every now and again would render that mechanism irrelevant.
Well, just give them a 30 sec count down if that pad is requested. If the time's up and they are still on the pad, they will be took back to the hangar, with 200 cr fine and 2 mins lock down. And if they successive do it, prolong the lock down timer to 20 mins.
Hutton Orbital.
The hangar is connected to the pad, your idea wouldn't work. There is no way to know why someone is occupying a pad, it is a first come first serve basis.
You cannot fine someone for legally utilising a pad, purely because they've been using it for a few minutes; this is illogical. The OP is a bit annoyed at the inconvenience, granted, but it's not at all illegal to simply occupy a pad. It is, in fact, intended for commanders to utilise station and outpost facilities. There aren't grounds for considerable sanction.
Swap modes. Move on.
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I've always thought that when you land, your ship should be taken into the pad, and you'd go down a few levels and see other docked ship go past as you did. While docked you might occasionally see another ship come up or down the landing pad as well. When you request takeoff, it might be a second before the pad it clear for your takeoff, but there would always be space for everyone.