NPC jumpgate docking problems(fighters), HpDockmounts questions

[Vital]

Hi again(after really long time no see, been busy practicing this summer).

So, the question:
ummm, the problem I’ve encountered first:

I’ve changed patrol formations

before:
[Formation]
nickname = fighter_rh_p
pos = 0, 0, 0
pos = -45, 0, 14
pos = 45, 0, 14
pos = -90, 0, 26
pos = 90, 0, 26
pos = -135, 0, 40
pos = 135, 0, 40
pl_pos = 0, -50, 105

after:
[Formation]
nickname = fighter_rh_p_patrol
pos = 0, 0, 8100
pos = -45, 0, 8114
pos = 45, 0, 8114
pos = -90, 0, 8126
pos = 90, 0, 8126
pos = -135, 0, 8140
pos = 135, 0, 8140
pl_pos = 0, -50, 8205

As you can see, I’ve moved all the ship positions 8100 meters back, so that they spawn 10600(2500+8100) away from the player(that seems to be the only way to make patrols spawn further than 3.0k away from the player).

But I’ve found 1 drawback
They can’t dock with jumpgates

They dock with everything(so far I’ve tested dockrings, bases, jumpholes), but can’t dock with jumpgates.
They start the docking manuver, jumpgate opens, but instead of docking they start to spin around in sircles in one place with their docklights blinking.

If  one ship of the formation has 0, 0, 0 position, it dosn’t matter how far the others, they dock well(firstone goes first, others follow).  It works till approximately 0, 0, 220 position, after this they start docking manuver, and… fly away from the gates about 5-6k, turn around, start docking manuver  and it all repeats, if the ships a more then 5-6 k from the centre of formation, they just start spining around with their docklights blinking.
It’s impossible to dock while they are trying.

I think it’s something with AI behaviour  or HpDockmounts.

The questions:
What’s the difference between jumpgte,/jumphole/base/dock ring docking?
What do HpDockMountA HpDockPointA01 HpDockPointA02 mean?

AND HOW TO make them dock properly???

Any ideas.

Thanks.

[Mindhunter]

1. Look at the Exe hacks list here on starport (sry dont have the link here rightnow buts its in the tutorial section).
There’s a hack for npc spawn distance.
We’ve changed it to 6k at moment and that looks realistic on fighters and battelships.

2. HpDockMountA HpDockPointA01 HpDockPointA02 are docking HP’s for bases.
If proceed to dock the auto pilot will head to HpDockPointA02 from there to HpDockPointA01 before it docks on HpDockMountA.
U will also need HpDockCamA and HpLunchCamA for each dock.

Your idea with the formation may work but U’re working around the AI/engine itself, the result is a bug like the one on the jumpgate docking.
Even if u set the max spawn distance in the exe/dll (cant remember) u may get error/bugs and at last a high serverload.

[StarTrader]

Yes you are causing your own problems here, if you find a way to fix this it will mess up something else.

Go play X3 or something if you’re fed up with FL.

[FriendlyFire]

Why not simply put the formations back into their normal place and use one of the EXE hacks which extend NPC spawn range instead? Unless that doesn’t work, in which case I don’t really have an answer for you… It’s normal that the game will bug with a formation that distorted.

[Mini_Me]

For docking issue, try implementing the docking distance exe hack. It may be that your formations are too spread out (you mentioned some over 5k). In vanilla, there is a 1k distance limit on HpDockPointXX, so the rest of your formation is left without a leader and too far to initiate the last dock sequence.
That’d be my guess anyways

[foxUnit01]

Nah, I get what he’s saying, and it’s a neat workaround. It’s difficult to increase patrol_path spawn distance - I found the value for it, but if you increase it too much then patrol_path NPCs quit spawning, suggesting there’s probably multiple other values that need to be changed that aren’t 2500 by default, so it’s a complete crapshoot.

As Mini_Me suggested, try increasing the max docking distance - this will mean the dock autopilot on all ships will start out much further from the station, however, so adjust it with care.

[Vital]

Got a bit more findings and questions.
Making solar_radius of jumpgates bigger(say, 600 and more) makes them dock, but in rather weird way: they rather get sucked into the gates then dock, jumpgate doesn’t even opens.

The question: how to make them break formation before docking? That seems to be the only way to get them dock right.
.exe hacking max dock aknowledge distance didn’t help(maybe i did something wrong, but don’t really think so).

So, other ways to do that(that are working): changing the appearance of jumpgate(leaving only the big ring for example, and giving it a = jump jumpsphere(don’t remember exactly what goes before “=”), rearranging patrols a bit(leaving them on their places but making them a little longer so that navy patrols turn around and go back to planet or base, and that seems quite logical, 'cos why the navy have to go out of their system?).

any new ideas and thoughts on my proposals here?

[Gold_Sear]

This is the offset that fixes the problem under 5k:

 200f common.dll 06C00D = increase this to enable large formations to dock with jumpgate ~M0tah