Capships hanging up on undocking
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For server specific reasons, while we do have player capships on our server, they’re not permitted to dock anywhere. When they die they go back to the last base they were docked at by an admin.
Some bases however don’t want to let the ship go. When it undocks, it gets stuck in the base and even the F1 trick won’t release it.
I seem to recall that you could move the undocking point out from the base a bit either by moving the HPDockMount or by changing the setting in the docking_sphere.
Does changing the setting move both the docking and undocking point?
Is there a way to make the ships undock using a moor point without permitting them to dock at will?
Thanks for your help.
R
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@ =Alex=: The player control plugin permits docking, correct? I don’t want that.
I just want undocking to work ok without ships hanging up.
@ Davis: Do I need to move BOTH the HPDockMount in the cmp AND change the docking_sphere setting in the solararch, or just the setting in the solararch for each base?
Thx.
R
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The player control plugin doesn’t affect docking in any way… It only allows players to use some commands like /stuck, which moves your ship by a small distance to help when undocking from large bases.
Modifying the dock points requires a client update, remember.
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/stuck…^^
I presume you’re talking about Jason Hood’s (Adoxa?) plugin?
examines plugin more closely…
No need for FLHook or anything like that, correct?
Ok, it looks like it’s a server side mod thing correct? No need for the client to install anything? until… I need to modify the ships to use the moors that will need to be a client mod as well…
Then, creating cameras? no experience there… yet…R
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You have to modify them in cmp, but rather you make a new base cmp template with different name or all stations that connected to this cmp will change either. ( i mean the docking points)
As far as i remember you can only change the numbers of dockpoints, and the docking procedure like berths, moors in the solarach, but the positions of the dockpoints and mounts can be found in the cmps. -
robocop wrote:
/stuck…^^I presume you’re talking about Jason Hood’s (Adoxa?) plugin?
examines plugin more closely…
No need for FLHook or anything like that, correct?
Ok, it looks like it’s a server side mod thing correct? No need for the client to install anything? until… I need to modify the ships to use the moors that will need to be a client mod as well…
Then, creating cameras? no experience there… yet…R
Player Control is a Hook plugin made by Cannon.
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So, you have to be running FLHook, which is incompatible with our FLAC.
Oh well…
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I would not move the dockmounts on the stations as it will affect all ships and will cause other problems.
If you need to do this then with big ships it is better to move the HpMount hardpoint of each ship down to well below the ship, so that it floats high above the base or station.
Mine are set to anywhere between -200 metres and -500 metres depending on the size of the ship, so that it clears the station / base. Then you dock by moving over the station before hitting dock.
Be aware that it will cause you to change the way you enter jumpholes and gates and tradelanes - but really big ships won’t be able to enter the tradelanes anyway so it’s not a big problem and adds realism - besides most mods have high cruise speeds and I usually cruise beside or above a tradelane in our big ships. Entering jumpholes/gates is similar, just move above the jumphole/gate and all should be well. Our PlanetKiller and Cube are sometimes tricky and hilarious, having to rotate upwards to push the HpMount into the gate or hole docking sphere. Adds to fun.
I set the docking spheres for station “Jump” points to 500 in my mod and everything can dock easily.
It will mean issuing a new release of the mod, or a smaller FLMM patch, but will solve your problems permanently, then all you need to do is the same for new ships you add.
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Problem is not with docking as none of the big ships on FLU can dock anyway. The problem is with undocking. When they respawn at their assigned base many times they can’t undock without hanging up on the station.
I thought that changing the dockmount settings would help but it doesn’t.
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If I may interject a thought…
If you are using some of the vanilla bases in your mod, I know that there are a cpl of culprits of those bases that this will occur on. Short of a /beam out from your local <insert your=“” mod’s=“” name=“” here=“”>Admin Player, there are a cpl of options if it’s built into the mod. Using the F1/select new character trick and trying to move forward, or if < your mod’s name> is using the extended keyset that’s out there, you could try using that.
If that doesn’t work, the only options that come to my mind is either to restrict the size of ship that can dock at bases only, and leave Cap ships to dock at planets only or (not as desirable perhaps but doable) would to determine which model is it and replace it with a model that does work. This option again would only be a minor coding tweak depending on the mod and the number of the times that troublesome model is being used, but perhaps a little faster to fix than tweaking Docking HPs and hoping that does the trick.Fus</insert>
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I recommend to use moors for big ships, so they dont use normal docking bays.
http://adoxa.110mb.com/freelancer/dlp.php?f=moors -
Sorry for the necro-post but since it’s my post anyway…:P
I’m revisiting this little problem. On Cadiz Base (co_base_ice_large02) and Kyoto Base (co_base_rock_large01) we have an issue with some of the capships hanging up on undocking. F1 doesn’t allow the release.
I presume I have to edit the docking_sphere information in the solararch and/or the HpDockMount points in the cmp files to cause the ship to spawn/undock outside the base rather than in the middle of it.
Which point does the game engine use when placing the ship on undock? HpDockMountA and HpDockMountB seem to be specific to a single dock. The autodock engages at HpDockMountB and proceeds to HpDockMountA on docking and appears at DockMountA and proceeds to DockMountB on undocking before releasing control to the pilot. So, I don’t think moving the DockMount points on the cmp will help.
Moving the HpMount setting on the ship is a possibility but it will mess up players when trying to use the tradelanes and maneuvering in asteroid fields.
I am NOT interested in allowing ships to dock, only undock without hanging up.
Help?
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When a ship docks it approaches HpPointA02 first, then enters animation to HpPointA01 then to HpMountA and docks.
HpMountB is for a second dock area, not related to the A mount.
To help a large ship undock simply extend all 3 of these points for each dock.
HpMountA move this to 200 outside the base
HpPointA01 move this to 300 outside the base
HpPointA02 move this to 400 outside the baserepeat for B and any others and test to see if this is far enough
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As I look at co_base_ice_large02.cmp I see that HpDockMountA is right on the base door xvalue=-811.9, HpDockPointA02 is about 4-5 ship lengths (eagle) from the door xvalue = -1034.1, and HpDockPointA01 is between the two at xvalue = -953.4
So, should those values you indicate be reversed? ie. HpPointA02 at 400 and HpMountA at 200?
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As I’m looking at the li_cruiser I make note of the fact that the ship is set to mission_property = can_use_large_moors but the ship undocks at the berth rather than at the moor. Is that property solely for docking purposes but the ship will always undock at the berth?
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Oh, forgot you run a mod that players can join without the mod.
Here is the declaration:[Solar]
nickname = co_base_ice_large02
ids_name = 1
ids_info = 1
type = STATION
DA_archetype = solar\dockable\co_base_ice_large02.cmp
material_library = solar\Solar_mat_co_base.mat
LODranges = 0, 20000
mass = 10000.000000
open_sound = depot_open_sound
close_sound = depot_close_sound
docking_sphere = berth, HpDockMountA, 2.500000, Sc_open dock1
docking_sphere = berth, HpDockMountB, 2.500000, Sc_open dock2
docking_sphere = berth, HpDockMountC, 2.500000, Sc_open dock3
docking_sphere = moor_medium, HpDockMountD, 5.000000
docking_sphere = moor_large, HpDockMountE, 10.000000
docking_camera = 0
solar_radius = 500
shape_name = NNM_SM_DEPOT
hit_pts = 999999961690316250000000000000000000.000000Your capships will undock from D and E (but this depends on what you have changed from vanilla). My mod is highly tweaked, I allow capship docking on bases and made special docking arrangements for them that may not work on your vanilla setup.
Best thing I can say is experiment and keep a vanilla backup if you need to revert.
As you noted, capships, no matter how they dock, can indeed UNDOCK from the berths (unless you have gone to extraordinary length to lock them into moors). This is why you are getting hung up, probably on the door or the controller window. I use fast docking and extended ranges and special docking methods, see what works best for you.
The dock points you referenced are correct, I had them reversed them in my first response. Fixing that now…
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Just a little experimentation… I changed my eagle to can_use_medium_moors and the ship undocked from the berth. When attempting to redock the base denied entry as it couldn’t service ships of my size.
It looks to me like all undocking on a vanilla server is does through the berths.
I’ll have to peruse the FLAC forums to see if there’s a way to make moors work within FLAC including undocking.
