Issues with (help me understand) docked subordinates

[user1679]

NOTE: I'm technically not filing a bug report because nobody likes to support modded games.


So I have a L ship with a small dock and it can store I think 2 or 3 ships (plus one on the dock). I set the ships to "defend" and then "docked" because leaving them launched means they don't follow the commander properly. So all my ships docked and I was a passenger on the ship that was sitting on the landing pad. Eventually I came across a small battle between Xenon and ARG / ANT so I ordered my L ship to attack the Xenon battleship. Everything was going good until a couple Xenon fighters took a few shots at me, this is when everything went wrong.

First, the ship I was passenger on announced "the ship will be undocking soon". IMO this shouldn't happen in combat since it ends up clogging the docking bay until I comm her and tell her to "continue" because waiting for the timer takes too long when you're being shot at.

Second, I finally cleared the docking bay and my L ship's turrets destroyed the attacking fighter which instantly triggered a "docking" action for my ship. But the two ships in the docking storage were trying to undock. This left all three of my S ships completely useless for the remainder of the fight.

Third, I installed the mod "reactive docking" and set up a "defense" and "reactive" scenario (instead of "docked"). But, I was plagued with the same problems. My S ship kept telling me it was undocking and then got stuck in the "dock" loop because the S ship it was going after was destroyed before it could finish undocking and rather than select a new target, she docked again leaving the others stuck in "undock" status.

Here's how I feel it *should* work for ships in "defend" / "docked":

1. A ship attacks the commander, the docked ship undocks (without telling you it's going to undock) and attacks
2a. When the target ship is destroyed, the "docked" ship remains undocked for a minute to anticipate another attack
2b. Alternatively, when a ship set to "defend" is launched, it temporarily switches to "attack" until the commander exits combat. This way it will pick new targets and not dock/undock a hundred times in battle

As for the "the ship will be undocking soon", this desperately needs to have an option to disable during combat. Every second matters when several ships need to undock and having to wait for the player to open the map, find the ship in question and tell the captian to continue could mean an unfavorable end to a skirmish.

[KextV8]

This ship will be undocking soon is an anti-stranded safety put in by Egosoft. I don't really remember all the mechanics.

[Raptor34]

You should see if carriers have that issue. Otherwise go ask where you got that mod because in vanilla only carriers have the auto-dock function for fighters.
Docked in the subordinate setting just tells them to dock permanently basically.

[Nanook]

Just don't be on the attacking fighter. If you must watch the battle from that viewpoint, stay on the L ship until the fighter undocks, then teleport to it. As KextV8 said, your problem stems from the anti-stranding code. Otherwise, your ships would've done as you expected them to.

[Raptor34]

Just don't be on the attacking fighter. If you must watch the battle from that viewpoint, stay on the L ship until the fighter undocks, then teleport to it. As KextV8 said, your problem stems from the anti-stranding code. Otherwise, your ships would've done as you expected them to.

Could that be turned off? I vaguely remember allusions to something in settings back when this first came out.

[user1679]

You should see if carriers have that issue. Otherwise go ask where you got that mod because in vanilla only carriers have the auto-dock function for fighters.
Docked in the subordinate setting just tells them to dock permanently basically.

The subordinate setting was the one I tried first but as others mentioned, it seems the anti stranding feature was the problem. When I tried adding the mod, they were already stuck in the "dock [critical]" phase in the save and I couldn't cancel it. Luckily I saved the game about 5 minutes prior because I spent a lot of time waiting for the ships to be built.

[user1679]

Just don't be on the attacking fighter. If you must watch the battle from that viewpoint, stay on the L ship until the fighter undocks, then teleport to it. As KextV8 said, your problem stems from the anti-stranding code. Otherwise, your ships would've done as you expected them to.

I don't have teleport yet but I can always use the external camera. I wasn't planning to be watching the battle though, it just happens that is where I was when I assembled the fleet.

[user1679]

Just don't be on the attacking fighter. If you must watch the battle from that viewpoint, stay on the L ship until the fighter undocks, then teleport to it. As KextV8 said, your problem stems from the anti-stranding code. Otherwise, your ships would've done as you expected them to.

Could that be turned off? I vaguely remember allusions to something in settings back when this first came out.

Yes, it's in the global orders. But honestly, I feel like it should be suspended if the ship is in "attack [auto]" mode. That means it's important to get in the air.

Edit: So that doesn't seem to work. I disabled both anti stranding option and my pilot still waits for me to tell her to go.