Drones will not dock

General discussions about the games by Egosoft including X-BTF, XT, X², X³: Reunion, X³: Terran Conflict and X³: Albion Prelude.

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Shadowofpeace
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Drones will not dock

Post by Shadowofpeace » Mon, 26. Sep 11, 13:39

I am flying and TM with one free docking bay and when i tell my freight drone to dock with empty cargo bay it tries to get in via the cargo bay not docking like my M5's escort. Working in when the game first came out but with the update it dose not work. all drones both fighter and freight done would line up and dock one by one. will not dock normally on Transfer Freight Via Freight Drone.. Is there a way of fixing this before I get a capital ship carrier. need fix so i can collect creates in space and restock my carrier ships without having to try and collect and wait six years for them to enter ship via cargo bay
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SIMON POPPLEWELL
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Post by SIMON POPPLEWELL » Mon, 26. Sep 11, 14:26

Freight drone will always go into the cargobay as they become freight themselves. As for fighter drones going OOS will speed up docking times, there's no other way to get them to dock faster that I'm aware of.

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Sorry!

Post by David Howland » Mon, 26. Sep 11, 15:57

I have a similar problem tagged on to the Drones thread below. My post has had more response than yours, if you wish to read it.
I still have not worked it out yet but if I do, I will let you know!
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Post by Shadowofpeace » Mon, 26. Sep 11, 16:17

The thing is that the freight drone would dock using the hanger when i first started playing the game. When they/it was getting close or starting it run back to dock, my shop (the home-base) would stop and wait for the drone/s to dock. The same way M5, M4 and M3 ship dock on ships with docking bay (hangers). But for some reason it will not do this any more for my freight drones. I think they have changed something as i once had a split freight with 5 docks and they would line up one by one to dock
Last edited by Shadowofpeace on Mon, 26. Sep 11, 16:29, edited 1 time in total.
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Shadowofpeace
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Post by Shadowofpeace » Mon, 26. Sep 11, 16:35

As above this was when X3TC first come out. I loved the freight drones and fighter drones as they are a pain as i have to manually collect them. Have to use TS equipped with jump-drive, Supply Command Software, and Navigation Software to tell in to resupply my main ship. These small thing cause me to like the game a lot less.... Can a missile deference system for station be made to give some protection from missile or can the laser towers be given a Missile Defend command like turret on ships.. would make the laser towers a bit more useful.
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Freight Transfer!

Post by David Howland » Mon, 26. Sep 11, 18:32

Shadowofpeace,
My problem occurred with a TL freight transfer, the drones worked perfectly loading the ecells onto the TL and transferring them to my complex, it was when they were empty and all they had to do was load themselves back on the TL they filled the hangar spaces and went on strike.
As for LT.s I have many clouds at Xenon gates and dearly wish the whole sector comand system was more extensive and worked better!
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Post by SIMON POPPLEWELL » Mon, 26. Sep 11, 20:02

As far as I'm aware there was never any updates that effect the way drones work. I never had freight drones use a hanger, only fighter drones use a hanger. In anycase running over the drones will automatically put them in the cargobay if you have a spare hanger.

Shadowofpeace
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Post by Shadowofpeace » Tue, 27. Sep 11, 02:49

Sorry to say but freight drones would try to dock via hanger if one was free. this was about 1 1/2 ago. and now fighter drones can not be commanded to dock at home base and will not try to dock via hanger after a fight which they would before just like ships assigned to protect home-base ship after the there is no enermy to attack or protect against. I think a script or update is the cause. Will try to get old game disk working and install older version unmodified and hopefully it will work. I know how to collect them manually just wish the automatic process would work properly.
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Shadowofpeace
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Post by Shadowofpeace » Tue, 27. Sep 11, 02:54

SIMON POPPLEWELL wrote:As far as I'm aware there was never any updates that effect the way drones work. I never had freight drones use a hanger, only fighter drones use a hanger. In anycase running over the drones will automatically put them in the cargobay if you have a spare hanger.
please read your post you do not need to have spare or free hanger space to collect drones by flying into then as they are stored in cargo bay. But as for docking via hanger they use to.
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Post by BDK » Tue, 27. Sep 11, 11:14

For freight drones, use the 'return home' command. 90% of the time they'll pop back into the cargo bay with whatever they are carrying. If you don't have enough space, they will just float around in space until you do.

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Post by SIMON POPPLEWELL » Tue, 27. Sep 11, 11:28

Shadowofpeace wrote:
SIMON POPPLEWELL wrote:As far as I'm aware there was never any updates that effect the way drones work. I never had freight drones use a hanger, only fighter drones use a hanger. In anycase running over the drones will automatically put them in the cargobay if you have a spare hanger.
please read your post you do not need to have spare or free hanger space to collect drones by flying into then as they are stored in cargo bay. But as for docking via hanger they use to.
I know this, hanger bays are used by fighter drones. Freight drones NEVER used hanger bays to dock, THEY ARE CLASSED AS CARGO. But flying over fighter drones needs a spare hanger bay to quickly pick them up.

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Post by Alan Phipps » Tue, 27. Sep 11, 11:54

"But flying over fighter drones needs a spare hanger bay to quickly pick them up."
Simon, I am convinced you are confusing fighter drones with something else. You do not need free or even any hangar spaces to pick up fighter drones by flying into them. Just run into them with your ship (any) and they either go straight into cargo if there is suitable cargospace or explode if there is not. If you have a free ship dock space then both freight and fighter drones generally used to auto-dock on their own when instructed or scripted to do so. This thread is about how freight drones don't seem to do that now.
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They Dock!

Post by David Howland » Tue, 27. Sep 11, 12:14

With my problem using the TL, the four spare spaces in the hangar were filled by freight drones, which did not poof into cargo bay even though I left them half an hour, leaving the rest lolling about in space showing no command!
This command status did not change even though I ordered them to return.
After half an hour I jumped in my hyperion, in which I could scoop them a lot quicker than in the TL.
The TL was nearly empty and the drones were all empty, I suspect this was part of the problem as they worked perfectly well when loaded.
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Shadowofpeace
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Post by Shadowofpeace » Tue, 27. Sep 11, 18:25

Yes that is Right
"Return Home" works for the freight drone but not fighter drone. In V1.4 of TC could tell the fighter drones to return home or dock. Second the freight drones would try do dock via hanger if one was free first before trying to entre via cargo bay. I would sit there and watch them do it if the fun of it. If only one hanger was available for docking they would line up one by one as each was preparing to dock. Will try to get my first TC disk working and will try and do some test. If it works on unmodified version 1.? then will record and show what I mean
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Post by Gazz » Tue, 27. Sep 11, 18:31

If you tell any ship to FOLLOW you and the ship can dock with your ship (no enemies around), then it will dock.

It's a function of the generic follow/protect script.
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Post by Mightysword » Tue, 27. Sep 11, 18:35

I have a question about the freight drone. Is there a way to automate their process. So far I have to manually eject the drone, select trade->Buy->select Fab->select ware. After they get the goods, I have to issue the return home command. Seeing how they only carry 800 units of goods this is way more work than using a TS for saying like ... fill up a TL with ecell.

Am I missing something? And what is the repeat number input for anyway, I entered 10, but it doesn't seems to do anything.

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Post by Shadowofpeace » Tue, 27. Sep 11, 18:36

Yes ture but what about the drones (fighters and freight) docking at my ship just like they dock at station. Now it is a pain trying to collect them by running into them. Is the a script or something that can make the happen again so they dock like M5-M3 class ship do on ship with hanger-bays free (Please Help)
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Post by Nanook » Tue, 27. Sep 11, 18:42

I've never had a problem with freight drones docking in my ships when I give them the 'Return Home' command. Occasionally, they may stop near my ship, but that's usually a collision detection problem and if I move my ship slightly, they'll resume docking. Also, I'm pretty sure freight drones don't land in the docking bays; they approach the rear of the ship and 'teleport' into the cargo bay. Although you do need a free docking bay for that to happen. That's my observation from using freight drones to collect loot when I'm flying my TM, anyway.
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Yes-trade Menu!

Post by David Howland » Tue, 27. Sep 11, 19:13

Yes Mightysword,
Go trade menu of parent ship, freight drone transfer is at the bottom of the list!
Last edited by David Howland on Tue, 27. Sep 11, 19:17, edited 1 time in total.
The BANISHED RETURNS.
HEALTH WARNING! Steam Damages Freedom Of Speech!
Congratulations Egosoft on increasing memory usage from 2 to 3 Gb.
Bin playing X too long when Egosoft refuses to sell you their latest game?
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Post by Mightysword » Tue, 27. Sep 11, 19:16

oh alright, thanks. I'll try it out later.

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