[Mod] Bomber and Shuttle Docking v1.1 ( 8-28-09 ) Now with greater modularity.

Alkeena · Post by **Alkeena** » Sat, 22. Aug 09, 21:37

Notice that there is no docking on any of the standard M6...M6M does however precisely because they are bigger. M6M is the smallest class that gets any docking whatsoever. Plus, if I add M4s to to M6M you'll be asking why that's all that's available on the M7s...

Yeah, I'm leaning more and more towards leaving the TS/TP clamp off the M7M as well. I'm glad you came around to it too as it saves me a lot of effort of trying to prep them only for your merge.

Erlien · Post by **Erlien** » Sun, 23. Aug 09, 19:11

Im having a problem with this.I cannot dock ships in TL.I tried docking Hermes(TP) and Demeter(TS) but they just get to it and stop.

Alkeena · Post by **Alkeena** » Sun, 23. Aug 09, 19:44

Which TL?

Also, theres a generic docking bug in TC where sometimes ships will freeze at the beginning of the docking path and just sit there at 0 speed. Try buzzing them real close with a fighter to get their collision avoidance going, or just order them away and try again. Once you get them moving they tend to be able to actually dock at that point.

Erlien · Post by **Erlien** » Sun, 23. Aug 09, 19:49

Argon Mammoth

Edit:I tried moving them around i tried moving the TL around i tried sending them to another sector and back,nothing.I can dock with fighter ships just fine though

Alkeena · Post by **Alkeena** » Sun, 23. Aug 09, 19:51

Loading it up to check now--read my edit to my previous post (last paragraph, last post) while I check things out though.

Alkeena · Post by **Alkeena** » Sun, 23. Aug 09, 20:25

I just tested it and it worked without a problem. Are you sure you had docking slots available? You have to have at least one docking slot open for a clamp to work--if you have 7 fighters sitting inside your 7 slot mammoth nothing else can dock.

To my knowledge there is nothing I can do to address this issue which is why I added extra docking slots to everything originally:

Mammoth Vanilla: 5 Docking Slots

Mammoth BSD (added two trading clamps): 7 Docking slots

Anything else that could have caused the problem?

Here's my test BTW:

http://imgur.com/amE4Y.jpg
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http://imgur.com/xLMZF.jpg
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http://imgur.com/p75ok.jpg
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http://imgur.com/rDS4i.jpg
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Erlien · Post by **Erlien** » Sun, 23. Aug 09, 20:29

There are no ships inside the Mammoth.A little detail that ships i tried to dock had only 1 segment,dont know if that changes anything.

Alkeena · Post by **Alkeena** » Sun, 23. Aug 09, 20:47

I don't know what to say, I can't reproduce it. I'm sorry

I Even tried it with the Mammoth moving at full speed. As expected, once the dock order was issued it slowed to a stop until the docking procedure was completed.

Are you running any other scripts or mods that might affect the docking behavior in some way? Are you absolutely sure docking slots were available? Did you try buzzing the stationary TS trying to dock (the docking lockup is a vanilla bug that I can't really address and happens for all docking types :-\ )?

Edit: Have you tried personally and manually docking the ships? What happens?

http://imgur.com/fBkvH.jpg
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Erlien · Post by **Erlien** » Sun, 23. Aug 09, 20:51

I dont use any other scripts or mods and im sure that TL has empty docking space.And i tried getting close to the TS,it started to circle around and it rammed to me and exploded

Alkeena · Post by **Alkeena** » Sun, 23. Aug 09, 20:55

The Circling is what it does just before it picks up the docking routine again and [almost always] successfully docks. Try not to explode.

Also, just to make sure something else other than the vanilla docking lockup bug isn't at work, can you try to manually dock them and let me know how it goes? (careful, collision isn't disabled if you do it manually, don't ram the TL

)

Edit: Are you personally flying the TL? If so be sure to slow to a stop while they dock.

Erlien · Post by **Erlien** » Sun, 23. Aug 09, 21:04

It was circling around me like an orbital until it stopped with its back turned to the TL.With manual docking when i ckicked "Request landing permision" nothing happened,didnt even close the window or anything

Alkeena · Post by **Alkeena** » Sun, 23. Aug 09, 21:15

It doesn't close the window--it just pops up the docking pip and says docking request accepted after you close the window...

http://imgur.com/4ZJoZ.jpg
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What is the order of your cat/dat files? The only thing I can think of that might be causing it is if you're missing the .bod files that define the docks and where they belong on the Mammoth. This could happen if there is a higher numbered cat/dat pair that contains those files in your TC directory.

Unlikely though since you said you don't use any other mods.......Does it work for any of the other ships that are supposed to have external docking now or is the mod totally broken on your system?

Erlien · Post by **Erlien** » Sun, 23. Aug 09, 21:20

I know it should show that green thing,but i said that it doesnt(which is bad).
Ill check other ships

Erlien · Post by **Erlien** » Sun, 23. Aug 09, 21:37

Tried docking Advanced Discoverer(M5) onto Vidar(M6) both with autopilot and manualy,same result though

Alkeena · Post by **Alkeena** » Sun, 23. Aug 09, 21:53

Alright, just to be sure I just docked an advanced disco at a Vidar; I'll spare you the pictures

. I'd suggest that something is definitely wrong with your install. So, a few questions:

1) Which packages did you install? BSD No Cockpit? BSD Cockpit? Balance Mod?

2) Did you start a new game or continue a savegame? If you continued a save did you make sure to follow the procedures listed under "Savegame Compatibility" in the first post?

3) Can you please go through the install directions and make sure you followed every step?

I know this must be frustrating for you. I really am sorry--I tried to make the process as seamless as possible so people could just enjoy it but I must have messed something up somewhere either in the directions or the upload or something...

Your help tracking it down really is appreciated, thanks for the continued feedback.

Erlien · Post by **Erlien** » Sun, 23. Aug 09, 21:59

I used BSD No Cockpit,i continued from a savegame and done all needed(it wouldnt let me start the game when i had it wrong)

Alkeena · Post by **Alkeena** » Sun, 23. Aug 09, 22:08

Alright, I'm going to go through and make sure the No Cockpit download precisely matches what I'm using on my system now...I'll also double check the savegame compatibility; give me a bit...

Erlien · Post by **Erlien** » Sun, 23. Aug 09, 22:09

Thanks for helping

Alkeena · Post by **Alkeena** » Sun, 23. Aug 09, 22:39

Alright, I've manage to reproduce the error.

The issue lies with savegame compatibility which unfortunately my testing didnt catch because of how I tested it. Here's the issue:

If you install and load up from a savegame any pre-existing ships will have broken docking. All newly created ships will function 100% properly. My testing consisted of loading up a savegame and then spawning ships in front of me to test, thus missing this issue. I apologize for being an idiot.

The current workaround is to install Cycrow's cheat package ( http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=216691 ; requires the plugin manager http://forum.egosoft.com/viewtopic.php?t=218121 ) make yourself a new version of the ships you want fixed, transfer wares over from your old ship, and then destroy the old one. I'll try to work on a script that will run around and destroy/re-create all affected ships in the universe automagically for you. Unfortunately I'm not a scripter though so that's going to be a long ways off and require a lot of testing...

So, if you're not comfortable with nor interested in running the cheat package I guess savegame compatibility is broken at this point. I'm very sorry for misleading you. :-\

I'll update the first post now with the savegame issues + uninstall instructions if you can't be bothered.

Erlien · Post by **Erlien** » Sun, 23. Aug 09, 22:43

Thanks alot for explaining.I dont like cheating if it gives me unfair advantage,which in this case wont since im just fixing stuff for me.
Thank you again for your time and helping me with this problem