Cerberus issues

[Kpla Keltak]

Just had some long awaited fun with the xenon.
During the Affray my docked heavy fighter (which is awesome) ,decided to launch, at which point some doors opened and 6 defence drones flew out. Cool
After the battle my fighter and some of the drones returned.
But now my fighter is docked internally and one of the drones is parked on the main deck.
I can’t access the fighter anymore.

[Playbahnosh]

Just had some long awaited fun with the xenon.
During the Affray my docked heavy fighter (which is awesome) ,decided to launch, at which point some doors opened and 6 defence drones flew out. Cool
After the battle my fighter and some of the drones returned.
But now my fighter is docked internally and one of the drones is parked on the main deck.
I can’t access the fighter anymore.

It sounds like a bug. Combat drones should always return to internal storage after the fight. Try going to the map and ordering your fighter to fly somewhere, that should coax him out. Maybe go down to the fighter dock yourself and try recalling it from the shift+D menu.

[Reprisal]

Press Shift + D to access stored ships.

[Kpla Keltak]

I sent the ship to do a quick flight. Out she came. Then order it to dock again. It’s now back inside ?

[Sam L.R. Griffiths]

Press Shift + D to access stored ships.

Exactly this...

When the ship is on the Pad - Shift+D allows you to immediately transfer to the ship
When the ship is internal (anywhere - including on stations) - Shift+D allows you to tell an internal ship to return to a pad at which point a second Shift+D should allow you to transfer to the cockpit.

[captainradish]

I had a similar thing happen where two of my drones decided they wanted to become real boys and act like them. I actually ended up selling them directly to a wharf to get rid of them. It was a bit odd.

[Kpla Keltak]

Press Shift + D to access stored ships.

Exactly this...

When the ship is on the Pad - Shift+D allows you to immediately transfer to the ship
When the ship is internal (anywhere - including on stations) - Shift+D allows you to tell an internal ship to return to a pad at which point a second Shift+D should allow you to transfer to the cockpit.

Tried this but nothing happened.

[Kpla Keltak]

I now have 2 ships docked internally

[Vandragorax]

Use the teleporter "comm panel" to transfer to your internalised ship. It should be in the list and then it should come out onto the docking bay once the currently docked one goes inside.

[Kalantris]

OPTION1: Go to the elevator, teleport to your landing pad and look for a console. It allows you to pull ships stored internally on stations, perhaps it'll work here as well.
OPTION2: Assign one of the crewmembers of your stored ships to captain, order the ship to fly somewhere.

[Sam L.R. Griffiths]

Press Shift + D to access stored ships.

Exactly this...

When the ship is on the Pad - Shift+D allows you to immediately transfer to the ship
When the ship is internal (anywhere - including on stations) - Shift+D allows you to tell an internal ship to return to a pad at which point a second Shift+D should allow you to transfer to the cockpit.

Tried this but nothing happened.

There are currently various bugs with the game that mean the UI can become seemingly unresponsive in a partial or total capacity BUT there are workarounds (not that it excuses the number or scope of the issues there are).

Fundamentally, it does work but there are various issues such as if drones are either launching or docking then you may have to wait for them. It can be a pain if a drone has got stuck on route though - it can happen. You may need to locate any lost/stuck drones, cancel their orders, and then tell them to RTB. Normally, telling your ship to recall all subordinates (when piloted by NPC) should suffice to ensure all drones are recovered.

[Invasion]

If the drone is sitting on the landing pad, then it is spawned into the world. You can enter map view to select it (you will have to scroll in on your ship). You can issue it a command to move somewhere else, so that it gets off the pad to let your stored fighter come out.

But yes, the docking-on-ship mechanic in the game is not quite working as intended. It is currently set such that if multiple things dock (S ships included), whatever docks last will be left sitting on the landing pad. Egosoft needs to extend the instruction such that if there is no empty S landing pad remaining, it will store whatever is on the S pads until one is freed. This is to ensure that the drones can do their job unimpeded. And it needs to check what is sitting on S pads, and to store if it is a drone.

Players need to understand that M frigates should not allow your docked S ship to remain sitting on top. Because it will prevent drones from coming out.

[Kpla Keltak]

Thanks very much for the very informative replies.