[Suggestion] Change Tokyo dock/undock mechanic for S

[Pejot]

Right now Tokyo has problems with S docking and undocking. The process is slow and ships are really vulnerable during it.

First in case of docking, adding some kind of tug mechanic that grabs a hold of up to 3 S that come near the entrance to the bay instead of making pilots navigate to fly inside. The AI is very bad at precise navigation inside other ships gravity well. They have problems with facing the ship correctly and take time to choose direction.

Second undocking. Right now they go to single point outside before they switch command to whatever orders they had that started undocking. At that single point they often bump into each other and are easy to take down due to being clumped close together. If it's possible could it be changed to 3 separate points, one for each line of land pads that are outside above the carrier?

[LameFox]

IMO the older ships like Tokyo and Raptor should be updated to use something like the system introduced with Boron capitals. Have the landing ships fly to a point external to the ship that serves as a virtual landing pad, then the ship brings them to an actual pad following a set course. When launching, do that in reverse, projecting them out to virtual pads in front of the ship. Although I'd add that none of these virtual pads need to be visible to the player unless they are personally landing on one. Don't need a sea of extra vfx in space around the ship.

[Baconnaise]

IMO the older ships like Tokyo and Raptor should be updated to use something like the system introduced with Boron capitals. Have the landing ships fly to a point external to the ship that serves as a virtual landing pad, then the ship brings them to an actual pad following a set course. When launching, do that in reverse, projecting them out to virtual pads in front of the ship. Although I'd add that none of these virtual pads need to be visible to the player unless they are personally landing on one. Don't need a sea of extra vfx in space around the ship.

Yea that was the biggest thing that impressed me about the boron DLC was the docking. No clue besides time on why they didn't update the rest of the capitals considering how big of a QoL fix it would've been. The docks on the ships detract from the designs so hiding them would be another plus.

[Pejot]

IMO the older ships like Tokyo and Raptor should be updated to use something like the system introduced with Boron capitals. Have the landing ships fly to a point external to the ship that serves as a virtual landing pad, then the ship brings them to an actual pad following a set course. When launching, do that in reverse, projecting them out to virtual pads in front of the ship. Although I'd add that none of these virtual pads need to be visible to the player unless they are personally landing on one. Don't need a sea of extra vfx in space around the ship.

Yea that was the biggest thing that impressed me about the boron DLC was the docking. No clue besides time on why they didn't update the rest of the capitals considering how big of a QoL fix it would've been. The docks on the ships detract from the designs so hiding them would be another plus.

Basically that is needed mostly for ships with inside bay like Raptor and Tokyo and Boron carriers.

Raptor already has some kind of tug that grabs ships that goes close to entrance and they're dragged to land pads. Tokyo kick it in when they get inside which is kinda late as they do strange shenanigans to get inside.

[Raptor34]

They should have it for all carriers tbh. And the destroyers and other big ships too, they can tweak balancing by the speed it launches/recovers.
Though speaking specifically of the Tokyo/Raptor, I wonder if there is an issue where they cannot have separate launch/land points. because for the Shark and Guppy, those are one and the same, not so for the Tokyo and Raptor.

[LameFox]

Well, they know to fly in one way and out the other with Tokyos and Raptors, so going to one place to land and the other to launch doesn't sound too farfetched. It may be the Shark and Guppy don't have that system because one has launch tubes anyway, and the other is a low capacity carrier not super likely to have traffic issues.

[Raptor34]

Well, they know to fly in one way and out the other with Tokyos and Raptors, so going to one place to land and the other to launch doesn't sound too farfetched. It may be the Shark and Guppy don't have that system because one has launch tubes anyway, and the other is a low capacity carrier not super likely to have traffic issues.

Yeah. "Know".
The difference is that the Boron system is shall we say, fully scripted, while the other's seem to rely on some kind of pathfinding, to their detriment. Only the devs would know anyway, unless some modders have already made use of these systems.

[blackphoenixx]

They should have it for all carriers tbh. And the destroyers and other big ships too, they can tweak balancing by the speed it launches/recovers.
Though speaking specifically of the Tokyo/Raptor, I wonder if there is an issue where they cannot have separate launch/land points. because for the Shark and Guppy, those are one and the same, not so for the Tokyo and Raptor.

It's not really necessary for the Zeus or Colossus since ships don't have any issues docking/undocking on those. Same for most destroyers (the Rattlesnake, Phoenix and Sapporo can have some issues because of obstructions around their docking bays, but the others work fine afaik).
And i kinda like standing on the deck of one of my Zeus watching ships land and take off "naturally" instead of the very obvious and immersion-breaking move-by-wire effect of the Boron carriers.

Haven't used a Condor in ages so i wouldn't know about them, but as far as i'm aware it's mostly an issue with the carriers that have internal docking bays.

[Raptor34]

There is nothing natural about the way they jerk around like idiots imo.

[LameFox]

Yeah I wouldn't really think it's needed for the others, mostly just the enclosed carriers. Could be wrong as I haven't really looked super closely but to my understanding the ship still has to "land" on the fake pad, so I wouldn't expect it to save them from the general twitchy weirdness they have during any small manoevre. Rather the benefit is that you can have the pad enclosed or recessed into the ship and they haven't got to navigate their way in by banging into the walls and each other.

[flywlyx]

It's not really necessary for the Zeus or Colossus since ships don't have any issues docking/undocking on those. Same for most destroyers (the Rattlesnake, Phoenix and Sapporo can have some issues because of obstructions around their docking bays, but the others work fine afaik).
And i kinda like standing on the deck of one of my Zeus watching ships land and take off "naturally" instead of the very obvious and immersion-breaking move-by-wire effect of the Boron carriers.

Haven't used a Condor in ages so i wouldn't know about them, but as far as i'm aware it's mostly an issue with the carriers that have internal docking bays.

The best docking system I want to reference is homeworld :
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuHaCRnf3yg
It looks sleek and organized—something you’d expect in the year 3000. In contrast, the current X4 docking system feels more like a chaotic parking lot in downtown NYC, with nothing futuristic about it.