External docking and Loading/Unloading

[AkTanatha]

Hi,
Are there any OXP options for external docking and loading/unloading of cargo?
I was thinking along the lines of the ISS, and perhaps accommodating ships with dimensions greater than the docking port.

cheers.

[Smivs]

Unloading of your cargo away from the station is easy - just get blown to bits and watch it floating around in space!
On a serious note, no to your question. The player has to be docked to load and unload cargo just like all the other station functions such as the Outfitters.
But as you hinted this is not a problem as all player ships are of dockable size, so the facility (whilst a nice idea) is simply un-necessary. If it could be done I would expect things to take longer anyway, as you would need to wait for shuttles etc to off-load your cargo, bring new cargo (which you would have to dock at the station to buy anyway unless there is a GalCop mail-order service ) and re-fuel your ship.
All this is much more quickly and efficiently done in the station.

[JazHaz]

You can always eject your cargo and leave it floating in the space. Using an OXP such as Cargo Shepherd is useful to stop it floating away and it gives you a handy beacon so you can find it again. Of course though, its not secure, any passing ship could scoop it up and fly off with it.

[AkTanatha]

Thanks Smivs, I was just curious.
JazHaz, it still amazes me how much customization there is available through OXP's.

[Smivs]

Thanks Smivs, I was just curious. )

Well, you got me thinking!
The first thing I notice is that I didn't quite understand what you were suggesting at first. Now I realise you are talking about actually connecting your ship to the outside of the station aren't you? With some sort of docking air-lock thingy?
My first comment has to be that I can't see that this would be much different to entering the station. You would have to nudge up to the air-lock/dock, and once there you would have access to all the station facilities. Maybe I'm missing something but in-game that would not really be any different to what we do now, except the view on approach would be a bit different.
You could simulate this very easily if that's what you are looking for. For instance you could do a texture for the station dock that looks like an external air-lock attachment point, imagine the 'tunnel effect' is the station's electromagnetic guidance system positioning your ship, then have a background image behind all the station screens that looks like the view you would expect - parts of a docking system on the outside of the station. Done well this could be quite convincing, I expect.

[AkTanatha]

Smivs,
That's exactly what I meant, sort of reminded me of some old Arthur C Clarke depictions of Space in the future, ships docking externally at a Torus space station. But I mainly thought it would offer another option for docking, and larger dock-able ship classes, some more variety I guess.

[Rese249er]

Hear hear! Still looking forward to cap-ships that could be piloted.

[Commander McLane]

Something similar to your request exists in the form of Fuel Satellites in [wiki]Fuel Station OXP[/wiki]. Here the fuel transfer happens when you're almost touching the satellite.

"Real" docking in the form of touching a station or satellite is not possible, though, because Oolite would interpret the touching as a collision, which would result in damage to either your ship or the station, or both.

[Thargoid]

Technically not quite true - the similar proximity detection which allows the fuel satellite could easily be used to trigger a docking. And now that we have Cim's adjustments in 1.77, we can even use something more interesting than rings for the docking sequence and the "launch".

Such docking is done in Planetfall, although there it's more hidden away "under the hood". It may be interesting to try something like that out, with perhaps a switchable virtual dock that would be large enough to allow capital ship launching.

[Smivs]

Hear hear! Still looking forward to cap-ships that could be piloted.

You shouldn't have to wait too long...
</tease>

[Eric Walch]

"Real" docking in the form of touching a station or satellite is not possible, though, because Oolite would interpret the touching as a collision, which would result in damage to either your ship....

Indeed. BuoyRepair oxp adds some nice stations with external docks. Only some special scripted ships can dock/undock there. And once in a while a ship explodes in the process because it touches the station.

[Smivs]

Of course the other problem is how would you attach to the outside of a rotating station!

[Diziet Sma]

Very carefully, of course!

[AkTanatha]

Of course the other problem is how would you attach to the outside of a rotating station!

Well...I'm just thinking out loud here...but perhaps some type of docking where alignments used in "In-Air" refuelling are used, or maybe a HUD graphic that needs alignment to a specific point on the Station.

[CommRLock78]

This discussion reminds me of docking with the Ring station in M$ Space Simulator back in the late 90's. You'd have to give your ship a bit of spin to match the rotation of the station.