[RELEASE] ILS Instrument Landing System v1.13

[Fritz]

Does the actual shape really matter? I have the impression that collision detection uses a much simpler shape (cuboid?). I remember that I played around with my ship and a navigation buoy, and both objects could visually penetrate each other without any sounds or damage occurring.

Not to mention that it is possible to survive docking at impossible speeds and angles...

[Norby]

Does the actual shape really matter? I have the impression that collision detection uses a much simpler shape

I think the dock use special detection. I tested your ship entering slowly into a small dock sideways and no problem until halfway (looking from external above view), where the hull about reach the dock and press space.

[ffutures]

I think I'll take it off anyway - I've had things happen like my ship abruptly changing course because I left the station, immediately followed by another ship, was trying to ID the next ship to see if it was likely to jump out, and locked onto the station instead...

[Norby]

my ship abruptly changing course...

How about a small delay in start after the target lock on the station? First you get a message about ILS will start shortly and if you use the pitch or yaw controls before the real start then ILS will be cancelled. This solve the problem in combat also where you are not fly straight.

[Anonymissimus]

I installed this in order to speed up NPC docking and indeed it does; the injector equipped ships from Aquatics OXP are docking at breakneck speed and even the ones without injectors are docking faster. However, problems noticed:
-If I got docking clearance, this is not respected by any NPC that has currently also requested docking. That is, they requested docking after me but are still approaching the station and I have them to expect to crash into me so I make sure to let those with injectors pass by.
-Sometimes right after launching from a station another ship is already docking right in front of me at breakneck speed this may be dangerous. (However, in the core there's the problem that sometimes there is a very slow ship right in front of you after undocking like Worm or Orbital Shuttle so this is not much different.)
-Sometimes my ident lock is automatically set to some ships which are currently docking, this is confusing.
-It seems that a trader's escorts don't correctly dock or even request docking after their leader ship has docked, but as I get docking clearance myself I can't observe it any further.
-NPCs docking with a Behemoth are mercilessly crashed into the carrier. This may be a problem of the core autopilot though as it crashed me into a Dredger once.

I don't have the equipment myself and will not.

[Norby]

Thank you for the report, [wiki]ILS[/wiki] v1.8 should fix most problems and some older ones:
-NPCs will not dock until player has docking clearance.
-NPCs will not use ILS at moving docks like Behemoth.
-Landing NPC will stop when player launch from a station.
-No more auto target lock on new ILS user NPCs.
-Display a warning message if you must roll to fit into the dock.
-No ILS in red alert except if weapons are offline.

Sometimes right after launching from a station another ship is already docking right in front of me

When you press F1 you will be launched immediately instead of waiting in a queue until no docking ship outside. I think this need a separated discussion and probably core changes.

It seems that a trader's escorts don't correctly dock or even request docking after their leader ship has docked, but as I get docking clearance myself I can't observe it any further.

ILS use its own order to dock all ships as fast as possible, so escorts often dock independently from the escorted ship. ILS is activated in NPCs in the last 15km, the selected ship break out from the formation and go to the dock. ILS will not help only if a ship change his mind, for example target another ship instead of the station.

[phkb]

Norby, had a funny scenario turn up at a Seedy space bar. An Asp Mark II was docking using the ILS, but the little glowing ball had stopped just outside the docking porting, and so had the Asp. It just sat there. I trying nudging it to no effect. Eventually I just gave up. Could the lack of a spin on the Space bar have an impact on ILS?

[Zed]

Norby, had a funny scenario turn up at a Seedy space bar. An Asp Mark II was docking using the ILS, but the little glowing ball had stopped just outside the docking porting, and so had the Asp. It just sat there. I trying nudging it to no effect. Eventually I just gave up. Could the lack of a spin on the Space bar have an impact on ILS?

I've noticed this at hunting lodges too. A courier was trying to dock at one and it got stuck outside the port. It eventually crashed in to the lodge destroying itself while trying to turn around.

[Norby]

Thank you for the reports, fixes and new features in v1.9:
- ILS will roll your ship in the last 2km if you can not fit into sideways.
- Wide NPCs can roll before the dock to prevent lockdown at non-rolling stations.
- NPCs slow during ILS approach when a ship is near to prevent collision.
- Use less CPU by searching new ships in timer instead of FCB.
- Fixed a minor bug in NPC logic when player launch.

Auto roll was not implemented in the previous versions due to quaternions are not easy, but now ILS became a real competitor of Docking Computers, please test it.

[phkb]

I've noticed some other strange behaviours with ILS 1.9 (note: I'm not using ILS myself)
1. Apparently ILS ignores the stations docking and launching queues, because I've seen it try to dock a ship just as another ship was launching, causing the inbound ship to veer away suddenly just before reaching the docking port. I've also seen it dock ships between launches (for example, where there are 2 or more ships in the launching queue and the first one has exited).
2. I watched while a Python docked under ILS, and then the escort started its approach. But then I was given clearance to dock, resulting in the escort doing circles on the spot. I slipped past and into the dock, but I'm not sure what happened to the escort.
3. ILS appears to dock ships that have arrived at the station after me if I'm not using ILS myself. I request docking clearance, I'm told to wait, and ILS busily docks almost everything in sight before I'm finally given clearance.

Very happy with how fast it docks ships, though. Top stuff, Norby!

[Norby]

ILS ignores the stations docking and launching queues

Launching queue is ignored due to simplicity. Writing a new queue handler is out of my scope, I think it need much work. At least your StationDockControl contain 300k js code but the whole ILS is 15k only.

The collision prevention added in the last version help a bit: when a ship is launching, the landing ship will slow or even stop if needed to give way to the other ship, then continue the approach.

Landing queue is not ignored because these ships use docking AI which is detected by ILS and take over the control by forcing orientation and speed. The landing order is not the same but this is not so important from the player's viewpoint, moreover I tried to make a better order to reduce the total time: faster ships selected first, others can arrive closer menatime.

I slipped past and into the dock, but I'm not sure what happened to the escort.

ILS is not stop when the player is in the station, guide ships into the dock all time, so after you landed the escort got back the ILS control and landed (probably, if not collided, attacked, etc.).

ILS appears to dock ships that have arrived at the station after me if I'm not using ILS myself.

ILS pick up ships with active docking AI only so these should be already in the docking queue. Without ILS you probably must wait for the same ships also.

Very happy with how fast it docks ships, though. Top stuff, Norby!

Thanks.

[phkb]

Launching queue is ignored due to simplicity.

Landing queue is not ignored because these ships use docking AI which is detected by ILS

(Sorry, I can't help myself... )

On looking at the NPC code in ILS, I think the logic for deciding when to dock them is in this code:

Code: Select all

this.$NPC = function( t ) { //target is a landing NPC ship?
	if( t && t.isPiloted && t.maxSpeed > 0 && t != player.ship
		&& ( t.AI == "dockingAI.plist" || t.dockingInstructions )
		&& t.target && t.target.isStation && t.target.maxSpeed == 0 ) {

And I think this reads as
If the ship is piloted AND it has a maxSpeed value greater than 0 AND it's not the player ship
AND the ship has a target AND that target is a station AND the station's maxSpeed is zero
AND it either has (a) the dockingAI.plist AI set OR (b) it currently has something in the dockingInstructions object
then this is an NPC ship that is trying to dock, so send it in.

But it seems to me that any ship that is sitting outside the station waiting to dock will have its AI set to "dockingAI.plist" and there will be something in dockingInstructions. What if the something in dockingInstructions is "HOLD_POSITION"? By not checking the ai_message (and possibly docking_stage) in dockingIntructions, you could be sending in ships to dock that are no supposed to be docking.

That might be too simplistic, but do you think there's any value in checking what the dockingInstructions content is before sending a ship into dock?

[Norby]

What if the something in dockingInstructions is "HOLD_POSITION"?

In traffic jam most ships are in hold state, when reached a position around the buoy and wait until others dock. I can not ask easily nor guess safely who is the first in the queue when ILS select the next ship so I select who probably will arrive into the dock first based on its distance from the station and maxspeed (with injectors if any), regardless of the current AI state.

There is a thing with some value if I would be able to check: the list of ships in the queue after the player to skip these. It is not as big help as looks at first glance due to currently ILS run in parallel with the normal docking procedure and stop when player get landing clearance. The docking AI is active in other ships during ILS do its help, if the first ship in the landing queue is not equal with the current ILS user then still do the normal approach.

If the player is in the middle of the landing queue then ILS maybe select a ship from behind, most likely if a new ship arrive with injectors and all others go without. Fortunately ships with injectors are able to dock in seconds and others still go nearer to the station meantime using the standard AI so usually will not cause big delays comparing with an optimal solution. Moreover every ship selected from before the player is a big help to shorten the time until landing clearance.

[phkb]

Ah, thanks for the explanation, Norby. Makes sense now.

[phkb]

Norby, I've just been parked outside the Torus station in Diesanen in G6 watching a tragedy unfold! Ship after ship is rotating the wrong way just as they approach the the entry port of the station, following the ILS beacon in! In particular I've seen both Cobra Mark III's and Police Duma's. Everything seems fine right up to the last moment when for some reason the ship rotates 90 degrees and tries to go in sideways. Boom.

I suspect there's some issue with the torus station dock that makes it slightly different to other stations? Maybe?

Edit to add: This is in 1.83.