dockable entities leaving witchspace

[Commander McLane]

I don't know whether this is a feature or a bug, but it leads to unexpected and unintended behaviour, so I call it a bug.

I am in interstellar space and happen to dock with a dockable entity, like a Behemoth. I do my business there, and then launch again. Out of a sudden I am not in interstellar space anymore, but the Behemoth, while carrying me, has jumped into one of the adjacent systems, so I find myself in this system as well.

The question arises: Why should a Behemoth that usually is found in interstellar space only, jump to a nearby system whenever the player docks with it? Even from amidst a battle? That makes no sense.

Yesterday things got worse. I set up a station in interstellar space between two specific planets. (Yes, you can do that.) I docked with it. I launched again. Guess what? The station had moved into an adjacent system (not one of the systems it was in-between) and was hanging out somewhere off-witchpoint now. That's weird, I thought. Didn't even know that stations have witchdrives!

Of course I know that from the engine's point of view NPC's don't need witchdrives or fuel to move. But still I find this kind of behaviour not correct. It's not what anybody would honestly expect of a station.

[stevesims]

Behemoth's jumping to an adjacent system is intended behaviour. Giles made them do that with the intention of providing players with a route out of witch-space even if they have insufficient fuel to make a jump themselves.

That being the case though, this should really be something that happens only with Behemoths. (Well maybe also for other jump-capable ships too.)

So yes, this is a feature, and yes it is a bug.

[Commander McLane]

I guess I have to replace my station with a behemoth then, in order to have it make sense from an in-game perspective.

I mean, if there isn't a fix thought upon, out there, in the coder's cove.