Oolite Bulletins

phkb wrote:

there's some issue with the torus station dock

Thank you, fixed in v1.11 - no v1.10 to avoid mixing up with v1.1.
Also contain a smoother start of ILS steering as the ship has inertia.

Norby, I don't know what can be done about this given how ponderous they are, but I was recently in a Communist system watching a workers commuter dock at the main station. As I watched it enter the docking slit I saw white flashes around the edges of the port, indicating the ship was hitting the port walls. And then, boom! Suddenly the queue to enter the station got shorter.

I have tried ILS, here are my findings:

It's really nice when NPCs use ILS, since it's much faster and thus gets rid of long wait times.
I don't use it myself, as I like manual docking. (I have Landing Lights installed and use pretty much the same strategy as ILS does.)
It has killed me once. Everything looked fine but in the final moment before entering the docking slit, it rotated 90º. (Possible diagnostic: To me, it seemed/felt like exactly 90º.)

NPCs use ILS while they have no docking clearance, that is, while I am waiting for launching outbound traffic.
I feel that it's inappropriate to use injectors while docking. NPSc should not do it. At least those with 'respectable' roles.
(I can even imagine getting warnings from Traffic Control for 'speeding' too close to the station, but that's not related to ILS.)
Personally I would like it better if the white dot were not visible and wouldn't show up on radar. It takes away from the magic. Could this be an OXP Config option?


One interesting issue I encountered:
At some mining outpost, the ILS 'beam' is not properly aligned to the docking bay. The result of this is that an NPC will keep looping over and over.
From this, I could also tell that 'ILS lock' is system wide. While the NPC was looping at the mining outpost, ILS was unavailable when I arrived at the main station.
In the screenshot you can see the white ILS dot in front of the rock.

(click to enlarge)

hoqllnq wrote:

before entering the docking slit, it rotated 90º.

Some stations are built differently than most ones, which make exceptions from the currently programmed rules. I already added many exceptions just this job looks endless. If you remember which station is the problematic then I can reproduce and fix it once.

The dock is not in center position in the mining station above, this is the source of the problem. Please tell me the name of the station, I do not remember which oxp contain it.

Yes, NPCs use ILS while they have no docking clearance. I can not rewrite the whole docking queue handler, it would be too much work for me, sorry.

NPCs use injectors over 2km only then slow to normal speeds near the station. It is configurable but currently in the Scripts/ils.js file only, the "noinjdist" variable hold it in the 94. line.

The white dot is defined in Config/effectdata.plist. If you remove the flasher subentity and scanner_display_color1 settings then you will not see it. An OXP Config option is possible, just soon will be deprecated by the new [wiki]Library[/wiki] package so I think to use the new way only, but I can not promise anything.

Thank you for the feedback!

The mining post is from Rescue Stations.

Norby wrote:

If you remember which station is the problematic then I can reproduce and fix it once.

The dock is not in center position in the mining station above, this is the source of the problem. Please tell me the name of the station, I do not remember which oxp contain it.

I don't remember at which station I crashed. I'm pretty sure it was a main station. Not a rock hermit or factory or what have you.
The mining outpost in the picture is at Oresmaa in G6. (I do have Rescue Stations installed, as spara suggests. I have most if not all OXPs from the Dockables and Stations categories.)

Just wanted to report that ILS makes crafts crash against "Salvage Gang" stations due to the strange access "tube" they use that's split in sections. It aims at the internal section, which is a small "room" the external access leads into. Hope that helps.

Welcome oreganor in the forum!

Thank you for your report. Yes, the current ILS can not handle stations where the dock is out of center position. Maybe once I will fix it, until then please avoid the usage there.

Woah! I wasn't expecting such a fast answer... Thanks for your time. I don't have a problem with docking manually... But NPCs are dying. I like your mod because it gives a very nice ambience around stations with all the NPCs taking turns at doing fast maneuvers at docking (The carrier white light is also a very nice touch to inform of what's going on)... It's relaxing to watch.

The docking computer trayectory works on "Salvage Gang". I have taken a peek at the source of your script and you perform the calculation manually... I don't have experience with OXP interface so I don't have a clue if it's possible but... You can try to check how the DC code performs its approach on this particular station because it clearly "knows" about the 2 sections and maneuvers on BOTH to avoid the collision.

Hi.

Thanks for your great work.

You asked people to report which stations seem to cause difficulties. I seem to have problems with the ILS at some of the Octahedron stations. I just had to take over manually at one in Usanat in Galaxy 1 because ILS wanted to take me in at 90 degrees to the entrance. I haven't played enough to work out whether this is consistent

I hope that this is helpful.

M

Thank you Malcius, yor report is helpful, I added it to the todo. Just I can't promise a fix soon at the moment.

The Navy SecCom Stations in Galactic Navy OXP have a 90° twist too:
http://fs5.directupload.net/images/171216/syisnphx.png
Better stop there, hit "u" and align manually, or...
http://fs1.directupload.net/images/171216/y3637znn.png
Ouch!

It seems that ILS makes NPCs crash into Salvage Gangs (Anarchies OXP) always when docking. That station has a weird kind of dock, you first need to pass through a tunnel and a hollow space until entering the real dock. I suppose that ILS attempts to align the flight vector with the central axis too late, that is, if the dock consisted only of the real dock, it would work.
It may also be a core game bug even.

ILS has a problem with stations that have non-centrally aligned docks. There are quite a few stations in this predicament.

Hi, I'm pretty new to OOlite after I've not played it for some years and ILS is a VERY nice addon. I have one suggestion, if developement is not abandoned already: Would it be possible to it use as a replacement for the Docking-Computer so that it's only activated after pressing 'c' and not by just approaching the station?