Oolite Bulletins

I've noticed something that seems a bit odd. If I shoot up the station, or maybe just the beacon, I obviously end up in red alert. If I then try to engage docking computers with "C" I am told that "Station refuses to issue docking instructions". If I try a fast dock with Shift-C I'm told "Red Alert! Cannot engage autopilot.". That fine. But if I inject away until the station drops off my scanner but I'm still in the Aegis I can then use Shift-C without a problem. Is this just a quirk, and something for savvy commanders to keep up their sleeves? Or a bug, maybe?

Side note on a related phenomenon: if you're already in the middle of docking and the station is attacked-- this happens far more often for OXP stations that have no Aegis, of course-- your clearance will be withdrawn even if /you're in the middle of the tunnel/. Every so often I'll get a fine for an illegal docking because they yanked my clearance at the last possible second because of this, even though it's impossible to back-up or turn around in the docking tunnel and my forward motion means I have only a second or two to react in any event. Shouldn't there be allowances for sanctuary docking to escape an attack, or a five second rule that means once you're actually inside the tunnel they can't revoke your clearance? It's rather annoying to be dinged like that for a fine.

phkb wrote:

I've noticed something that seems a bit odd. If I shoot up the station, or maybe just the beacon, I obviously end up in red alert. If I then try to engage docking computers with "C" I am told that "Station refuses to issue docking instructions". If I try a fast dock with Shift-C I'm told "Red Alert! Cannot engage autopilot.". That fine. But if I inject away until the station drops off my scanner but I'm still in the Aegis I can then use Shift-C without a problem. Is this just a quirk, and something for savvy commanders to keep up their sleeves? Or a bug, maybe?

No, you move away until you're no longer at red alert. Once that happens you can use auto-docking. Whether your red alert passes as soon as the station is off your scanner will depend on whether or not any police ships are chasing you.

Wildeblood wrote:

No, you move away until you're no longer at red alert.

Which is kind of the point I was attempting to make. Being at red alert, then moving away until you're not at red alert, and still being able to fast dock. I'm wondering whether that isn't a bit of a free ride/exploit. Should the fast-dock only work when the station is in range, rather than as soon as you're in the Aegis?

phkb wrote:

Wildeblood wrote:

No, you move away until you're no longer at red alert.

Which is kind of the point I was attempting to make. Being at red alert, then moving away until you're not at red alert, and still being able to fast dock. I'm wondering whether that isn't a bit of a free ride/exploit. Should the fast-dock only work when the station is in range, rather than as soon as you're in the Aegis?

You're always able to fast-dock at the main station once you're within the aegis, which is double scanner range. (Unless you're at red alert.) That's a separate question to whether you should be denied the ability to fast-dock, or even use docking computers, any time after you've attacked a station.
Blocking fast-docking when the player is at red alert is a game design decision, to prevent you docking to survive a threat that would otherwise be a 'press space' moment. It has no within-game explanation, because it's not a within-game phenomenon.

Just a thought,
Even on red alert I've never been stopped docking. Even as a fugitive having fired and hit the station.
I've never used docking computers or fast dock, never asked for clearence either. Anytime there is a queue I play leap frog with them. It's really fun if you manage not to hit the other ship or station.
I'm still using build 1.80
So is the condition only with auto docking or later builds than 1.80?
Something for me to think about before loading a later build.
Would be nice to know if anyone knows.

Docking clearance defaults to On in 1.82 and to Off in 1.80. This is why you are able to do what you want with the build you are running and do not have to worry about it.

You can still turn off the docking clearance requirement in 1.82. It is a selection in the Game Options screen.

I got tired of waiting for docking clearance after I figured out that "please hold for docking clearance" meant "wait for all the slow as molasses ships on scanner to take their sweet time docking and then wait some more because we didn't actually put you in the current docking queue, but created a new queue that we will process after we process the current queue and then launch umpteen more ships to make your wait needlessly even longer! Enjoy two straight red lights, sucker!".

The final straw was when I had to wait for an adder while I was trying to deliver an urgent parcel I'd salvaged out of a derelict pirate ship and the parcel expired 10 seconds before he finally finished docking.

So I shut that part of the Ooniverse off. I'm here to play a game, not a traffic simulator that never gives you favor.

Now I just zip in on injectors and slip into the docking slot, budging in front of anyone who's on final approach. Screw docking control. I dock when I want. It's my damn universe that means I always have docking clearance.

The docking clearance is something that makes the game more realistic, and it prevents collisions. I like when I can relax and watch the docking and launching ships while I can align my ship perfectly with the docking port. But the code behind the clearance protocol has at least two logical flaws:

1) As you said, there are two queues, inbound and outbound, and the number of ships waiting for launch is not added to the number of ships waiting to dock. That should be easy to fix.

2) The protocol is extremely unfair. It's ok and "natural" if I have to wait for ships that arrived at the station earlier or maybe at the same time. But I hate to wait several minutes for an orbital shuttle that flies at walking pace and still was far behind the navigation buoy when I requested docking.

But I don't consider to deactivate it. I've installed Communications Pack A, and I love to hear the NPC pilots complaining about the delays. If I only had the possibility to complain too!

The incoming queue seems fair though. If you requested docking previously to others coming in later on, those will have to wait. I had traders stay put and complain at the point when I was granted clearance. It's just that your ship is usually faster than the NPC's and they seem to request clearance as soon as they enter the aegis and then take a long time for the docking process. Probably the same as if using docking computer with the sequence running.
The outgoing queue is always processed just before you get clearance that seems strange.
And the coms are really funny yes and there are quite a lot of different ones, eases the waiting time. It could be added to broadcast coms that the player can complain, but what would it do. The NPC's complaints don't achieve anything at least.

Anonymissimus wrote:

The outgoing queue is always processed just before you get clearance that seems strange.

[wiki]Station Dock Control[/wiki] make a real queue.