Quickdocking, boon or bane?

[Benjamin]

Mmh just thinking, I think a lot of super long dock-faffing stuff is from attempting to do that cruise-slam quickdock and missing. Trying to dock from a sensible distance rather than from inside the station will prob fix half that stuff anyway.


Also fixing undocking bugs will probably be worth it alone.

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[Tibbles]

Pros and cons:
+: Discerning between fighter/freighter, transport/gunboat and capital moorings.
+: Allows for a more diverse economy when select bases can't receive transports.
+: Allows for fewer caps at undesirable locations (such as junker bases) by simply not giving those a heavy moor. Additionally, jumpholes could be denied caps or even medium sized ships to create raider/freighter-only routes.
+/-: No more quickdocking. This will usually favor the side that is winning - pressing the combat into a base zone to score the kill becomes an option. Traders also won't be able to flee into a base as easily. However, the base defenses could be beefed a bit to offset that advantage and discourage lengthy fights inside a base perimiter.
-: Docking won't be as quick as it is now.
-: Convoys might end up queueing before a base that has few moorings available. A large fighter wing might need to wait in front of a base with few fighter docks (bases such as Newark won't be a problem, they have 14 medium moors, but bases like Trenton only have 3. Reverse is true for fighters).
-: Some bases will need minor tweaks if they have been built in such a way that it prevents access to the mooring "lanes".

Except the last point (wich is a dev issue if i have understood well) I consider all the points pros, no one cons...
So i have voted yes

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[Ursus]

Be aware that transports in their docking animation would still be invulnerable

They aren't invulnerable. I said already I was killed by an NPC battleship during the docking animation once (somewhere in Leeds, during the war with Kusari). Maybe they blew a critical component on my ship, dunno, but they were able to blow me up just fine while I was doing laps for a docking part.

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[SA_Scavenger]

This will drive traders insane, an extra minute added on to every trade run just to watch an animation. Never mind that I bet pirates could knock you out of docking sequence.

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[Stefan]

Yus! First one to vote maybe.

I find it a cool idea, seems more in-rp and all, but the plug-in has to work. We already have npcs clogging jump holes and gates, I seriously don't want anything of the sorts on bases as well. Plus, I'm not sure if there's any bases with only one docking point, but if there is that can become a problem if, say, a Renzu Liner positions itself in the worst possible way and hits dock.

Inb4 three minute wait.

So yes, it can work, but it has to be done right and decently, otherwise it will just hamper gameplay, whatever the rp result. So I stick to maybe.

[Mímir]

I vote for remove it, but there are some troubles with certain bases and ships, and it will take some fixing, I guess.

For instance, the Touketsu still cant dock properly on some bases (enters the animation sequence where I have no control, whilst flying in and out of the station repeatedly until F1). On certain bases, the only option is to quick-dock or not dock at all.

Or docking at Buffalo Base in a slave liner (which happens often), there are certain large asteroids in the way, making it difficult for the AI to align the ship properly, and it often needs several attempts before being able to dock. That can take a good few minutes.

And countless more examples of this.

It is very easy to exploit some of these issues - I think it would take quite a bit of work to have all the bases tested out with all the different ships.

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[Diomedes]

I'm really just not sure on this one. I like the idea, but have some concerns.

So many things have been balanced around the ability to quick dock, and they would likely have to change.

The pitiful base defenses would need to become a whole lot scarier for actual realism. Sure the docking sequence should be longer for the fleeing target, but the base cannons should also light up any hostile (and then we have problems with people neutral to things they shouldn't be, like a FL taking an unlawful bounty on a trader shooting him up at a 3rd party lawful base to which he is neutral).

Also, things like quick docking trade lanes and jump gates/holes near hostile battleships or cap ship patrols. It's really the only way to get a transport through without taking large amounts of damage or requiring CAU. And no, there isn't always another route that can be taken in a reasonable time. NPCs also disregard Freeport NFZs, some of which do have cap ship patrols that move through (Tau-29 comes to mind).

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[kikatsu]

There has been some talk of changing base defenses in here.

What are some of the proposed changes in order to make bases scary things for attackers to approach?

[mwerte]

If jumpholes start disallowing anything bigger then a bomber access, how are unlawful omega caps supposed to get around?

I voted no. I like quickdocking, as 99% of the time I'm docking, it's not under fire. Docking normally is just tedious, and I don't play a game to have tedious stuff to do. If I wanted that I'd just put in more hours at work.

Restricting transports to large bases and planets makes some sense, but would utterly fubar the trade system, and give Xoria white hair. I just RP it as every station having the ability to drop cargo in space that is tractored, or a few freighter shuttlecraft that shuttle the cargo out.

If we care about realism, make it take a week to cross through systems unless you use tradelanes/jumpgates. Lots of fun that will be.

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[Veygaar]

Yes, so long as all ships can still use JHs.

If they can't this will be a problem for alot of unlawfuls...

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