What will happen if I dock/depart through wrong gate?

FotonCat · Post by **FotonCat** » Wed Mar 02, 2016 5:46 pm

Good day, everyone!

Just a little question from newbie.
Every time when my ship is near the station or disengage tractor beam, the station traffic controller recommends me to dock/depart through gate %gatenumber%.
What will happen if I will choose dock with number different from which I've been recommended to fly through?

Thanks for your answer in advance!

49rTbird · Post by **49rTbird** » Wed Mar 02, 2016 6:27 pm

You may run into another ship but other than that nothing bad should happen.

Delta99 · Post by **Delta99** » Wed Mar 02, 2016 6:52 pm

I was wondering as well if there were any consequences but doesn't seem to be. Although I have run into a ship when I was exiting through the correct station pad # and he was entering.

Sinbad · Post by **Sinbad** » Wed Mar 02, 2016 7:05 pm

It's exactly as 49rTbird says. It seems that ATC (or should that be Space Traffic Control?), always directs you to dock in whichever bay you are nearest to. And on undocking they always tell you the one directly behind you. It would be more interesting if there was some minor consequence of docking/undocking at a different one... maybe an angry Traffic Controller shouting at you over the comms

Post by **Marvin** » Wed Mar 02, 2016 10:47 pm

At least you should be forced to pay a fine. The same goes for if you approach the docking bay at excessive speed.

Post by **DaveK** » Thu Mar 03, 2016 12:34 am

Hmmm - if I get in without blowing up, then surely it's not excessive.

Have you noticed that if you throttle right down as you approach the entrance regardless of your residual speed you virtually stop as you go through the force curtain. Perhaps that's there to stop boy racers flying too fast inside a station!

If you fire a particle cannon inside a station your hull depletes in a few seconds. Perhaps the same could happen if you exceed the station speed limit (as long as there were clear notices). I wouldn't object if there were (smallish) fines for disobeying traffic control.

If you're directed to the one behind you, then they are asking you to use the same entrance as you entered. I prefer to use the entrance that's nearest in line with my waypoint, even if I have to maneuvre around the central pillar. 'Go and see' and 'go and fetch' contracts in EM needed you to be pointing at the waypoint if you wanted the container to be dead ahead. I'm not convinced it's the same in EL. If you move round the pillar until another entrance is behind you do you get instructed to use that one? If your tail is pointing between two entrances I wonder which they tell you to use.

matchbox2022 · Post by **matchbox2022** » Thu Mar 03, 2016 9:06 am

Sometimes I would miss what controllers would say when flying.....in real life ATC yells at you...but in the end would have to redirect traffic.

That would be a funny mod to do.

matchbox2022 · Post by **matchbox2022** » Thu Mar 03, 2016 9:06 am

From post: 186251, Topic: tid=12511, author=Marvin wrote: At least you should be forced to pay a fine. The same goes for if you approach the docking bay at excessive speed.

OMG that is awesome!

Ducimus · Post by **Ducimus** » Sat Mar 05, 2016 3:33 pm

From post: 186251, Topic: tid=12511, author=Marvin wrote: At least you should be forced to pay a fine. The same goes for if you approach the docking bay at excessive speed.

Because I saw in the latest patch notes vice might make changes based on player input, I'm gonna have to disagree with this for four reasons.

1.) I don't always hear or pay attention to the chatter. It's cool, it adds character to the game, i'd miss it if it wasn't there, but more often then not it fades into the background.

2.) It would kill the method of docking in a specific gate right out of hyperspace. That is a tremendous timesaver, and the needs of my family limited my playtime.

3.) From a philosophy of design standpoint, things that reduce a players freedom in a sandbox game are things you'd generally want to avoid if you can.

4.) Forcing a player to adhere to a strict procedure isn't necessarily great gameplay, depending on what your talking about. For instance, having to do a preflight check is cool once in awhile, but how about being forced to do it every time you left station? That would get old fast. In my opinion, if you take any given task, and put a procedural checklist on it before the player is allowed to progress to what their intended task really is (especially if the intended task in itself is repetitious), that is a recipe for tedium. See Elite Dangerous. Frankly, if I wanted to play a game just like Elite Dangerous, I'd just play Elite Dangerous.

From post: 186276, Topic: tid=12511, author=matchbox2022 wrote:Sometimes I would miss what controllers would say when flying.....in real life ATC yells at you...but in the end would have to redirect traffic.

That would be a funny mod to do.

Now, this, I think is a great idea. If I miss the gate assignment, just chew me out over the radio. That I think, is enough. It would add more character to the game in a humorous way, without taking too negative or heavy handed approach that forces the player to jump through procedural hoops on a task that is done as nearly as often as a mouse click.

Post by **Marvin** » Sat Mar 05, 2016 4:25 pm

Well, the chewing out would probably fill the bill for adding a bit of reality to docking at the wrong station. But most of the time, if you're hyper-jumping toward a station, you're already aligned with a gate when you come out of hyperspace ... and that's the gate STC will assign to you. The only time you usually end up using the wrong gate is if you failed to align your jump with a compass tic mark or you decide to exit a station via the wrong gate.

matchbox2022 · Post by **matchbox2022** » Sun Mar 06, 2016 5:07 am

As far as AI getting pissed off goes,

I could probably do something close to this with "watch your fire" wave files incredibly easily. Just a few random files that'd pop up sometimes, but I'd need a girl too to help voice just a couple phrases...that are obviously PG13.
I wish I could yell spaceballs at people.

[Edited on 3-6-2016 by matchbox2022]

Sinbad · Post by **Sinbad** » Sun Mar 06, 2016 3:27 pm

1.) I don't always hear or pay attention to the chatter. It's cool, it adds character to the game, i'd miss it if it wasn't there, but more often then not it fades into the background.

Also if you open the nav console while docked, you automatically undock without any announcement about the gate you have to leave through.

Now, this, I think is a great idea. If I miss the gate assignment, just chew me out over the radio. That I think, is enough. It would add more character to the game in a humorous way, without taking too negative or heavy handed approach that forces the player to jump through procedural hoops on a task that is done as nearly as often as a mouse click.

I agree. A voice-only reprimand will add to the immersion, and make you feel that you should adhere to station rules, but without forcing you to do something which could quickly become tiresome and annoying.

Post by **Marvin** » Sun Mar 06, 2016 4:07 pm

What Sinbad said is true ... and happens all the time. In MP, I usually dock manually, after positioning myself between gates so that I don't get run over by the incoming traffic. Ergo, it isn't as easy as simply exiting through the gate where I entered. For me, it would either be: listen up ... or pay up.