I'm tired to download CVs from the Workshop just to realize that my more powerful SVs will not pass the hangar doors because the SV is too wide - or the CV doors too small. And thinking about it, hangars, hangar doors and landing pads are all not necessary to get SVs docked to a CV. There are different landing gear types for SVs, that's fine; but what about adding some docking blocks and systems (normal + retractable) for SVs so you can with 1 pair of these items dock a SV to CVs from below on any 2 symetrical flat points ? And with the same system also allow us to dock different SVs together. A similar system already exists for HVs, and there is even no need for 2 such items to guarantee stability, so why not for SVs? I'm sure this is feasable and it would 'revive' a lot of Workshop items that otherwise are unusable nowadays because of wider SV sizes.
Don't we already have docking pads ? Here, 4 on top ov the "passenger pod SV" from an old build : And here, the SV docked "under" the CV : Looks kind of familiar... ^^ .
Thanks Kassonade, I will take a look in the menu, they must be grouped together with landing gears, not the first place where I would look at.
I made a mistake : the "pads" shown in the pictures are just regular landing gear but upside-down, but they do work. And there is also 1 specific object called "docking pads" if you check the T1 Landing Gear blocks. I use these mostly for mini-SV to invade POIs : I remove it during combat/ exploration, then slap it back on when I store the SV in a hangar so it can be docked.
Yeah thanks, all what I want is actually in the game but somewhat hidden in the secondary weapon / tool types, like with turrets: If you want details you must first construct it to use right-mouse key to see more details. A 'Docking Pad' for SV exists in the landing gear's group, I will have to test it. And for HVs, such a pad already exists directly in the device menu.
I have to test your system with the upside-down landing gears for SVs. Alas, I now realize why I made this post in the first place and forgot about all this: Fact is that in most cases for HVs the docking pads simply don't work, they won't snap when they should even in the case when they are in a correct elevated position, and when they sometimes work it's by pure random luck, meaning: For HVs docking from below to CVs I cannot find any consistent repeatable system in order to dock, although I'm sure I do everything right. I could show you some images right now if you are interested.
Sure, I'll check in a bit later. I might do some tests too, since the ship I showed here has been built some time ago and some things go weird on such builds (positive and negative) that date back more than a few versions...
Ok so I made a quick test and everything seems to be working fine. I used a "subway module" HV on top of which I put 2 HV docking pads, upside-down, and it docked under the CV above it on first attempt, no problem : Just make sure when you add your docking pads that they are on the right side so their "empty space" is used to detect the ship on which it will attach : .
The other thing to be careful about with docking pads is that they have to be the absolute lowest (or highest) block on your build. If they are flush with any thin blocks they won't work even though they look like they might, because thin blocks collide like full blocks when you try to dock with them. In the pic below, the two ships on the right are both "landed", but the one with the yellow thin-blocks doesn't sit flush like you'd expect it to (the other two ships on the left are the same thing but sitting on a thin-block layer that's part of the carrier, showing that soft-clearance at least works from the carrier perspective even if it doesn't for the docking craft).
Thank you Kassonade, I highly appreciate your time and the pictures shown. These pictures confirm that I'm doing things the right way, but despite of that I cannot get HVs or SVs docked at CVs, neither by using reversed landing gears nor by the available docking pads. Here is a scenario that I played yesterday, for that purpose I've built a flying landing pad (SV) which you can see docked - with some pain - at the CV. Left to it a massy HV that my flying landing pad could not transport on its own because of lacking thrusters, but even the simplified scenario where this pad is docking to the CV leads to problems: The HV cannot dock on the landing pad in the situation of the picture, whereas it could dock if the landing pad was not docked to the CV. Also the most simple solution will not work: If I add a docking pad to the HV roof it will be unable for some reason to dock at the CV. https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2745446081
Yes, I'm aware of that, but possibly I didn't take account that I have retractable weapons on top of my HV shown in the picture. So even if they are retracted, the 'highest block' would still be the end of the un-retracted weapons or not? I need to test that too.
I've made it to work now finally, it was because of the retractable turrets deployed being still the highest point instead of the docking pad, this is not visible when the weapons are retracted !! This one will work: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2745472889 https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2745473144 I thank you both for your inputs, for sure it's only with your help that I can see more clearly now.
You can't imagine how happy I am for not using my 'flying landing pad' any longer This flying pad wasn't working for the same reason.
