So, when you are docked you are not safe anymore?

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by japp_02, Mar 8, 2022.

  1. japp_02

    japp_02 Commander

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    Up to now my understanding of the game mechanics was: If your SV or HV is docked at your base your vehicle is safe, possible shots from drones or whatever will go through the ship and will damage the first encountered blocks of the base.

    Isn't this right any longer since v.1.75 ?

    In a recent play, I was able to dock my SV to a crashed capital vessel planetside which I then soon have cored afterwards, making it a base of mine and also triggering a zyrax base attack. I thought it wasn't necessary to put the shields of my SV active, I only left minimal energy powered-on.
    After some time a drone came in and was shooting to my SV, 70% of my shutter door was damaged.
    This means even docked your vehicle isn't safe. Is this new since 1.75? I don't know. And another mystery in this case is: why was I able to dock to an un-cored base? This shouldn't be possible.

    Thanks for clarifications,
     
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  2. Stampy

    Stampy Lieutenant

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    I noticed the same thing a while ago, don't remember the version. I had a small vessel docked to the landing pad of my capital ship (not in a hangar, on the outside) and when I left it unattended to shop in a trade station, a drone came along and blasted the crap out of my SV. When I realized what was going on, most of the SV was gone but the ship still registered so I couldn't move my CV (had the "undocked ship so you can't move" issue).

    I stopped parking the SV on the CV after that.
     
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  3. japp_02

    japp_02 Commander

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    Hi Stampy,
    in your case I highly suspect that your SV was landed on your CV but not docked, this also explains your message "undocked ship so you can't move". With docked I mean that it is attached to the CV by the docking item which you see in the cockpit, and the sound of docking when it happens. Any SV not docked can be damaged and destroyed.
    When docked, an enemy vessel would have to un-core your CV in order to undock all vessels, only then they can go after them.
    In my case, I'm totally sure I was docked (not only landed), that's why it's strange that I got damaged; to compare it to another situation: If I spawn a base and dock a SV to it, it will NEVER get damaged no matter what enemy comes-in. I can only guess that a POI is different.
     
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  4. Garaman

    Garaman Captain

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    From what I recall:
    1. Docking to uncored structures is allowed, as I've used this during the whole yeeting fiasco to dock to a cored ship so my CV wouldn't fly off while I looted it
    2. If you are playing on a server, adding a core immediately sets the structure to private, which will then undock any factioned ships attached to it. They don't move, they just unlatch, so they would appear docked until you sat in them. I'm not sure if the same occurs if your ship is set to private, would need to test that. Learned this the hard way when my anti-yeet docking technique failed after adding the core.
    3. It appears that planetary bomber drones can damage docked SVs through blast damage. So if it's parked on the ground, a bomb will smash into it. If it's docked on a landing pad, the bomb will smash into the pad below the SV, and the blast from the bomb will damage the SV blocks. I believe it is immune to all other damage sources.
    4. I've had a CV completely obliterated -- core and all -- by a passing OPV. The two SVs I had docked to it were just floating there, completely untouched. Got in them and they showed as still docked, then as soon as I "took off" they operated normally. Assuming that's still the case, a docked SV should be safe even if the carrier is destroyed (good for escape pods I suppose!).
     
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  5. Stampy

    Stampy Lieutenant

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    No, it was docked, I had flown the CV to the trade station with the SV on the back. While trying to escape the drones, they blew enough of the SV up to get the core, and then I got the message about undocked ships which locked my CV in place.

    I assumed until your post it was a one time fluke so I didn't report it. haven't had the issue since because I use the hangar religiously now. :)
     
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  6. japp_02

    japp_02 Commander

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    That's interesting, it seems to be the behavior which Garaman explains in his point 3, which also happened to me: the explosion blast must have damaged your SV, in your case the platform block where your SV was docked must have been destroyed causing your SV to undock and be vulnerable.
    All in all, I think we can state that a docked ship is safe as long as the attached platform is intact without missing blocks between the SV's landing gear and the platform. Because drones and other enemies focus on things like the player, warp engines, generators, turrets, it's important that you are as far as possible away from these objects when you fight enemies, the closer you are to them, the more likely they will be damaged by missing shots etc.
     
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    Last edited: Mar 9, 2022
  7. japp_02

    japp_02 Commander

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    Very interesting Garamar, thank you for taking the time!
    I think your point 3 is what happened to me, although it was a simple drone, not a bigger vessel, but I missed to look at the Faction box in the Control Menu after coring the wreckage, I just started to loot when I heared the incoming drone (it was in Single Player.)
     
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    Last edited: Mar 9, 2022
  8. IndigoWyrd

    IndigoWyrd Rear Admiral

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    Docking has been rather messy for a very, very long time - since the "fix" for PvP'er docking small ships to larger ones to immobilize them as I recall.

    But I do not recall docked SV's or HV's actually being "safe" from attack - at least not as far as things like Zirax drones are concerned. I might be off here - I do tend to take fairly long breaks between builds.
     
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  9. Scoob

    Scoob Rear Admiral

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    In my own observations, vessels docked to CV's - so HV's, SV's and other CV's - will be "ghosts" as far as enemy fire is concerned. This didn't use to be the case, but has been for some time now. I only actually found out about this last year some time and thought it was a bug. I think I recall reading that people were exploiting docked vessels as an extra armour layer effectively. It's like when there were similar exploits to allow extra turrets on a build - once upon a time the turrets on docked vessels were still fully functional.

    For Bases though the rules appear to be different, I've had HV's, SV's and CV's docked to Bases take damage from Drones etc. despite being docked. Indeed, I've seen attacking Drones appear to target vessels near / on the base as a priority over the base its self - even when base elements - such as the Core, Turrets etc. - were a closer target.

    I have an older game - started in 1.6.x - that I've continued in 1.7.x and this still appeared to be the case. However, I've started a fresh game recently and haven't yet tested a vessel docked externally to my current CV - it has an internal hangar bay.
     
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  10. Garaman

    Garaman Captain

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    For science!

    Docked an SV to a base, and it was completely immune to damage from the rocket and minigun drones.
    upload_2022-3-9_22-38-35.png

    An SV docked to a CV was likewise immune, though obviously not the undocked CV itself.
    upload_2022-3-9_22-40-15.png

    Bombers, on the other hand...they don't give a crap. Docking doesn't protect you. It's not just blast damage like I thought, the bombs will just impact the SV like normal.
    upload_2022-3-9_22-46-0.png

    Base docking too.
    upload_2022-3-9_22-46-9.png

    That might be a bug though.
     
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  11. Fenris

    Fenris Commander

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    I'd always assumed docked vessels were not protected, so I crammed all my into a hangar bay
    Nice! Ever since I started playing I just crammed all my HVs and SVs into hangar bays assuming they would get hit. Some hangar bays were so full I'd have to leapfrog from one end to the other using a jet pack since I had stuff practically on top of each other. But like Scoob said, things have changed over the years, I guess I was going by the old rule set this whole time. Still ...... I think I'll still keep my favorite builds safely tucked away into hangars :D
     
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  12. japp_02

    japp_02 Commander

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    I thank you all for your interersting feedbacks, this thread is going to be very exhaustive, I highly appreciate :)
    I think by only watching drones attacking my spawned stock base (Blue Moon which I upgraded to T3), was giving me a false impression over time about the damage that enemies can deal to your SVs. I'm playing since v.1.1, more frequently since 1.5 and I always noticed numerous blocks damaged on my landing pad around my SV but my SV itself was always 100% intact. But my lesson is: observing something for a long time doesn't make a rule of it ! Apparently I must get used that I can get damaged even when docked, the images from Garamar show it clearly.

    @Garamar,
    thanks to provide these pictures. What are those bombers you mention? Will they appear in the vanilla game, or only in RE or PE scenario ?
     
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  13. Garaman

    Garaman Captain

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    I believe the bomber drones are still in vanilla. I had to manually spawn them for that test because I was only getting rocket and minigun drones in the base attacks on the starter planet. Not sure what triggers them to come as part of the attack wave though.
     
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  14. Scoob

    Scoob Rear Admiral

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    Interesting! Thanks for the screen shots @Garaman - I've not actually encountered a Bomber Drone in my current game.

    As mentioned, it was only fairly recently, considering how long I've played for, that I noticed externally-docked ships were not taking damage. I traditionally have fully enclosed hangars specifically to protect any docked vessels. I think the lack of apparent consistency here is causing some confusion. The light CV docked to my Main CV has taken zero damage despite many attacks on the main ship. Main ship is shielded, docked CV is too but the shield is off when docked of course. However, Ships docked to a Base seems to consistently take damage for me.

    I have run Scenarios (Reforged Eden) in the past, so doubtless they change some of the rules too - I've only seen Bomber Drones in Reforged Eden as far as I remember.
     
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  15. IndigoWyrd

    IndigoWyrd Rear Admiral

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    Bombers... outside of one specific SP chapter, seem to be pretty uncommon to encounter. I do recall one particular base I had build, in the side of a mountain, that seemed to be magnet for these, which turned out to be great for me - as my defensive turrets would drop them like hot potatoes as they came over the top of the mountain, but that was several game versions ago. It's kind of good though that these are uncommon, as they're tough little buggers, fast and hard to hit even with Seeker rockets, and they can do a tremendous amount of damage and fast.
     
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