Ok, docking. I found a battleship I can dock on. Its a bit oorp, I will take it since really its the only place I found I can dock. Really the only place.. Its a bonus too, as its in the same system I wish to rp in. Now, I can concentrate on the fun part now.
I have been reading up on Tinkerbell's journeys on his Barge. He was able to dock at stations and go through jumholes. Myself, testing these applications-I have found no success. This leads me to the conclusion.
1. Modders changed the Barge's capabilities to limit it further. OR
2. I still need to think outside the box on how to dock with various stations and jumpholes.
Number 1 is my bet.
NOTE TO ADMINS: The lack of docking support really takes alot of the fun out of your rp ability. It takes several hours to get to a system, one server failure, loss of connection, or KIA puts you back several systems whch results in another several hours just to get back to where you were rping, what a fun kill. Already happen to me once. (Lost connection). Puts me back where I was first beamed.
THis really limits my rp application though as now I am limited to one system.
Any who, at least I found one station so I am able to adjust turrets and armor and such. I will be dependent on traders to deliver such items, thats alright for me, more to involve in rp if any are around.
Docking with Jump Gates is the easiest thing to do with a Barge, in my experience. You just put the thing so it's nearly touching the gate clamp things, and then hit dock. The important thing is to get the front of the Barge into the gate, just like with any of those other big ships. Most of the time the Barge likes to fly up a little high through the gate, but it has always connected and gone zoom.
Planets is simple too, all you do is put the Barge so that the very front of the hitbox is resting on the very top of the Mooring Fixture. This will prevent it from trying to turn down and completely fail to find a good dock point. Instead it will inch into the planet, sliding along the top of the fixture, and quick-dock within a few seconds.
Stations is not much fun. I haven't been able to dock with a station, but I also don't plan on doing it soon. I much prefer using transports or other ships to attend to Barge station needs, and it's pleasant seeing the Barge sitting not-really-moored-but-more-like-anchored next to the station while small ships, like Mastodons and Container Transports, dart about. It makes for nice photos and the extra time it takes doesn't feel like a waste.
Jump Holes I haven't been able to dock with yet, though the only one I have tried so far is the one to Alberta from Ontario. I have seen a Barge dock with a Jump Hole, in the middle of an asteroid belt even, so it is very possible. I imagine the technique is similar to other docking, except requiring more precision since you don't have anything solid (unless the Jump Hole decides to collide with you, which it does sometimes) to help you keep the Barge on course. It doesn't aim perfectly on its own, so you need to position the barge so that the position it should try to aim for hits the mark while it's trying to get some other position into place.
"It's not so much working with the Barge as tricking it into doing what it should."
On the bases you can fly to the middle between the Stations head and the docking air locks. and in rock bases fly to the bar sticking out and click dock just before you hit it that will auto-dock you.
The fast dock point i saw somewhere here on the forum - well it just don`t work . I wander if i get the files of the old barge - will it work ...
I might try that , but hte old barge looked so ugly- this one is so so beautiful , i just hate that ... I can`t dock that`s thrustrating ...Maybe there is an issue with the docking ?
' Wrote:The fast dock point i saw somewhere here on the forum - well it just don`t work . I wander if i get the files of the old barge - will it work ...
I might try that , but hte old barge looked so ugly- this one is so so beautiful , i just hate that ... I can`t dock that`s thrustrating ...Maybe there is an issue with the docking ?
The dock point has been moved to the very tip of the thing sticking out the front.
There is a thread significantly newer than this one which shows it. Use the search feature.
Actually, I have managed to dock with certain stations using a dock point between and slightly forward of the engines on the front of the New Barge, but it might just be a good place to align things when in fact the tip of the nose is in a quick dock area... it's so vague now it makes me angry!
