X3AP Docking and SETA issues

[temitten]

Hello there, I'm new to X3 but I've been playing it extensively for the last couple of days and I really enjoy it. There are however two issues that are really annoying to me:

I am currently using a Panther Raider and I feel like I should make use of the hangar so I carry a bunch of fighters as well as a couple of freighter drones. The fighters sometimes dock when I tell them to, about half of the time I guess, otherwise they just hang around about 2 km from my ship waiting indefinitely. Sometimes I can get them to dock if I try to order them 1 at a time, which is quite tedious as it means every ship has to temporarily leave the wing. This doesn't always work though, so maybe it doesn't really do anything to help and the times when I've got them to dock this way might have been pure luck.

With freighter drones the issue is much worse, I've never managed to get a freighter drone to dock and only a small fraction of the time do I manage to get them to transfer freight to me. Which makes them pointless as it seems to me they cannot be manually collected (by running in to them) unless their cargobay is empty. So what happens is I send them out to shop for me, I ask them to transfer freight or dock at my ship, they return to about 2 km and stay there until I either crash in to them or give up.

While trying to find a solution to this problem I haven't found that others are experiencing the same problems as I do so hopefully I am doing something wrong that can be corrected.

Also the docking tends to work better while in SETA mode. Which brings me to my second issue, sometimes, maybe 10-20% of the time, SETA won't work, it deactivates immediately and for no apparent reason. There are no objects nearby or anything like that, it should work for all I can tell. Sometimes it will eventually work if I keep trying, most of the time it won't until I leave the sector, which gets annoying if for example you need to buy something in that particular sector (and GREATLY annoying if I need to buy e-cells using freighter drones in that sector).

I am using an xbox360-controller which might be the root of the SETA issue, I just tried unlupping it while I had the problem and after that I managed to get SETA running, could be a coincidence but probably not. This also made my fighters dock, could not get my freighter drone to transfer cargo or dock though, I must have cleared it's orders and issued new ones 20 times, tried everything I could think of but eventually it ran out of energy and exploded.

If it is my controller who disturbs SETA, any suggestions on how this might be fixed? (the unplugging/plugging-solution isn't that elegant)
Is there something I'm missing when it comes to freight drones?

[SIMON POPPLEWELL]

Problem with ships docking is because there is a collision warning conflicting with the docking command, they just sit there. You can try moving you ship slightly and try docking them again. The freight drones are classed as freight so you can safely fly over them and they get dropped in the cargo bay with whatever cargo they was carrying.

[temitten]

Problem with ships docking is because there is a collision warning conflicting with the docking command, they just sit there. You can try moving you ship slightly and try docking them again. The freight drones are classed as freight so you can safely fly over them and they get dropped in the cargo bay with whatever cargo they was carrying.

Thanks!
That is what I do, I try and try again, I move a little bit, move them a little bit, order them individually if it comes to that, but only occasionally do they decide to dock. Unless SETA is on, then they appear to dock with no problems. I have had clusters of fighters just outside my ship refusing to dock but as soon as I activate SETA they do, no need to issue new orders or anything.

As for the freight drones that doesn't work, empty ones I can scoop like that but if they have any cargo they explode and I get the audio message "warning cargohold no empty" or something like that.


EDIT: Correction, sometimes it does work.. I just tried in order to find out exactly what the audio message was and I scooped the drone. I'll try to find out when there's an issue and when there isn't.

EDIT 2: I'm guessing that maybe I didn't have enough space for the cargo for all those exploded freight drones, I'm not sure and I really want to believe I took space into account when I was shopping, but it is the most likely explanation.

[SIMON POPPLEWELL]

EDIT 2: I'm guessing that maybe I didn't have enough space for the cargo for all those exploded freight drones, I'm not sure and I really want to believe I took space into account when I was shopping, but it is the most likely explanation.

If you don't have the cargo space then yes they will get destroyed. Each drone can carry 800 units of cargo. Also worth mentioning you need to have a free hanger bay for drones to automatically dock as well.

[bizbag]

An alternate solution is to dock them yourself if they aren't cooperating. Make sure the fighters have Docking Computers and your Panther a Transporter Device. Transport to the fighter, hit the hotkey to auto dock and you're instantly back on the Panther.

[temitten]

An alternate solution is to dock them yourself if they aren't cooperating. Make sure the fighters have Docking Computers and your Panther a Transporter Device. Transport to the fighter, hit the hotkey to auto dock and you're instantly back on the Panther.

That's a pretty good idea. A little bit time consuming but at least it is guaranteed to work. Thanks!

[bizbag]

An alternate solution is to dock them yourself if they aren't cooperating. Make sure the fighters have Docking Computers and your Panther a Transporter Device. Transport to the fighter, hit the hotkey to auto dock and you're instantly back on the Panther.

That's a pretty good idea. A little bit time consuming but at least it is guaranteed to work. Thanks!

I actually find it takes less time overall, only the two or three seconds to Transport to the fighter, since the Docking Computer essentially teleports your ship instantaneously. It might be tedious for an entire fighter wing, I suppose.