[rcrph]

Does anyone have any suggestions on how to simulate the fighter launches from B5 station, other than just having the fighter wing appear just outside the drop bays ??   thx.

[Trivial Psychic]

For the future possibly.  If we can get an option to select which bay a ship or wing will depart through or arrive from, we can add some bay paths for the Cobra bays and select them as arrival locations.  Until this feature is added however, there's no way to be sure that they won't arrive/depart through any other bay on the station.

[rcrph]

Yeah, that would be a nice addition. thx.  Another thing that I've noticed is that you can't order a transport to dock with the main landing bays.  It would nice to have a docking point inside the bays and a dock point on the front of transports to facilitate a smooth approach and docking.  I've been trying to add waypoints inside the main bays to create a landing approach but I'm afraid that I haven't got it down quite yet.

[Prophet]

Why do you need a ship to "dock" inside the bay? It is only used by ships that dock (by going inside) with the station. If you want them to do that, then go in to the ships editor and give the ship a departure cue. And, instead of hyperspace, change the departure "location" to B5 from the drop-down menu.

If you want a "fake" docking so that the ship enters the bay and then comes back out during the mission, you can't do that. But you can have another ship with a slightly different name (with a extra space in the name or something) and predent its the same ship.

[IPAndrews]

No fighterbays on rotating sections. Dock points on rotating sections seem to work, but only for one ship. I tried docking a load of Zephyrs to the Raider Carrier and the carrier span off into the distance and crashed the game. Did you see that? That there's both of your options flying past you and out of the window. Wave them bye bye .

[karajorma]

If you want a "fake" docking so that the ship enters the bay and then comes back out during the mission, you can't do that. But you can have another ship with a slightly different name (with a extra space in the name or something) and predent its the same ship.

Actually you can do that now too

It's not in CVS yet though so it's still experimental

[Prophet]

Actually you can do that now too

Oh yeah I read that but didn't remember it. I don't remember half of the upgrades there has been to the code.

@ IP: I'm not really sure what you're on, but B5 has a working landing bay.

[IPAndrews]

we can add some bay paths for the Cobra bays

[Prophet]

Oh it was about Triv! I thought you were talking about something rcrph said. I need to find out what I was on. And get more of it.

[Trivial Psychic]

No fighterbays on rotating sections. Dock points on rotating sections seem to work, but only for one ship. I tried docking a load of Zephyrs to the Raider Carrier and the carrier span off into the distance and crashed the game. Did you see that? That there's both of your options flying past you and out of the window. Wave them bye bye .

Well, there is a way to bind a path to a submodel, but I believe you're correct that it won't actually force the path to rotate with the submodel.  Even if we could, it'd make bay approaches difficult for trying to follow a path that's continuously in motion.  Fortunately, should the departure/arrival bay specifying request make it in, we'd only need to worry about arrivals, which isn't much of a problem.

[rcrph]

I guess that I kind of wandered off the topic when I mentioned docking inside a landing bay.  I was trying to create a mission where some transports arrive and are headed for B5 when some bad guys come thru the gate and take up chase.  Alpha wing is supposed to scramble, intercept and destroy the hostiles.  I wanted the transports to enter the landing bay and then they would be safe but for some reason once the transports reach the final waypoint inside the lower bay, they drift off, bang into the hangar walls and self-destruct.  I intended the transports to disappear a few moments after their arrival at the bay to make way for the next arriving transport but ....  Perhaps I'll just have them disappear immediately after their arrival at the bay to eliminate the problem even though I like the looks of a ship in the bay.  thx, for all the advice 

[karajorma]

Simply have them depart from the ship bay rather than go to a waypoint inside it.

This also has the advantage that if anyone ever finishes Bob's bay code and B5 is updated to handle it the freighter will actually sit and wait for the bay doors to open before going inside.

[rcrph]

An Interesting and simple solution to a problem.  Karajorma you're a genius.  thx,

[Goober5000]

Well, there is a way to bind a path to a submodel, but I believe you're correct that it won't actually force the path to rotate with the submodel.

Um, I added this capability about a year ago. There was even a fairly heated discussion in the internal about it.  Don't you guys remember?

If it doesn't work, Mantis it.  I don't have time to check all the forums all the time, and I can't fix it if I don't know about it.

Even if we could, it'd make bay approaches difficult for trying to follow a path that's continuously in motion.  Fortunately, should the departure/arrival bay specifying request make it in, we'd only need to worry about arrivals, which isn't much of a problem.

In case you haven't spotted it yet (in the Recent Builds forum), this has now been implemented.