Docking: Noob query.

[chazz]

How in Sam Houston do I get my TF's to automatically dock when they reach a port?

Assuming the port has sufficient capacity, of course....

[Alfred]

Do you ever bother to read the manual?  Or for that manner any of the many previous threads which have already answered you numerous queries.
 
If you want proper answers, giving proper details is necessary.  Instead what I continue to see is various responses, many of which are inaccurate/contradictory.  Incorrect information is not good for newbies.
 
Alfred

[Erkki]

ORIGINAL: Alfred

Do you ever bother to read the manual?  Or for that manner any of the many previous threads which have already answered you numerous queries.

If you want proper answers, giving proper details is necessary.  Instead what I continue to see is various responses, many of which are inaccurate/contradictory.  Incorrect information is not good for newbies.

Alfred

Why bother typing replies like these? Before no one else has managed to reply you've already judged their advice inaccurate. More details arent even necessary as I can guess what in maximum 3 different scenarios he had in mind and it takes about 15 seconds for me to type them to make it clear that the advice relates to them. I even had some case scenarios in mind but now I'm in doubt again and need to dig up the manual myself, just in case I'd hurt somebodys touchy feelings, probably for the Nth time. Maybe I too should start commenting and giving advice only via PMs? Such a nice athmosphere ainnit?

[chazz]

Yes, I've bothered to read the manual.

And I use the search function religiously. No help there. Apparently, there's some type of bug.

No need to be unpleasant.

[Itdepends]

Taskforce may be too big for the port
An individual ship may be too big for the port
Sometimes even if it fits- it doesn't dock straight away (not sure why)- dock it manually if you're impatient or wait till the next turn and see if it docks.

[Sardaukar]

What Itdepends said. Base has 2 limits, you see those on base screen:

- max. total tonnage of TF to dock
- max. tonnage of individual ship

If either of those has been exceeded, you cannot dock. E.g. you can be way under max. total tonnage, but you have a ship that exceeds individual ship limit, you cannot dock TF. More concrete example, you have TF of RMS Queen Elizabeth (83,673) and 2 5000-ton APs (donno how QE is rated in game, but as example). You are trying to dock to 100 000/50 000 port. While former limit would allow you, QE is over ship size limit (50k), so no docking.

Hope this helps.

[Amoral]

ORIGINAL: Sardaukar

What Itdepends said. Base has 2 limits, you see those on base screen:

- max. total tonnage of TF to dock
- max. tonnage of individual ship

If either of those has been exceeded, you cannot dock. E.g. you can be way under max. total tonnage, but you have a ship that exceeds individual ship limit, you cannot dock TF. More concrete example, you have TF of RMS Queen Elizabeth (83,673) and 2 5000-ton APs (donno how QE is rated in game, but as example). You are trying to dock to 100 000/50 000 port. While former limit would allow you, QE is over ship size limit (50k), so no docking.

Hope this helps.

There's more to it than that. I routinely find my CS fleets loading fuel but not docked. I can manually hit the dock button without issue. It's just for some reason the auto port manager decided not to dock the TF.

[jmalter]

ORIGINAL: Amoral
There's more to it than that. I routinely find my CS fleets loading fuel but not docked. I can manually hit the dock button without issue. It's just for some reason the auto port manager decided not to dock the TF.

I get the non-docking thing quite a lot. Almost always w/ small TransportTFs (both manual & CS) at small bases, & quite frequently at large bases w/ convoys of all sizes. I've made it a habit to manually check my ports. Often, I'll use an AmphibTF to move fuel & supply, trading 20% capacity for their ability to unload 4 times per day w/o need for docking.

My off-map bases seem to do somewhat better in regard to docking new arrivals.

[LoBaron]

ORIGINAL: Amoral

ORIGINAL: Sardaukar

What Itdepends said. Base has 2 limits, you see those on base screen:

- max. total tonnage of TF to dock
- max. tonnage of individual ship

If either of those has been exceeded, you cannot dock. E.g. you can be way under max. total tonnage, but you have a ship that exceeds individual ship limit, you cannot dock TF. More concrete example, you have TF of RMS Queen Elizabeth (83,673) and 2 5000-ton APs (donno how QE is rated in game, but as example). You are trying to dock to 100 000/50 000 port. While former limit would allow you, QE is over ship size limit (50k), so no docking.

Hope this helps.

There's more to it than that. I routinely find my CS fleets loading fuel but not docked. I can manually hit the dock button without issue. It's just for some reason the auto port manager decided not to dock the TF.

There is more to it. Don Bowen made a very educational post about how the docking manager works and what the limitations are some months ago.

IIRC it is something like this:

Autodocking is disabled for all ports < 4. This is to prevent a TF automatically eating up all the available docking space by the AI, instead of granting fair shares to all TFs.
For ports of size 4+ the the docking manager docks the first TF arriving in port to unload (there might be some rules behind this like TF type, but I don´t know for certain).

But here comes the jackpot:

During the turn, at each unloading phase, there are ships docking even if the TF the specific ship is part of is too big to dock. At each turn the docking manager uses the possible maximum of docking space for a number of individual ships that fit, whether they belong to a TF or not. This is not visible on the TF screen, as the TF itself will remain undocked.

Now, what the player can do by manually docking a TF is: he prioritizes the available docking space for this specific TF by assigning docking space to it which in turn the docking manager cannot use for autodocking indivudual ships.

Hope that helps.

[jmalter]

thanks for your post, LoBaron.

[geofflambert]

Alfred's getting poopy again! [:-] [:'(]

I have an impression that a certain level of ops points is required to auto dock on the arrival turn. Anyone know for sure? Also sometimes TFs that arrive empty auto dock anyway. What's up with that?

[geofflambert]

Amoral. I'm not attacking you. You seem like a good guy and a useful forumite (unlike myself). Your username gives me the creeps. If it was Vlad Tepes I want to put your head on a stake, I would understand, ha ha ha. But it's akin to having the username homicidalpedophile that's not recognizably a joke. I regret using my real name as a username, but que sera, you can correct this. I know of at least one case where the Matrix powers that be allowed a renaming. I believe you should request this and they should grant it.

[Alfred]

ORIGINAL: Erkki

ORIGINAL: Alfred

Do you ever bother to read the manual?  Or for that manner any of the many previous threads which have already answered you numerous queries.

If you want proper answers, giving proper details is necessary.  Instead what I continue to see is various responses, many of which are inaccurate/contradictory.  Incorrect information is not good for newbies.

Alfred

Why bother typing replies like these? Before no one else has managed to reply you've already judged their advice inaccurate. More details arent even necessary as I can guess what in maximum 3 different scenarios he had in mind and it takes about 15 seconds for me to type them to make it clear that the advice relates to them. I even had some case scenarios in mind but now I'm in doubt again and need to dig up the manual myself, just in case I'd hurt somebodys touchy feelings, probably for the Nth time. Maybe I too should start commenting and giving advice only via PMs? Such a nice athmosphere ainnit?

About 4 years ago there was a Dutchman who continuously kept asking really basic questions for which the answers were very readily available in the manual. When provided answers he continued to have extreme difficulty in understanding them.

It turned out that he had not bought the game but had downloaded a pirated copy. He did not have a manual. There was a marked change in attitude in the forum towards that Dutchman when this became known.

Back them we had many more of the devs taking a very active role in clarifying and answering queries. Consequently the standard of assistance was quite high. Unfortunately that level of assistance is no longer provided and in its absence we do have many who give out inaccurate answers. They do not do the research I do. On one day last week I spent 3 hours researching my answers on just 2 threads. From your quoted post it is obvious you were prepared to answer whether checking first to see if you were correct. It is that attitude which needs to be stopped. If a person does not know the answer they should not just dash off anything that comes to their mind. That is how many quite wrong myths about the game get started and are given continued life. It makes life very difficult for new players to realise when they are given bad answers and damages the marketing of the game.

Alfred

[Qwixt]

I think these are the first two understandable and coherent posts that I have read from geofflambert.

[geofflambert]

My therapist has been working very hard with me on not making coherent posts. She will be extremely disappointed.

Alfred, I have the manual and the index s***s. The pages are all coming loose from the glue and I have to make an effort to keep them in order. I also have the problem that I can't read and rely on my executive assistant to handle those matters. She's typing this response just now. As to your point, the Netherlands is one of the low countries, isn't it? Let's invade her!

[geofflambert]

ORIGINAL: Qwixt

I think these are the first two understandable and coherent posts that I have read from geofflambert.

Qwixt, you can set me up anytime

[btd64]

ORIGINAL: geofflambert

I also have the problem that I can't read and rely on my executive assistant to handle those matters. She's typing this response just now.

Executive Assistant. Hummm. There is a thread about addition to AE right. When you have an assistant to type your responds in the forum you KNOW your addicted.[:D][:D][:D] GP