Autopilot cannot dock on starport -weird planet bug.

[Cosm1cGam3r]

Autopilot cannot dock on starport at planet richardson's rock (Andho -5,5,-47)

First thing I noticed while autopilot was descending into starport was jolts of whole city. When autopilot reaches landing pad it just hangs above landing pad and cannot dock. I was able to dock on other port using autopilot. And on those docks that it could not dock I tried to do it manually but I had to compensate planet's rotation and I tried to hit that docking spot but it seemed not present. Also It seems that I am able to see that space dust speed indicator things like I would be still in space above planet.

But in case when I take over controls from autopilot while he is hovering above docking pad I am able to just go underneath this landing platform (ghosting)
When I go even lower to see if I can land on surface it appears that I am going under planets surface. ALT shows 0 while I am still descending. Now fun part begins.
I am some way under surface and first time my ship crashed on invisible surface. Second attempt and I tried to move slower and this time I landed but i was teleported into visible surface under that landing pad. But everything was moving! My ship just slided on ground and was passing through every building. I skipped time and my ship after some time seemed to be way above visible ground. Then was back again on visible surface. That repeats continuously.

Very weird bug :)

[nozmajner]

Could you provide some savegames? Or some info on your ship, and which kind of station you are unable to dock, and where?

[Cosm1cGam3r]

I was able to land on Weeksville and Simmonsville. I was unable to land on Bolton station and Wise.

[impaktor]

Sounds like it might be the same bug as #3076, i.e. something makes autopilot and AI think they can't land. I assume the landing pads weren't full, since you could try to land manually.

Also It seems that I am able to see that space dust speed indicator things like I would be still in space above planet.

Interesting.

When I go even lower to see if I can land on surface it appears that I am going under planets surface.

This is a separate bug I think. #37. Although you should not be able to access this realm of the underworld from a star port (I think, I haven't tested that), sounds like the game put a fake star port you can't land on, and when you fly through it, it behaves like "normal" terrain, which you can travel through given the right angle and speed.

[ghost]

Pioneer version 20140916 (on version 20140930 I cannot test if already the bug exists, it crashes for other reasons and the previous saved file is not compatible).

• Lalande 21185 (0,0,0)
  • Howlett's Grave
    • mccoy station
    • fort sloan
    • nolanton

It also happens on another system close to sol system (Gliese 109?). To go to a station I use F4, select the destination then press 2 (goto and dock)

Symptoms:
The ship arrives at the port, and float on the landing zone very close, such close that seem landed. If I press F5 (set speed), the ship doesn't follow the planet rotation (i.e. the terrain slowly rotate under the ship). No way to landing, the station doesn't exists, you can fly through buildings.

[ghost]

Another 'behaviour' related to this bug (I not browsed the sources, so it's only a guess) is the way the ship depart from a station using autopilot.

• F5 to launch, then wait until ship is at some distance from pad and F5 again. Now the ship float over the pad.
• F4 to select destination then 2 (goto and dock)

In normal conditions, when the ship start, it move radially far from station, then 'keep' the orbit and fly in the destination direction. On Lalande 21185 (and other few systems) this doesn't happen. When the ship starts, it doesn't reach the orbit, it flyies quasi-parallel to the ground. Sometimes a building (skyscraper) is just on the path and the ship crash on it.

[ribbi73]

I'm currently using precompiled pioneer-20161129-win32 on Windows 10 64-bit, and I think I'm experiencing the same issue as described in the first post. Autopilot cannot land in Hudson Village, on planet Crawford's Rock, in system Gliese 810 (-4, -4, -2). Instead of landing the ship, autopilot hovers two meters above landing pad, and disabling autopilot results in ship falling through the landing pad. I'm attaching a savegame file, with the ship approaching Hudson Village. Hope this helps solving the issue.
deneb_gliese810.zip

[jaj22]

@ribbi73 The ship never enters the rotating frame of Crawford's Rock, which I assume is because the rotating frame is smaller than the actual terrain. It's probably the issue addressed by #3491. I'll check that again and try to get a fix merged.

Thanks for the savegame btw.

[walterar]

@jaj22 Surely this is another planet where the problem of #3491 is evident. I call it "the killer planet of novice pilots". :)

For the one who wants to try luck landing on it, here is the game saved with the ship in orbit: https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/15391580/Pioneer/Enaress-Be

[jaj22]

Well, that was easier than I expected:

There's no strict terrain height vs frame size problem on Enaress B-e. You could argue there's an instrumentation issue, because the player would expect their velocity to be calculated relative to the planet surface. For planets with decent atmospheres, you get a much earlier transition and so navigation feels inconsistent.

Looking into cases where terrain height > 1.0 opened a can of worms. TerrainHeightMountainsNormal is the culprit for Crawford's Rock, but it's probably not the only one. The heightmaps are all loaded with trash maxHeight but avoid the problem due to their atmospheres.

It's extremely difficult to calculate the theoretical maximum height for many of the fractals due to their complexity. I'm considering simply doubling the max height to give a safe margin, which would also cover the heightmap fractals. For planets I've seen, doubling the max height will typically give a frame size far below that for atmosphere planets, so it's unlikely to cause issues with low orbits.

[impaktor]

I'm going to deem this issue as outdated.