NPC Cargo ship docking lasers?

[DarkLantern88]

So I can't seem to find anything about this anywhere, but what's with NPC's having what look like lasers to I'm assume dock with the stations?  Are these something we can get as players or is it just for aesthetics?

[Gontarekt]

As far as I know, Only NPC's have this ability, Players can't do it themselves. And yes it's like a tractor beam from the looks of it where it pulls and repels the cargo ship.

[Kamo]

Yup. Blue for pulling, Orange for pushing. It's a docking aid for NPC ships so they do not damage the stations while docking :).

[TinchoX]

They should make a module that adds this "aid" to players as well, so we can go lazy-er and let the ship dock/undock itself.

[Shrooblord]

I have wanted this functionality for a while, and I've made a mod for it that does exactly that: AutoDock. I've been sitting on it for months, never quite satisfied 100% and wanting to perfect it, but you know what, that's silly. Why don't I give it to the community right now? Maybe I'll look into polishing the rough edges some time, but until then, have a mod that does basically 99% of what you wanted. ^-^

[DarkLantern88]

That just sounds awesome! My giant cargo hauler takes forever to dock sometimes and it'd be nice to kind of auto-dock.

[DivineEvil]

Well, technically there's such a tool accessible to a player. It's just Force turrets with Self-Pull and Self-Push respectively, which NPCs fire onto the docking hatch block.

[Shrooblord]

Actually they do not! The Docks themselves activate tractor beams. It's a fully automatic process with no participation from the docking ship whatsoever, other than signalling the Station that it would like to dock.

 

But yes, Force Turrets might achieve what you want. But then you need to sacrifice those lovely Turret Slots...... ;)