3 common annoyances encountered during docking procedures. Traders know what I mean...

[Vyn Halcyon]

1. Landing pad is RIGHT behind and under the letterbox slot entrance.... very high chance of overshooting. Can be obscured by cockpit blindspot.

2. Docking port number holograms appearing 5 seconds after entering letterbox.... Godda yaw and frak around all day just cuz the holograms didn't pop up to begin with. Try yawing all day in a type 7 or even 9. Makes you wanna eat buckshot and coat the cockpit red. Godda hover around twiddling thumbs wondering if one's landing pad is the one under the letterbox slot entrance. Makes me wish the starport administrators stuck with good old paint and bucket for the numbers.... But then maybe some Frak-Hat occupying the docking port, playing with his "other" joystick to some unsavory literature, is reponsible for the round-frakkery.

3. Fat starship(s) stuck in the letterbox. I mean.... just... infuriating. Funny but infuriating, cuz you only got 9 minutes to enjoy that before it stops being funny. And you can't help "expedite" the unstucking with your own guns, eventhough that'd be a great source of... catharsis?


Admittedly, these are just small annoyances, but to a Trader like me, who has traded so much that I've become a clockwork of accuracy in things docking, things like this me off, cuz these things seem to happen *all* the time.

 

[Seren77]

once you enter the airlock your alignment gauge thing, points towards the pad, saves having to visually look for the pad especially with the annoying hologram bug. Hope they fix that next patch

 

[BrewerGeorge]

Agreed on the hologram shutting off.

I also have a lot of trouble telling the difference between '5' and '6' in the font used.

 

[evoelise]

3. Fat starship(s) stuck in the letterbox. I mean.... just... infuriating. Funny but infuriating, cuz you only got 9 minutes to enjoy that before it stops being funny. And you can't help "expedite" the unstucking with your own guns, eventhough that'd be a great source of... catharsis?

Just log off and back on again - you'll re-appear outside the station.

 

[Whiterose]

I tend to know the pads that are first, such as pad 16, so if I see that I drop as soon as I am through the letter box

 

[Jex =TE=]

Try flying out in your tiny hauler when some mong of a pilot is trying to come through the letter box!

 

[Duckfather]

3. Fat starship(s) stuck in the letterbox. I mean.... just... infuriating. Funny but infuriating, cuz you only got 9 minutes to enjoy that before it stops being funny. And you can't help "expedite" the unstucking with your own guns, eventhough that'd be a great source of... catharsis?

It's much more annoying if they are blocking and you're on your way out. You then only have 5 mins before a lethal dose of photons from the station guns. And don't try to nudge anything out of the way. There is a bug (or a mechanic that's working as it should, ticketed but not received a reply yet) where you will get a loitering warning if you try to push another ship out of the way if it's stuck in the slot. The only way to clear this countdown is to leave the station, which you can't do in the first place. 30 seconds later, your an expensive cloud of vapour

 

[Aircool]

I bet you hate those of use who come flying in using afterburners to avoid police scans as well

 

[EddyRockSteady]

I bet you hate those of use who come flying in using afterburners to avoid police scans as well

Yes, especially if I have to hose you off the outside of my Anaconda

 

[Sandmann]

1. Landing pad is RIGHT behind and under the letterbox slot entrance.... very high chance of overshooting. Can be obscured by cockpit blindspot.

Slow down

2. Docking port number holograms appearing 5 seconds after entering letterbox.... Godda yaw and frak around all day just cuz the holograms didn't pop up to begin with. Try yawing all day in a type 7 or even 9. Makes you wanna eat buckshot and coat the cockpit red. Godda hover around twiddling thumbs wondering if one's landing pad is the one under the letterbox slot entrance. Makes me wish the starport administrators stuck with good old paint and bucket for the numbers.... But then maybe some Frak-Hat occupying the docking port, playing with his "other" joystick to some unsavory literature, is reponsible for the round-frakkery.

Follow your compass

3. Fat starship(s) stuck in the letterbox. I mean.... just... infuriating. Funny but infuriating, cuz you only got 9 minutes to enjoy that before it stops being funny. And you can't help "expedite" the unstucking with your own guns, eventhough that'd be a great source of... catharsis?

You can't shoot them but you CAN "nudge" them.

 

[Alice Margatroid]

[video=youtube;nzADCca0ymk]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzADCca0ymk[/video]
I think the timing of said video was perfect to this thread.

 

[HoshiQaVam]

Not being able to see your pad because of no hologram is quite infuriating, but I pretty much know where all the pads are now so I'm generally pointing toward the pad before I even notice the hologram anyway, so it's less of an issue now. Also, your pad is always lit differently to the others, so that helps too.

I very rarely overshoot because I always ensure my speed is well within the blue range before I reach the entrance, so that's not an issue for me.

What I find more annoying is other players that are incapable of leaving a station on the correct side of the port and nearly spank in to me as they boost out (another annoyance) and players that are too impatient to wait for bigger ships to dock and so try to enter (or leave) by flying around you.

Seriously, if there's a bigger ship in front of you, give it room and wait.

 

[interox]

It's not a letter box, it's a peep hole!

Yer pays your money and takes yer chance

 

[Sandmann]

What I find more annoying is other players that are incapable of leaving a station on the correct side of the port

I know there's been a lot of threads asking about this but there is NO "correct side" of the port. If there were the NPC's wouldn't fly through the centre, neither would the docking computers, it would be clearly signposted, and the recorded announcements in station would talk about it. The red and green lights are not traffic lights, they are channel markers and they simply mark the hole... just like any navigation lights here on earth. As such, expecting others to abide by this just because you've decided it's a good idea is just gonna get you run into over and over again.

 

[Vyn Halcyon]

Just log off and back on again - you'll re-appear outside the station.

DUDE! I played for so long that I forgot to ask for docking permissiom..... So when i was inside Letterbox Station, i was like "OMGOMGOMG", then I remembered your advice and WTFloggedout! It saved my hide. Thx man xD

once you enter the airlock your alignment gauge thing, points towards the pad, saves having to visually look for the pad especially with the annoying hologram bug. Hope they fix that next patch

I just noticed, after paying attention to that! It's one of those unobvious details xD But as G.I. Joe always says: "Now you know!" Thx

 

[Duckfather]

...You can't shoot them but you CAN "nudge" them.

See my post a few above yours. 'Nudging' may not be a very good idea

 

[CMDR Carbo]

I would add:

4. Fat starship enters the letterbox in front of you, get's blown up by the station and pieces of it fly like bouncing balls all around the inside of the station.

There seems to be an issue with the docking permissions of the AI/NPCs.
In some of the bigger stations (e.g. Legendre Ring in Breksta) 8 out of 10 NPC ships that enter the letterbox get shot down.

 

[Alice Margatroid]

I know there's been a lot of threads asking about this but there is NO "correct side" of the port. If there were the NPC's wouldn't fly through the centre, neither would the docking computers, it would be clearly signposted, and the recorded announcements in station would talk about it. The red and green lights are not traffic lights, they are channel markers and they simply mark the hole... just like any navigation lights here on earth. As such, expecting others to abide by this just because you've decided it's a good idea is just gonna get you run into over and over again.

the only problem with them being nav lights is that they are inverted on the inside. also, there are arrows on the green side that point along it being the way of trafic, so it looks like you are intended to go through the green side. the reason the ai and docking comps do it is becuase of lazy coding done by frontier, I feel like at some point they will fix it, but not soon.

 

[HoshiQaVam]

I know there's been a lot of threads asking about this but there is NO "correct side" of the port. If there were the NPC's wouldn't fly through the centre, neither would the docking computers, it would be clearly signposted, and the recorded announcements in station would talk about it. The red and green lights are not traffic lights, they are channel markers and they simply mark the hole... just like any navigation lights here on earth. As such, expecting others to abide by this just because you've decided it's a good idea is just gonna get you run into over and over again.

If that were the case, the red lights would not be flashing.

Red and green nav lights are fixed. The only light that flashes is the white beacon light.

The fact that the red light is flashing is a pretty clear indication that the station is telling you not to fly on that side.

NPC's and docking computers fly through the middle because it (generally) keeps them out of a player's flight path.

It's simple really. Green lights mean go, middle means NPC or docking computer, flashing red means avoid at all costs.

 

[Ravenstar]

Try flying out in your tiny hauler when some mong of a pilot is trying to come through the letter box!

Or he is assisting you by ushering you through on the way to dock. Even though I generally fly to fast for my safety through the slot I've had NPCs fly in behind me even faster.