Docking - Does anyone find it fun?

[Droid8Apple]

Hey guys,

I gotta ask, does anyone find docking to be a fun experience? To me, as a new player, it seems like it was designed to be as stressful and difficult as possible. Approach a rotating space station, maybe from the wrong side, line up with a tiny slot, match rotation, fly in, and land on a tiny pad that may be behind you - all while a timer is counting down and knowing that if you mess up badly, you'll be fined or your ship will be destroyed. In short, it's a pain in the butt. Does anyone else feel this way, or, did you when you first started playing?

I guess I need a docking computer!

What do you think??

Coriolis docking: The button you use to cycle ships around you... when you arrive to a station out of supercruise if you click that button it will highlight the station. It will then show you arrows on the hologram which side the entrance is on.

Aside from that, in a week of docking you'll feel embarrassed writing this. It's not hard whatsoever. I recommend changing "flight landing over rides" in the controls so once your landing gear is down you can make buttons usually used for something else do whatever you want during docking.

 

[Psypher]

I find it fun and never get tired of it. Btw, I'm still need to master docking with those big ships, I'm frequently scratch the painting of my Conda on the mailslot [noob].

 

[EUS]

I still like it, it's the only part of the game where I feel like I'm piloting. Moreso than when in combat.
Pitching/rolling, boosting sideways, thrusters, landing gear, maneuvering thrusters, then gently down.

 

[Arry]

Here's another question: When I am approaching a target, like a station, at...Warp? Speed, how do I drop out in time so as not to overshoot it? What do I watch for, and what do I press? Thanks!

Speed: When things are far away, as fast as you can; but as you start to approach the destination; say the last quarter of the total distance. You'll need to slow down. The Blue band next to the speed indicator is the 'power control'. If you apply more than half power, the ship will continue to accelerate, at about half way, it will cruise and below the half way mark. The ship will slow down appropriately.

On approach, when in super-cruise, keep the speed at 10% of the distance and no higher and you'll never overshoot again.

 

[ebbrell]

Yes I love it..... make game real.... and a skilled pilot doesn't have a problem with any ship

 

[Arry]

Nice! But from one clipper pilot to another:

1. Oh, that was a looooong time for dropout of SC and
2. No pip management? (4 pips to ENG!) and
3. No boost? 200 through the slot is standard procedure!

Not having a DC it was fun to see how it takes control and lands swiftly, though. Impressive.

o7

I am using a laptop, that is meant to be good enough for the game. If you think the 'tea break' drops from SC are long. Understand, that I can go and make the tea, when I open the map screens.

 

[Noctover]

Its never been fun, but further more I've never found it remotely challenging from day 1 which many people seem to..

From the moment i got my Annie i was boosting it thru the letterbox as fast as its DD would allow, and i was hoping it would be much harder..

 

[Boter]

I enjoy it. I have a Beluga so it's a challenge each time; and with smaller ships I was often smuggling so I'd be boosting through the slot at 350 m/sec then slamming the brakes.

Make your own fun, and if you can't get a DC and make a sandwich while you're waiting.

 

[ChiefRedCloud]

Hey guys,

I gotta ask, does anyone find docking to be a fun experience? To me, as a new player, it seems like it was designed to be as stressful and difficult as possible. Approach a rotating space station, maybe from the wrong side, line up with a tiny slot, match rotation, fly in, and land on a tiny pad that may be behind you - all while a timer is counting down and knowing that if you mess up badly, you'll be fined or your ship will be destroyed. In short, it's a pain in the butt. Does anyone else feel this way, or, did you when you first started playing?

I guess I need a docking computer!

What do you think??

I too came from a flight sim background (biplanes to jets) and landings were always a challenge. When I arrived in ED about 5 to 6 months ago (guesstimating) I really sucked at landings. And when I was able to I bought a D.C. for each of my ships. Well I knew I had to eventually deal with manual landings as the D.C. hogged an important slot.

Since then I have several D.C. collecting dust in storage (at times they have their uses). I still find docking a bit tense (judging by my grip on my stick) but satisfying in that I did it myself. Of course my biggest ship so far is Python. I have no idea how I'll deal with a bigger ship. But I've read a lot of comments on this in the forums.

I've gotten to the point that it's a challenge to find the station entrance and line up way before dropping out of Cruze.

Chief

 

[syngyne]

Been playing for over a year and I love all aspects of docking save one:

Beluga pilots.

They are the worst.

 

[Xious]

Been playing for over a year and I love all aspects of docking save one:

Beluga pilots.

They are the worst.

Have to agree... They are pretty disgusting...

Spoiler

 

[=71st=RuSh]

Is boring, I always use the SDC

 

[DNA-Decay]

I like being on a repetitious task that involves docking at the same place.
EG fighting in a CZ.

Two years and I'm still not FA Off. But I love slamming around a combat ship. Using the landing gear for brakes. Trying to shave another second off the repeat. Knowing where Pad 10 will be.

Putting the nose of a Beluga right on that door on the staircase and then swinging its bum down (down thrust and pitch up). Or scraping the tail on the toast rack, but not enough to scare the wusses in luxury.

 

[CMDR BOSLEY]

I find it fun because as a smuggler i got really good at do it at high speed. Then i took it tobthe next level doing stunt type maneuvers as I'm docking.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

Is landing a plane is fun ? Is parking your car is fun ? I don't know if docking is fun or not, i don't ask myself this kind of stupid question, it just must be done, correctly done is you don't want paid your rebuy cost. End

Landing a plane *can* be fun. The others, not so much.

Yes I love it..... make game real.... and a skilled pilot doesn't have a problem with any ship

Tell that to the dead test pilots.

 

[ocflyer]

I still laugh everytime I'm carrying passengers and land so hard that my ship bounces off the pad. After all, the passengers are only allowed to complain if I take hull damage, but my engineered shields are so strong that I could bounce off the station's back wall and not lose shields. I laugh when I think of the passengers leaving my ship complaining of whiplash but still having to pay full fare.

 

[BillD]

I love it. Outposts are the best. Flying in at weird angles and high speed, rotating the ship at the last moment to match alignment and drop onto the pad. Great fun.

This ^^^

I have a ball with FA Off/on/ OFF, etc flipping and tumbling towards the pad from odd angles. Sometimes you get the tumble just right and just in time and it feels like an acrobat sticking the perfect landing...... TADA!

However sometimes (usually after switching to a heavier ship) It ends up more like Acrobat Bloopers

Never grows old for me. (I do it in VR too) [yesnod]

 

[Colonel Kenney]

Its like riding a bike and its fun. Don't use a docking computer that is cheating and its much much slower than manually doing it. I try to dock as fast as possible each time and as perfect as possible. Its one of the few repetitive things in the game that actually is fun.

Mind you I use trackIR and HOTAS so it makes it much easier that way.

 

[Kaocraft]

Docking is what originally sold me on the game. The first time I saw a video of someone 2001-ing their way into a rotating station, landing on the pad in the middle of a busy station, and then riding the elevator down into the hangar, I knew this was the game for me. And yeah it was difficult at first. Bit by bit I started to get the hang of it, and with each successively larger ship it became a new challenge, until now even though it's almost second-nature to me at this point it's still always an engaging experience.

 

[Kaocraft]

I am using a laptop, that is meant to be good enough for the game. If you think the 'tea break' drops from SC are long. Understand, that I can go and make the tea, when I open the map screens.

As a fellow potato-computer owner, I feel you.