Bought and paid for the original "Elite" way back in the last century, game was terrific. So when the modern version came out. I paid 100 English pounds plus another 35 pounds for it. Alas! after hours and hours of attempting to to dock my ship I think I fluked it just 4 times and as for docking on the pad ..... NEVER. Frustration finally won and I gave up playing. After all its meant to be enjoyable right?
Then along comes the April 23 patch which I miss-read as being easier for beginners so I forked out A$84.95 and again bought the damn game. Again alas no simplification to the space-station entry or docking. The improvements only apply to players who have already mastered the docking procedure.
I would like to suggest that on purchasing "Elite" there is a further option to further purchase a docking computer for say A$20 dollars. I will now go do battle to retrieve my A$84.95.
G'day Commander and welcome back! I think every Commander understands your frustration as we all had to learn how to dock. However before you give up I think it's worth sticking at it as the game can reward you with so much.
Firstly are you using the docking training simulation that can be accessed from the welcome screen? Press continue and you'll see it there or wthin the cockpit in the main menu of the right hand panel. This walks you through the basics. Although the UI has changed a bit since the training vid was made all the basic principles remain intact.
Secondly are you using a Joystick or HOTAS? If you are using just keyboard and mouse then with rotating stations the roll keypresses are difficult to keep the ship aligned with the mail slot. With the relative control of a Joystick it's pretty easy to keep your roll synchonized. The stick's 3 axes increase and decrease the speed of movement depending how far you push/rotate it. After a while it becomes second nature and you almost forget you are actually rolling the ship as you enter.
Make sure "Rotational Correction" is switched on, this keeps the ship steady once inside a station. Obviously on static outposts, ground bases and other non rotating landing places it has no effect. This can be bound to a key (mine is R) or accessed from the right hand panel/ship/flight assistance. Talking of keybindng, as Valorin mentioned it's worth taking time in a training simulation to tweak and experiment with the button (if you have a Joystick or HOTAS) and keybinds (e.g. landing gear) so they are easy to use and make sense to your liking. But don't worry about every last one yet, just get the essentials done. You can fix up the others as you progress. As has been said countless times ED has a near vertical learning curve but if you go to the Newcomers forum there are many players old and new with heaps of experience and advice.
Thirdly, apart from the in-game training and vid, this
ED Wiki page is as good as any guide to the whole business of docking and has more vids. Bear in mind the UI layout for asking docking permission is now slighly different from when a lot of training vids were made. And now there is an advanced docking computer it does everything for you apart from serving a cold beer! Fly within 7500 m of a station, ask for docking permission (left hand target panel) and once you slow down enough the DC will take over while you put your feet up. There have been reports over the years of the DC being unreliable, but they seem to be very seldom these days as far as I know.
Finally, if you bought the game originally not long after it came out I'm confused as to why you shelled out again? Your original account with Frontier should still be intact, or did you get a refund back then? If you didn't refund back then you should contact Frontier Support, I'm sure they will be helpful in reactivating it for free. Hopefully if you explain the situation they'll refund your A$84.95 and you get your original money's worth. It's a win-win! Land safe and let us know how you get on. o7
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