Bye bye auto dock and super cruise assist!

[Husanak]

Auto dock is a waste of a space. SuperCruise however is fantastic. No you don't need it all the time but its great when your 20,000 ls out from something and you need to take a bath room break or something. It is also great for speed docking. Super cruise will let you hit the gas around mass objects or simply fly into things way to fast... the computer is much better at pulling you out of cruise... just zero your pitch and yaw once your lined up but going to fast. (if your playing with a mouse I believe the third mouse button is the default to lock pitch and yaw... super cruise at something to fast and zero out your steering the computer will take over)

When your in the bubble doing missions it will save you tons of time if you learn how to use it right. When your out exploring it will let you set those interesting far out destinations and not be worried about accidently flying into them cause waiting 20 min to get there put you to sleep.

 

[Speedcuffs]

I bet you £10 my dad, who is getting this game on my recommendation, if I tell him to try no autodock or supercruise assist he will try it once, get totally frustrated, and immediately give up!

When I first bought the game, I played for two hours.
Then had a two week break before I smashed the TV and destroyed my console.
It's far easier to get into now thank goodness.

 

[Rat Catcher]

I bet you £10 my dad, who is getting this game on my recommendation, if I tell him to try no autodock or supercruise assist he will try it once, get totally frustrated, and immediately give up!

It depends on how old your dad is...

I can fly a Beluga in the mailslot in Silent Running without even thinking about it, same with a Cutter... But I still have ADC on both, because most of the time I can use the time they are docking for other things.

Incidentally, I've just fitted a couple of exploration ships with Supercruise Assist as I also have a liking for visiting 500KLS+ secondary/tertiary stars and their bodies.. But in 'normal' ships...

 

[CMDR D Noize]

Basically those modules are limiting new players from a part of experience.
But maybe I'm just too old and sad that I did not have those modules a few years ago xD

Nah, I see them more like training wheels on a bike.

They were great to help me get started, every so often I'd switch them off and have go manually, mess is all up and switch them back on.
But before long I got better and better at it and now i don't have a single ship with any Flight Assists.

 

[Kekkonshiki]

Well maybe not bye bye, I’m keeping them around, but I’ve just made two successful docks (and it’s so much fun) with auto dock and auto launch turned off, and also, turned off super cruise auto throttle and am flying on my own steam! Only 20 hours in. Every time I played this game before I couldn’t get past the tutorial because I couldn’t dock, this auto dock saved my butt and made me enjoy the game, now I’m enjoying it EVEN MORE with auto dock turned off because landing is so fun!
What does Supercruise Assist actually do apart from slow you down as you jump into a system (why I’m keeping it around.) I don’t notice any difference now it’s turned off.

Congratulations!

Manual docking is an essential skill and you WILL need it from time to time when your ship is hanging together with string and prayers after a fight.

I'm 10,000 hours in to my Elite career and I ALWAYS use the docking computer now but I know I can get my bird down myself if I need to.

 

[Red Anders]

To be honest, I've been manually docking since premium beta 6 years ago and never used the docking computer, until recently. A cutter is stubborn like a mule, and docking it a chore, so I've bought something I thought I would never buy and thinks its pretty convenient when you need to truck a couple of 1000 tons to your carrier.

The only ships I have a docking computer on are my T-9 and my explorer Anaconda.. I's not that I can't dock them manually; for its size the T-9 is a very easy ship to land and although the 'conda takes getting used to, as soon as you realise that if you're not thinking 'I'm going to scrape the top of the slot here' you're actually too low, it's fine.

However the T-9 is only used for bulk A >B trading and docking it five or six times an hour gets old fast, whereas I have the opposite issue with the 'conda - usually I won't have docked anywhere for at least a couple of months when I'm flying that and an awkward ship, rusty docking skills and a load of exploration data are an accident waiting to happen. I have loads of spare space in the conda, so why not.

I've only used SCA once on my noob alt courtesy of Epic. I'm not snobbish about it or anything but I there's always something I would rather put in the slot than that.

 

[Jacobis9000]

Auto dock is a waste of a space. SuperCruise however is fantastic. No you don't need it all the time but its great when your 20,000 ls out from something and you need to take a bath room break or something. It is also great for speed docking. Super cruise will let you hit the gas around mass objects or simply fly into things way to fast... the computer is much better at pulling you out of cruise... just zero your pitch and yaw once your lined up but going to fast. (if your playing with a mouse I believe the third mouse button is the default to lock pitch and yaw... super cruise at something to fast and zero out your steering the computer will take over)

When your in the bubble doing missions it will save you tons of time if you learn how to use it right. When your out exploring it will let you set those interesting far out destinations and not be worried about accidently flying into them cause waiting 20 min to get there put you to sleep.

Oh man I can’t wait to go exploring!

 

[Jacobis9000]

The DC (the advanced one, in particular) is genuinely useful when you're competing in CGs cos it allows you to do stuff like plot your course, go and get more kitkats and use the head without wasting precious time.
Beyond that, it's always fun to watch your ship, using the chase-camera.

Never actually found SC especially boring so I've never seriously considered fitting an SC Assist... which is just as well cos I couldn't figure out how to make it work.

Yep I don’t want the ship flown for me but I do want the auto-brake feature on system entry.

 

[Jacobis9000]

I have a question actually, how do you find where the hatch is on the cubed spinning stations?

 

[Snowygerry]

Normally facing the nearest planetary body iirc.

 

[Rat Catcher]

I have a question actually, how do you find where the hatch is on the cubed spinning stations?

Normally facing the nearest planetary body iirc.

... and arrows pointing in the correct direction on the radar image...

 

[Eraden]

It depends on how old your dad is...

I can fly a Beluga in the mailslot in Silent Running without even thinking about it, same with a Cutter... But I still have ADC on both, because most of the time I can use the time they are docking for other things.

Incidentally, I've just fitted a couple of exploration ships with Supercruise Assist as I also have a liking for visiting 500KLS+ secondary/tertiary stars and their bodies.. But in 'normal' ships...

I feel pretty much the same way. I can fly my Type 10 through the mail box just fine (tight fit though). When I slow down for autodocking though, I know I can just get up, go fetch a drink and a sandwich, and come back to see my ship safely docked.

 

[Jacobis9000]

Hi I have another question, thanks for the info guys. Why do I keep getting a fine and warnings for infractions after I request launch and as I leave through the mail slot? Why am I going too slow?

 

[Speedcuffs]

Hi I have another question, thanks for the info guys. Why do I keep getting a fine and warnings for infractions after I request launch and as I leave through the mail slot? Why am I going too slow?

Loitering!
They don't like you hanging about near landing pads or the slot.

 

[ChipStar65]

I have a question actually, how do you find where the hatch is on the cubed spinning stations?

Learn to line up a Deep Throat approach to the stations, so when you drop out of SC you're lined up along the station's rotation axis and the mail slot is dead ahead. Takes some practice but is a good manual flying exercise for both SC and realspace. Also helps if you have a pirate on your tail and a hold full of treasure, there's less time when you drop out for them to find you, just gun it into the no-fire zone.

Never once used SCA, and the DC only for a short time after acquiring my Corvette. Thing is, after learning to manually park a 'Conda, parking any other ship is a breeze, so I sold the DC.

 

[uncle bulgaria]

Manual docking in ED is so easy compared to the 80s original when we only had pitch and roll for control. The freedom of movement in ED makes it really easy

 

[Lightspeed]

Hi I have another question, thanks for the info guys. Why do I keep getting a fine and warnings for infractions after I request launch and as I leave through the mail slot? Why am I going too slow?

The legal speed limit is 99 .... you need to fly at approaching that kind of speed ideally.

While you are learning, I think the landing gear down restricts your speed anyway. You can take off from the pad by using vertical thrusters (that's R on my keyboard), then move forward to avoid banging into anything above your head.

 

[Lightspeed]

Hi I have another question, thanks for the info guys. Why do I keep getting a fine and warnings for infractions after I request launch and as I leave through the mail slot? Why am I going too slow?

You will also get fines for colliding with another ship, even scraping the shields. Try to keep away from them. Later you will learn to boost past them

 

[VirtueXOI]

I'll never say by to SCA. it's the best module of the game. So sad it's not serial.

 

[Gunther_Bladderburst]

For supercruise just put your throttle at 75%.

Docking is pretty easy overall, the only use for auto dock is to plan stuff while on auto pilot. Pretty useful when you have a young kid too.