One of the biggest annoyances of the original Elite was docking. It wasn't hard as such, it was just a PITA finding the entrance on a cubic station, orientating yourself with the entrance and finally moving forward and keeping it lined up so you didn't crash. However, once inside with this version, now we also have to deal with finding the right pad since it's not the only one lit up, micro managing systems to get there and line up perfectly, only to get a fine for loitering near another pad that wasn't even noticed because it wasn't flashing on the way in.
It might cost us a couple of thousand extra credits but a docking computer would be far better. When in range, hit the comms for a docking request and the docking computer does the rest if you turn it on. It's harder to dock than it was before with Elite, Frontier and First Encounter but even back then, we had a computer that could do it for us for a few credits extra. For god's sake, we now have self driving cars, how hard would it be to have a computer dock your ship for you so far in the future? We've already proved we can do it manually god knows how many times before we earn the credits to buy a docking computer, why drag out the game by making us do it EVERY time?
You're already inside a no-fire zone and the computer would do everything you would normally do so there is no reason not to automate it. It doesn't help someone who is under attack, in fact it would move more slowly than a player so the chances are, you'll be dead before you get inside so it won't break PVP as I can see some players declaring. It will probably make the player even more vulnerable since it will take the safe option and wait until it is clear before entering the station, unlike a player who will zoom in behind another ship and barely avoid a collision inside the airlock.
Docking really is a major annoyance in this game now and will probably be the main reason some people will play it less. It is the one thing that has been boring the hell out of me so far and I have only done 10 trade runs to get some credits so far. I played for a couple of hours then logged because I really couldn't face manual docking yet again on my next run.
I like the game, considering I have yet to move outside the system I started in. I've now learned how to drop out of cruise almost perfectly with the station I want right in front of me and almost within hands reach as I drop out. However, it's taking me almost as long to land my ship on the pad as it did to fly a light year across space in cruise and what makes it worse is that I know I have to do it EVERY time I want to dock.
