Clear indication for landing pad direction

Falco

F
You can't land on landing pads both ways (, even though you should be able to), but especially for exterior pads or pads on surface ports, when coming from above it's sometimes difficult to see which side the number is on that indicates which direction to land in. This is especially so on surface bases, where you are likely coming from above, or sometimes from the side, edge on with the hologram.
It would be nice if the hologram would be extended, or shaped in a way that clearly indicates which way to land and that's visible from long range.
 

Nagual

Nagual
Falco said:
You can't land on landing pads both ways (, even though you should be able to), but especially for exterior pads or pads on surface ports, when coming from above it's sometimes difficult to see which side the number is on that indicates which direction to land in. This is especially so on surface bases, where you are likely coming from above, or sometimes from the side, edge on with the hologram.
It would be nice if the hologram would be extended, or shaped in a way that clearly indicates which way to land and that's visible from long range.
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Runway lights on the pads flashing in sequence or something to show would help.
 

ebbrell

ebbrell
Its easy, the number above pad must be in front of you when landing.
I don't have a problem.... you look at the pad you can tell from a distance where it is.

Granted the number doesn't display in reverse from behind which would help
 

Monkey Pants

Monkey Pants
Each pad has 2 blast screens with arrows on them - on the approach side.

If you look for these when directly overhead you can tell the orientation of the pad

o7
 

MBaldelli

MBaldelli
ebbrell said:
Granted the number doesn't display in reverse from behind which would help
Click to expand...

I seem to recall some people complained about not being able to read numbers/words backwards. Which is why it's forward no matter the direction.

The devs have added two indicators. Lights on poles (indicating the side with blast shield) or green lights (also on the same side).
 

askavir

askavir
You can also guide yourself by the blast pads on the pad. The blast pads are always on the back of the pad.

Also, in planetary starports, the front of the pad is always pointing towards the internal area of the starport, you just need to approach from outside.
 
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Daynen

D
What I'd really appreciate is some sort of enhanced lighting that can only be seen by your ship, indicating your landing pad much more clearly to distinguish it from the rest at a greater distance. Pad numbers are all well and good, but if you're not coming at things from just the right direction, some stations are so packed with pads that it might take a few moments to spot yours--and if you're in a busy station, you might not have those moments.
 

nutbar

N
Daynen said:
What I'd really appreciate is some sort of enhanced lighting that can only be seen by your ship, indicating your landing pad much more clearly to distinguish it from the rest at a greater distance. Pad numbers are all well and good, but if you're not coming at things from just the right direction, some stations are so packed with pads that it might take a few moments to spot yours--and if you're in a busy station, you might not have those moments.
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I agree - that would be nice. It seems to only come with experience that you know when you get pad 31, it's like the first one once you're through the mail slot. Having a holographic in-ship docking laneway displayed would be useful, and for those who don't want it, it could be turned off. Would be nice to have clearer markings on the stations as well to indicate where the entrance is - the faint arrows on those cubey stations are just that - faint and only visible when the hologram is rotated a certain way.
 

metatheurgist

metatheurgist
Planetary base pads always face towards the base for landing (if there's an exception to that I haven't encountered it). Engineer bases are a bit random but they have a 2 green lights on the approach side and a landing light and a red light at the head of the pad. You can see which direction to land from the cone of light that the landing light generates. Outposts always have the approach side closer to the edge of the station, so look at the glowing square and check the distances on either side of the square to the edge of the station, the short side is the approach. The crane is also always on your right.

Easy.
 

Monk

Monk
I'd like to see the docking holograms (the light box around the dock) pulse from back to front. No added noise, just a simple visual cue.
 
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Falco

F
metatheurgist said:
Those 2 are easy. Planetary landing pads always face inwards from my experience.
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yes they do. but the second example shows that the pad is not facing either away or towards the structure of the base, which is my point.
also the 'blast pads with the arrows' are quite hard to make out from that sort of distance.

my issue comes with this that you have to turn around when you notice you come from the wrong side, which takes forever, not that you can't notice at all.
I do know of the blast pads and the numbers. it's just that once you can see them clearly, it's already taking forever to turn the ship around or go around for the approach from the other side.
There should just be a simple visual cue that makes it easy to determine which side to come from in the first place, visible from any orientation and from any range, so you can plan to go around the pad if you are approaching from the wrong side at dropout.

Shape the hologram thing like a triangle facing the landing direction and be done with it. or have bright lights on the pad itself indicating the direction. And I mean really bright. Or add pulsating lights outside the landing area, indicating the direction of approach. Or just let us land either way, cause the pads are able to rotate anyway.
Unclearities of any type in any situation should be avoided when dealing with ports, airports and spaceports. Because a lot of money can go boom if things are unclear. The direction in which to land in shouldn't be an exception.

It's just a quality of life improvement that doesn't hurt anything and saves time or extra strain on the eyes, trying to figure out which way to go.
 

GJ51

GJ51
Meh

Not an issue

There are already more than enough visual cue's to determine orientation of the pad.
 

Bob Lighthouse

Banned
Bob Lighthouse
The number is in front of the pad so that's easy if you can see the number at all.
Use your lights and you can see the blast shield easily too.
The hud hologram will show if you're backwards while docking.
There are lots of cues.

I'm pretty color blind so I don't even get the benefit of the numbers sometimes, lol...
 

metatheurgist

metatheurgist
Falco said:
yes they do. but the second example shows that the pad is not facing either away or towards the structure of the base, which is my point.
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easy.jpg


They might not be pointing towards the structure but the approach is still inwards. There's another set of landing pads on the incorrect side and the approach wouldn't be over them. Easy.
 
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