Newcomer / Intro Denied Landing Permission

[RhinoNeil]

Just started playing it and loving Elite, really bringing back memories of the original.
I have twice now approached an outpost and when requesting permission to dock been refused. I have not yet carried anything remotely illegal, not scooped any cargo and barely shot at anything, so is there any way I can find out why permission has been refused?
I thought it might be because no landing pads were available but would be nice to be told why, I don't want to hang around keep asking permission if it is never going to be given.
If no way of finding out, could it be put on a potential change list?

 

[Carradin]

Outposts in particular have a limited number of pads, so yeah, as you suggest it was likely congestion. If you've been playing in open play, you can try switching to solo online for a short stint, as then it'll only be NPCs clogging up the pads, giving you a better chance of getting permission. You can always switch back to open play once you've landed.

 

[technophebe]

If you're in open play, it could be that the other pads are all taken by players; it's very unusual for this to happen in solo though. What ship are you flying? Some of the larger ships such as the Type-7 can't land at outposts because there are no pads big enough for them...

 

[RhinoNeil]

Thanks for all the comments.
I am just in the starting Sidewinder so size shouldn't be an issue and yes it was in open play so I think it must be there were no free pads.
It would be nice if instead of saying "Permission denied" that she said "Please wait, no landing pads currently available" or something equally useful.

 

[Whispering Dave]

Happened in Solo Play as well.

This has happened to me in Solo Play a couple of times. I just came back later when the docks were clear.

 

[AH_ImADot]

Station is Full

Yeah, it would be nice to have a couple of different responses based on the status - "docks are full, please try later", "we don't serve your kind here", "for immediate access we do accept bribes", etc.

And even if you fly around the station and see an empty pad, it could be that the ship is in the hangar. Check out my research on that matter: https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=81827&highlight=

 

[EvilDog77]

I've encountered this quite a few times so far. It's like trying to park at Talbot Green retail park at Christmas. Not sure why Frontier didn't implement a queuing system. I was stuck outside a station for about 20 minutes spamming the docking request command until I got a slot, only to have to abandon the attempt because of a glitch where my ship's proximity to the pad wasn't registered by the game.