Last night I was docking in my cobra at Severin Orbital in Beta Pavonis after my first proper go at mining. It had been a very good experience compared to my previous attempts and I had a hold full of palladium, gold and silver. I also got attacked four times by pirates while I was mining away and had 80K in bounties to claim. For me this was a very big profit gaming session - despite being down to 60% hull after all the pirate fighting.
Received docking permission, flew through the letterbox a little slower than usual (but still "in the blue") and lined up on my pad. Immediately got a pad loitering warning. I was a bit surprised as I was very near the centre of the cylinder and going reasonably fast, but unconcerned since I had seen this before sometimes when skimming in low or slowing down early. However the warning didn't quickly clear as it usually does.
Oh oh, better thrust up a bit and get closer to the centre axis. Nope, still warning me. Crap crap crap, turn around and go back to the letterbox area - warning finally clears. Phew. Clumsily touched the end wall near the letterbox but my shields are OK. Now head back, at speed and centred on the axis - beep, pad loitering warning and the countdown resumes from where it left off last time.
There followed another bout of moving around trying to get to a clear space (my pad was right down the far end). Sometimes the warning would clear momentarily only to resume immediately. Even over my own pad the countdown continued. Right, discretion being the better part of valour and so forth - time to get out of here, just 8 seconds to go.
It is now a shame that I do not have video recording or even a screenshot because I proceeded to smear my cobra and all my precious metals on the side of the letterbox with one second to go. I'm sure it looked hilarious. It was so close I would probably have been shot by the station even if I had managed to fly straight!
Oh well. Instead of my multiple hundreds of thousands profit I had to pay my insurance fee. I've raised a ticket since I'm sure this was a bug - the detection boxes for the pads just did not seem to line up with what I could see on screen.
I was a bit annoyed last night, but that's life in the Elite Dangerous universe. I remember just how hard and brutally unforgiving the games of the 80's were - I like that Elite retains some of that ethos, while softening it with the insurance policy and auto-eject.
With all that metal in my hold and the bounties, my anxiety as I prepared to dock was palpable. The panic I started to feel when the above was happening was all too real. That's worth a bit of lost time as I go out and try again.
cheers
Ian
Received docking permission, flew through the letterbox a little slower than usual (but still "in the blue") and lined up on my pad. Immediately got a pad loitering warning. I was a bit surprised as I was very near the centre of the cylinder and going reasonably fast, but unconcerned since I had seen this before sometimes when skimming in low or slowing down early. However the warning didn't quickly clear as it usually does.
Oh oh, better thrust up a bit and get closer to the centre axis. Nope, still warning me. Crap crap crap, turn around and go back to the letterbox area - warning finally clears. Phew. Clumsily touched the end wall near the letterbox but my shields are OK. Now head back, at speed and centred on the axis - beep, pad loitering warning and the countdown resumes from where it left off last time.
There followed another bout of moving around trying to get to a clear space (my pad was right down the far end). Sometimes the warning would clear momentarily only to resume immediately. Even over my own pad the countdown continued. Right, discretion being the better part of valour and so forth - time to get out of here, just 8 seconds to go.
It is now a shame that I do not have video recording or even a screenshot because I proceeded to smear my cobra and all my precious metals on the side of the letterbox with one second to go. I'm sure it looked hilarious. It was so close I would probably have been shot by the station even if I had managed to fly straight!
Oh well. Instead of my multiple hundreds of thousands profit I had to pay my insurance fee. I've raised a ticket since I'm sure this was a bug - the detection boxes for the pads just did not seem to line up with what I could see on screen.
I was a bit annoyed last night, but that's life in the Elite Dangerous universe. I remember just how hard and brutally unforgiving the games of the 80's were - I like that Elite retains some of that ethos, while softening it with the insurance policy and auto-eject.
With all that metal in my hold and the bounties, my anxiety as I prepared to dock was palpable. The panic I started to feel when the above was happening was all too real. That's worth a bit of lost time as I go out and try again.
cheers
Ian
