Is it inevitable to do something stupid and go splat?

Hilight

Hilight
mossfoot said:
I'm a good pilot.

No, really. On a good day I can make a run at the mailslot at a perpendicular angle on Flight Assist off, kick in the boosters, breeze in the slot and land on a landing pad pat even if a Type 9 is blocking the slot.

...and that's the problem, iddnit? You start getting cocky and when that happens eventually someday, inevitably, you're going to pay for it.

I was pulling said stunt the other day when I realized too late my timeing had been off and I was going to clip the top of the station instead of drift along to the mailslot position. In a panic I tried to get out of there, but an Asp has inertia like you wouldn't believe and it was too late.

SPLAT. Wall pizza. (fortunately I made my ejection roll, see link in signature)

So I'm wondering how many other people feel like this kind of thing is inevitable. That being good is almost a bad thing.

Good leads to cocky. Cocky leads to sloppy. Sloppy leads to... suffering. :D [/Yoda]
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Loriath said:
There are only 3 types of Pilots.

Those that have died while doing something they have done a thousand times before, Those that WILL die doing something they have done a thousand times before, and those that have not done something a thousand times yet.
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R+ to the both of you... Definitely made me laugh
 

mossfoot

mossfoot
FalconFly said:
Good leads to better. Better leads to... situational awareness and discipline. And that leads to durable and reliable success.
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That only applies in the real world where death is real and repairs are expensive... games operate under a different mental logic, even if you're playing Ironman ;)
 

Zeeman

Zeeman
Yup, much the same as you, OP. I can land my Python from any angle at full boost, and pull up on the landing pad like I just walked in. But, I have placed some nice "ship art" on the walls of a station or two in the past. Been a while hough. My most recent genius move was to check the galaxy map whilst flying through an asteroid field. It was in the shadow of the planet, you see, and all was dark. I was plotting my jump, thinking I had cleared it. Got out of he galaxy map in time to see the an asteroid the size of space station fulling my cockpit window.

Ooopps....

Z...
 

Valethar

Valethar
+Rep, because Yoda :D

I almost splatted my Python yesterday. Forgot to hit the toggle for the landing gear and went full throttle towards my pad.

Yup. The pad was at the back of the station.

Did I mention I forgot to lower the gear and was going flat out?

I reduced speed, like I usually do where I usually throttle back, expecting to glide into position over the pad so I could hit the vertical thrusters and land. Only I didn't slow down anywhere near as quickly as I expected to and overshot the whole bloody thing. I just barely had the presence of mind to thumb the 'reverse' button on my HOTAS, jam the throttle all the way past the stops, and yank the stick back hard while rotating to the right.

Fortunately for me, this either worked far beyond my wildest expecations, or the Station Gods were being unusually kind to me. Either way, I hear a 'thwump' in my headset as the bottom of my ship bounced off the back wall of the station, and saw my shield indicator flash as I lost all but the last ring. I jerked the throttle back to idle and sat there a moment, waiting for the inevitable sound of my ship breaking up as I was ejected, noticed I still had a landing timer counting down, and meekly drove my ship back to the pad and went below to hide hoping nobody saw me. :eek:
 

Rich Bramwell

Rich Bramwell
I have moved over 400000 tons of goods, made over 300 million, owned an Anaconda(briefly), fly a Python, FDL and Vulture, been playing since the start, have around 350 kills and have not crashed..lost a hull or had any insurance claim at all. If you fly any ship within its weight limits and do not under-shield the ship then you should be OK as long as you use your Radar, yea I have smashed a couple of Sidewinders that accidentally flew into me in the letterbox and bumped into ships all the time whilst dog-fighting but if you take the advice from the chaps above that reads....''Don't get cocky'' and ''Don't play when your tired''....then that's probably the best advice I have read and could give too.
 

ColdFish

ColdFish
Ah, the mail slot wall and the fence, I do know both of them well.
Did the mentioned maneuver with all of my ships yet.

Why? How else should I find out how to push the last few seconds in my approach?

Only went splat once though, in a T6.
Took light damage in most others and heavy damage in the T9 and Asp.
Notable exception till now is the Annie. But I don't own her for too long yet, so I am still in the process of improving my landing times.
I just hope it will not go the T6 way once the inevitable happens...
 

Marak

Marak
Loriath said:
There are only 3 types of Pilots.

Those that have died while doing something they have done a thousand times before, Those that WILL die doing something they have done a thousand times before, and those that have not done something a thousand times yet.
Click to expand...

I think that there are only 2 types of Pilots...

Those that admit to having done something really really stoopid...

And those that tell lies... :p
 

mossfoot

mossfoot
Rich Bramwell said:
I have moved over 400000 tons of goods, made over 300 million, owned an Anaconda(briefly), fly a Python, FDL and Vulture, been playing since the start, have around 350 kills and have not crashed..lost a hull or had any insurance claim at all. If you fly any ship within its weight limits and do not under-shield the ship then you should be OK as long as you use your Radar, yea I have smashed a couple of Sidewinders that accidentally flew into me in the letterbox and bumped into ships all the time whilst dog-fighting but if you take the advice from the chaps above that reads....''Don't get cocky'' and ''Don't play when your tired''....then that's probably the best advice I have read and could give too.
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Oh, when I play it safe and serious, it's never a problem. But I'm gonna go out on a limb and guess that you, like FalconFly are an actual pilot. If so, you've got certain disciplines burned into you.

For me (and many others) it's a matter of trying to lose a lifetime of video game bad habits where death has no consequence and moments of boredom result in "I wonder if I can do this?" :D
 

jmg

J
docking computer?
deadstick landing is utterly unrealistic ... no chance someone would spend gazllions of dollars on a station like that and let give people the chance to splat into it.
for more realism, the game should require docking computers.
 

Distance

Distance
You're not a true elite player until you've worked up to an Anaconda and crashed in to the station wall with a full hold of palladium :D
 

jmg

J
I didn't say it wasn't fun, I just said it wasn't realistic.
I've splated my anaconda once or twice while still getting the hang of it -- not full of palladium though.
Now I just use the DC. Seems far more realistic to me.

By the way, is that the master from DW as your avatar?
 

Zeeman

Zeeman
Valethar said:
+Rep, because Yoda :D

I almost splatted my Python yesterday. Forgot to hit the toggle for the landing gear and went full throttle towards my pad.

Yup. The pad was at the back of the station.

Did I mention I forgot to lower the gear and was going flat out?

I reduced speed, like I usually do where I usually throttle back, expecting to glide into position over the pad so I could hit the vertical thrusters and land. Only I didn't slow down anywhere near as quickly as I expected to and overshot the whole bloody thing. I just barely had the presence of mind to thumb the 'reverse' button on my HOTAS, jam the throttle all the way past the stops, and yank the stick back hard while rotating to the right.

Fortunately for me, this either worked far beyond my wildest expecations, or the Station Gods were being unusually kind to me. Either way, I hear a 'thwump' in my headset as the bottom of my ship bounced off the back wall of the station, and saw my shield indicator flash as I lost all but the last ring. I jerked the throttle back to idle and sat there a moment, waiting for the inevitable sound of my ship breaking up as I was ejected, noticed I still had a landing timer counting down, and meekly drove my ship back to the pad and went below to hide hoping nobody saw me. :eek:
Click to expand...

This is much more fun when your throttle is playing up! Mine was randomly giving whatever signals it felt like to the game, and took my inputs as mere suggestions.

I finally got the RMA and it is now sent back for warranty, but it took a while!

Z...
 

bossbrigand

B
I got brave in an asteroid field with my Clipper. I was only there to grind up enough money to cover my insurance, then I was gonna cash it in. No risk.

I don't have a Clipper anymore.
 

Twelvefield

Twelvefield
Splats are inevitable. The only practise arena is in the Tutorial with the Sidewinder. If you decide to experiment with your in-game identity, well, that's experimentation. Sometimes it goes right and sometimes it goes wrong.

I like the poster that suggested a landing checklist. Not just a few times I've barrelled onto the landing pad without gear down. Not just a few times I ignored Betty when she told me I was heading onto a pad without gear down.

My wife, though... (I love my wife, but this is the archetypal Henny Youngman "Take my wife... please!" moment) ... she watches my landings and tells me "You're no Wash." Meaning the deadstick drift into Niska's base in the Firefly episode "War Stories". Well, there's a reason (spoiler) Wash is dead. And attempting deadstick onto a landing pad in ED makes you equally dead.
 

Darth-Simba

Darth-Simba
To the OP: The answer is yes. I was out RES bounty hunting in my clipper and hit an asteroid that took my hull to 50% Not wanting to lose 1 million+ in bounty vouchers I head back to base. Now, I've docked countless times and this was no different, I accidentally hit the afterburners just before the letterbox and then pancaked against the station wall. 1.5 million rebuy and 1 million+ in lost income.
 

Valethar

Valethar
Zeeman said:
This is much more fun when your throttle is playing up! Mine was randomly giving whatever signals it felt like to the game, and took my inputs as mere suggestions.

I finally got the RMA and it is now sent back for warranty, but it took a while!

Z...
Click to expand...

I'm working on that now. LOL

Sadly, that didn't have anything to do with my lapse in concentration. :D

Mine freaks out and activates anything mapped to the mouse stick and the scroll wheel, any time I move the throttle. I ended up remapping those functions. A short while back, something involved in how the detents are controlled broke and jammed, so I had to deadzone about 50% of the throttle to get it to work.

I played the X-52 lottery and lost. I'm hoping to get a better RNG on the replacement. :rolleyes:
 
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