Not even auto dock can do it.

[WeComeInPeace]

I play solo or private with friends, after EVE not really looking to be fighting everyone in the galaxy. My ship is fully kitted, 500mil+ total cost


Yes for mining I prefer extra cargo space for mining over a shield that, theoretically, I shouldn't need for that activity, especially since I don't play online, I'd have to be pretty dumb or afk to get caught by NPC's and I'm pretty good at AF flying. The only area I ever really take damage is through the mail slot, whether I'm piloting or ADC is. Call it greedy I guess, I prefer to maximize the value of my time, more cargo means longer mining runs, means more money. But maybe I'll switch back to a shield for a bit so I can practice, I just feel like I shouldn't be forced to buy a shield solely for the purpose of docking when the ADC exists, it SHOULD be able to dock any ship without damaging it, that's the whole damn point of it.

Yeah, it's still obnoxious that ADC is incapable of doing it's job and when I'm still not rolling in creds(enough for a couple insurance claims but not much more) hitting my 500mil ship with 100mil+ of cargo is heart stopping lmao

Haven't got to engineers yet. I haven't been in the hundred million club long, I think my lifetime creds is only around 1 billion. TBH I don't even know how to engineer.

When I started playing ED, I couldn't understand why some of the equipment worked so poorly. After a while I gave up being frustrated, and started imagining that this was what the future had brought to the market. A crappy GPS, with lousy functionality etc. Why couldn't I just select a star in view and say "go to that one"? Why did I later have to push a gazillion buttons just to enable supercruise assist, when I had already selected my target? Consumers in the future seems less demanding than today.

I ended up kind of liking it though. Even today IRL, a have plenty of crap that makes you wonder why it wasn't designed better, like dark grey letters on a black remote control, supposed to be used in a dark living room, and don't even get me started on the control panel of my washing machine. I still haven't figured that one out, and it's even got Wi-fi. In ED I just imagine that the galaxy map and all the rest is like my washing machine. Crappy UI, but that's what you get in 3307, unless you make your own, so instead I invent workarounds, like I do with the washing machine IRL. It kind of adds to the "immersion".

I don't think you're particularly greedy, but if you lose a cargo of mining goods, then it would have been better to fit a shield. It also helps when you get excited among the rocks, and scrape the rear end against one of them. For core mining, I used to have a large shield on a Conda, and use it's long nose for moving debris from the cracked rock, so I could use the ABs. Now I fly a Python for that, being much more agile. It's got a lot less cargo space than a Cutter, but it's still got an excellent shield, and I use that all the time when mining. No reason to move away before the rock blasts, saving a lot of time for the 10 collector limpets flying back and forth

Engineering isn't that complicated, and if you only go up to grade 3, the materials needed aren't hard to find. Unlocking the engineers is like a small story in the game, and the payback in the form of a better ship is well worth it.

 

[Ameeleean]

I had a thought of making shield-less ship since I'm too as well bored of PvP (other games)... but shield even the smallest one works as a bumper and when I get back to ED from other sim I have to get used to clumsy controls again (mouse+keyboard with that annoying dot- I have dumped 2 other games due to this but I like ED too much for it to experience the same fate) - last time I have crashed into port with cargo full of passengers, ofc all missions related to them went to "failed" status immediately. This is one of the reasons I prefer to have shields here on all ships.

Engineering is quite fun for me and You do not have to go all the way up to 100% of grade 5. There are some tricks to material gathering that once learned make this material grind nearly non-existent.

P.S. If You are like me and need combat rank without getting much of ship-to-ship combat try killing Thargoid scavengers on Thargoid sites while in SRV- it doesn't need engineering and scavengers die very fast, If I recall correctly killing those is easy and increases combat rank too.

 

[Llandrenel]

I can dock my Beluga all day long without a scratch, but I can't for the life of me not bash up my Anaconda.
Maybe it's because of the top mounted bridge?

I had that problem for a long while after buying mine. As others said, just align yourself at the top until you feel you're gonna scrape your face on the mail slot and then you should be fine.

 

[Gauntlet]

as I'm running a core mining cutter with no shields for extra space...

That's the problem right there...

 

[Bryce7954]

When I started playing ED, I couldn't understand why some of the equipment worked so poorly. After a while I gave up being frustrated, and started imagining that this was what the future had brought to the market. A crappy GPS, with lousy functionality etc. Why couldn't I just select a star in view and say "go to that one"? Why did I later have to push a gazillion buttons just to enable supercruise assist, when I had already selected my target? Consumers in the future seems less demanding than today.

I ended up kind of liking it though. Even today IRL, a have plenty of crap that makes you wonder why it wasn't designed better, like dark grey letters on a black remote control, supposed to be used in a dark living room, and don't even get me started on the control panel of my washing machine. I still haven't figured that one out, and it's even got Wi-fi. In ED I just imagine that the galaxy map and all the rest is like my washing machine. Crappy UI, but that's what you get in 3307, unless you make your own, so instead I invent workarounds, like I do with the washing machine IRL. It kind of adds to the "immersion".

I don't think you're particularly greedy, but if you lose a cargo of mining goods, then it would have been better to fit a shield. It also helps when you get excited among the rocks, and scrape the rear end against one of them. For core mining, I used to have a large shield on a Conda, and use it's long nose for moving debris from the cracked rock, so I could use the ABs. Now I fly a Python for that, being much more agile. It's got a lot less cargo space than a Cutter, but it's still got an excellent shield, and I use that all the time when mining. No reason to move away before the rock blasts, saving a lot of time for the 10 collector limpets flying back and forth

Engineering isn't that complicated, and if you only go up to grade 3, the materials needed aren't hard to find. Unlocking the engineers is like a small story in the game, and the payback in the form of a better ship is well worth it.

I totally get what you're saying and in a way it does make me feel better about this stuff being janky. And as I've said before since it is only about 10% damage, it isn't the end of the world but I still think it's something Devs should look at and see if there is some way they can improve it.
Yeah engineering is a dream for me, I think when I played before I didn't have access to it cause of horizons(?) and now that I'm playing again and have horizons I just need to look up some guides to figure it out.

I had a thought of making shield-less ship since I'm too as well bored of PvP (other games)... but shield even the smallest one works as a bumper and when I get back to ED from other sim I have to get used to clumsy controls again (mouse+keyboard with that annoying dot- I have dumped 2 other games due to this but I like ED too much for it to experience the same fate) - last time I have crashed into port with cargo full of passengers, ofc all missions related to them went to "failed" status immediately. This is one of the reasons I prefer to have shields here on all ships.

Engineering is quite fun for me and You do not have to go all the way up to 100% of grade 5. There are some tricks to material gathering that once learned make this material grind nearly non-existent.

P.S. If You are like me and need combat rank without getting much of ship-to-ship combat try killing Thargoid scavengers on Thargoid sites while in SRV- it doesn't need engineering and scavengers die very fast, If I recall correctly killing those is easy and increases combat rank too.

Correct me if I'm wrong but can't you only put 6 slot shields on the cutter? I swear I was looking at shields the other day and it would let me put a smaller one on, so I'm confused by what you mean by using the smallest shield?

That's the problem right there...

You act like no one does this, I literally got the idea from multiple mining builds online that all sacrificed shields for cargo, I could hardly find one that didn't. The problem is the ADC being useless. I'm fine with the fact that I haven't figured out how to dock with the cutter yet, that's my problem. What isn't my problem is a module that does not serve its intended purpose.

 

[Catherine Abrasax]

The ADC constantly scrapes my Cutter against the mail slot walls, if it makes it that far in the first place. It tends to overshoot the mail slot when lining up to leave and ends up face-planting into the wall instead. Even when empty with G5 dirty thrusters + drag drives and no ship kit. Anymore, I only trust it to get me onto/off the pad and partially lined up with the slot, and then I do the rest.

 

[nanothargon]

Burning station rescue duty in the Beluga is one of the most stressful and fun things in the game imo. Having used both, the Beluga is definitely harder to dock than the Cutter.

Best tip is to watch the positioning in autodock and use that as a guide.

 

[Bryce7954]

Burning station rescue duty in the Beluga is one of the most stressful and fun things in the game imo. Having used both, the Beluga is definitely harder to dock than the Cutter.

Best tip is to watch the positioning in autodock and use that as a guide.

You mean like watching it through free cam? I haven't had much luck flying with free cam in tight spaces, I use it to scan for cores that's about it but I suppose watching while ADC docks and making minor movements if its gonna hit could help. Still though that doesn't solve the underlying issue that ADC just doesn't work for bigger ships.

 

[nanothargon]

Nope, all cockpit. I just mean watching the positioning during a normal (successful) autodock in the cockpit, specifically the vertical position. In the cutter, its about halfway; in the beluga, your cockpit is at the bottom of the mailslot because of the whale tail, in the anaconda it’s at the top because it’s... er... bottom heavy. How close you are to the side is also important in some ships but the vertical position is the most important part.

So for burning station docks, I take my time outside and line up neatly with thrusters before requesting permission, to reduce the stress. If you have the station targetted, the target reticle can be used to line yourself up exactly with the mailslot. Then approach nice and steady, definitely less than 100, but probably around 60 or so. Keep the rotation in sync, position your pov at the right part of the mailslot and you’re in.

Finding the pad is easy, just follow the compass (it points to the pad). Then set it down with a bit of adjustment and you can breathe again.

If you’re doing the burning station thing, you also need to manage heatsinks, but that’s pretty easy. If you’re doing this, just go super heavy on the heatsinks the first few times. You can get it down to 2, but budget for maybe 6 at first.

The adc does dink on the side of the slot sometimes, and sometimes it’s so bad that it gets stuck and you need to go to manual. But mostly it does the job. I almost always fly with a shield, just to handle these little accidents with docking, other ships, asteroids etc

The burning station missions are a great excuse to practice this, as others have said. Just carry a shield, and load up on heatsinks.

Hope that helps. Good luck Commander.

 

[here_it_comes]

You just need some practice. I have no issues flying in/out with my T10, which is substantially wider and taller than a Cutter.

The key to docking large ships is getting used to the positioning as you go through the slot, which varies per ship. When flying my T10 through the mail slot I hug the bottom of the slot, where-as with the Corvette I had to hug the top.

o7

 

[Spacerschoice-00]

I don't even know how you would do that as the base cutter has no tail in the back, it's flat from front to back so physically you shouldn't be able to catch.

It's catching on middle section...

 

[Ameeleean]

Correct me if I'm wrong but can't you only put 6 slot shields on the cutter? I swear I was looking at shields the other day and it would let me put a smaller one on, so I'm confused by what you mean by using the smallest shield?

That's correct. Class 6 is smallest for cutter. That will cost 64t of cargo space which for my own cutter means having 704t of cargo space available (trading setup). With "only" two biggest module slots cutter can still carry 512t which I think is more than enough for mining- my own ship of choice for this task is anaconda but I'm casual miner, I'm only doing it when I have to get materials for technology broker