Orientation of station entrace

[CrazyH0rse]

Hi folks,

I remember that on my Amstrad CPC 464 the procedure to dock was to approach the station and then head for the planet and then head back to the station. This was because the station entrance always faced the planet.

Is there any particular rule for where the entrance faces in ED? When you exit supercruise, is the orientation of that station just randomised? It would be nice to have some way of making sure you are vaguely pointed towards the entrance when you exit supercruise (and this should take some skill and/or time).

Am I missing something?

 

[bootsam]

Yep, the entrance faces the planet.

 

[Vagabond]

The entrance pretty much faces the planet, but at a slight angle. So if you approach in SC so that the planet is to your back and the station fore you should be nicely placed to emerge in normal space.

 

[Shads]

In most but not all cases the entrance faces the planet. But it can be quite difficult to get the correct orientation because you cant really see behind you and the planets gravity dramatically slows your cruise speed do its difficult to judge there abouts you are between the planet and the station

 

[ZeeWolf]

Station entrances were no longer orientated towards the planet as of Frontier.

I believe that for larger stations they are generally orientated towards the planet and approaching from super-cruise with the planet behind you will generally save you having to fly around the back. This doesn't apply to outposts though.

 

[Elan]

Yup, I loop around and approach from the planet side every time.

...unless I know it's a coriolis in which case any angle is safe to drop out of SC.

 

[CrazyH0rse]

In most but not all cases the entrance faces the planet. But it can be quite difficult to get the correct orientation because you cant really see behind you and the planets gravity dramatically slows your cruise speed do its difficult to judge there abouts you are between the planet and the station

I've found that too... but on the odd occasion you would be faced directly in front of it but I haven't come up with a system for repeating that. Anyway - it's all part of the fun

 

[Hell Razor5543]

On the dice shaped stations, once you have targeted them the holographic representation (to the left of the sensor display) has arrows on the 4 sides pointing towards the face with the entrance.

 

[Red Fox Four]

You can use the scanner and just zoom in to see when the planet is aligned on your 6 o'clock. When planet is behind you there will be no line sticking up from it or hanging down from it.

That said, I generally just fly directly to station and drop out of super-cruise. It takes about as long to align in supercruise as it does to just boost to the entrance with the impulse drives (except if you fly something huge, which only applies to Type 9 and Anaconda).

Plus, it is safer to do the last alignment out of supercruise since the last slowmoving alignment part in supercruise is the ideal time to perform an interdiction on someone.

 

[StayFrosty]

I've seen stations with pretty much any kind of orientation, whatever kind of station they are. There doesn't seem to be any logic behind it. I've actually started taking screenshots each time I neared a station, to show that the entrance definitely doesn't face the planet everytime.

 

[CMDR Sheehy]

On the dice shaped stations, once you have targeted them the holographic representation (to the left of the sensor display) has arrows on the 4 sides pointing towards the face with the entrance.

Was going to say this. Instead I will add that though the Station 'appears' to already be targeted and you get valid distance readings, you actually have to 'Target' the station proper before you see the hologram and the arrows pointing to the station entrance.

 

[Guyperson]

I've seen stations with pretty much any kind of orientation, whatever kind of station they are. There doesn't seem to be any logic behind it. I've actually started taking screenshots each time I neared a station, to show that the entrance definitely doesn't face the planet everytime.

I've run into just about any orientation, but some seem more common than others. Entrance toward the planet appears to be the most common, but also fairly common is facing parallel to the orbit. The first time I discovered one of the latter was an O'Neil cylinder that I approached from planetward. I came out of SC right into the solar panels and had to dislodge myself.

 

[CMDR Sheehy]

I've run into just about any orientation, but some seem more common than others. Entrance toward the planet appears to be the most common, but also fairly common is facing parallel to the orbit. The first time I discovered one of the latter was an O'Neil cylinder that I approached from planetward. I came out of SC right into the solar panels and had to dislodge myself.

That scares me. FD need to fix this. I thought we were safe approaching planetside...

 

[Aewarin Jameson]

When you supercruise towards a station put your path to be between the planet and station and watch your scanner (the blue dot thing) .. orientate yourself so that the planet is below and the station above .. once the blue dot moves to the top move upwards so you're facing the station and the majority of the time when you exit you're facing the entrance.

 

[Snakebite]

Hi folks,

I remember that on my Amstrad CPC 464 the procedure to dock was to approach the station and then head for the planet and then head back to the station. This was because the station entrance always faced the planet.

Is there any particular rule for where the entrance faces in ED? When you exit supercruise, is the orientation of that station just randomised? It would be nice to have some way of making sure you are vaguely pointed towards the entrance when you exit supercruise (and this should take some skill and/or time).

Am I missing something?

I *think* the station entrance is supposed to face the planet but they haven't got it quite right.

I think it would be so cool to see the planet in all its glory when you launch from a station myself, I hope they fix it soon.

 

[Guyperson]

That scares me. FD need to fix this. I thought we were safe approaching planetside...

I'm pretty sure I just got incredibly unlucky, and even then it didn't take down my shields. Only the panels extended out far enough to drop into. The rings and station body were still some distance away when I exited SC.

Just make sure you turn off flight assist when tangled up or it'll "helpfully" try to fight the motion of the station pushing you, keeping you stuck to it.

 

[Nathan60]

The entrance pretty much faces the planet, but at a slight angle. So if you approach in SC so that the planet is to your back and the station fore you should be nicely placed to emerge in normal space.

Man this is great to know lol, never noticed.

 

[CMDR Sheehy]

I'm pretty sure I just got incredibly unlucky, and even then it didn't take down my shields. Just make sure you turn off flight assist or it'll "helpfully" try to fight the motion of the station pushing you, keeping you stuck to it.

Ahhh ! Lightbulb moment !

Thank you

 

[Ravenov]

On the dice shaped stations, once you have targeted them the holographic representation (to the left of the sensor display) has arrows on the 4 sides pointing towards the face with the entrance.

Also, on the corners of the back side there are flashing red lights, on the dock side they flash white.

 

[StayFrosty]

Also, on the corners of the back side there are flashing red lights, on the dock side they flash white.

There's much simpler: the entrance side is rotating counter-clockwise.