Please fix station entrances!

[stimuli]

Please forgive my tone in this post but I'm extremely frustrated. I just lost my 4th ship, many exploration points and hundreds of thousands in bounties due to the entirely unnecessarily unforgiving station entrances.

These things seemed to be intentionally designed like a Venus fly trap. You think you're just gliding in to a well deserved homecoming to cash in, repair and refit but NO! This evil beast of a station hath deceived thee....and it hungers! All it takes is a slight scrape on the side of the entrance or getting the tip of a wing caught on those ridiculous spikes (who would put antennae there????) ringing the entrance or even a slight nudge by another player or NPC. All too often this sends your ship into a hopeless death spin inside that teeny tiny tunnel, leaving you trapped in the structure's polygon mesh or just inexplicably unable to move. Even if you can move, the lack of an external ship view leaves you unable to determine which direction you *should* move to get out of trouble in time. Not to worry, though...it will all be over soon. Only a couple seconds of this and you've been slapped with an undeserved fine. Another couple seconds and you're being blown to bits by station guns. An entirely meaningless death (often with significant losses) simply from trying to enter or exit a station. Its happened to me both in the open game and in solo and I've watched it happen to other players too.

Of course there will be the forum trolls replying to this with "lern 2 fly nuub" or "get a docking computer" but neither of those responses mean much. Docking computers make an already slow and tedious task even slower and even the best pilots can be instantly screwed by another player or NPC in that tunnel of death.

Please address the problem or the EMT's will be picking shards of computer monitor out of my face.

rant mode disengaged

 

[777Driver]

Just out of curiosity, what ship are you flying? And do you have full pips to systems? Full power on shields makes a huge difference to the strength. Not sure if you have noticed, but some want collision damage to be higher.

I know you don't want to hear it but... It's just practice dude, when I got my Type-7 I was scraping it all over the place, now I'm cruising through the port without any issues. You eventually get a feel for things. Why not just get a stock sidewinder and launch & land for a few hours. That's how I became proficient at FA OFF landings.

Cheers

 

[Chris Dettmar]

It sounds as though you may be going a bit too slowly. I bit more speed tends to mean that even if you do catch a glancing blow on something you're more likely to keep on going. It's also advisable to have 4 pips to systems (shields).

 

[Katkon]

You don't want to hear it, but simple practice will help you overcome this issue. You simply need to pay attention to where your cockpit is in relation to the body of your ship and head for the center of the letterbox. I'll bet you that in a couple of days this will be a non-issue for you.

 

[Defacto]

How fast are you flying through?
If you're too slow, the rotation can mess you up, and if you're too fast, well. Cut your speeds, not your credit account.

 

[Skillet]

Just out of curiosity, what ship are you flying? And do you have full pips to systems? Full power on shields makes a huge difference to the strength. Not sure if you have noticed, but some want collision damage to be higher.

I know you don't want to hear it but... It's just practice dude, when I got my Type-7 I was scraping it all over the place, now I'm cruising through the port without any issues. You eventually get a feel for things. Why not just get a stick sidewinder and launch & land for a few hours. hat's how I became proficient at FA OFF landings.

Cheers

I'm one who thinks collision damage should be raised a notch. There were nerfs all through Beta/Gamma on collision damage. Oh, and landing on the pad use to be challenging. Now its just a giant ship magnet.

 

[Blake_Dragon]

you should try that landing with a type 9


but to be more helpful OP, you could invest into a docking computer

 

[SirGirard]

Please forgive my tone in this post but I'm extremely frustrated. I just lost my 4th ship, many exploration points and hundreds of thousands in bounties due to the entirely unnecessarily unforgiving station entrances.

These things seemed to be intentionally designed like a Venus fly trap. You think you're just gliding in to a well deserved homecoming to cash in, repair and refit but NO! This evil beast of a station hath deceived thee....and it hungers! All it takes is a slight scrape on the side of the entrance or getting the tip of a wing caught on those ridiculous spikes (who would put antennae there????) ringing the entrance or even a slight nudge by another player or NPC. All too often this sends your ship into a hopeless death spin inside that teeny tiny tunnel, leaving you trapped in the structure's polygon mesh or just inexplicably unable to move. Even if you can move, the lack of an external ship view leaves you unable to determine which direction you *should* move to get out of trouble in time. Not to worry, though...it will all be over soon. Only a couple seconds of this and you've been slapped with an undeserved fine. Another couple seconds and you're being blown to bits by station guns. An entirely meaningless death (often with significant losses) simply from trying to enter or exit a station. Its happened to me both in the open game and in solo and I've watched it happen to other players too.

Of course there will be the forum trolls replying to this with "lern 2 fly nuub" or "get a docking computer" but neither of those responses mean much. Docking computers make an already slow and tedious task even slower and even the best pilots can be instantly screwed by another player or NPC in that tunnel of death.

Please address the problem or the EMT's will be picking shards of computer monitor out of my face.

rant mode disengaged

Hi Cmdr, you are not going to want to hear this, but practice & practice getting in and out of starports....before you go on exploration trips/BountyHunting/Trading! In my first few hours I crashed my darn Sidey 5 or 6 times before I got the hang of it, now it seems relatively easy. So it will with you and practice!

 

[bitstorm]

I'm sorry but the OP needs to improve and/or slow down and take his/her time, docking does not need to be "fixed".

who would put antennae there????

I presume they're there to encourage ships to approach the slot head on rather than at a ridiculous angle.

 

[Ouaisne]

I'm one who thinks collision damage should be raised a notch. There were nerfs all through Beta/Gamma on collision damage. Oh, and landing on the pad use to be challenging. Now its just a giant ship magnet.

I am not sure damage should be raised a notch as I think it is about right but I do remember (just) that 30 years ago I had similar difficulties getting through the damned letter box. I think as has been said a lot of practice or a docking computer. I have got to say using a joystick not available 30 years ago seems to make the whole operation a lot easier and I now get annoyed when ships move so slowly through the letterbox that I crash into them or get fined for loitering waiting for them to get out the way.

 

[stimuli]

Just out of curiosity, what ship are you flying?
I know you don't want to hear it but... It's just practice dude, when I got my Type-7 I was scraping it all over the place, now I'm cruising through the port without any issues. You eventually get a feel for things. Why not just get a stock sidewinder and launch & land for a few hours.

I've had it happen once in an Eagle, once in a Viper and twice in a Cobra.
Impact damage isn't the issue. I get stuck in the mesh of the structure until the station guns kill me. Even the times I've managed to free myself, it just takes a few seconds for the station to tag you for termination (for loitering no less!) and you're killed shortly after freeing yourself.

I've literally entered and exited stations hundreds of times since the game launched. Its not like I'm unfamiliar with, or bad at docking.

 

[Renegade Roach]

Why is a trollish response to say learn to fly? Not that I'd have phrased it like that if you hadn't decided to be provocative, but you reap what you sow, so; 'Lern 2 fly nub'. *sigh*

At this point we are seeing an awful lot of new players asking for anything they find a little tricky to be changed, usually to be made easier or less dangerous. The Cages serve a good purpose by the way, they're a disincentive to people flying in at full speed and at tight angles, combine that with a wider slit and you'd have more accidents as people get cocky, try to bomb in tight at high speed and slam into other ships in the slot. Then you'd be back here asking for collision damage to be reduced yet further, or for docking to be removed altogether.

I got stuck in the cage the other night btw, was a little tired.. I stayed calm and eventually got my ship out. I've also hit ships in the slot, last night I lost my Cobra when an npc Orca decided to get friendly and veer into me as I was passing through at speed. I didn't come here and ask for the game to be dumbed down though, I sucked it up and accepted that risk and loss is what makes Elite at least a bit interesting.

 

[oomwat]

Wow!

And there was me feeling that getting through the slot was stupidly easy compared to the original - there used to be a really good reason for having a docking computer, but now it's more of a hindrance than anything!

 

[ParaB]

Unless the OP is flying an Anaconda or Type 9 I have a hard time understanding the problem.

I suggest a bit more practice, maybe even run the tutorials again.

 

[schuesseled]

This how i do it:

Full power to the engines, get your thruster hat finger ready, slap the throttle to full, and 'feel' your way through the entrance. Use a voice attack command to slam on the brakes, turn on lights and deploy landing gear all at once, and cruise down to a landing.

Then realise you forgot to ask for docking permission. Lol, no, I have voice attack do that for me as well. I'd have it do everything if only that were possible.

 

[th3_fr4gil3]

It sounds as though you may be going a bit too slowly. I bit more speed tends to mean that even if you do catch a glancing blow on something you're more likely to keep on going. It's also advisable to have 4 pips to systems (shields).

sounds like he's going too fast.
i've scrapped my wing all along that port, trying to squeeze past a lakon 9 totally failing to to make progress through it, with no issue.
but just barely clipped an asp exiting at full speed and span like a spinning top bouncing of everything and anything, lucky i didn't go pop, survived with 20 ish % hull left.

 

[Renegade Roach]

what you talking about? with 4 pips in shield you can bounce off the station 100 times. fd needs to adress this , it aint to hard its way too easy , only effort you need now is when trying to die of the station walls

Yup, was speed docking the other day and got a bit frisky with my boost button. Couldn't stop in time and slammed straight into the big spike at the far end of a Coriolis, bounced off into a wall.. and my shields weren't even taken down. Should have been dead.

 

[th3_fr4gil3]

This how i do it:

Full power to the engines, get your thruster hat finger ready, slap the throttle to full, and 'feel' your way through the entrance. Use a voice attack command to slam on the brakes, turn on lights and deploy landing gear all at once, and cruise down to a landing.

Then realise you forgot to ask for docking permission.

lol.
padding
ton
bear

 

[Jack Dalton]

I assume the antennae are there to give you some visual cues into whether you are correctly aligned or not. So I think they help more than they hurt.
I do believe the teeny tiny entrance is a bit ridiculous, but I guess it could be explained with how inefficient it would be to have to "seal" a larger entrance from the vacuum of space. On that note, and sorry for the OT: I am dying to learn a bit more about the game's lore and politics but have been unable to find anything other than links to books. I don't really want to read those books, just some sort of overview. Any links will be much appreciated.

 

[sztosz]

I can only agree on the practice thing. I lost two eagles in the letterbox. But now, i almost always go full speed on afterburners in and out, praying not to get scanned by authority vessels and get fined for that *honestly found* cargo in my belly So... practice, and once again practice!