Position of stations in systems

[Red Kite]

I once jumped into a system and spent ten minutes flying around trying to work out why the station appeared to be always behind the star. Then discovered I'd forgotten to reset the destination!! (Newbie mistake!).

Since then I've noticed that the station never appears to be behind the star or a planet, I've always had a straight run from my jump-in point. Even when the station appears to be in an orbitally complex group of planets.

So what are the odds of that? I know space is big(!) but surely we should occasionally have to manoeuvre round other bodies.

The same seems to apply on jumping out of a system. I once had a message something like "Destination masked" and the Frameshift was aborted, but when I repeated the jump it worked straight away.

Perhaps this has been done to make navigation easier and will be changed later? Should we be looking for greater realism? Navigating past astronomical hazards would certainly make the otherwise tedious station approach more interesting and introduce an element of uncertainty into mission time limits!

 

[peterbbb]

One does sometimes find the station behind the planet, but think about the approach. You super cruise towards the station so the likelyhood of disengaging in front of the planet is unlikely.

 

[Joe Spivey]

I always veer well off the direct route to the station which has resulted in having to fly around the planet a few times. I think of it as taking the scenic route

 

[burzum]

Perhaps this has been done to make navigation easier and will be changed later? Should we be looking for greater realism? Navigating past astronomical hazards would certainly make the otherwise tedious station approach more interesting and introduce an element of uncertainty into mission time limits!

I'm all in for realism but the current super cruise implementation is just terrible boring and forces you to nanny the speed at the final stage of the approach. It is just annoying and doesn't require skill but forces you to pay attention to the speed but doesn't make it interesting or challenging in any way.

So I would prefer to have short ways to stations as long as super cruise is so terrible boring as it is right now. It's fun the first few times but after some time it's just annoying. I'm always reading news sites while in SC. Usually its boring / long enough to read an article.

 

[desposa]

Sometimes I need to travel around the star and it's mass influence (geen circle) to get to the station and a few times around the planet the station is orbiting. Might be my flighing or you're just lucky

 

[Galactic Midden]

I've had instances where the destination planet has been obscured by both the star or the planet. I've also once or twice found the station in front of the planet when in supercruise heading from the main star.

You just have to remember that space is big and the chance of the station appearing from your perspective to be behind or in front of a celestial body is therefore relatively low. The chance will be greater the closer you are to the obstruction.

I have had similar thoughts before myself. It all seems fine though. The one thing I wonder about is whether or not I'll ever drop out of supercruise to find the station's dock entrance facing directly at me.

 

[Red Kite]

I have had similar thoughts before myself. It all seems fine though. The one thing I wonder about is whether or not I'll ever drop out of supercruise to find the station's dock entrance facing directly at me.

I have, very occasionally, found myself facing the docking hatch on a Coriolis station,but it's rare. It is usually to one side or behind the station from my viewpoint. With Orbis stations I usually see the station side on, but I have sometimes come out behind it which gives a nice opportunity to fly through the wheel. (You'd think the station would issue fines for dangerous flying. After all, hitting the inner surface of the habitation ring with a large ship could be a major disaster!)

 

[Zvanya]

I've noticed that the station never appears to be behind the star or a planet

Not true. I have had to fly around the star because the destination was occluded, or fly around the planet because the station was on the far side of my approach vector. Probably you just haven't had it happen to you yet. This will be a fairly rare occurrence, how rare depends on the orbital period of the destination planet.

I have, very occasionally, found myself facing the docking hatch on a Coriolis station,but it's rare.

If you exit super cruise directly between the planet and station you will almost always (always?) at least be in the correct hemisphere to see the access corridor.