Reversible landing pads and docking

[Zen17h]

The following happened to me WAY too many times to count, mostly with Medium sized ships:

-Approach some sort of outpost
-Request docking and get close to the specified landing pad
-Wonder which side those flappy things on the pads are supposed to be when landing again(seriously what are they, blast shields??)
-Get close enough for landing interface to pop up
-Realize that I've been approaching from the wrong side
-Position myself on the pad and either SLOOOOWLY turn around or tilt the ship 90° and pitch 180°(slightly faster, but still slow)
-Finally land

Sometimes I get "lucky" enough to have to wait for the one Medium pad to be free before being able to put my docking request in
(Could they at least just say "Appropriate landing pads occupied, try again later" instead of just DENIED?)
Then I can get really close to the pad before eventually having a request going through and watching the other ship fly away.
After aligning myself and dropping down on the landing interface, suddenly the pad DROPS DOWN and TURNS AROUND before going back up again, meaning I'm the wrong alignment AGAIN!!

Outpost docking pads are like USB ports - your first attempts at "docking" are almost always the wrong way around.
Would it be that difficult to enable you to land on a pad the 'wrong' direction? (Just 0° or 180°, no need to get any fancier than that)
Have your landing display automatically adjust so that you always appear to be the right way.
If you aren't really facing the right way, just have the pad elevator take you down instead of spinning around first

 

[Magic Man]

To note, the landing pad number is at the far side of box. I.e. if you are approaching with the number on the edge of the box closest to you, you're approaching from the wrong side.
Would be better if the number was simply reversed, as it should be, when seen from "behind"

 

[Thaddeus Laverne]

I do find the fact that it spins you around after making you land only one way quite ironic. it would help if you could turn your ship at a decent rate when stationary.
in the starter ship it takes just over 15 seconds to yaw 180 degrees. at least if the pad was forgiving you wouldn't have to deal with that

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

Rather than yaw for 15 hours (Python!), its easier to flip over 180 and pitch 180.
But yeah, the number on the pad is always at the far end. Sometimes it is hard to read or figure out which side it's on at longer ranges.

 

[AH_ImADot]

Don't they all have giant arrows or chevrons painted on them?

 

[DragoonKnight]

Don't they all have giant arrows or chevrons painted on them?

You cant see them from 4 km away.
What is the point of making you land a certain way when all the ships are capable of VTOL and the pad spins???
It is not a problem for me, but it does seem pointless.

 

[Lestat]

A easy fix buy a docking computer and study how it lands.

Also you can also ask for docking at 7500 km away. When you approach study which side the number is at while you approach the landing pad.

 

[Zen17h]

The holographic pad number is the strangest part of the landings
Sometimes I can clearly see that it is reversed (say I need to land on pad 03, then see E0 - 03 reversed) on the pad and know I have to turn around
Sometimes when I'm coming from what turns out the wrong side, the pad number is the right way round
It may be that you can look at which side the number is on, but I forget whether it should be at the front or back of the pad
(It should be at the back, right??)

 

[metatheurgist]

I just use the visual cues. The crane is always on the right, you always fly over the blast ramps, which are always on the side closest to the edge of the platform.

 

[vernonator]

I want to meet the fool who designs the outposts that require I thread my way thru their infrastructure in order to approach from the right direction. Are they WANTING someone to ram their station? Good Grief.....

 

[Forlorn]

Wait until you have the experience where you are facing the landing pad correctly, but your ship is reversed in the little hologram landing guide

 

[Sendraks]

All landing pads have graphical cues that are viewable from 1km out, which should give you a clear visual indication of what direction you are approaching the pad from. Once you've learned these, you'll never have a problem again.

If you do approach from the wrong direction.

1. Pitch ship straight down.
2. Roll 180.
3. Level out.
4. Land.