Some love for orbit lines

[Surround]

I wish that the aproaching stations and planets would look like the radar in aliens 2

And additional wish in the void; targetting stations wouldnt render your space brakes useless. Currently if im having too much speed and im going fly over the target, all I need to do is to untarget the station and suddenly I lose speed much faster.

Sorry for ot rant. But I have same problem as op the problem would be fixed if the station model would show properly its orientation.

 

[furrycat]

When the first blue circle pops, line up the aiming reticle so that the vertical line at the bottom is perpendicular to the blue circle's outer edge.

The reticle is always drawn with the lower line pointing vertically down. The blue lines, described correctly by frostypaw, are always perfectly circular. It follows, therefore, that the reticle and radius lines will always align in the way that you describe regardless of the orientation from which you approach.

Your technique works because you are able to judge that you are perpendicular based on the orbit line being circular and so can then turn to face it at the right time. All you are doing by lining up the reticle is aiming towards the planet initially and all deathmagnet is doing in his video by comparing the blue and yellow lines is judging whether the orbit is circular or not.

Everyone's brain is wired differently and some people have better spatial awareness than others, so I don't mean this in a snarky way but if you can tell whether a yellow line is a circle without having a blue one to compare it to then you don't need the radius lines for your technique.

EUS makes the point that - whether you use the blue line as a point of reference or not - when the yellow line looks almost flat it's hard to judge if you should pitch up or down to aim for the perpendicular approach.

 

[SMcA]

I fly with orbit lines. I like them.
There's a problem, and maybe it's that my eyes are maturing, maybe it's something wrong with the game.
When heading to a station, I cannot tell anymore if I'm approaching correctly anymore, so I guess. The guess is 50-50 wrong.
The orbital plane looks a certain way, so I'll either head up, or down to increase the plane, and create a perpendicular approach.
Oops, nope, the plane is flattening, I chose wrong. Not sure there's anything that can be done about this.

When I get closer, the station looks both in front of, and behind the station. Make a guess, right this time, wrong the next time.
It's due to the orbit lines being very thin, and from beyond a certain distance, I can't see if the line is hidden by the planetary body or not.
I think this can be 'fixed', by having the station orbit line two tone, one tone for the part of the curve that's in front, and another color tone when the curve heads away.

It is the same for me. One thing that I have noticed and might help. Is that the side of the orbit line, closest to you. Will have a larger separation from the planet/star than the far away side.

 

[Bran Tse Mallory]

+Rep OP!

I have the lines on if I'm coming in to land on a planet. I used to have them on for stations/platforms too but and I understand what you mean and the suggestion is a good one. When I used to find the destination was behind the planet I would 'Ride the line' so to speak and always come out of SC alongside stations.

 

[KillaALF]

If I'm in doubt I always check the distances on the Nav panel. That said, I'd appreciate some kind of visual cue as others have suggested.

 

[AreZee]

I want to endorse the ideas that involve a dashed/dotted line. Please refrain from using colors too much, especially when it comes down to thin lines like the orbital ones. The main reason? People with colorblindless like myself.

 

[frostypaw]

If you want a sure-fire solution to this then I recommend the following which has become second nature very quickly. When flying towards the planet and decelerating don't aim right at the planet - aim left and right a bit and observe which way the station's target reticule moves against the planet and choose such that the station ends up on the edge of the orbit

--------(----)---x----     
station is x planet is (----)

steer such that
--------(----)--------x
aim for           ^

then aim between the planet and the station. that's it. turn and dock

approaching like this you can aim up no matter the orientation or which side the station starts on, works from Mm away so it's still quick, you always end up on the right side to dock and at the right level and you don't need to crane your neck around to look as it happens right in front of you every flight.
wonky angle?

same trick - this could be front or back
 ---------x---
(     ( )      )
 -------------

 -------------
(     ( )      x
 -------------
but you know exactly where this is

 

[deathmagnet]

I actually just noticed the blue line thing a couple days ago while trading at the CG. Before I would just rely on approaching from "underneath" the orbital plane and for the most part still do.

But any visual cue is helpful.

As stated before. If it works it works and if it helps someone else...great.

 

[Jukelo]

When the orbit lines aren't occluded by the planet, take note of how the gap between the planet and the ellipse is wider for one half of said ellipse than the other. That's the part closest to you. From there there's only one solution.