Space-station docking and ship size?

[ajmas]

From what I have seen ships can dock inside a space station, though does that apply to all space-craft? I am just finding it hard to imagine some of the juggernauts actually docking inside a space station, given their size.

Has there been by thought given how the size of a vehicle impacts its interaction in this context?

 

[Patrick_68000]

I seem to have read, that more the spaceship is big, more the docking is long in duration. And only the largest space stations will be able to receive the largest spaceships. It which seems logical.

Edit : Read in kickstarter "Progress Diary # 4" comments : Tony Jeffery :"Hi Michael, Do you at this stage have a rough idea of how long a docking sequence would take? will there be external docking available (a means of docking a ship to the side of a station much like the ISS does at the moment)?"

Michael :"Docking time will vary depending on the ship, the larger ships will require more finessing. Docking is internal only for the moment."

 

[SAB380]

Well we've now know that the mystery ship in the docking video is the Panther Clipper ....the biggest ship in Frontier and First Encounters.

Will there be bulkier ships than that? We'll see I guess...

 

[Commander Thane]

Yeah this is something that came up in the last podcast. If it turns out that there are playable ships that are not dockable, it implies that either Commanders will have access to a little "launch" that they can use to ferry between their ship and the station, or that there will be some sort of external docking bridge.

 

[Serpentstar]

I hope everyone remembers that "docking" does not specifically imply entering a station. There is also the capability of space docking, connecting to a docking arm (which is what we have with current day aircraft at larger airports, for passengers at least.)

You also have the flexible docking collar for emergency connections to docking rings on the ship itself.

It would really be interesting to see an actual player ship come up next to station and dock externally and then watch EVA suits ferry cargo back and forth.

 

[DocMoriarty]

Another question is though whether the Panther Clipper will be able to dock at all stations or will there be different sizes of space stations or planet landing facilities when they get available that only allow smaller ships to dock but not the Panther or Anaconda.
If i remember right in FFE you couldn't dock or land the big ships at all stations/landing sites. For example the big ones could only land on open air landing pods but not on the moon bases that take you inside.
It was also a problem to take off again with a huge ship if gravity was too high.

 

[Aeneas]

My idea, little Ships, mostly with less Shield and hull, could enter the Station. Bigger Ships are be able to dock outside. They have the shields and hull what can absorb more hits before it is a problem....

 

[Perseus]

I hope everyone remembers that "docking" does not specifically imply entering a station. There is also the capability of space docking, connecting to a docking arm (which is what we have with current day aircraft at larger airports, for passengers at least.)

You also have the flexible docking collar for emergency connections to docking rings on the ship itself.

It would really be interesting to see an actual player ship come up next to station and dock externally and then watch EVA suits ferry cargo back and forth.

Eva suits? I was hoping the station might use little lifters or tugs to load/unload! In fact, this could be a profession for pilots paying off their debt to society.

 

[Zplintz]

Didn't it say in the last news letter (or DB's last update vid) that the animated sequence showing a ship (the Panther Clipper) being stored after docking was the largest flyable (and dockable) ship available for Players to fly at launch (or am I mixing reality with pipe dreams)? The Anaconda looks a similar size too (I hope 0.o)

The large ships would probably either require parking in space (and launching a shuttle to the station) or docking at a docking arm (like X3). This would leave the issue of what happens to the craft when the Player logs off though (which has already been resolved with the newsletter anims).

 

[Slawkenbergius]

Didn't it say in the last news letter (or DB's last update vid) that the animated sequence showing a ship (the Panther Clipper) being stored after docking was the largest flyable (and dockable) ship available for Players to fly at launch (or am I mixing reality with pipe dreams)? The Anaconda looks a similar size too (I hope 0.o)

That's my recollection, and looking back at the animation I can't see how the Anaconda would fit on the landing pad properly, as the scaled pictures show that its longer than the Panther Clipper. I guess they'll be tweaking that at some point.

 

[Patrick_68000]

To enter in some space stations should be easier for an Anaconda or a Panther clipper. For large space stations that will measure four kilometers in diameter.

 

[Zplintz]

Aye - I was thinking in terms of the demonstrated "log-off" animation more than the actual docking to be honest (and only because I thought that regardless of tweaking it was defining the max size of a Player ship for launch).