Easy with a bit of practice, and looks awesome to everyone watching.
Except for the girls - they don't care !
It's a guy-thing
I usually made my approach at about half speed and then kept my ship's rotation to be slightly more than the rotation of the spacestation then my ship would fit like a hand in a glove the second I flew through the docking-gate.
I just couldn't do it a full speed - maybe I'm a tad "slow" ?
NavComp has encountered a problem and needs to close!
Cant find this anywhere . In the old games some stations only had 2, 4 or 8 docking bays.
Are there going to be limited docking bays at some stations so you risk getting the message that there is none free for you to dock at?
And if so how many docking bays are there going to be pr station as max, since this is going from a 1 player game to an online multi player game?
Are there going to be limited docking bays at some stations so you risk getting the message that there is none free for you to dock at?
And if so how many docking bays are there going to be pr station as max, since this is going from a 1 player game to an online multi player game?
Rather than a computer per se to allow the ship to dock itself, I would see it an upgrade one would buy to one's own navigation computer if you see what I mean. As for the cost, I think half a credit would be too cheap to trust!
If I remember correctly, in Frontier Elite II, the automaitque pilot was included as standard in the spaceship. But it could be damaged during a fight, which forced to work with manual docking to a space station or land on a planet. If to stay alive during the fight, of course ...
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Wouldn't mind if there was manual docking as standard (with automatic docking available as purchasable options) PROVIDED the manual docking process was challenging but not virtually impossible
Whilst the matching rotation while docking is kind of an iconic thing in elite..it would be more realistic and believable for a rotating station to have a round entrance...
I would hope that there was one or two dedicated computers for such a trivial task since if one failed, it would be catastrophic which is why there are redundancies built into modern aircraft, for instance even for such a mundane task as locating north, I believe that there are three compasses just in case something happens to one which is why the elite docking computer is so heavy and costs so much.
That's a fair point but these will be our ships and not necessarily under the strict safety controls of ships that we see in RL.
If, for example, I have limited space to fit equipment and that equipment also adds mass to my ship, the temptation would be to drop the additional computer (be it generic for shared processing or purely as an additional docking computer) - without government bodies making the rules, the choice will be mine.
As always my preference would be that we get to choose what to fit (and what to omit) - so being able to add redundant systems would be great but being forced to removes choice.
Regarding docking (as per Elite):-
Regardless of whether the station is rotating or not isn't difficult if you are facing the docking port and perpendicular to the docking bay opening.
Once you are lined up and are perpendicular, matching rotation if you need to is easy (and doesn't result in that last minute wobble when you realise you aren't going to make it). You also used to be able to match rotation and dock at full thrust on Elite.
To get lined up fly across the face of the docking port (or fly up and over from the opposite side of the station). When in line with the opening, turn and fly directly away keeping the docking point centralised in your rear view camera. How far you have to fly away to be sure you are perpendicular to the docking port opening depends on how accurately you were lined up (and how close you dared to fly to it) when you turned away. You can tell when its correct when you no longer have to make any adjustments to keep the docking bay centralised.
Once you are happy with the positioning, drop speed to zero, flip over so you are facing the docking bay opening and hit full thrust, manage the rotation with the docking bay opening and Bob's your uncle (or perhaps even your auntie these days).
On the versions of Elite without the insta-dock (Amiga?) it was quicker to manually dock than use the docking computer. Although it could be less work to let the docking computer get you all lined up and then turn it off and hit the thrust.
I am of the opinion that because it was so hard to start playing the original Elite that it has become a fear for many players in the new version. However technology, programming skills and the capacity to add decent tutorials should mean that this isn't issue in Elite D (for example there is no reason why part of the Pilot Training couldn't include a fairly fail-safe tutorial to teach you to dock rather than leave you to work it out yourself).
The only times this method ever failed me was because I was got so blasé that I would get distracted by something else and forget to match the rotation.
I no longer have access to any of the previous versions of Elite to make a vid unfortunately
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