Which side of the belt...

[Quantis Trap]

Hey,

Anyone know a dependable way to, at a glance, tell which side of an asteroid belt a station or megaship is on even if it's the first time you've been there?

The most recently I thought of this is when landing at the Crucible SK86 Megaship in the Carpaka system. Recently while making several landings at it, I chose the wrong side and had to either slowly make my way through or around the asteroid belt once I'd done so.

This location in the Carpaka system is especially dark and the ring is seems particularly translucent so it's especially hard to visualize. The best I could figure out to pick the right side of the ring more often than not was to memorize the markings on the planet, but the planet rotates so that didn't always work well.

I'm hoping someone has a fast reliable way to choose the right side of the belt at a glance.

Thanks

 

[Vardaugas]

Only way I can think of to make sure is to approach from the side and not the top.

 

[Quantis Trap]

Only way I can think of to make sure is to approach from the side and not the top.

I've tried this technique in multiple systems, but unfortunately from a distance you don't often see the station poking out on one side or another. You definitely don't at this dark location where you can hardly even see the ring.

 

[Deaf Space]

i eye ball the distances, and do quick math in my head, its something only experienced ALPHA Pilots can do tho

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

My tip is first approach from the top, to check which side the station is on (which can be done at a good distance), then swing down to fly side on with the planet/ring to check if it's above or below.
If I get it wrong, I try and squeeze through the gaps in the separate rings.
Sometimes successfully!

 

[Vardaugas]

I wonder if there is a rule where the mailslot is facing. Away from the ring or towards it? As they always face towards a pole, it probably would be away from the ring as that's where the closest pole is.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

I wonder if there is a rule where the mailslot is facing. Away from the ring or towards it? As they always face towards a pole, it probably would be away from the ring as that's where the closest pole is.

For the ones which have mailslots, anyway.

But even for outposts you can remember the orientation, with practice.

 

[Quantis Trap]

Intereting ideas guys. Maybe we can compile ome stats on the orientation of the stations, outposts and megaships near rings to see if there's a trend. I know that the SC aproach models for the stations and megaships quite often don't match what they actually look like but the orientation should be right. I'm still at Carpaka so I'll investigate that one now.

If anyone can remember other stations and megaships in rings, please post here. There's a lot of them these days.

Edit: It's a bummer that the front and back orientation or the megaship model does not match up at all with the actual ship orientation. At least that' the case in Carpaka.

 

[DNA-Decay]

Everyone who repped good answers should also rep the good question.

I’ve struggled with this a few times and advice is good.

 

[Quantis Trap]

i eye ball the distances, and do quick math in my head, its something only experienced ALPHA Pilots can do tho

Please give details on your technique ... oh master.

 

[Alec Turner]

Titan's Daughter in Taygeta. However it's IN the asteroid belt so it doesn't really matter which side you approach from and may not be useful for your research. I dropped in there two days ago for repairs after a "difficult" encounter with a Medusa and it's such a gorgeous system I've been running missions to the four-armed Coriolis in nearby Electra ever since.

 

[Stealthie]

If a station (or other POI) is close enough to a belt that you can't tell which side it's on by looking at it from the side then it's probably also close enough that you'll be able to drop-out of SC at the station/POI before you hit the ring, even if you are on the wrong side of it.