How do you dock?

Post by **winston** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 11:57 am

Personally, I come screaming in with the Witch Space Injectors perpendicular to the station's axis, and at the last second, turn off the injectors and do a 90 degree decelerating turn straight into the slot. I don't even bother trying to align with the slot

I think the entire docking procedure is over in about 2 seconds!

Post by **winston** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 11:59 am

winston wrote:
... perpendicular to the station's axis

Of course I meant at right angles to the station's axis, but never mind!

Murgh · Post by **Murgh** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 3:06 pm

usually something like sir Winston's method, but I still get a kick out of throwing the ship around at the buoy and afterburning in, gambling on aiming true just in time..

Mad Dan Eccles · Post by **Mad Dan Eccles** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 4:10 pm

Come screaming in, aim vaguely for the hole, and use the bounce-off to align if necessary.

cmdr drayton · Post by **cmdr drayton** » Wed Dec 22, 2004 6:27 pm

Just for laughs try switching to rear view, flying towards the buoy and then aiming at the station with instruments. With the scanner on max magnification it is possible to dock blind (or looking in an unhelpful direction)

I've managed it both times I've tried it.

Otherwise, it's in between the station and buoy while looking out the side, turn to face the station and then in on afterburners. There must be a damn good arrestor hook in the station cause I've not bounced out again yet

Using mouse control makes it much easier

Olentzero · Post by **Olentzero** » Mon Jan 03, 2005 9:47 pm

Eh... I'm a wuss. I dock as soon as I get in range. I think it's more out of impatience than a fear of getting my ship destroyed, though.

I did dock while looking out the rear window once but that was because I got distracted by something else and wasn't paying attention to the screen.

GusGus · Post by **GusGus** » Tue Jan 04, 2005 4:23 am

yeah. I think I use the shift + D more that I like to admit.

But when I do routine trips between a poor agricultural planet and a rich industrial planet, manual docking just take too much time for me...

Sometimes I use the autopilot just to listen to the beautiful music.

And I love it when your ship start to spin with the station and you see the stars spin around you.

I wish I could have the docking music not stop when the docking is complete; but rather run until the song ends while docked... (or at least fade away) I tried using OoTunes but it still stops. do anybody know how to do it?

aegidian · Post by **aegidian** » Fri Jan 07, 2005 2:02 pm

Right then.

v1.41 puts a stop to a lot of these shenanigens. You can still dock as fast as you dare, but if your ship's not as small as an adder you'd better be lined up with the docking slit.

Learning to dock should be a brown trousered affair for Oolite neophytes, and I think I've restored that experience now.

Frd_Prefect · Post by **Frd_Prefect** » Fri Jan 07, 2005 2:47 pm

lol Docking Computer every time for me from now on then! I inevitably bounce off a station at least twice as it is

Darkbee · Post by **Darkbee** » Fri Jan 07, 2005 3:18 pm

Naturally, if you like to stay on the wrong side of the law (fugitive) then you'll still be doing your fair share of manual docking... which keeps life interesting.

Olentzero · Post by **Olentzero** » Fri Jan 07, 2005 6:32 pm

aegidian wrote:
v1.41 puts a stop to a lot of these shenanigens. You can still dock as fast as you dare, but if your ship's not as small as an adder you'd better be lined up with the docking slit.

Always did that anyway. Figured it wasn't worth the hassle trying to get in while misaligned. Of course, now that I've upgraded to a Python the matter does take on some greater significance. (Can't remember if I bought the docking computer already or not.)

Asp · Post by **Asp** » Fri Jan 07, 2005 7:35 pm

aegidian wrote:
Right then.

v1.41 puts a stop to a lot of these shenanigens. You can still dock as fast as you dare, but if your ship's not as small as an adder you'd better be lined up with the docking slit.

Learning to dock should be a brown trousered affair for Oolite neophytes, and I think I've restored that experience now.

We need a speed limit inside the bay.

cmdr drayton · Post by **cmdr drayton** » Fri Jan 07, 2005 9:36 pm

aegidian wrote:
Right then.
Learning to dock should be a brown trousered affair for Oolite neophytes, and I think I've restored that experience now.

Quite right too!

One little request though - it would be very cool if you could still dock on instruments, which means you'd need some instrumentation to tell you the slot alignment if you're flying blind. Maybe make the indicator on the compass lozenge shaped.

This is pretty academic though without having damage to ships. But if you could have your forward view knocked out it would make things rather interesting

Is there an plan for allowing damage like that?

And it keeps the element of brown trousering your way into the station!

AJ · Post by AJ » Mon Jan 10, 2005 11:51 am

winston wrote:
winston wrote:
... perpendicular to the station's axis
Of course I meant at right angles to the station's axis, but never mind!

Perpendicular = at right angles

AJ · Post by AJ » Mon Jan 10, 2005 11:56 am

I'd like to see an extreme docking computer that instead of going through the whole procedure at 80% speed, screams up to the slot at whatever angle happens to take you right next to it and executes a perfect turn timed to take you into the slot at the correct rotation. That would be cool.

Also, an external view would be nice while docking on auto.

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