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Trade lane tips

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Meatboy Dogfood

Post Thu May 01, 2003 9:34 pm

Trade lane tips

They get you from to there faster then cruising open space, but who has not been blasted to bits while trying to enter one? Here are a few tips to help save your backside while docking trade lanes.

1. All trade lane terminals entry or exit points are marked by red and green lights on the lane generators. Green lights indicate that the lane will accept your entry into the lane, so if you are fleeing from foes aim for the green. This will keep you from climbing or diving to the proper lane while foes pounds your ship into scrap. Note! if your trade lane is disrupted there are no such freindly lights in the middle of the lanes, so it's a good thing to remember if you docked top or bottom lane. Also, be sure to click on the disrupted trade lane before you attempt to redock. This will allow you to see if the trade lane has restablized. Nothing will kill you quicker then getting stuck docking with a dead trade lane.


2. Perfect the art of the combat dock. If you just click the dock button to enter a trade lane, your ship will drop out of cruise about 400m away from the trade lane and slowly poke along till you dock, allowing all who do not like you to light you up. Instead, {A} left click on the trade lane. {B} Cruise or thrust towards the trade lane .{Dont forget to line up on a green trade lane} {C}Watch as the distance count drops down to Zero. Wait till close as you can get to zero, them push F3 to dock. If you do this right you will seem to dive into the trade lane and zip away.

3. Pushing the ESC button twice while traveling a trade lane will dump you out of the trade lane itself. {A good thing if you like liberaing cargos like me}. This allows you to find a trade lane to disrupt in the foggiest nebula without having to grope about for one. It also allows someone who has trouble with the powers that be to use a trade lane to speed up system travel time without having to be dumped out in front of the local copshop.

4. The last tip is for freebooters among us. {So all you honest folk avert your eyes.} I call this the "Stop And Rob" Find a station or planet that has at least two trade lanes entrys that are close together, and has no copshops nearby. Fly to it via one trade lane. As soon as you exit the lane left click on your escape trade lane, By know everyship in the area will have sorted themselves into freind or foe. If there is a lot of red ships choose a nearby freighter and toast it . Grab cargo. Repeat till you hold is full or there are to many bandits after your hull, Perform a combat dock with your choosen escape route. If the red count is light spend some time shopping, using the "O" key to scan cargo. If you are in a freighter go into turret mode to blast away at your choosen targets. Once your holds full escape into a trade lane.

Hope these help. They have kept me alive

We need guns[[! Big Guns[[![[! Big Freaking GUNS[[![[![[!

Sapient6

Post Thu May 01, 2003 10:12 pm

Combat tradelane docking: it's worth mentioning that while approaching the tradlane you want to fully center yourself. A: Disable mouseflight during your approach long enough to autolevel. If you skip this and come in on the tradelane upsidedown, for instance, the game will sometimes perform the autoleveling before completeing the dock. Sometimes it will autolevel after the dock and you'll be fine, but it's not worth the risk. B: Aim for the center of the greenlighted tradelane dock. If you're too far from the center when you hit dock you'll drop from cruise and your ship will turn and get itself centered before docking-- the impact of this isn't as much as hitting dock too early, but it does give your opponents time for a couple more shots in your backside.

Combat jumpgate docking: You can perform a similar trick with jumpgates provided no other ships are tying them up, which will still put you in queue. Approach the jumpgate in cruise, and don't hit dock (F3) until you're right in front of the apperature. If you fly too close and go through that small hole before hitting dock then you'll turn around and fly away before docking, so don't get too close.

Jumphole docking: this, like the other tips here, is probably common knowledge to non-newbies, but it's worth mentioning that you can dock with a jumphole as close as 0M. So no need to drop out of cruise until you're right on top of it. If you dock with a jumphole at under 30M and it's not in use, you'll go straight to the traveling cutscene and spend no time in approach.

Tradelane catapulting: If you dock with a tradelane only one or two tradelane gates from it's end, you'll fly out of the tradelane at a higher than usual speed. This can be useful when smuggling contraband, for instance running artifacts to Manhattan and approaching from the direction of west point, when you want to dock with your destination before the police scan your cargo.

Tradelane recovery: As soon as even the slightest amount of "health" returns to a disrupted tradelane's blue health bar it is available for docking again.

Edited by - Sapient6 on 01-05-2003 23:14:47

Edited by - Sapient6 on 01-05-2003 23:15:49

Meatboy Dogfood

Post Fri May 02, 2003 4:46 am

Addendum to combay jumpgate\jumphole docking.

Sometimes when you attempt to dock you hear that oh so polite voice say "Dock in use. Entering Que." Suddenly you haul ip to a dead stop and everybody who does not like begins to pound on your favorite backside. At this point you have three opitions. 1. sit there and take it hoping you have enough sheild batts and nannos to surive the wait. 2. Punch ESC and jink about or fight till the gate/hole frees up and redock. 3. Point your ship at those ahead of you and blast your way to the front of the line. Of course I like #3 best.

CW

Post Fri May 02, 2003 7:49 am

I usually can't resist killing everybody in sight before I dock... but anyway, good tips.

-----------------------------------------------------------
War does not decide who is right, only who is left.

Lt Cmdr. Ajim

Post Fri May 02, 2003 9:49 am

I usually can't resist killing everybody in sight before I dock

if youre smuggling than there is a problem...anyway if im suggling i fly waay under the police to evade them...

argh.. im never gonna get paid.. goodbye a million credits..

Neo-Archaic

Post Fri May 02, 2003 12:10 pm

If you're neutral or better with the person in front of the queue, select them and hit the formation key (F4). A lot of times I get pulled along with them into the trade lane early. Plus while going into formation you're moving.

Anyone noticed btw that Trent always skips the queue when docking?

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