Like as in, the dock seqeunce isn't a "Movie" but you actually go in the dock from third person view?

________________

Instead of issuing the 'Dock' command from several kilometres away you fly your ship to the docking ring and press F3 when you are immediately before the gap between the protector 'pincers'. This way you can dock without any delay whatsoever (the pincers won't even open).

Note: if you approach the docking ring frontally at cruise speed and you hit the wrong button then you will crash right into the planet. This can be very frustrating when you are a trader and all your money is in your cargo hold. So it safer to come from the side but it is a bit trickier to hit the right spot at cruise speed. Try it at normal or even slower speed first until you know where the hot spot is.

Tradelane rings, jumpgates, jumpholes and docking bays work in a similar fashion except that you cannot dock sideways. I found it useful to bind the dock command to a more convenient key ('<') that can be found reliably without looking at the keyboard and without moving the left hand from the home position since the other fingers may have to operate afterburners, strafe keys or whatever at the same time.

If you do a bit of trading then perfecting your zero-delay docking skills is about the only thing you can do to relieve the boredom, except when you get jumped by pirates in which case that skill can save your butt.

Actually, you do have to wait for planetary docking ring pincers to open; the game won't start entering your ship into the ring until they get most of the way open. Also, you have to be about 80-100 meters back from the docking ring to start the procedure or the autoflight will loop you around until you are.

For jumpgates and tradelanes, you can fly right up until the distance shows 0 and even slightly (maybe a ship-length) beyond before hitting the dock button. Just don't drive a Humpback too far or you'll be crying in boredom while it loops itself back around.

Also, jump holes can be docked with while the game shows you as still 100m away.

You can flash dock with Dock Rings before the pincers open, just go a little into the 2 yellow n black lines.

-~-~-~-~
There is no Silicon Heaven[! But where do all the calculators go ?

You could no more evade my wrath... than you could your own shadow[!

I was referring to stations. I'd gotten the idea that you could manually take your ship into the docking bay of the station (yes, as in without the little in-game animation).

-------------------------------------
"Reach for the stars and you'll burn your hands." - me

T-Hawk, just try it. The pincers won't move an inch and the game will dock you regardless of what your current orientation is - sideways, at an angle, or even backwards. In fact, I usually consider myself sloppy if the pincers do move when I dock.

Agreed Sherlog, that is landing with a velvet touch and actually pretty cool to do.

Tybalt, yes it can be done with the help of another pilot (either NPC or live). Just as they go into their sequence you move ahead of them and you're technically docked. Not able to get out of your ship but in the docking bay. You'll need to wait until the doors are opened again or you can target the place your stuck and try an autoland like normal. The latter doesn't always work tho.

There is no way to bypass the landing sequence intiation, but the ESC key can speed some of the longer ones along okay.

Rob "Stinger" Lordier
Moderator - Lancers Reactor
Creator Privateer FAQ
Webmaster - My current hobby/project
no good deed will ever go unpunished
Co-Admin Elite Freelancer Server

Ha! I did a quicky dock with a station today, and the autoflight grabbed me and threw me into a docking bay that a computer player was using... the doors closed before I could get out. So, there I was, rattling around in this little box trying to figure out what to do. Everytime I tried to dock, I would just bounce off the walls. I had to wait about 10 minutes until another computer player used that dock before I could sneak out.

Sherlog - hey, wow, it does work. Sometimes. Only if you hit dock when you're pretty close to the center of the ring does the planet take you in instantly, but it does work. If you're off-center in the ring, the game decides to loop you around until you're in front of the docking ring as per usual, which results in smacking against the docking ring at all sorts of bad angles. Even a Rhino can take a minute or two to get out of that configuration even doing it manually. I'd hate to be driving a Humpback and get stuck in such a predicament... "LSF Gamma 4, we have a situation here. A freelancer got his freighter stuck in the Pittsburgh docking ring..."

LMAO
"Affirmative, LSF Beta 2...we're sending in the plunger now."

And God said,
E=mC²
And there was light.

Ah yes, the LSF plunger ship might get you out of the Pittsburgh docking ring, it won't get you out of the Mactan docking...hole. While blasting down some Lane Hackers I thought it be funny to fly into their docking areas as a fighter just flew out. I got stuck there untill I reloaded the game...

---Everything is evolution---

For all you newbies, there is no plunger ship.



---Everything is evolution---

damn, don't spoil the fun What do you think happens when a jump gate backs up?

And God said,
E=mC²
And there was light.

also sometimes( its only happened to me twise) if you get to the very dotem hole in a jump gate you will go in with out the jumpgate having to open.