I'm amazed you got a White Star through a docking ring at all. When i first used one they couldnt dock at all and later on when they could dock I had to use Superdocker mod to make sure they just didnt keep flying around the docking ring getting shot at.

This has kind of happened to me in MP (without mods). I was doing missions on malta with a sabre, and everytime when I reach the *exact* centre of the 'arrival' docking port of the docking ring, and press dock while still having cruise activated, I dock sideways into the planet without the docking ring opening...

TheMachine
Fleet Admiral of clan EFA
www.freelancerefa.tk

I'm using the ghost docking ring mod. I don't have any problems docking with a planet but stations and asteroid bases can get frustrating (but are still possible with patience).

Oooo, pretty....what do we blow up first?

"Well isn't that special..."

I quite like flying uptp a jump gate on cruise and then docking when your about 500m away from it, you dock and the sound it makes opening up does not quite know what to do, it sounds really funny.

i went in a trade lane backwards.
and i slowly turned around

sticks and stones may break my bones but whips and chains excite me!

Congratulations, you are very close to learning how to dock properly.

It doesn't have anything to do with cruise engines, speed, engine-kill etc. - you just have to fly your ship to the proper docking position and you will be docked without delay. With jumpgates, tradelane rings, docking bays etc. you also have to be oriented properly ('nose first into the gate' - some NPC transports take several minutes and a lot of helpful ramming before they realize the benefits of this approach ) but the planetary docking rings will dock you regardless of your current orientation.

When you approach a planetary docking ring and you find that some bleeping NPC has initiated docking from several light years away (well, kilometres) then you need to fly into a position that is similar to the normal fast-docking spot but slightly off-centre, so that the NPC can pass you when it flies along the axis as usual. Then issue the dock command. You will be docked together with the NPC, perhaps a few metres before or after.

Note: docking from the side at cruise speed is slightly more difficult in a heavy fighter than in a light one (because the heavy fighters have more inertia and cannot stop abruptly) and with freighters it is a tad more difficult still because they have even higher inertia and very bad turning rates. But it is doable with a bit of practice, and if you are a trader then you don't have anything else to do anyway.

This one happened in my humpback in mp, craziest thing on earth. I tried a speed dock on a docking ring coming from the side. Due to momentum or something, the ship went through the docking ring from the space beside the claws. The game tried to orient it, but the humpback turned so slow that it crashed into the planet (instead of going through it), turned left, slid on the planet's surface, went out the exit ring, turned back to the entry ring, and proceeded to do the same thing over and over again. I was about to ask someone to come over and ram me a few times when the humpback slammed into the ring headfirst, did an about face, and proceeded to dock correctly. If anyone was watching, they may have thought I was cheating, crashing into the atmosphere and refusing to blow up.

Oh I would have loved to have seen that, LOL!

I was playing last night in a B-Wing and evidently approached the jump gate too quickly for a normal docking. I squeezed through the gap and proceeded to jump to the next system... cockpit first. During the jump I s l o w l y straightened out my direction, but it was still funny. (If this doesn't seem to make sense to you, look up what a B-Wing looks like.)

Oooo, pretty....what do we blow up first?

I once got my Crusader to go through a trade lane upside down. Looked weird.

My dragon liked to turn upside down while waiting for a jump gate. Don't know why, but it happened quite a lot :p

I've got screenshots of both situations, I'll see if I can upload them somewhere.

Edited by - DarkHydra on 26-08-2003 19:25:16

HAH! I do this all the dammed time!
I just fly inside the "pincers" arrange myself in a strange position and push F3!
Simple yeah? Well Ive gone bacwards, sideways, upsidedown and near enough any other way you can think of...



Did that work?

Me:Ok One last chance to surrender!
Enemy:WHAT! We outnumber you 6 to 1!
Me: Maybe I could drop some weapons to make it easier for you!

I had another strange bug the other night...I docked a trade lane at the same time as a transport and watched as the transport flew through me, then my ship flew back through it. When the end of the trade lane was reached I was stuck in the rear of the transport and it flew around with me happily attached to the back. The only way I could get out was to use reverse thrusters...which bizarrely didn't affect my shields.

That's happened to me a couple of times, too. It's funny, but wierd.

Oooo, pretty....what do we blow up first?