It's a game. It doesn't have to make sense. Indeed, it doesn't, because the game reckons Docking Rings use frictionless bearings, which violates some law of thermodynamics, I think.

Sorry , I Wasn`t looking for it to make sense. I realise alot of the game defies the laws of physics. That was the idea of the post.

OK then, if you're going to go down that line of thought...a docking ring could probably spin a column of atmosphere very fast, throwing it out due to centripetal force, creating a semi vacuum. Ships would be able to pass down through this as there would be much less air resistance.

Thanks Darkstone, thats exactlly what I had in mind. See where it goes......

well i thought thst its just a tunnel like thingy and that it 1) uses somethign to get the oxygen out of the air near the entry point soooo no burning is required or 2) anti grav thingy within the atmosphere that means that u will be equire wayyy less speed to reentry sooo no buring up can be done...

Jeez, it's the future man. Who knows what they worked out? I mean take now for example, nobody could've imagined computers could do this much let alone be used for powerful games a couple of decades ago.

"Good Lord Horatio! I do believe that is an extra-terrestrial space craft!"

It's magic. A chain of a million invisible elves standing on each others shoulders and reaching up to the ring use their levitation powers to gently hand the ship from elf to elf until you're on your nice little pad. --- VH16

I am Nobody; Nobody is Perfect; Therefore, I am Perfect

Right. and im a freakish lookign person with 5 inch long hair.... oh be quiet. Elves? Ill buy it. If planets hold still. why not

Allright, we'll do it your way. The docking rings obviously employ an inverse tracheon beam to create the Hawking Effect, where a photon vacuum in created and is filled by neutrino particles. The movement of these particles when corrilated with corresponding energy pulses from a ship's shield, yeild an inertia-dampening effect, allowing the ship to land using inverse lift principles. --- VH16

I've been watching way to much Star Trek

The dock ring is an accelarator ring, like the trade lanes. when you go through, you speed up a lot and brake furiously to land on the landing pad.