Docking
In order to use a station's services, you must dock with the station.
Docking is a three stage process:
Requesting Docking Permission
Before you can get inside a station, you must first ask for permission to land, otherwise you won't have a specific pad to land at and you may receive a fine! Docking clearance is requested via the Contacts tab in the left menu of your ship: enter the Target menu ("1" by default), move to the Contacts tab ('q' or 'e' to switch tabs), select the station, and finally select "Request Docking Permission". If you were rejected, you were either out of range or have infractions against the station; get within 7.5 kilometers of the station and try again. If you are still rejected, it may be that the station is full. This quite often happens at the more popular stations and you will have to wait for someone to leave. It could also be because you have been in violation of local laws and have an infraction against you.
If you were acknowledged, the station will tell you what pad number to land at. You now have 10 minutes to land.
Entering the Station
All stations rotate to generate centripetal force, which effectively acts as gravity for its crew and citizens. For pilots, it effectively acts as a huge pain, but it can be dealt with. As you approach the station's entry port, focus on centering your ship with the port first, so that you don't crash into the port's walls. Once you've centered the port, start aligning the ship. This can be done manually, or by pressing the rotational assistance button. If done manually, keep in mind that most ships are wider than they are tall.
The entry ports are a congested location with ships passing in both directions. There is no traffic control and you should stay alert to avoid crashing into other ships. Some ships captains have adopted the protocol of turning on ships lights when docking to make you more visible as well as always traversing the side of the entry port marked by the green lights. Not always possible as some of the bigger ships only just fit.
Once inside, find the pad with the number the station assigned you, and lower the landing gear. You now need to actually land the ship.
Landing Your Ship
Landing is simple in theory, but can take finesse if you don't have a joystick throttle. Slowly approach your pad - if you're close enough and landing gears are down, the radar will be replaced with a diagram showing your ship's position relative to the landing point. In the diagram, there is a dot extending from your ship to the pad, like a shadow; you want to get that dot centered with the pad's circle first. When the dot is centered *and* your craft is aligned, the pad's diagram will turn blue, and you can thrust down (F key by default) to complete the landing. Use side thrusting (Q and E by default) as well as forward and backward thrusting (W and S by default) to fine tune your orientation and positioning. Once everything is blue and you've touched down, you're done.
Congratulations, you're docked!
Docking Tips
- The docking port on a Coriolis Station is always positioned on the 'end' that is spinning anti-clockwise. Looking for the advertising holograms often helps.
- The ship's compass (to the right of the scanner) points towards the docking pad currently allocated to your ship. The yellow indicator will be an outline if the target is behind you.