OK here is my 2 ¢ ...
1) I have been practicing manual docking..I have no problem with it but this......
After I get permission, and the green dock light..I travel to the station at 22m/s...As I get close it aborts me always...
So I figure I'm to fast...So I slow down to 12 m/s... At that rate the station is pulling away from me, and increasing speed slightly always aborts me again..
So I have to keep Comming and requestion permission, instead of concentrating on docking..its a bit rough...LOL
I suggest you do a couple of Auto Pilot docks to watch how the Auto Pilot does it, but the basics are as follows;
Once you have received permission to land, line up with the Green Docking indicator. I generally slow to below 100 KM as I approach the station and reduce to about 40-50 once I am in close. As you get closer watch for the landing lane, it is 2 rows of lights that direct you to the docking ring, rotate and use your "Strafe" jets to move left right / Up Down without changing the heading - these are horzential and vertical thrusters (A= Left, D= Right, W= Up, S= Down). Once you are "in the lane" keep your speed in the 40-60 KM range and ride it in. If you are going to fast you will get a RED flashing double arrow pointing down so slow down a bit, other than that you should be fine. You will get Docking Aborted if you are too fast, make a sudden dramatic turn, or if you are coming at the Docking ring from too far outside the lane, you need to get in the middle of those lights. I had problems with this at first, I even tried a couple of time to Dock from the wrong side of the station and when you hit one of those puppy's you go BOOM - I hate when that happens...!
2) I just bought and then sold a missle of some sort......
Where do I go find how much money I have ???
Ian is right on, the very to Icon on the left is the Pilot Menu, click it and select Pilot Stats, it gives you pretty much everything. You can also see your balance when you are in the trading screen it will be at the bottom right I believe.
3) I own another ship it says...How do I get into it ???
This is a fun one, in the beginning you have to do a Space Walk or dock both ships at the same station to change from one to the other. First doing it in space, pull up close to your other ship (it will be the ship with the Green Square around it on the screen, and listed at the top in Green in the Sector map. Make sure you are at a DEAD STOP, then eject from yout ship (Shift + E is the default command), you will find yourself in space in your MK2 High Tech Space Suite, - which by the way comes with a nifty built in "Repair Laser". Now that you are in space use your controls to move close to the other ship - you will see why I said to get close, the space suite does not travel very fast. Once you are very close point at the ship and Click to bring up the menu, you will see "Enter Ship" if you are close enough click it and you are inside, if you are not close enough it is greyed out so keep on truckin.
Good tip on this process, if you end up in a banged up ship after a little furball, you can park yourself in a nice safe quiet spot and do your own repairs, just eject, spin around and fire your repair laser at your ship, it is a slow process, but it costs nothing and the view is amazing...
BTW when you start coming across abandoned ships the process is the same to collect a freebie, the only difference is before you enter the abandoned ship, you must select "Claim Ship from that menu, once you Claim the ship the "Enter Ship" will appear and you can enter you new prize or return to you original ship and just give orders to your new prize.
I almost forgot, to change ships in a station, very simple, order your other ship to dock at any friendly station, then dock youself. From the Station Menu (after you are docked) select "Landed Ships" then select you other craft and with one more click you should see "Change Ships" click it and poof you get "Beamed Over".
Keep on Truckin Harleyman, it is allot to learn and it takes time to develop your own style of doing things, but it is so wide open that the possibilities are endless. Quite often I just go exploring with no mission or no trading in mind, I just zip through gates and look around, kind of like doing a "Low & Slow" over some nice scenery in FSX.
Live Long and Prosper...
