Problem with docking clearance

[Serious]

Hi!

I've got a big problem with the docking procedure (VS 0.5.0). I couldn't get any docking clearance and I cannot understand why.

I choose my target as descripted by the manual and then I'm asking for docking clearance (with alt-0) while I'm approaching, but the target doesn't reply. (The other communication by F1 e.g. doesn't fail)

What might go wrong?

I didn't modidy any key bindings of my vega strike installation before, but I already tried this, too. That's why I'm quite sure that it hasn't to do anything with my keybord, hardware or operating system.

What else can I try to do? Do I just choose the wrong moment for my docking clearance request? I can see the highlighted docking bays when I'm pressing alt-0, but nothing else happens.

[Gungnir]

The dock key in 0.5.0 is d; the docs and instructions are old.

[Serious]

Yes, I can do docking with 'd', but the problem is that I cannot request docking clearance before docking. This unnecessarily decreases my reputation, but the bigger problem are the collisions with ships that come out of the location I want to dock on. How can I avoid that?

[Gungnir]

Yes, I can do docking with 'd', but the problem is that I cannot request docking clearance before docking. This unnecessarily decreases my reputation, but the bigger problem are the collisions with ships that come out of the location I want to dock on. How can I avoid that?

I haven't noticed a drop in reputation... Have you tried using d while you're a too far away to dock?

As for ships, you just have to be careful and lucky, unfortunately.

[klauss]

Effectively, hitting 'd' when you're approaching the station but still far away is the way to request for docking clearance in current SVN.

[Serious]

Thank you.
Do you know if your hint works for the latest stable version?

I guess I must to this before the autopilot automatically turns off.

To Gungnir: The loss of reputation is not so much I think, maybe 1 point for ten docking operations. It's something I can outweigh by killing some pirates from time to time. The other thing is that I can try to approach my target sideways for collision avoidance. This is difficult when escaping from an enemy or while I try to land on a planet. Overall, it's an annoying handicap when you cannot get any docking clearance. That's why I hope I can get a better solution to this.