About the angle thing, and organizing paths, etc: Ships are equipped with navigational computers, would -not- burn up in atmospheres (though hitting at an angle likely to bounce the ship could cause a lot of impact damage) and atmospheres/planets are rather large. If anything, docking rings increase the number of likey collisions, as they focus the travel of ships. Even so, one would expect the planetary spaceports, rather than orbital facilities, to arrange traffic, as there's not much traffic in space.
The landing cenematic shows ships landing on their own power, from great height. Watch it. Hundreds of meters, at least, your ship comes in from over the top of the Freelancer future cities (which I assume have rather large towers). As far as the energy they cost...HFuel..nuclear. Mox, nuclear. Oil? (wtf in general, actually. Internal combustion doesn't make that much sense for powering -cars-)
The safety of any criminal base, or any base at all, depends a lot on it being deep, and it being armored. Or it being defended.
Quote:WARNING: Do not attempt planetary landing without using a Docking Ring.
A Docking Ring is part of an orbital elevator system invented by Ageira Technologies. Through the use of super strong crystalline polymers and frictionless bearings, Docking Rings assist the smooth atmospheric entry and exit of interstellar vessels with landing capability.
This infocard...does not imply, to me, a space elevator. It implies a gate, at the doors of atmosphere...which is silly.
Anyway, I had this thought after talking to the Bucanneer blokes, about how they had nowhere to land but trafalgar. Everything in space is claimed by largeish factions, and rather than suggesting a bunch of neutral stations...I'd like to see planet landing make a bit more sense.
