EmeraldPanda, that is an incredibly stupid idea. You haven\'t even grasped the issue here. The problem is that by extending in several directions, you can\'t make the docking field the size you want with the docking platform at the right place because it\'d collide with environment, making the platform invalid. This\'d only be worse with extending in all directions.
I agree with that docking should be made able from the cockpits. Either that, or that your docking units works both ways so to say; put a docking unit and a docking computer on your ship, and the docking beam will shoot from the docking unit. And your ship will connect to the docking platform with the docking units aligned to eachother. Not only would this make it far easier to hit your docking beam correctly, it\'d also allow you to actually control how your ship interact with the docking space, not just how the docking space interact with the ship. A two-way interaction, so to say.