Small update:
The own ship is not consisting of background tiles anymore but is now a full inetractive actor which also can have several damage states:
I still think that there is no need to have a docking sequence where the player is in control (it would not add much) but maybe you share your thoughts!
Another idea a friend of mine had was to implement a spacesuit for the player. Right now the player is sucked into space when not walking on a tile. A spacesuit would allow the player to hover everywhere and reach areas which are “locked” in the beginning.
I am not sure yet if I keep the “being sucked into space” that I currently have because test players die often in that situation. Maybe I just need to explain it better in the game. Let me know.