The NPC's seem to want to rotate between all of the pads, and wont skip, even if your ship is on one of them, they will queue for it even if there is another pad open. I noticed that if you take off, the NPC will immediately land where you were, if you land again, the dance starts over again. The next NPC to arrive will want your spot. #1.
Title says it all. I built one base with 8 landing pads a long time ago so that NPCs land, and recently I had the need to stay in this base for quite a while and nothing ever landed. I re-checked that by exiting the game and going about my business within this base again - nothing landed. Aside from that I noticed if I build a base with a landing pad near a Trading Post, NPC ships will land on
Currently building a new landing pad, to my surprise a NPC landed!
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no man's sky how to land on landing pad