I hate supercruise

[Deyn]

Speed in any axis is cumulative - the longer you apply thrust, the faster you fly, roll, yaw or whatever.

This is how normal objects behave.

Does your ship behave like a normal object when flight assist's supposedly disabled? Because mine certainly doesn't.

F=MA, P=MV, KE = MV^2, unless you're playing Elite Dangerous, in which case all that goes straight out the window.

ED doesn't fly properly - doesn't even spin properly. If anything, the only thing spinning is a large wooden box 6ft under Westminster Abbey.

Flight assist should be re-labelled with 'low' and 'high' settings, instead of on or off.

This exactly!!! Just have a look at Kerbal Space Program for "Ultra realistic" or better at I-War/I-War 2: Edge of chaos for a good representation of newtonian flight model, nerfed just enough to make it fun to play in a game.
E: D is definitely NOT a simulation of accurate newtonian space flight mechanics... more a mix between Elite II: Frontier and Wing Commander

 

[shadragon]

I used to overshoot a lot because I didn't understand the 100% - 75% throttle adjustment. Thanks for that guys and gals.

However, I do see the OP's point. If I lock a destination in supercruise the ship accelerates and decelerates automatically to get me there. I just wait until the two bars are in the blue and disengage frame rate drive. All is good. But during that process sometimes I will overshoot and have to arc around. That confused me a lot because it had just worked properly minutes ago with me doing exactly the same process. It is inconsistent. The flight computer is adjusting my speed without any input from me and all of a sudden ***SLOW DOWN*** is flashing on my screen.

An auto system to deliver you to a point in space is a handy way for me to take my eyes off the main screen and review cargo or mission parameters, chat with a bud, check map or system references, or whatever. As a further motivation, when my wife taps me on the shoulder she does not want to wait for me to finish my supercruise approach before she starts to talk to me. The conversation starts regardless of what I am doing. Being able to rely on an auto-approach mode is a marriage saver.

A manual piloting will always be more efficient and those that can do it well will always have an advantage. Yet, there are a few gamers I know (one has Cerebral palsy) who could use a decent auto-pilot. The auto system currently in the game should work a little more consistently.

No disrespect to anyone. That's just how I see it.

 

[Uueerdo]

You mean flight assist 'off'? Only ED. Except it's not off, is it - speed doesn't accumulate in any axis. Your thrusters are still applying counter-thrust, even when they're supposedly disabled.

FE2/FFE, Pioneer etc. have cumulative linear velocity, but here we don't even have that...

LOL you make it sound as though i'm "asking for" the Earth... but it's a simple thing. Not as though i'm expecting the engine to solve the field equations in 10 dimensions. Just X=X+1. If only for FA: off mode.

I'm not saying you're asking for the world, just the impossible. It seems to me you are asking for complete removal of (linear and rotational) speed limits. Am I wrong?
Something like that is impossible to truly have in a simulation on any computer architecture I can think of (unless maybe if everyone ran a quantum computer).
Speed limits in this game can be explained away with handwavium just as in other games..."the FTL drive that breaks currently known laws of physics causes 'drag' in space time."

Now, if you were asking for higher speed limits, that would be a more realistic expectation; but then you'd have to concede there are still limits and a discussion could begin about whether higher limits improve the experience for the few players that might be able to effectively pilot when their ship is spinning at 10000 RPM on an angle neither parallel nor perpendicular to their current vector.

 

[FluorescentBlack]

I felt as the OP did at first. Irked that my ship controled my speeds to waypoints and the such. Then on Teamspeak with some people I started trying to drop in to low energey FDS wakes to join them. It was not easy and I would hate having to do that for every station.

Go, try it! Target a low enregey FSD wake and try to drop in on somone. That pirate you just indertict evaded or watever.

 

[Deyn]

As a further motivation, when my wife taps me on the shoulder she does not want to wait for me to finish my supercruise approach before she starts to talk to me. The conversation starts regardless of what I am doing. Being able to rely on an auto-approach mode is a marriage saver.
.

Yep, that is what a PAUSE button in an offline mode would have been good for! Pause the "game" while playing "real life" for a moment, then resume playing the "game". Unfortunately it seems FDev staff has no life, just the game to play...

 

[MrVibrating]

I'm not saying you're asking for the world, just the impossible. It seems to me you are asking for complete removal of (linear and rotational) speed limits. Am I wrong?
Something like that is impossible to truly have in a simulation on any computer architecture I can think of (unless maybe if everyone ran a quantum computer).
Speed limits in this game can be explained away with handwavium just as in other games..."the FTL drive that breaks currently known laws of physics causes 'drag' in space time."

Now, if you were asking for higher speed limits, that would be a more realistic expectation; but then you'd have to concede there are still limits and a discussion could begin about whether higher limits improve the experience for the few players that might be able to effectively pilot when their ship is spinning at 10000 RPM on an angle neither parallel nor perpendicular to their current vector.

No need for quantum computers, we've got a 32 bit engine already, and anyway ships will break apart if they spin too fast. Which would be pretty cool, you gotta admit. But before that, the pilot would break. Just because you could do something, doesn't mean you'd have to. That's 'full freedom' - being allowed to mess up.

But we're getting off-topic..


"Boo supercruise!"

 

[Uueerdo]

No need for quantum computers, we've got a 32 bit engine already

Depending on the granularity of velocity representation even 64-bit might not be enough.

, and anyway ships will break apart if they spin too fast. Which would be pretty cool, you gotta admit. But before that, the pilot would break. Just because you could do something, doesn't mean you'd have to. That's 'full freedom' - being allowed to mess up.

Yeah, that would be cool, and I'd be all for it as long as there are still user friendly settings like:

• "Don't let me make maneuvers that risk making my character blackout."
• "Ok, Let me risk blackout, but prevent the ship from ripping itself apart if I do blackout."
• "Reduce general wear and tear by limiting maneuverability" (for a non-semi-comical one)
• "Prevent maneuvers that will damage pilot health" (I assume, we will have some form of character stats when we can leave our ships.)
• etc...

and if you are doing something like "pulling up" it should be "harder" to look up with an Oculus somehow (maybe view change is only a fraction of that indicated by head position).

Of course, and escape pod won't be saving you if your maneuvers give you an aneurysm...

 

[Susimetsa]

But during that process sometimes I will overshoot and have to arc around. That confused me a lot because it had just worked properly minutes ago with me doing exactly the same process. It is inconsistent. The flight computer is adjusting my speed without any input from me and all of a sudden ***SLOW DOWN*** is flashing on my screen.

The thing to realise is that it is not an auto system. It is a supercruise system, such as warp drive, that moves you along as fast as it can (if you are on 100% power) and the only thing that "automatically" slows it down are gravity wells. So it is not even designed to slow you down automatically for your destination.

But, I do agree with you completely about the wife issue. I may be in the middle of a dogfight, but my wife does expect to get her kiss when she enters the study in the morning, for example.

 

[Angorak]

Its still a stupid system. I want to dog fight, not spend time on trottle control getting to a station. Its "3300" not "1915"... Also a person who have to spend time listing all the details of his gaming rig is a nerd.

The game lags a lot of in-game tutorials and help. In 3300 did they hear about video...

OMG...do you not realize that at some point you are traveling relativistic speeds..? Do you not realize that the little "c" behind the numeric velocity stands for the speed of light....299792458 metres per second.
If you want simple then this game is not for you...
Thank the gods that it's at least making an attempt at some realism.

 

[Uueerdo]

The thing to realise is that it is not an auto system. It is a supercruise system, such as warp drive, that moves you along as fast as it can (if you are on 100% power) and the only thing that "automatically" slows it down are gravity wells. So it is not even designed to slow you down automatically for your destination.

It doesn't really bother me, but that explanation doesn't quite cover the slowing effect of approaching a USS.

 

[pyronical]

lol at anyone saying "l2fly" ... it is a ridiculously manual 21st centuryesque process for what is supposed to be in the far distant future

 

[SquidgyB]

My main problem with SC as it stands is less about the actual time it takes to get anywhere (I rather enjoy the idea that some places are far away and take time to get to), but rather that the market and any money making activity in general takes no account of flight time - so to make maximum profit people will avoid large systems/distant stations and concentrate on smaller systems/close stations.

If the markets/mission rewards were balanced to take into account the distance travelled (and thus the time taken to get there) it would go a long way to alleviating the issue.

Of course, some people are just not happy to be space trucking.

I don't much have an answer for that tbh, other than "don't fly that route".

 

[Hyperlethal]

Agreed, i understand that this game wants to have large aspects of simulator but too many space sims have failed trying to compete with the giant that is E.O. If theres one thing this game has going for it, its tha it already cuts out much of the filler that spoil other games. Why do we have to deal with long travel times? its not like we spend much time in one place. Sure, having this big go-between phase of travel makes sence and adds to feel of exploring space. but going from running, to jogging, to walking, to getting down on your hands and knees and crawling, then on your belly and shuffling, gets old really fast! and you know theres a problem when your becoming practiced at overshooting at certain speeds to get there faster.

I wouldnt want to see SC taken out, it adds to the danger element, and makes the game very immersive but it defo needs to be dialed down a touch. either by increasing the drop-in radius or simply improving the speed decrease of star ships. maybe add a frame shift reverse-thrust module? be a good investment for smugglers looking to evade the fuzz

 

[Moose Malloy]

Sorry you are wrong! I started in L3447 and my eagle is there too, it takes me 10-15 minutes to supercruise from jump to any of the starports, they are all 110,000ls from jump!!

I am going to have to sell my sidey as I am fed up going back and forth to that system, so I will need to find another that has shipyards. I have failed missions because they gave me 26 minutes to complete them and supercruising takes me longer than that!

Please fix Supercruise now! Its clear only the fanboy backers like it, the rest of us dont! Its not difficult to fix, just at least double the speed. One or 2 minutes is acceptable no more please! At the end of the day players will get fed up and leave the game in droves and nobody wants that, we have waited a long time for this game, but I bought Battlefield 4 last month for £40 I hated it and uninstalled it and wont play it again, I do the same for all games I dont like, i havent the time to play stuff that isnt good/I dont like.

That's a problem with LHS 3447, not with supercruise. I started there, but I agree it's a terrible place to be based. It's a binary star system and the jump-in point is at the other star to the one most of the stations are orbiting, hence the long travel distance. Sell the free Eagle (you can, I did), keep the Sidewinder, and if you like the Eagle buy another one in another system, e.g. nearby Eravate. If you want to travel short distances to dogfights, base yourself in a station orbiting a ringed planet, where there are Resource Extraction Sites. Lovely battles, and only a very short supercruise back to base.

 

[carniak]

can I please just get to my destination rather than all this going past it turn around 5 times before I manage to get there.

It sounds like your issue is less to do with Supercruise being too long, but more that there is nothing to do in Supercruise.

Right now, it is mostly just a timesink between trade points.

 

[Alcovitch]

The Answer to this Topic is pretty simple:

You don't like Super Cruise? You have bought the wrong Game, get it!


It's really funny... (not really, after many years it's only stupid) Players buy a Space Sim and don't like to fly in Space. It's the same with Fantasy MMORPGs, Players buy such Games and hate Walking, Leveling, Grinding... today also to Play/Communicate with other Players... arg!

The only Question that I have than is: why buy they such Games, when they know there are elemental Gameplay Elements they don't like? And even when they don't know it before the buy it, than it is only her own problem, not the Problem of the Devs and not the Problem of the other Players. But no, they must cry like little Kids.

It is really simple, there are two options:

1. I accept it how it is and arrange me with it (you never will find a perfect Game)

2. I left the Game and accept it is not made for me

Ruin the other Players the Game is definitely NO Option.

Sorry but "you are playing the wrong game" is absolutely not helping anyone, not to mention the fact it's really arrogant of you.

The difference with fantasy games is they don't' require you to walk or run for 30 + mins with literally nothing to do and nothing to see. Running (while on a mount) in say, WoW for example, the scenery changes, the zones changes, it takes a hell of a lot less time.

Super-Cruise and systems in ED in general are boring because they have ZERO personality. They all appear the same except for the color of the sun and either reasonable (a min or two) or absolutely ridiculous ( 10, 20, 30+ mins) distance to a station. There are a lot of systems where you literally just point your ship at a station 200,000ls or more away and go make lunch. Who thought this was good game design? How on earth did that make it past alpha????

Super-Cruise needs adjusting and fine tuning, like pretty much everything in ED right now.

 

[Alcovitch]

It sounds like your issue is less to do with Supercruise being too long, but more that there is nothing to do in Supercruise.

Right now, it is mostly just a timesink between trade points.

The issue with Super-Cruise is both.

It takes too long and it's mind numbing. It also always looks exactly the same. Ugly placeholder looking orbit lines (yes i know you can turn them off) and zero personality. It's also really inconsistent. I've had my ship slow down by itself from full throttle for no reason. I'm in the middle of no where, no stars or planets near by and mins left to reach destination yet the ship refuses to stay at max throttle or increase speed and make the journey longer for nothing.

 

[KellyR]

The issue with Super-Cruise is both.

It takes too long and it's mind numbing. It also always looks exactly the same. Ugly placeholder looking orbit lines (yes i know you can turn them off) and zero personality. It's also really inconsistent. I've had my ship slow down by itself from full throttle for no reason. I'm in the middle of no where, no stars or planets near by and mins left to reach destination yet the ship refuses to stay at max throttle or increase speed and make the journey longer for nothing.

If that happens, there is a gravity well somewhere near. Probably a planet that is not getting any light on the side facing you. I had that happen to me. I was in SC to a station when I see SLOW DOWN. I'm thinking, Slow down? Say what? And then all of a sudden I drop from cruise. I see BODY EXCLUSION ZONE HIT. I'm going, What body? Turns out there was a planet between me and the destination but the sun was such that no light reached the side facing me. I started really looking and did some maneuvering and saw that there were no stars ahead of me. That pretty much solved that.

The lesson here is pay attention to your surroundings. Look around for black places where you can't see any stars. Watch your six for blips maneuvering to get behind you. And if you're a trader, don't let a hollow blip get behind you. Maneuver so he doesn't have a clear chance to activate his FSI. NPC's are fairly easy to evade when they interdict you. Humans are quite a bit more problematic.

 

[Deyn]

Sorry but "you are playing the wrong game" is absolutely not helping anyone, not to mention the fact it's really arrogant of you.

The difference with fantasy games is they don't' require you to walk or run for 30 + mins with literally nothing to do and nothing to see. Running (while on a mount) in say, WoW for example, the scenery changes, the zones changes, it takes a hell of a lot less time.

Super-Cruise and systems in ED in general are boring because they have ZERO personality. They all appear the same except for the color of the sun and either reasonable (a min or two) or absolutely ridiculous ( 10, 20, 30+ mins) distance to a station. There are a lot of systems where you literally just point your ship at a station 200,000ls or more away and go make lunch. Who thought this was good game design? How on earth did that make it past alpha????

Super-Cruise needs adjusting and fine tuning, like pretty much everything in ED right now.

On the other hand buying an ego shooter like Battlefield and then complaining about the lack of Classes, no quests, too much gunfights, the missing magic abilities and trying to change it into a 'Fantasy RPG' would be any different?

I asked that already: don't people check on games before buying them, these days? It is not actually a secret how the E: D game mechanics work, as well there are a lot of YouTube videos out there that show the game and how it plays...

The 30 min+ boooooring approach seems highly exaggereted for most travels. I seldom have more than 5-10 min approach in SC and even then, I mostly maneuver and check the scanner for possible Interdictors pulling up behind me...
Sometimes if, not on a mission, I explicitely cruise, through the system and check out celestial bodies and sites... nothing boring about that. It's called "exploration". One of the ways you can play the game.
If people are looking for a fast paced "Shoot'em-up-in-space" Elite Dangerous definitely is the wrong title to play...

 

[Slippery Jim DiGriz]

Supercruise is fine however it seems odd that when you need the finest and most accurate throttle control you only have a single significant digit to guide you. perhaps when the ETA drops to under 10 seconds we could be shown tenths of a second as well.
I know I can run with it on 6 seconds but if it drops to 5 then it may, or may not be recoverable so the ability to hold it at 6.5 and to know if it is going up or down (before it's too late) would be much appreciated.