Very good point, also time dilatation.
The timer is worse than pointless...
- Thread starter LaveLubber
- Start date
Very good point, also time dilatation.
If it was real physics the timer would reduce as you approached a destination with a constant acceleration (slowing down is still an acceleration) based on the force your ship's thrusters can exert on it's own mass.
Frontier give you this tool (which although inaccurate is nevertheless useful) to hide whatever toy physics their black-box FSD uses.
There are far worse issues in the game than this.
Frontier give you this tool (which although inaccurate is nevertheless useful) to hide whatever toy physics their black-box FSD uses.
There are far worse issues in the game than this.
I beg to differ - I quite often use curved line approaches and myself would greatly benefit from knowing if the line I'm taking will let me land or take me on an approach that would end up overshooting.
I'm not entirely sure how gravity does work in SC, but I'm pretty sure it has an effect. Passing close to a planet certainly slows you down - I often use it when I know I'm going to overshoot - aim to skim past the planet surface causing the ship to decelerate much quicker than it would have in a straight line. Also avoiding masses is valuable, as is taking a perpendicular route to escape a body's gravity - if there's a planet between me and my destination, I will be taking a curved route around the planet to try and maintain distance and avoid any slow down in my SC speed...
You Misunderstand its function
It is a timer, but not a fixed timer i.e not a clock where it takes 1 minute for the second hand to go all the way round.
Its a "relative" timer saying how long you will reach your destination AT YOUR CURRENT SPEED.
As you accelerate/decelerate towards an object your speed is constantly changing, hence the timer adjusts to take into account this speed.
If you manually adjust the throttle to keep the same speed you will notice that the timer does go down, and it takes that time to reach your destination.
Doing this is rather pointless however because when you reach your destination you will be going too fast and shoot right past it.
man people cry about the wierdest things.. time/acceleration/distance are the 3 factors they have to account for, aside from max velocity, there is very little time in game when we are at a constant speed as we tend to be accelerating or slowing down, we are also constantly changing distance to target, so it makes sense that we have time to the target destination as that tends to be the most relevant value, especially as we are all governed more by time than anything else. but hey, to hell with a real scientific or mathmatical approach, lets dumb it down or make something up, we could even use crayons.
Last edited:
I've generally found when the timer reads 0:06, it generally means 0:06. If it's taking much longer than that, it means you're taking the non-optimal "cruise control" method of throttling down to 75% at 0:07. I use the planet's mass shadow to decelerate my ship instead. It's a much faster way to slow down, and IMO a lot more fun too.
The problem isn't the timer. The problem is the fact that our ships don't stop on a dime. There is no way for the timer to take into account all the variables that are involved, including mass shadows, the amount of time it takes to decelerate, and how changing your throttle can affect that.
so you want something that LOOKS more technical, rather than the application of a proper physics model supported with real mathematics, and extra assist on landing, cos well, reasons of appearance again and simplification, lets take any sense of piloting skill out of an already pretty straight forward system, not too mention cluttering up the ui even more *throws hands in air and mumbles to ones self*
Last edited:
...I never said that my idea had to dumb down SC or eschew any physics models, or even change the way SC works other than giving some guidelines on when you're moving "out of the envelope". If anything it gives people the opportunity to use gravitational effects to their advantage as they'll be better able to visualise the effect planets have on their approach - something that is to all intents and purposes "invisible" right now.
How that can be construed as dumbing down is beyond me.
Last edited:
because those factors are things that many players take the time to understand and utilise, and something all players should be learning, you know, as pilots, in a game that is about piloting ships in space.
*sorry for any ire that may be seeping through in my post, thats not aimed at you, only on my 2nd coffee of the day and the title of the thread irritated me lol
Last edited:
You must not know about the 10-second rule. I found this in another thread, can't remember the author but wish I could give him credit for this very powerful information. When you're heading into a system at full SC throttle, just keep an eye on the time index so that when it reaches ten seconds
If you want to reach your destination as quickly as possible, don't use this method. It's the slowest way to get to your destination, since you'll be decelerating for two minutes. Even overshooting and looping around is faster than this method. The fastest (and hardest to learn) method is to get as close to the planet as possible without dropping out of supercruise, and use its mass shadow to slow your ship down in a very short amount time.
Thanks for that.
And, as the OP said, that's utter nonsense! "Let's leave the time at 0:06 forever"??? NO!!!!! The asymptotic nature of the deceleration is shocking, and the problem is that the time to the destination EXCLUDES the 1Mm bubble into which you can safely exit SC. Especially outside of gravity wells, we should be capable of decelerating properly to our destination.
indeed
at that point i know ive safely maximised my speed to target, and im now reducing speed and distance, at the correct rate, to avoid overshooting in my Space Brick If you want to reach your destination as quickly as possible, don't use this method. It's the slowest way to get to your destination, since you'll be decelerating for two minutes. Even overshooting and looping around is faster than this method. The fastest (and hardest to learn) method is to get as close to the planet as possible without dropping out of supercruise, and use its mass shadow to slow your ship down in a very short amount time.
Thanks for that.
I tend to push the timer till its around 4, then arc into the stations planet keeping the timer bouncing between 4/5 by the adjusting size of my flying arc.
then try to fling around the planet which really pulls your speed down and come out facing the entrance to the station doorway.
always feels way faster than the fly in a straight line at 7 approach.
I keep meaning to do a timed run to see how much faster but will admit I've never got around to it.
I feel we might be derailling this thread a little now, but at the same time discussing alternatives can't be that off topic tbh - and fair play to you for apologising for the tone - you don't get that a lot on the interwebs
I enjoy piloting the ships, and I enjoy SC - I would enjoy it *more* if I could see the effects of gravity better than just a general "oh, my ship won't go quite as fast anymore" - imagine seeing the vector approach twist/be pulled in a direction according to how close you pass to a planetary mass - I'd have thought that without changing SC's core attributes this would be a great addition, much more interesting than a simple countdown timer and a blue dot.
Also my recommendation that it would be an optional module would mean that it (to some degree) would be a small sacrifice in terms of either cargo or ship performance, and would be totally optional. Different cost level modules could even give more/less detail and information.
I dunno, I just can't seen any downsides to the idea, tbh - though "gwyn a gwel y fran ei chyw", or "the crow always sees it's offspring as white", if you get my translated Welsh idiom...
I'm still refining my technique, but I've generally found my mass shadow braking method takes about 30 seconds from "0:07," usually because I don't get close enough and overshoot a bit. My best time was 0:13 when I nailed it perfectly, sliding right into the station. Needless to say, that was a great feeling.
Don't want to talk about the worst time, because that involves actually hitting the planet, doing a couple percent damage to my Cobra, and a very long climb out of the planet's gravity well.
I'm still refining my technique, but I've generally found my mass shadow braking method takes about 30 seconds from "0:07," usually because I don't get close enough and overshoot a bit. My best time was 0:13 when I nailed it perfectly, sliding right into the station. Needless to say, that was a great feeling.
Don't want to talk about the worst time, because that involves actually hitting the planet, doing a couple percent damage to my Cobra, and a very long climb out of the planet's gravity well.
It is a great feeling when you nail it, isn't it?
Just wait till you have a 'Conda or a Type-9. They steer like bricks in SC, and when you hit a planet you're talking multi 100k credits of damage
e: and the loop of shame is furking massive.
Last edited:
The timer is awesome, you just need to have a system.
I pretty much only use the timer, the only times I overshoot is if I am distracted by something out of game now.
MAX Throttle…
Timer hits ten seconds – if I am coming in hot then throttle down once, if coming in slower wait until 9 seconds
Timer hits 8 seconds – nudge down one notch.
Timer hits 7 and sticks – do nothing / sweet spot aim for this
Timer hits 6 – throttle down again (maybe)
Timer hits 5 – your gonna overshoot, throttle down and dive to allow speed to reduce, try and get it back to 6 as that is as fast as you can be going and not overshoot.
A notch for me is 12.5% btw..
Before I “got” this I would overshoot quite frequently as I was only really looking at the speed indicator. I find speed is only really useful when you are comming right up on the safe escape distance.
I pretty much only use the timer, the only times I overshoot is if I am distracted by something out of game now.
MAX Throttle…
Timer hits ten seconds – if I am coming in hot then throttle down once, if coming in slower wait until 9 seconds
Timer hits 8 seconds – nudge down one notch.
Timer hits 7 and sticks – do nothing / sweet spot aim for this
Timer hits 6 – throttle down again (maybe)
Timer hits 5 – your gonna overshoot, throttle down and dive to allow speed to reduce, try and get it back to 6 as that is as fast as you can be going and not overshoot.
A notch for me is 12.5% btw..
Before I “got” this I would overshoot quite frequently as I was only really looking at the speed indicator. I find speed is only really useful when you are comming right up on the safe escape distance.
That's a bit complicated, Urk, for me.
MAX throttle, wait until you hear the 007 music, hit key bound to 75% throttle, wait for blue bars, drop out of SC.
MAX throttle, wait until you hear the 007 music, hit key bound to 75% throttle, wait for blue bars, drop out of SC.