Uh... but there is nothing even remotely like this in the POI-teleport mechanic that supercruise opponents want. Select a target - press a button - bip! You're there! It strips even even the slightest bit of interaction.
Uh... but there is nothing even remotely like this in the POI-teleport mechanic that supercruise opponents want. Select a target - press a button - bip! You're there! It strips even even the slightest bit of interaction.
I love Supercruise, though yes there are times when it gets really tiring. What I'd love to see:
- a supercruise 'autopilot' option that'll take you to your destination and drop you out 1,000Km from your target. (time to have a coffee!)
- an (optional!) ability to override the autopilot to accelerate & decelerate much quicker. If you could get up to 2,001c quicker, then the top-speed is fine.
- some major destinations/stations (not all) can have a nav beacon, and so can be selected for in-system jumps. Maybe permit-based, so you have to do the full trip at least once.
- the ability to determine the fastest path around the bodies in a system, at the moment you're zig-zagging back and forth across the system making it a lot longer.
- a supercruise 'autopilot' option that'll take you to your destination and drop you out 1,000Km from your target. (time to have a coffee!)
- an (optional!) ability to override the autopilot to accelerate & decelerate much quicker. If you could get up to 2,001c quicker, then the top-speed is fine.
- some major destinations/stations (not all) can have a nav beacon, and so can be selected for in-system jumps. Maybe permit-based, so you have to do the full trip at least once.
- the ability to determine the fastest path around the bodies in a system, at the moment you're zig-zagging back and forth across the system making it a lot longer.
I think an Autopilot will be essential once we are able to move around our ships - if it ever happens.
I like SC, but now that it's possible* to directly target a station or world in the system map then I do see the benefit of being able to jump straight to your destination (plus and intermediate legs you need if it's more than a single hop between systems).
You'd need to have access to the system map to do this - so either scanned data or bought from cartographics. Also, for some measure of 'game balance' jumping straight to a POI could drop you out further from your destination than if you arrived via SC (like back in the days of the original betas, where you dropped out 20km away or so)
Sure, you'd miss out of 9/10 of the fun IMO, but if that's your preferred method of travel, so be it.
*in 1.3, I mean
You'd need to have access to the system map to do this - so either scanned data or bought from cartographics. Also, for some measure of 'game balance' jumping straight to a POI could drop you out further from your destination than if you arrived via SC (like back in the days of the original betas, where you dropped out 20km away or so)
Sure, you'd miss out of 9/10 of the fun IMO, but if that's your preferred method of travel, so be it.
*in 1.3, I mean
Supercruise could definitely do with some work, things like the transitions, acceleration/deceleration sped up (for example, so as not to make the short journeys too short keep acceleration speed as it is now up to 30c and then speed up much faster than it does now) and also I think adding a mechanic to the exit to a station or outpost where depending on when you exit during the 1000mm countdown you dropped out at a different distance, as an Idea:
1000mm-801mm drop out at 30km
800mm-601mm drop out at 20km
600mm-0mm as it is now
it's not well thought out but it could allow for some more action around stations.
but overall supercruise (IMO) is a far better choice than PoI jumps (although I am not adverse to being able to jump to other stars in a system, but not from another system only from the main star)
1000mm-801mm drop out at 30km
800mm-601mm drop out at 20km
600mm-0mm as it is now
it's not well thought out but it could allow for some more action around stations.
but overall supercruise (IMO) is a far better choice than PoI jumps (although I am not adverse to being able to jump to other stars in a system, but not from another system only from the main star)
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I'd rather see missions also take into account mean supercruise distances, both for their payment, and the time frame you are given. A package delivered to Hutton Orbital is easily worth a 100x bigger payment than one to an outpist 30Ls away from the primary star of a neighbouring system, while it has to give you more time to deliver it, too.
Deleted member 38366
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I like super cruise! It gives some sense of scale to things. Okay, in systems like Alpha Centauri it would be nice to be able to do a hyperspace jump between the stars to shorten the distances, but most of the time SC is not an issue.
It's much better than the likes of X3:TC where you entered a warp gate and were instantly in the next system without knowing how far you've travelled or what it's position is in relation to where you came from.
It's much better than the likes of X3:TC where you entered a warp gate and were instantly in the next system without knowing how far you've travelled or what it's position is in relation to where you came from.
Hey Morwys,
Like you I absolutely hated supercruise when I began playing. It took me quite a long time to warm up to it. Eventually however I actually fell in love with it and I can't really imagine a better way to handle inter-system travel without destroying the scale of the game. Especially in multiplayer where instancing is a really important factor.
As far as Micro-Jumps are concerned, while I feel they would be really cool and enjoyable I believe they were excluded for gameplay reasons. Mainly because if you could micro-jump everywhere you're going to spend a massive amount of your gameplay in Elite's loading transitions, and again lose out on the experience of Elite's scale. The scale of Elite is really under-rated, and under-valued I think. The scale of Elite is one of the biggest factors of why Elite is so immersive for me, and probably many others. The addition of micro-jumps would also remove any emergent content (both multiplayer and singleplayer) caused by supercruise interdiction.
I don't feel supercruise should be removed. But what I do think needs to happen is control of your ship in supercruise should be more apparent to the user. As it stands now the learning curve for supercruise is rather high.
Once I learned the following facts about supercruise, I began to enjoy it much, much more even though some parts of it are still irritating.
I personally feel that supercruise needs an improvement to how the above information is presented to the player through the UI, and throttle control and the effects of gravity wells on your ships speed needs to be refined to give the player a little bit more control.
Honestly to conclude though, I can't see a game having the scale of Elite, and not having a supercruise mechanic or something similar without ruining the scale of the game. My favorite pains in the ass to experience in this game is realizing I'm going 150x the speed of light or more to get from the jump in point of a system to the station. Realizing what that means in terms of sheer distance, and scale is just amazing for me. This is something Star Citizen won't even be able to offer.
Like you I absolutely hated supercruise when I began playing. It took me quite a long time to warm up to it. Eventually however I actually fell in love with it and I can't really imagine a better way to handle inter-system travel without destroying the scale of the game. Especially in multiplayer where instancing is a really important factor.
As far as Micro-Jumps are concerned, while I feel they would be really cool and enjoyable I believe they were excluded for gameplay reasons. Mainly because if you could micro-jump everywhere you're going to spend a massive amount of your gameplay in Elite's loading transitions, and again lose out on the experience of Elite's scale. The scale of Elite is really under-rated, and under-valued I think. The scale of Elite is one of the biggest factors of why Elite is so immersive for me, and probably many others. The addition of micro-jumps would also remove any emergent content (both multiplayer and singleplayer) caused by supercruise interdiction.
I don't feel supercruise should be removed. But what I do think needs to happen is control of your ship in supercruise should be more apparent to the user. As it stands now the learning curve for supercruise is rather high.
Once I learned the following facts about supercruise, I began to enjoy it much, much more even though some parts of it are still irritating.
- The speed you can travel in supercruise is directly proportional to the gravity wells of nearby bodies within the system. The further you are from those gravity wells, the faster you can travel.
- Supercruise speeds range from sublight speed (30KM/s minimum speed) to multiple thousand times the speed of light.
- Because of the above, throttle control is not precise as speeds can vary greatly. Instead of 0-100% granular control you have 3 throttle settings:
- The bottom of your throttle (everything UNDER the blue zone) can be used as a "deceleration" mode.
- The blue zone of your throttle is like an autopilot ensuring that your speed will auto-adjust to arrive at your destination at a speed in which you can exit supercruise at.
- The top of your throttle (everything ABOVE the blue zone) can be viewed as an "acceleration" setting.
- The gravity well of planets and other bodies can be used to slow your speed drastically. With skill this makes approaching stations SIGNIFICANTLY faster.
- Setting throttle to 75% in super cruise (the perfect center of your ships blue zone in SC) before, or when your ships ETA to your destination hits 6 seconds, guarantees a perfect arrival window. This means you can approach a destination at full acceleration and only throttle to 75% when the destination ETA hits 6 seconds. Doing this will DRASTICALLY improve your experience in supercruise.
I personally feel that supercruise needs an improvement to how the above information is presented to the player through the UI, and throttle control and the effects of gravity wells on your ships speed needs to be refined to give the player a little bit more control.
Honestly to conclude though, I can't see a game having the scale of Elite, and not having a supercruise mechanic or something similar without ruining the scale of the game. My favorite pains in the ass to experience in this game is realizing I'm going 150x the speed of light or more to get from the jump in point of a system to the station. Realizing what that means in terms of sheer distance, and scale is just amazing for me. This is something Star Citizen won't even be able to offer.
Deleted member 38366
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Micro-jumps to in-system stars IMO... should definitely be added. That's one hell of a flight to that outpost.
I didn't play too much of the original Elite, Frontier was my real obsession as a teenager and SC just captures exactly the same feeling of using the time acceleration from Frontier. It would be a massively different game without it and all sense of scale would be gone.
The "realism" thing is always a bit funny when it comes to one aspect being picked up on as well - in a future scenario where hyperspace has been conquered and something a bit Alcubierre-y developed, there are a lot of handwavium reasons for how you could still see in SC (and remember you're not actually travelling faster than light in SC). Just pretend that you're seeing snapshots at low speed while your ship is shifted along it's wavefront every few nanoseconds, or that the frame shift field attenuates photons hitting it.
The "realism" thing is always a bit funny when it comes to one aspect being picked up on as well - in a future scenario where hyperspace has been conquered and something a bit Alcubierre-y developed, there are a lot of handwavium reasons for how you could still see in SC (and remember you're not actually travelling faster than light in SC). Just pretend that you're seeing snapshots at low speed while your ship is shifted along it's wavefront every few nanoseconds, or that the frame shift field attenuates photons hitting it.
That's a nice bit of handwavium for the view explanation, repped for fake science!
I like supercruise myself, but then I'm an explorer. That profession would be utterly abysmal with micro jumps.
However...
Those 1/2 million ls systems are rather boring to traverse. So how about adding a "boost" mechanic to Supercruise? It would use a large-ish amount of fuel (as opposed to ENG capacitor), and it would be nigh-impossible to steer (so don't superboost yourself into a planet), and it would effectively send you some large amount (50k? 100k?) in the direction you're currently pointing.
However...
Those 1/2 million ls systems are rather boring to traverse. So how about adding a "boost" mechanic to Supercruise? It would use a large-ish amount of fuel (as opposed to ENG capacitor), and it would be nigh-impossible to steer (so don't superboost yourself into a planet), and it would effectively send you some large amount (50k? 100k?) in the direction you're currently pointing.
Like I said, I preferred the Elite 84' method. A series of 'mini hyper jumps' that you drop out of when there is an object in the vicinity. In a crowded system it could take a long time to get to your destination, in a quieter system, not as long.
That is what made Riedquat so dangerous in the original, you had to fight your way to the station and you wouldnt always make it!, on the other hand, Lave was mostly a breeze.
with SC, you miss all of that juicy gameplay opportunity out and when you do get interdicted, its easy to get away anyway.
I wouldnt want to click a button and be right at my destination!, that would be boring!
I could start waffling about my 'interdictor web' idea , but I wont...
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Yes... i WOULD object... i would violently, punch you in the face repeatedly, object.
Super cruise is , in my opinion, one of the best features in Elite...
Micro jumps or whatever you call it, cheapens exploration.. and makes lite of such runs as Hutton orbital..