What is the point of the countdown timer while in supercruise?

Spirit X

S
I ask because at no point does it ever actually give you any idea of how long it will take to reach your destination due to the fact that you are always either accelerating or decelerating.

So am I missing it's usefulness? I just use it so I know when to decelerate from full throttle but surely the point of having a countdown should be let you know how long the travel time will be. Just seems odd to me.
 

NEUTRAL

NEUTRAL
Personally mine is the 6 Second rule :)

The timer is used to gauge when exactly to set your speed into the blue zone (75% speed), so you won't overspeed and overshoot your target destination.
I usually set speed to 75% when it hits 10 seconds.
 

the100thmonkey

the100thmonkey
It must take you forever to get into the station's instance.

Oh, and 7s until 1.9Mm, then full throttle. I like to live on the edge, last moped to nowhere style.
 
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Para Handy

Para Handy
I personally always aim to get the timer down to 0:08 then I can leave the throttle alone until I hit the 30megametre distance at which point I throttle up to make it 0:06 - if I let it get to 0:04 then I often get engine speed runaway and can't quite hit the safe disconnect when I get within 1megametre. Of course at times gravitational effects can make this awkward.

(I totally ignore the indications in the left-hand panel.)
 

IronGremlin

I
INSTG8R said:
7 Second rule ;)
Click to expand...

What he means by this, for those who may not know, is that when the ETA is 7 seconds, you can tune throttle to the lower half of the blue zone and be assured that you won't overshoot.

To the original point:

Yes, ETA is not ETA, but as you've observed, it is a useful data point for navigation during SC. I would assume that is it's purpose, not to actually tell you how long your trip will take.
 

Commander Dave

Commander Dave
Spirit X said:
I ask because at no point does it ever actually give you any idea of how long it will take to reach your destination due to the fact that you are always either accelerating or decelerating.

So am I missing it's usefulness? I just use it so I know when to decelerate from full throttle but surely the point of having a countdown should be let you know how long the travel time will be. Just seems odd to me.
Click to expand...

You are using it correctly.
But think about it. It's only possible to give an ETA if your speed is constant.
Say you'll be at your girlfriends house in an hour at 40mph and you set a countdown timer for 1 hour. And then along the way you find that the speed limit on the road has gone up to 60mph. So you go up to 60. Is your timer still accurate?
No it's not.
So it has to change.
If you keep your speed at 60 now the new calculated time will be correct. But if you keep changing your speed the time must also change continually.

This is what's happening.
You are slowing down when you get closer to something. You're not coasting, you're not travelling at a constant speed. Your drive is interacting with the gravity field of the planet/whatever and is slowing down because of that. So if you keep slowing down your time is going to get longer. But if you're getting closer as well then the time will get shorter. If you slow down at the same rate you are getting closer then the timer will stay at the same number.
You balance your speed to keep slowing at the same rate the distance is shortening. So the timer stays constant.
See what I mean?
 

F4hantom

F
Well, because they are showing distance in terms of time of light, it sorta makes sense to use time remaing at current speed. I find I can now avoid the Loop of Shame unless it is massless (like a USS or Nav Bacon)
 

Garagiste

Garagiste
If the timer does drop below 0.06 (usually due to SC stutter) - zero the throttle and point nose down 45 degrees until engine note drops, then pull back up and reset to 75%.
The "dip of slight embarrassment" is infinitely preferable to the loop of shame"
 

Cmdr Eagleboy

Cmdr Eagleboy
It gives nice reference of time how soon you will arrive at your destination at your current speed. Usually that means indication do you have to start to break.
 

Vertexico

V
It gives you a ratio of speed and distance in one number instead of having to look back and forth between the two to manage your travel.
 

Hollis_Renatus

Hollis_Renatus
Spirit X said:
So am I missing it's usefulness?
Click to expand...

Because..

immersion.jpg
 

Spirit X

S
Commander Dave said:
You are using it correctly.
But think about it. It's only possible to give an ETA if your speed is constant.
Say you'll be at your girlfriends house in an hour at 40mph and you set a countdown timer for 1 hour. And then along the way you find that the speed limit on the road has gone up to 60mph. So you go up to 60. Is your timer still accurate?
No it's not.
So it has to change.
If you keep your speed at 60 now the new calculated time will be correct. But if you keep changing your speed the time must also change continually.

This is what's happening.
You are slowing down when you get closer to something. You're not coasting, you're not travelling at a constant speed. Your drive is interacting with the gravity field of the planet/whatever and is slowing down because of that. So if you keep slowing down your time is going to get longer. But if you're getting closer as well then the time will get shorter. If you slow down at the same rate you are getting closer then the timer will stay at the same number.
You balance your speed to keep slowing at the same rate the distance is shortening. So the timer stays constant.
See what I mean?
Click to expand...

Yes, I do get that but think about it...when you set your throttle in supercruise the ship auto-calculates your acceleration, braking point and deceleration based on your throttle setting. Therefore, the computer can easily calculate the actual, correct flight time because it is controlling the parameters involved itself. So why not just make it a proper, accurate flight time read-out?

it is clearly not designed to be a braking indicator, that's just a way use we have found for it. If it were designed for that purpose there would be some kind of actual indication when it was time to decelerate. As it is you just have to figure out it out yourself anyway.

I'm standing by my original point that the countdown is basically useless. Why not just make it a green light that turns red when you hit 7 secs.? That would serve the same purpose. Well, more actually as it would tell you when to slow down. The counter has no purpose. Unless someone clever can convince me otherwise with something we haven't thought of? As it is, it just seems really damn obvious that it would be infinitely more useful as an actual flight time display.
 
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