guys... can i please have your attention for something other than barnacles: coordinates.
since we can now navigate on planets, coordinates became important. and so did the heading. due to the fact that all coordinates are only +/- you cant just use the normal formulas for it. can someone program a nice tool where you enter the radius of the planet, your position and target and then the program spits out the heading?
atm im just flying somewhere until i reach the desired lat/lon and then im going left or right in a 90° angle. it works but thats not how you navigate...
I think in similar lines.. I tend to navigate one of two ways..
-I pick a specific heading and note my starting coords to basically establish my lat/lon. I run along a lat or longitudinal line, checking POI's and look for non-POI surface features along that path. I try not to repeat the same coord set along a given heading to prevent retracing my steps (highly unlikely to happen as planets are so darn huge)
-Or I lock onto a nearby star.. such as from Merope 3C, I'll lock onto Maia. I then use this as a navigation reference point. Again, as above I search along a linear path. This is far less an accurate course, as position can change if a planet rotates/etc over time. But its good enough to keep yourself from covering areas you have been.
The first coordinate method is better if you intend to systematically covering a planet. We technically could get a large group of commanders.. line up along each lat or lon coord... and systematically search a given planet along those lines.. but the time and effort required to do this would likely be enormous. I am hoping Frontier isn't expecting this of us ;P
As for actually finding points of interest. Does anyone have methodologies they'd like to share?
-Above 1.5 , POI's become visible on scanners, but smaller surface features... especially those that are not lit up seem to be extremely hard to spot.
-Below 1.5, the scanner is useless...
-Below 1.0, some of the larger POI's and lit surface features are far more readily visible.. but can need a sharp eye. Small features not so easy.
-Below 750 or so... smaller features are more easily visible in the distance.
-Too low, and you can pass by stuff.
In general a given POI seems to NOT be in the center of the blue circle. I have seen them offset quite notably from the center of the circle. Not sure if this is a bug?
When approaching a POI.. I usually do this.
-At about 1.5 to 2.0 altitude, I center the POI circle between the V in the scanner.
-Before the POI circle makes contact with the center(ship), I throttle back to the mid-blue region and nose down about 20 degrees.
-When I hit about 1.0 altitude, I try to maintain this altitude or below by thrusting upwards while maintaining the ~15%-20% down incline. This helps me maintain altitude, while maximizing visual area. The Python I fly with doesn't have great visibility... those in an Asp and its excellent canopy are FAR better off with respect to this.
Of course adjust your flight methods on higher G worlds... I've bounced on the ground a few times coming in too fast and not paying attention. Shields to full!
Any other tips I'd love to hear. I'm trying to fine tune this. If we have a good method to share, it'll hopefully increase everyone's odds for success.
