UAs, Barnacles & More Thread 5 - The Canonn

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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...
 
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...


Does the radius impact max Latitude/longitude?
 
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...

Go a little lower and your heading will appear
 
I am on Merope 3C, and I have come across a repetitive chirping...seems to have a single source as it gets louder depending on where I drive and which direction I am facing.

This is my first time in the scarab, so is this normal, or should I be worried?

OK I definitely had something, a very directional sound source, could not see anything. Unfortunately I re-instanced and on the new instance there was nothing.
 
The mapping follows the same as Earth today. That's why I really don't think this kind of "vector based navigation" works. It does not work in real life. A heading is a 2D direction whitch you would follow above a 3D object.
I would really like to see such a program that could calculate it, that would be something! Honestly

On Earth if you follow a heading for a long time you won't be flying in the same direction, you'll do a constant turn with a very small bank. That's why it's impossible to navigat large distances with only a compass.
We have GPS that's even better, unfortunately we cannot see the HDG in orbital cruise only in normal speed. I think the best is to drop to normal, find the desired direction and reenter cruise than refine if you feel like you're deviating.

I don't think with these tools we'd have any better ways to navigate than just trying like this.

BTW the UA DOES behave like a basic radio navigation instrument.
Just sayin. Too bad it won't help in this case.

Good luck!
 
Lat/Lon are just angles from the centre of a sphere. I think you need the radius to determine scale.

yes ... and we are given planetary radius (semi-major axis) - if they are all spheres it would be do-able. But there are definitely some with a different semi-minor axis (spheroids) .... which we are not given .... so its tough to be certain
 
These barnacles are really starting to do my head in...

Working with the assumption that they can be found somewhere in Merope;
If there are thousands of them randomly spread around the moons you'd think we'd have found one by now. Conversely, if there's only a handful, the propability of finding one by chance is slim to none. This makes me think there's some other clue we're missing...

Someone mentioned finding a UA in a SSS in Merope, but was chased off by NPC's. Have UA's been found in Merope previously? If one is found in-system, maybe it will point toward a planet instead of the star?
 
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.
 
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These barnacles are really starting to do my head in...

Working with the assumption that they can be found somewhere in Merope;
If there are thousands of them randomly spread around the moons you'd think we'd have found one by now. Conversely, if there's only a handful, the propability of finding one by chance is slim to none. This makes me think there's some other clue we're missing...

Someone mentioned finding a UA in a SSS in Merope, but was chased off by NPC's. Have UA's been found in Merope previously? If one is found in-system, maybe it will point toward a planet instead of the star?

No they said they found an AI core in merope and had a UA in their cargo hold already

But yes I have stopped my hunt to search for clues around the place, I'm sure there are other things to be found and have said so a few times, I hope I'm not the only one looking for them!
 
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These barnacles are really starting to do my head in...

Working with the assumption that they can be found somewhere in Merope;
If there are thousands of them randomly spread around the moons you'd think we'd have found one by now. Conversely, if there's only a handful, the propability of finding one by chance is slim to none. This makes me think there's some other clue we're missing...

Someone mentioned finding a UA in a SSS in Merope, but was chased off by NPC's. Have UA's been found in Merope previously? If one is found in-system, maybe it will point toward a planet instead of the star?

Someone dropped one in Merope, and it rotated to point to the star I think.

Bet FD are just loving this!
 
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