EET display is useless.

[The space tyrant]

EET display not accurate, but can be

When you hit supercruise, it kind of bugs me that there is actually never a scenario where your 'Estimated Enroute Time' will be accurate.

The game calculates this the same way a modern pilot would in cruise flight (distance/time X rate/1(unit))

Well our ships don't have a cruise speed, as far as I can tell we continue accelerating until we have to start decelerating, I think the EET timer can calculate that more accurately.

Take distance, then figure out when we'd have to slow down (assuming we flew at either full throttle, or in the blue) and then figure out how long until "SAFE DISENGAGE READY".


It just bugs me that I watched my EET read 3 minutes, for approximately 12 minutes.

 

[Wylie28]

the number is not an arrival time, its a measurement of speed. (yes I said distance before I meant speed relative to distance)

 

[The space tyrant]

the number is not an arrival time, its a measurement of distance.

No. Not to be rude but the EET is exactly what I said it is.

It seems you missed my point entirely. Please re-read

 

[peteuplink]

I think the EET is displaying a sort of theoretical ETA that would be true if you were locked at one speed. So, for example, if you were travelling a 1.5c and the ETA was 5 minutes, that 5 minutes would be true to you were travelling at a constant 1.5c. But since your speed is always increasing or decreasing, the EET indicator is constantly adjusting for your new speed. As the speed goes up the EET goes down and vice versa.

I hope that makes sense.

 

[Wylie28]

No its not. Pull out a stop watch and tell me if your times to get to places ever come close to anything you ever see there. They wont, why? Because it is not an EET. It is there to tell you how fast you are going relative to the object. The speeds at which you travel in the game are far too large to be comprehended by any human brain. Time however is easy so they use that to tell you how close or far away from something you are. It does not portray how long it takes for you to get somewhere because of the range at which your speed can change. There would need to be a much more complex calculation to even get close to estimated arrival time.

 

[Panticus]

I haven't given it a huge amount of thought, but it appears to take your current velocity and instantaneous acceleration (or deceleration) and then extrapolate the effect your future velocities (based on a constant acceleration) would have on the ETA. This is why as you accelerate, the ETA time diminishes, until maximum speed. Similarly, if you decelerate, you can make the time to run stay constant, even though the target is getting closer.

It is a bizarre mechanic, leading to all that 'hit 75% at 7s' nonsense. Personally I hate it, and think this whole time-wasting, dot-staring, malarkey - in fact the whole supercruise tedium - spoils the game.

None of this time-sinking artifice was in the original Elite..

 

[smiths121]

It reminds me of a Windows progress bar!

I once wrote some code where in certain scenarios the progress bar actually went backwards, but it had the characteristic go fast, slow down, then fast again of the modern progress bars.

 

[The space tyrant]

I think the EET is displaying a sort of theoretical ETA that would be true if you were locked at one speed. So, for example, if you were travelling a 1.5c and the ETA was 5 minutes, that 5 minutes would be true to you were travelling at a constant 1.5c. But since your speed is always increasing or decreasing, the EET indicator is constantly adjusting for your new speed. As the speed goes up the EET goes down and vice versa.

I hope that makes sense.

Yes. That's exactly what I said in the original message... my point stands that it isn't accurate.

 

[Alex Brentnall]

There is a max speed in supercruise FYI.

You can find it by going to Hutton Orbital and that is actually not a joke this time

Also this is by far the most useful display in the game. By keeping it between 6-8 seconds you can ensure you don't overshoot due to relative slowdown between you and the target mass with the target mass' influence on your ships FSD bubble and it's relative distance to your speed. If that makes sense.

 

[The space tyrant]

No its not. Pull out a stop watch and tell me if your times to get to places ever come close to anything you ever see there. They wont, why? Because it is not an EET. It is there to tell you how fast you are going relative to the object. The speeds at which you travel in the game are far too large to be comprehended by any human brain. Time however is easy so they use that to tell you how close or far away from something you are. It does not portray how long it takes for you to get somewhere because of the range at which your speed can change. There would need to be a much more complex calculation to even get close to estimated arrival time.

Lol... I hope you're trolling? Otherwise I'm afraid (not to be rude) that your understanding of this topic is a bit too low to have a meaningful discussion.... sorry.

 

[DeRane]

It just saves me time of constantly dividing remaining distance with current speed, which is a good way of estimating the needed thrust setting. Actually did this in first few days, until noticed that game does it for me. Duh!

 

[Riverside]

I haven't given it a huge amount of thought, but it appears to take your current velocity and instantaneous acceleration (or deceleration) and then extrapolate the effect your future velocities (based on a constant acceleration) would have on the ETA. This is why as you accelerate, the ETA time diminishes, until maximum speed. Similarly, if you decelerate, you can make the time to run stay constant, even though the target is getting closer.

It is a bizarre mechanic, leading to all that 'hit 75% at 7s' nonsense. Personally I hate it, and think this whole time-wasting, dot-staring, malarkey - in fact the whole supercruise tedium - spoils the game.

None of this time-sinking artifice was in the original Elite..

It's based solely on your current velocity, it does not take acceleration (or deceleration) into account. 75% throttle is a simple rule of thumb for new pilots, not a hard & fast mechanic. You can use the gravity wells to assist with decelleration, describe an arc or loop to compensate for overspeed (what the 'slow down' message should actually say), it can be achieved simply, or in a more skilled fasion with experience.

The current indicator allows for all of this.

 

[MickyG1982]

The EET is actually an instantaneous display of how long you will take to arrive at your destination if you were travelling constantly at the exact velocity you were travelling at when you looked at it.

It's not an average, it's not even an estimate really.

If you were travelling at a constant velocity with no gravitational changes then you would arrive in exactly the displayed time.

But, our ships never travel at a constant velocity while in supercruise they are always either accelerating or decelerating.

Hence why we never hit that estimated time of arrival...

It's not inaccurate, just instantaneous.

 

[The space tyrant]

The EET is actually an instantaneous display of how long you will take to arrive at your destination if you were travelling constantly at the exact velocity you were travelling at when you looked at it.

It's not an average, it's not even an estimate really.

If you were travelling at a constant velocity with no gravitational changes then you would arrive in exactly the displayed time.

But, our ships never travel at a constant velocity while in supercruise they are always either accelerating or decelerating.

Hence why we never hit that estimated time of arrival...

It's not inaccurate, just instantaneous.

Lol... once again, another repeat of something I pointed out in the original post IE: How the display currently operates and why it doesn't work for us.

The fact remains, the EET will never be accurate based on how our ships travel, and it serves no purpose.

 

[GodBlock]

At one time or other I too had issues with this timer.. for the same reason as OP.. it says 6 seconds but I've been here for a minute!

Now I just don't think of it as an estimated time of arrival, I just use it as a pointer for when I should be decelerating or accelerating.. for example if I'm approaching a station that's very close to it's planet I'll generally be at 75% thrust.. the eta show anything over 7 i hit accelerate, it get back to 6 I throttle down to 75%

In that respect it serves a purpose and does it very well, maybe you need to shift you thinking of the timer, rather than slam it

 

[The space tyrant]

At one time or other I too had issues with this timer.. for the same reason as OP.. it says 6 seconds but I've been here for a minute!

Now I just don't think of it as an estimated time of arrival, I just use it as a pointer for when I should be decelerating or accelerating.. for example if I'm approaching a station that's very close to it's planet I'll generally be at 75% thrust.. the eta show anything over 7 i hit accelerate, it get back to 6 I throttle down to 75%

In that respect it serves a purpose and does it very well, maybe you need to shift you thinking of the timer, rather than slam it

There's been no slamming of anything, just pointing out some room for improvement (something this community seems quite resistant to). The improvement is that this game attempts to display an EET in your cockpit based on current speed. However these ships never fly a fixed speed, so by nature the EET display is not working as intended.

Hope this helps.

 

[MickyG1982]

Lol... once again, another repeat of something I pointed out in the original post IE: How the display currently operates and why it doesn't work for us.

The fact remains, the EET will never be accurate based on how our ships travel, and it serves no purpose.

It serves as an indicator, far from being useless it allows the 99% of pilots whom don't have the superpowers you appear to have to actually get to their target without overshooting it over and over again...

 

[The space tyrant]

It serves as an indicator, far from being useless it allows the 99% of pilots whom don't have the superpowers you appear to have to actually get to their target without overshooting it over and over again...

My point remains that the EET is not an accurate display of how long to reach your current destination, although it is attempting to do exactly that. This could be fixed.
I use distance to determine when I should slow down, and line up the two blue needles. Never have utilized the faulty EET display as several of you have mentioned.




Let me point something out: To the group of players that seem to be offended by my observation, I only point these things out because I like this game, and I'd like to suggest ways that it be improved. Also, I'm right. The display does not work as intended.

 

[GodBlock]

I am not offended by your opinion of the timer, I am trying to shed some light on it for you.

Let me point something out: To you the OP

The indicator tells you exactly how long it's going to take at that precise moment in time, going at your exact speed, using the exact distance to your target, since you are always accelerating or decelerating the timer changes.

It really is that simple



You don't even use the timer? You use distance? LOL

I really dislike heated seats in cars, I own a moterbike

 

[Riverside]

Also, I'm right. The display does not work as intended.

It works as it is intended to work, just not the way you expect it to work. It is a useful indicator in a variety of ways as it is, if it were simply an ETA it would work only in one way, and would not help you to improve your ETA.

Try timing various parts of the trip - it takes about a minute to reach the 'safe to disengage' indicator (usually 1Mm) from 0.1Ls away at a 6sec approach time. That way you know how long it will take real time without the HUD needing to tell you.