Azeban orbital is the most famous low orbit outpost. Laming orbital (HR 706) is a large starport that orbits very close to an Earth like.
If you do long haul Sothis trucking you'll always end up at an agricultural earth like world (delivering Biowaste/Fertiliser) I have come across quite a few starports incredibly close to ELW's, orbit is nowhere near as low as the ISS.. Fairly certain the ISS is orbiting around 400km
The view at Azeban is breathtaking, I've spent hours in VR just relaxing on the pad whilst orbiting the planet.
[video=youtube;wzqUrlX_edQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzqUrlX_edQ[/video]
If you do long haul Sothis trucking you'll always end up at an agricultural earth like world (delivering Biowaste/Fertiliser) I have come across quite a few starports incredibly close to ELW's, orbit is nowhere near as low as the ISS.. Fairly certain the ISS is orbiting around 400km
The view at Azeban is breathtaking, I've spent hours in VR just relaxing on the pad whilst orbiting the planet.
[video=youtube;wzqUrlX_edQ]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzqUrlX_edQ[/video]
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That was one of the best in-game moments for me, the first time they introduced the outposts (beta 2?) you started at Azeban Orbital without really realizing it.
Then you would let your ship return to the surfact for launch and - bam - there was this stunning view.
I really really don't understand why FD haven't put stations in lower orbits all the time.
cheers,
Cmdr Benderson
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Unfortunately the devs have been doing the complete opposite over the last year or so. Many low orbit stations created from the galaxy seed have been manually moved to higher orbits, reason being the long SC times it takes to arrive or depart from those stations.
Thats really sad (and not the correct way to fix the slow SC approach problem IMHO).
And while we are at it, why are all stations orbiting in the ecliptic plane of their main body? You never get to see the rings that way!
I have not seen any station or outpost in, e.g., a polar orbit.
Imagine the view you had from the station in a low polar orbit around a ringed gas giant? I would pay money for that...
cheers,
Cmdr Benderson
IIRC that was a measure to make sure and fix stations that had you end up within the planet's exclusion zone so you had to travel a long time in normal space to get out of there.
Nice - I'll def visit Azeban - it would be cool if they fixed any problems with approach and had some lower stations as they'd be taking advantage of existing graphics really nicely.
Stations at ring systems also seem like a missed trick to me - they always seem in line with the ring so you can't even see it!
Stations at ring systems also seem like a missed trick to me - they always seem in line with the ring so you can't even see it!
I suppose this is to improve "gameplay" again, don't want to hold the pew-pewers up while they collect their insta ships
Another good one is Robert Aitken Orbital ...
As mentioned above, a bunch of the low stations were so low that you could not supercruise away from them. And I stand by what I said.
what, that I have pathological paranoia and need medication and that I should leave?
Not all of them buddy, there are quite a few stations out there with orbits that clearly show the rings, some of them are quite breathtaking, even Robigo mines looks pretty awesome.
Am away on holiday, no access to my screenshots folders, I'll see if I can dredge up some old posts of mine with screenshots.
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It's actually much more convenient to have a station in a higher orbit. A low orbit will decay faster due to trace amounts of atmosphere slowing it down gradually.
The reason why our ISS is in a low orbit is because it costs too much energy to get it higher, and that's why it needs to be reboosted every now and then to put it back in a higher orbit.
But in the Elite universe with frameshift drives, there's no reason for stations to be in low orbits.
The reason why our ISS is in a low orbit is because it costs too much energy to get it higher, and that's why it needs to be reboosted every now and then to put it back in a higher orbit.
But in the Elite universe with frameshift drives, there's no reason for stations to be in low orbits.
If thats the only problem, they could set a new series of minor stations with minimal relevance in game mechanics (no mission board, passenger lounge, or shipyard, i.e.). So hardcore gamer commanders can simply avoid them. And Astronomy and Astronautics lovers could start every day their game session with a breathtaking view of some planets.
The other reason is that as you get higher, you start running into issues with radiation, which is obviously a solved issue in the 34th century.
I was hoping they would place many of the CQC structures in low Orbit. Haven't seen any yet.