I can see the orientation of other ships. Why not orientation of Orbitals?

[Hark0n]

I am tired of not dropping out directly in front of Oribital's docking mail slot. Why can I see a targeted ship's orientation in super cruise but not a targeted orbiting station's orientation in relation to my own while approaching its orbit? Having this ability would save a lot of time and pain in a game that has enough time sinks as it is.

Also, maybe unrelated but a pet peeve; it is weird that when I am 1Ls from station and get interdicted I am suddenly 50Ls from station when I escape the interdiction and have to fly those 49Ls over again? Also, how does my NPC enemy appear many Ls in front of me, ready to approach me from the front to interdict again after I ditch him escaping his interdiction? He should be left in my dust behind me... Does he have magic capabilities? Finally, why do I slow DOWN automatically when approaching a planet's gravity well? I should be speeding up and be able to use that additional speed to slingshot myself out, superDUPERcruise "ridiculous speed" fast toward planets far, far away...

Otherwise, enjoying the game still...

 

[DaveC]

You'll often find the "mail slot" facing the planet the station is orbiting. Not always, and of course that doesn't help with station that aren't orbiting a planet. But it helps quite often.

Edit: So in other words, the "mail slot" is likely to be facing the centre of the orbit ring. Approach from the centre out and you'll probably exit SC facing the entrance.

 

[Macy]

The side with the mailslot rotates anti clockwise. So i can usually work out where it is quite quickly. The little 3d image of the station is useless imo.

 

[Adhock]

You can.

Orbis stations are easier since the mail slot is located in the can.

Corilois stations are harder due to their shape. But they have arrows on their orientation.

Try selecting and locking onto the station from the contacts menu in the left panel after you drop into normal space near a station instead of the Nav panel.

They do show station orientation in relation to your ship.

 

[Jaiotu]

You can.

Orbis stations are easier since the mail slot is located in the can.

Corilois stations are harder due to their shape. But they have arrows on their orientation.

Try selecting and locking onto the station from the contacts menu in the left panel after you drop into normal space near a station instead of the Nav panel.

They do show station orientation in relation to your ship.

I think what the OP is saying is that we can't see the orientation while in supercruise. You can see the orientation of ships relative to you but the graphic for the station is static until you drop out of supercruise and into normal space.

 

[Devari]

I think what the OP is saying is that we can't see the orientation while in supercruise. You can see the orientation of ships relative to you but the graphic for the station is static until you drop out of supercruise and into normal space.

This is a technical limitation as the station is not rendered as a 3D object while in supercruise, it only appears when you drop into the instance created around the station. Your HUD can't show the relative orientation of the station as it has no 3D object to render. The station's location is just a navigation point that serves only as a navigation marker as long as you remain in supercruise and appears as a rendered object when you drop out within a certain distance. You can still predict where the mailslot will be relative to the planet's orbit, from what I have read the entrance should face one of the planet's poles, so it is possible to figure out where you drop out but that is difficult and time-consuming and as a result it doesn't usually save you any time.

 

[Thetele]

1. When you are in super cruise you servers don't sent you information about the station instance. (dropping from super cruise is matchmaking and loading phase when your client get information about station instance from server). NPC in super cruise are produced by your computer or by host of instance if you are on someone else instance. So your client know the orientation of other ships (player and npc) because you are changing that information between clients or your own computer is producing them. Stations only exist as single point to your client until you enter station instance, and your client get more information from servers.

2. When you are interdicted you teleport because internet lag and delays between clients and between client and server. You, matchmaking servers and other players see different stuff and the difference depend on connection delays between these. So you teleport to location that server and matchmaking server think you should be dropped to not what your client is showing. Npc aren't players, they are re created when ever you change instance and deleted when you leave instance. Some situations they are re created to have same values as npc in instance you just left.

Last one about why you slow down when near planets etc. In elite lore and as our current understanding of physics something that has mass can't move faster than light speed, 1 C.
The FSD form a bubble of isolated space time around the ship, The ship is stationary in this "bubble" and have no speed. To move the fsd force the space in front of ship/bubble to shrink and space behind the ship/bubble to expand. This move your isolated bubble at high speeds without breaking relativity by moving mass faster than light speed, which is impossible as far as we know. This is same explanation than Star Trek has for FTL traveling and is the way currently known physics would allow FTL traveling. This is the most "realistic" way to FTL we know. The slow down near gravity well is then because its harder to shrink and expand space around the ship in when gravity is already bending the space. Also slowing down is mechanic when you have something that is close to you targeted. The game assist you to slow done to be able to drop to station, uss etc.

 

[Shanaeri]

Pretty much all stations have their slot facing the planet, so make sure you come up inside the stations orbit line and turn towards the station 9/10 you'll pop out facing the slot

 

[Achilles7]

You can slingshot using gravity assist in normal space flight, but not in SC..read up on SC theory - it is well documented on the forums!

In regard to the drop out at stations..it mixes up a fairly repetitive task & besides, I like going in from behind occasionally! *ahem*

 

[Sentenza]

This is a technical limitation as the station is not rendered as a 3D object while in supercruise, it only appears when you drop into the instance created around the station. Your HUD can't show the relative orientation of the station as it has no 3D object to render. The station's location is just a navigation point that serves only as a navigation marker as long as you remain in supercruise and appears as a rendered object when you drop out within a certain distance. You can still predict where the mailslot will be relative to the planet's orbit, from what I have read the entrance should face one of the planet's poles, so it is possible to figure out where you drop out but that is difficult and time-consuming and as a result it doesn't usually save you any time.

The objection is that ships are already rendered in 3D with correct orientation while in supercruise, therefore the engine already has all the objects all the time. So there is no reason to have the ships rendered but not the station.

 

[Wylie28]

The objection is that ships are already rendered in 3D with correct orientation while in supercruise, therefore the engine already has all the objects all the time. So there is no reason to have the ships rendered but not the station.

Ships aren't rendered in 3D when in supercruise. They are a 2D image that's rotated depending on your orientation and you don't have its correct orientation. The orientation is slightly behind. the orientation of the 2D image for ships in super cruise is determined by its current and previous coordinates and then the direction between those two points is determined and the 2D image updated accordingly. This is very obvious when you play on a computer that gets low fps and watch other ships in supercruise take tight turns.

 

[SirAdelaide]

I was thinking the exact same thing yesterday.
While in SC, the station orientation should be shown.

 

[MrReynolds]

I too have always wondered this.
I "come in" from the planet side, but never could work out which way is north - so I generally come in around the equator and I do 2 boosts to centre the slot, request clearance straight after the 2nd and then a boost to go in.

 

[Devari]

The objection is that ships are already rendered in 3D with correct orientation while in supercruise, therefore the engine already has all the objects all the time. So there is no reason to have the ships rendered but not the station.

The ships within the same system are all in the same instance with you during supercruise. The station is not. It does not exist in supercruise at all, it doesn't masslock you, you can fly right through it, etc., as long as you remain in supercruise. The game uses a static icon in the nav panel during supercruise to represent the station but it's not a 3D object that corresponds to anything rendered in game while you are is supercruise. When you approach the nav marker and reach a certain distance the game allows to drop out of supercruise which loads an instance in which the station exists as a 3D object, but you will notice that the opposite also occurs, any USSs or ships you saw in supercruise are now gone as they are still in the instance created for supercruise travel, which you have now left. The "reality" in the game is that objects only exist as rendered 3D objects for your CMDR when they are in the same instance that you are, and as a result certain objects like stations disappear completely once you enter supercruise.

 

[SirAdelaide]

Doesn't matter whether it currently renders in 3d or not. The icon should rotate.

 

[Devari]

Doesn't matter whether it currently renders in 3d or not. The icon should rotate.

The icon is not a rendered 3D object. It is a static icon, it has no position within the supercruise instance with which to calculate orientation relative to your ship.

You will find that Elite's architecture is surprisingly limited and only provides a limited illusion of a persistent universe. The P2P connections are a major reason for this but their method of creating separate instances in the same area of space is another issue as well. Once you understand how the instances work and how these factors affect what you see in the game it all makes a lot more sense, particularly with how the NPCs work, and the reality is that what you're asking for would require a major rework for how the game handles supercruise travel.

 

[Tacyon]

SirAdelaide - simply put, while you're in SC, the station doesn't exist. So there is nothing to show.

 

[SirAdelaide]

But technical reasons aside, it should rotate, and would if coded.

 

[Arguendo]

Easy fix: add a very tiny replica of the station at the fixed position and lock it to its orbit and position.
The mail slot is pointed around 45 degrees off its orbit, but whether it's towards the north or south pole (or arbitrary) I don't really know. Either way, since we can't tell the poles apart in SC and not see the stations positioning, dropping in is a cointoss. That's why I drop in either almost straight towards the slot, or at almost 90 degrees off. If you drop straight from the planet (ie orbital plane) you will always drop around 45 degrees off. That makes it easier to locate the slot than the 90 degrees off, but I still go for the 45 degree approach and hope I'm lucky

Again, adding a small model of the station in supercruise would fix the "not in your instance" problem. Or, if it always points at the North Pole (which I think, I just haven't checked), put a mark on the hud for that instead. Also solves the problem.

 

[fus roh potato]

Go figure.

Guy posts suggestion how to improve game quality and gets all replies from people trying to teach him how it currently works. While the suggestion is not much of an improvement, I will agree that the non intuitiveness of the targeting and radar system degrades the quality of this game. Call it an OCD reaction, but there aren't many other space combat sims (including those made back in the 90's) that have WORSE radar functionality than this game. Ranges are low, targets are drawn with transposed orientation rather than perspective orientation, and in some cases (like stations) orientation is neglected completely.