In all my time playing Elite, I never knew about this...

  • Thread starter Deleted member 110222
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Or shave time off docking.
[video=youtube;JpWLgD_uVbE]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpWLgD_uVbE[/video]

Edit: I'll spare you for the experience of the other 856 attempts...
 
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I have had a dedicated button on throttle which set it to 75% when I hit 6 seconds(not 7 as you were told) for nearly 2 years ;)

Same here but on short trips I fly all the way at 75% as you don't lose that much travel time, for anything less than 1000ls.
 
Sometimes you can use the 5 second rule.....But only if your have a planet you can pass at just the right distance, with enough gravity to slow you down before the station.

It's fun. But doesn't always work. Hard to judge.

Hmmm....Might be an idea to add a tool to the game to allow planning this maybe (minigame to speed up travel)
 
Sometimes you can use the 5 second rule.....But only if your have a planet you can pass at just the right distance, with enough gravity to slow you down before the station.

It's fun. But doesn't always work. Hard to judge.

Hmmm....Might be an idea to add a tool to the game to allow planning this maybe (minigame to speed up travel)

Yeah I use this a lot. It's often a little unpredictable but skimming through gravity well of the orbited planet usually sorts out the over speed nicely. Plus as you say...it's fun!
 
Been running 5 second approaches for almost 2 years with no issues. I don't pull loops unless I'm using a superhot mass shadow braking approach to ditch interdictions.
 
You get used to where your throttle positions work, for space stations, even with a smooth throttle like the Warthog. You'll not need a 75% button.

Mystery to me though is throttle for planetary landings. Most of the time 7 seconds seems to end up with being too fast for orbital cruise.
 
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In supercruise, you can fly at full throttle, until you hit seven seconds distance, at which point you should drop to 75% throttle, and finish the journey.

Knowledge courtesy of some unnamed CMDR.

My trading and passengers are getting more time efficient now!

If you want to get there much faster, drop to 0 throttle at 5.5 seconds and skim the planet's blue boundary circle to loose the extra velocity.
 
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You get used to where your throttle positions work, for space stations, even with a smooth throttle like the Warthog. You'll not need a 75% button.

Mystery to me though is throttle for planetary landings. Most of the time 7 seconds seems to end up with being too fast for orbital cruise.

There is a Kilometers per second rule in place for entering orbital cruise. Though I didn't memorise it, when I watched the instructional video. Silly me.
 
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i like to push it to 5 depending on local conditions. Usually can avoid loop of shame.

Just out exploring now and scanning planets using the 5 second rule. Makes for some exciting fly bys. Only once had ship do an emergency stop when i miscalculated size of moon.
 
There

There is a Kilometers per second rule in place for entering orbital cruise. Though I didn't memorise it, when I watched the instructional video. Silly me.

Instructions... we have instructions?

I remember the original tutorials but tbh I've never looked for new ones. I always come to the forums for help :D
 
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Instructions... we have instructions?

I remember the original tutorials but tbh I've never looked for new ones. I always come to the forums for help :D

They're on display at the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying beware of the leopard, right next to the city planning notices. FD is waay too British SF on their game notation.


Edit below: The anthrokanga has good landing advice. To me it feels a lot conceptually like trying to "pancake" into the gravity well so that when you do pitch into your destination you're not coming in like a meteor. So true about early corrections; that takes so much less time than crapping your ship into super high orbit and waiting for respool for a second pass, unless you want to normalspace 387km.
 
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Mystery to me though is throttle for planetary landings. Most of the time 7 seconds seems to end up with being too fast for orbital cruise.
0.06 is too hot for a landing.
Landings are different. Supercruise gets "grabbed" by gravity so the throttle setting will vary according to how many G's you're landing into. Weirdly, the higher the G's - the more you can push the throttle.

My trick is to approach on a 45 degree angle.
You set that up before you have the pitch angle in the HUD.
The "straight down" center of the planet has a marker, And you can see the horizon. So you put your destination target on the top quarter of the sphere as you see it, and you should be about 45 degrees when the pitch angle appears in the HUD.
If your angle is too shallow, pitch up a bit to stay high. The lower you are in the gravity well, the slower you will go.
If you come in too steep, the bottom part of your HUD will have Red Cross hatching. If you stuff it up, you drop out of Supercruise with a long drive or an SC cool down followed by a escape and hop back.

For a too steep - too hot entry, You're better off recognizing the mistake> turning up and away from your destination and circling back. Correcting your approach should be done high. A correction that maintains height and supercruise has a faster recovery than an early drop.

I've done a video, but it's part of an explanation of how to make a quickish billion credits working for the Alliance. Alliance eyes only sorry.
 
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Come on guys. Its none of the above, as it is dependent on the gravity wells. For efficiency:

1) Verify if the station is on your side of the planet or not. Counter-intuitive, but on the opposite side will be faster.
2) Estimate the strength of the gravity
3) The higher the gravity, the more you can break the rule. If its a gas-giant you can pretty much go full-speed at it.
4) Let the planet be your brakes
5) The closer you are, the less you need to care about the '6 seconds'.
 
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