Why can not you improve the FSD travel?

Red Anders · Jul 8, 2017

NW3 said:
I've never made the trip, but I plan to, one day. My understanding is that it takes ~90 minutes to do it the "stupid" way and just point towards your destination and supercruise. It's supposed to be faster to fly up, away from the system planetary plane. Since there aren't any planets or stars around, their mass won't interfere with your drive and the top speed (2001 lys/sec) is reached much sooner and maintained much longer.

That makes no sense at all surely. I'll freely admit I'm no scientist but when you arrive, the most massive object affecting your speed is Alpha Centauri. Proxima Centauri is a) very far away and b) if it was affecting you at all its gravity would be pulling you towards it initially, which would mean you'd go faster when pointed at it not slower. No matter which direction you fly in from the start, Alpha Centauri's gravity will affect you the same because it's the fixed point away from which you're moving.

What orbits Alpha Centauri, I can't remember - anything that will have a significant impact?

NW3 · Jul 8, 2017

Red Anders said:
That makes no sense at all surely. I'll freely admit I'm no scientist but when you arrive, the most massive object affecting your speed is Alpha Centauri. Proxima Centauri is a) very far away and b) if it was affecting you at all its gravity would be pulling you towards it initially, which would mean you'd go faster when pointed at it not slower. No matter which direction you fly in from the start, Alpha Centauri's gravity will affect you the same because it's the fixed point away from which you're moving.

What orbits Alpha Centauri, I can't remember - anything that will have a significant impact?

According to game lore, any nearby mass lowers your supercruise speed, so that flying towards an object (like a sun) slows you down, the closer you get to it.

There are 3 suns and several planets in the Alpha Centauri system, all of which will slow you down, if you go near them.

Spacecat · Jul 8, 2017

That's why you always check the map before accepting a mission, especially if it seems to pay unusually well.

Ignition · Jul 8, 2017

Spacecat said:
That's why you always check the map before accepting a mission, especially if it seems to pay unusually well.

yeah, the destination shown in the mission board is not linked to the map so you need to remember the destination, open the map, type the destination, then open the mission board again and accept the mission.

Tarman · Jul 8, 2017

Ignition said:
yeah, the destination shown in the mission board is not linked to the map so you need to remember the destination, open the map, type the destination, then open the mission board again and accept the mission.

It is a buttpain, but prior to this data iteration we had even less data for decision making. I'd imagine in a few more iterations there will be better mission information than we have today.

Quantum of Blackness · Jul 8, 2017

It seems to me that the whole system of FSD jumps should be revised. This is not a modified, dull piece of code. This game deserves more. We deserve more

Mohrgan · Jul 8, 2017

I don;t deserve more. I am a filthy piece of work. I should have to jump up hill, both ways to get into a system.

mossfoot · Jul 8, 2017

Quantum of Blackness said:
It seems to me that the whole system of FSD jumps should be revised. This is not a modified, dull piece of code. This game deserves more. We deserve more

What you're thinking of as a bug most of us see as a feature. It's possible that someday they might (might) allow a short jump to a nearby star in the same system, but a planet? Forget it. Supercruise is perfect to many people because it gets across something very few space sims ever do--a sense of space and scale. If you travel to earth from the sun, those 500 light seconds of travel mean something. Something would be lost if you reduced travel to clicking on your destination planet and showing up there.

Taimaru · Jul 8, 2017

I like the way space travel it is and I would hate for it to change. In my opinion the game would be ruined if star jumps became a thing.

If one was able to jump to any star in the system we wouldn't have had the Hutton Truckers (for the Mug!) and there would be less chance for player interaction.

Also I like when exploring, finding in a previously explored system, an Earth-like, Water-World, Ammonia World etc. that hasn't been previously discovered because the previous person couldn't be bothered traveling for 10 minutes.

NW3 · Jul 8, 2017

mossfoot said:
What you're thinking of as a bug most of us see as a feature. It's possible that someday they might (might) allow a short jump to a nearby star in the same system, but a planet? Forget it. Supercruise is perfect to many people because it gets across something very few space sims ever do--a sense of space and scale. If you travel to earth from the sun, those 500 light seconds of travel mean something. Something would be lost if you reduced travel to clicking on your destination planet and showing up there.

Exactly! Rep++

The problem is that we seem to have (at least) 3 groups of players in this game: Some want an arcade game (with instant travel), some want to play EVE (in a game filled with gold farmers and spam), and others want a space sim.

I'm in the third group. The current travel times are fine; I want a galaxy that feels big.

I don't think it's possible to satisfy the different groups with one game. There are already lots of combat games and EVE has its own niche. There's nothing else like E: D and I'd like to keep it that way.

Quantum of Blackness · Jul 8, 2017

I do not want more arcade. Although in fact this game and so arcade, but not the essence. I want some mechanic changes in the udubudu convenience. I want the FSD jump to be less boring than stupid: I chose, pressed, flew

Pyrobee · Jul 8, 2017

Ignition said:
I play EVE since 2010.

Not clone but its just Elite would be a game with game things to do and EVE has really good game things.

I never went to Hutton Orbital and will never go. Looking at the monitor for more than 30 seconds doing absolutly nothing is not what I would call a game.
Supercruise needs to be changed, its not a good mechanic. I never do more than 2000 ls because its a waste of time. Also the acceleration/deceleration needs to be revisited especially going to and from a planet. We also need orbital mechanics since we don't have physics to do it.

The player should have the control in supercrise and not the automated accel/decel magic. We need HUD assitance and proper mechanics for supercruise so we can call us commanders and pilots.
The actual mechanics are a joke: Full throttle straight until 6s then back to 70% , done. Yeah the complexity is amazingly fun.

You have control in supercruise, it just sounds like you don't even know it's there. You are coming in the slow way. It's far quicker to come in at full acceleration as if you were to pass it and then throttle to zero when you get the slow down message and spiral to reduce momentum. Once speed has dropped put yourself back in the blue.

Schmack · Jul 8, 2017

I feel like the jump is enabled by the gravity of the star, not some random place anywhere, else it becomes magic. It's hard enough to suspend disbelief with some of the new introductions *cough cough thargoids cough cough* without having that kind of travel that just stops you where you want to be.

yodajedifishmaster · Jul 8, 2017

Pyrobee said:
You have control in supercruise, it just sounds like you don't even know it's there. You are coming in the slow way. It's far quicker to come in at full acceleration as if you were to pass it and then throttle to zero when you get the slow down message and spiral to reduce momentum. Once speed has dropped put yourself back in the blue.

supercruise is also the only way for players to interdict npcs and other players or be interdicted. want to remove combat purely to nav beacons and outside stations and rez/CZ only? dumping supercruise will concentrate combat MAINLY around stations. that will make open untenable unless all you want is a space shooter since nobody will live long enough to jump to do missions or trade. they would need a pure combat build just to get out of the station.

Zieman · Jul 8, 2017

Quantum of Blackness said:
I do not want more arcade. Although in fact this game and so arcade, but not the essence. I want some mechanic changes in the udubudu convenience. I want the FSD jump to be less boring than stupid: I chose, pressed, flew

Siobhan · Jul 8, 2017

Arindor said:
... for the love of God, why on earth didn't they build a second station orbiting Alpha Centauri A, then one half way between?!!!

It's called Al-Din Progress (the one by Alpha Centauri A)

DWorth · Jul 8, 2017

Those of you moaning about the size of Alpha Centauri need to take it up with the universe, since it's modelled to scale.

AJW · Jul 8, 2017

In other news, the Nepalese government has announced that it is going to improve mountaineering by removing the top two Km from Mount Everest...

mossfoot · Jul 8, 2017

Zieman said:
.

And the long supercruises need to stay! We don't have cable-cars to Mount Everest or Matterhorn etc., some places should feel an achievement once you get there. Getting across the whole Galaxy is all too easy & quick already.

^ this!

while it's hard to call this game a simulation in a realistic sense of the term, what it strives for is a science fiction sense of verisimilitude, that is to say, it behaves in a consistent way as if its game logic is real, creating the illusion of realism. And that is something many Elite players crave.

Villainous Ruffian · Jul 8, 2017

Red Anders said:
That makes no sense at all surely. I'll freely admit I'm no scientist but when you arrive, the most massive object affecting your speed is Alpha Centauri. Proxima Centauri is a) very far away and b) if it was affecting you at all its gravity would be pulling you towards it initially, which would mean you'd go faster when pointed at it not slower. No matter which direction you fly in from the start, Alpha Centauri's gravity will affect you the same because it's the fixed point away from which you're moving.

What orbits Alpha Centauri, I can't remember - anything that will have a significant impact?

He's talking about having a planet between Alpha and Proxima. When you fly around in SC, you may notice the Slow Down sign near objects, it refers to a planet/whatever lowering overall top speed. Although, it is not a gravitational effect, as ships slow as they approach massive objects.