Would prefer that to be part of the basic functionality or at least something to do with FSD injection synthesis.
Supercruise-placeholder? Or is this it?
- Thread starter EUS
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Would prefer that to be part of the basic functionality or at least something to do with FSD injection synthesis.
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Hold button until heat reaches 100%
Release button until cool
Hold button until heat reaches 100%
Release button until cool
Hold...
Release...
...
I can't conceive of a system that would make SC more tedious than this.
At least it's more interactive than the current sit and wait system. Which, could still easily be done of course.
At least it's more interactive than the current sit and wait system. Which, could still easily be done of course.
Honestly, I'd rather they implement a system where I get an SC boost from standing on a Lego
Boost is good, but a boost button just boils down to one more timer/cooldown mechanic.
How about we don't get a boost button but we can gain a speed boost by dipping into the gravity wells of different bodies? The closer you get to the exclusion zone without touching it, the higher the gravity of the body, and the longer you stay in that zone, the greater the gain. But the acceleration boost would only happen if your ship was already at full throttle. Navigating a given system would turn into an interesting action-puzzle, like a stretched out version of what it feels like to chain grinds and jumps together in Tony Hawk or Jet Set Radio. Suddenly A-B is not necessarily the fastest way to get somewhere and you'd always have an active role to play in SC rather than just sitting and waiting.
If you add any sort of mini game to supercruise people will go nuts! .. imagine having to keep playing some mini game on the way to hutton!
That’s an interesting idea, like a gravity capacitor that can be charged up in gravity wells to boost SC speed for periods of time. It wouldn’t do anything to help runs like to Hutton where there are no bodies to slingshot from, but it sounds very fun for traveling around systems!
[video=youtube;ibf-6O3uU6Q]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibf-6O3uU6Q[/video]
Problem with that, and i didn't realise until i played KSP, is that gravity manoeuvres tend to leave you with the same velocity but just in a new vector. Because it drags you down when you fall into and when you fly out.
If only we could disable the safety on FSD and chuck some material in it to get a boost.
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Sure. But it doesn't have to work like KSP. My idea is for something that captures the intuitive feel of orbital mechanics and slingshotting, but in-lore would be understood as something else. After all, you *are* still in frame-shift when all of this is happening.
That would be a great idea and give us something fun to think about while supercruising around. That's one of coolest ideas I've come across on these forums. You would actually have to pay attention to the bodies in the system. It could be as simple as staying withing a certain curve around the planet or whatever and let players have a little target like in the interdiction mechanic. The more on target you stay, the bigger your boost. It's gamey but I think it would be a fun addition to spruce up the most boring part of the game. Going around a bigger planet should give you significant boost and it would give you a reason to seek them out in a given system. Or chain a bunch of smaller planets together. Many possibilities.
At least FD could speed up SC a bit or even better make acceleration/de acceleration faster. Best part of playing Elite is actual flight model out side of SC, faster I can get to my destination to enter it the better
Eh, while I am all for some more interesting game play in supercruise, it is not a point and do mechanic, that is of course if you don't bother avoiding gravity wells and don't scan ships and want to get to your destination in a longer time then what is necessary.
It is a point and do mechanic if you don't bother with the actual game play that is already there. But that's your choice.
Because it's what makes the Hutton run special. You remove it and it isn't the Hutton Run anymore, but just a generic station that is easy to get to. And as it goes the game doesn't exactly force you to do the Hutton Run ever. It's a choice. Don't like the long supercruise journeys, stick to stations that are closer to the star.
There is no meaning to the Hutton Orbital Run. It just means you are wealthy enough in real life to let your computer run for 90 minutes while you took care of other stuff.
Seriously though: mini-jumps are fine with me as long as they are restricted to secondary stars with nav beacons. So only to stars where people live nearby. Still means the actual vastness of space is preserved in outer space.There is no meaning to the Hutton Orbital Run. It just means you are wealthy enough in real life to let your computer run for 90 minutes while you took care of other stuff.
To you maybe, but not to others. Myself I have never been there and doubt I ever will. I see no point and I see no point in micro jumps either. Don't like the long SC journeys, don't do them. Nothing in the game forces them on you.
We can't have time acceleration, 'cos multiplayer. OTOH DB has said that SC is "time acceleration" (presumably he meant it fulfills the same purpose, kinda). But the fact is, i enjoy interstellar travel in previous Elites, but loathe and detest SC, and don't use it.
In classic Elite, you had 'torus jump' aka 'jump drive'. You hit the 'J' key, and surge forwards in a huge leap, covering maybe 5 minutes of flight-time in an instant. If you continue to hold the J key, the key repeat kicks in and it rapid-fires these giant leaps, basically like regular flight only in fast-forward. There's no countdown, it's instantaneous the moment you hit the key, provided you're clear of any nearby object, or else you hear the low beep of the 'mass-lock' warning instead.
Obviously there's no external view or autopilot in classic Elite, but this fast-travel mechanism was so immediate it didn't give you a second to relax - you're holding down the 'J' key the whole time, but with your other fingers still poised over the controls for the moment jump drive cuts out with that low 'beep' signifying mass lock again - usually meaning that either you'd arrived, or were about to be attacked, or else a low-threat random encounter with another ship or asteroid or rock hermit etc. Usually tho, it meant interdiction, by pirates or cops.
Point was, it was fast, responsive, did not break your immersion or pull you out of the zone of arcade focus, it was entirely elective, fully under control at all times, seamless (ie. set in normal space, no transitions), it was exciting (not knowing what might pull you out next, only that whatever it was, it would be appearing instantly), and it was fluid; starting, and stopping, the moment you press or release the 'J' key.
DB said he wanted to "recapture the immediacy" of the previous games. SC patently does not fulfill this criteria WRT Elite 1. It is practically its antithesis... opposites land..
So what about Elite 2 & 3 (FE2/FFE)? Here we have "Stardreamer" - time acceleration - fully user-selectable with five magnitudes to switch between. Again, it's instantly responsive and doesn't 'pull you out of the zone' - there's no countdown, it just starts the instant you select it, stops the moment you either stop it or get mass locked. Again, it's flight thru 'normal space', thus 'seamless', maintaining continuity of immersion, and so in terms of gameplay mechanics it is a direct replacement for torus drive in E1.
Furthermore however it is enhanced with the addition of player-selectable magnitudes (so, as if being able to dial up or down your torus drive), plus it toggles on or off (so no more holding down a key), plus we now have full autopilot and external views... and full-colour eye candy to pan around and take in - watching your ship use its various thrusters as it speeds up, slows down and adjusts thru intervening reference frames, passing other stars and planets en route to your destination, before making final approach manueovres to dock or land. Fast, fluid, fun.
So in summary, fast travel in E2 & 3 replicates everything we got from Torus drive in E1, gameplay-wise, with cherries on top. 'Immediacy' delivered.
Now compare SC in ED. It's no longer instantly responsive - we have to wait for a countdown. It's no longer seamless, nor set in "normal space". It no longer follows the standard mechanics of motion or momentum, instead speeding up and slowing down in highly unintuitive ways dictated by local gravity conditions and other weirdness, there's no autopilot, we had to beg for years just to get external views (and they're still totally unuseable for me at least), and nothing about the experience remains 'elective' - you have to sit thru the countdown, then sit thru the whole journey dementedly coaxing your ship up-a-bit, left-a-bit (without even heading and direction reticles to line up on!)... it's a dull, repetitive chore that absolutely shatters your sense of continuity and integration 'in space' - and which is totally devoid of any of the vestiges of spaceflight itself; no momentum to be managed - you're not even technically moving, since space itself is folding around you - if you can even get external views working then you're no longer able to keep it manually lined up on course, the only 'excitement' is the risk of interdiction and ensuing 'submit & jump' minigame, again transitioning in and out of "normal space" with countdowns, or else face a 5 min 1-on-1 slow pitching contest just to kill a single ship..
...it's as if ED has been designed by people who've only read about the previous games, or maybe spent an afternoon dabbling with one. It's not 'immediacy', it's not seamless, immersive, exciting or engrossing, it's not intuitive nor responsive... it's just dull, naff and tedious.
This is nothing like how the previous games played! You no longer set your own pace of play, but have to traipse along at its dithering, inflexible pacing. A semi-passive observer / player, force-marched to jump thru its hoops of how, when & where. "Cut engines and disengage SC when the random number on-screen hits 7" or whatever the procedure. That.. inanity, is all the 'game' they could come up with from actually flying a 100 tonne ship thru interplanetary space at ludicrous speeds? That is the new 'Elite'? The one we waited decades "for the technology to mature" for?
:|
/shuffles back to FFE
In classic Elite, you had 'torus jump' aka 'jump drive'. You hit the 'J' key, and surge forwards in a huge leap, covering maybe 5 minutes of flight-time in an instant. If you continue to hold the J key, the key repeat kicks in and it rapid-fires these giant leaps, basically like regular flight only in fast-forward. There's no countdown, it's instantaneous the moment you hit the key, provided you're clear of any nearby object, or else you hear the low beep of the 'mass-lock' warning instead.
Obviously there's no external view or autopilot in classic Elite, but this fast-travel mechanism was so immediate it didn't give you a second to relax - you're holding down the 'J' key the whole time, but with your other fingers still poised over the controls for the moment jump drive cuts out with that low 'beep' signifying mass lock again - usually meaning that either you'd arrived, or were about to be attacked, or else a low-threat random encounter with another ship or asteroid or rock hermit etc. Usually tho, it meant interdiction, by pirates or cops.
Point was, it was fast, responsive, did not break your immersion or pull you out of the zone of arcade focus, it was entirely elective, fully under control at all times, seamless (ie. set in normal space, no transitions), it was exciting (not knowing what might pull you out next, only that whatever it was, it would be appearing instantly), and it was fluid; starting, and stopping, the moment you press or release the 'J' key.
DB said he wanted to "recapture the immediacy" of the previous games. SC patently does not fulfill this criteria WRT Elite 1. It is practically its antithesis... opposites land..
So what about Elite 2 & 3 (FE2/FFE)? Here we have "Stardreamer" - time acceleration - fully user-selectable with five magnitudes to switch between. Again, it's instantly responsive and doesn't 'pull you out of the zone' - there's no countdown, it just starts the instant you select it, stops the moment you either stop it or get mass locked. Again, it's flight thru 'normal space', thus 'seamless', maintaining continuity of immersion, and so in terms of gameplay mechanics it is a direct replacement for torus drive in E1.
Furthermore however it is enhanced with the addition of player-selectable magnitudes (so, as if being able to dial up or down your torus drive), plus it toggles on or off (so no more holding down a key), plus we now have full autopilot and external views... and full-colour eye candy to pan around and take in - watching your ship use its various thrusters as it speeds up, slows down and adjusts thru intervening reference frames, passing other stars and planets en route to your destination, before making final approach manueovres to dock or land. Fast, fluid, fun.
So in summary, fast travel in E2 & 3 replicates everything we got from Torus drive in E1, gameplay-wise, with cherries on top. 'Immediacy' delivered.
Now compare SC in ED. It's no longer instantly responsive - we have to wait for a countdown. It's no longer seamless, nor set in "normal space". It no longer follows the standard mechanics of motion or momentum, instead speeding up and slowing down in highly unintuitive ways dictated by local gravity conditions and other weirdness, there's no autopilot, we had to beg for years just to get external views (and they're still totally unuseable for me at least), and nothing about the experience remains 'elective' - you have to sit thru the countdown, then sit thru the whole journey dementedly coaxing your ship up-a-bit, left-a-bit (without even heading and direction reticles to line up on!)... it's a dull, repetitive chore that absolutely shatters your sense of continuity and integration 'in space' - and which is totally devoid of any of the vestiges of spaceflight itself; no momentum to be managed - you're not even technically moving, since space itself is folding around you - if you can even get external views working then you're no longer able to keep it manually lined up on course, the only 'excitement' is the risk of interdiction and ensuing 'submit & jump' minigame, again transitioning in and out of "normal space" with countdowns, or else face a 5 min 1-on-1 slow pitching contest just to kill a single ship..
...it's as if ED has been designed by people who've only read about the previous games, or maybe spent an afternoon dabbling with one. It's not 'immediacy', it's not seamless, immersive, exciting or engrossing, it's not intuitive nor responsive... it's just dull, naff and tedious.
This is nothing like how the previous games played! You no longer set your own pace of play, but have to traipse along at its dithering, inflexible pacing. A semi-passive observer / player, force-marched to jump thru its hoops of how, when & where. "Cut engines and disengage SC when the random number on-screen hits 7" or whatever the procedure. That.. inanity, is all the 'game' they could come up with from actually flying a 100 tonne ship thru interplanetary space at ludicrous speeds? That is the new 'Elite'? The one we waited decades "for the technology to mature" for?
:|
/shuffles back to FFE
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