Supercruise-placeholder? Or is this it?

[Red Fox Four]

My main issue with Supercruise is how it takes just as long to travel 5000Ls as it takes to travel the last 100Ls before you reach the station or planet due to the gravity slowdown. It's extra frustrating because you are FINALLY close to your destination, but then no... lets extend it and draaaaaaaag it out by slowing you down, down, down so it literally takes longer to do final approach than the entire cruise part of supercruise.

Also, why does gravity slow us down?

Also also, why can't we use gravity wells in Supercruise to GAIN speed by slingshotting ourselves around the planets?

That would be:

• Fun
• Interactive and take some skill and practice (if done right and you need to pass at a certain distance to gain speed and not lose it by depart the gravity well at the right time)
• Adds new ways to avoid interdictions when pursued by twisting around the gravity wells to outrun a pursuer.

 

[Luniticisi]

people like to forget (or maybe don't remember) that in the original Elite you could spend 20/40 mins getting to the planet after a jump due to traffic (mass locked by ANY ship) .. that happened a lot and it was part of the fun.

 

[MDHansen]

A few things I think Supercruise needs:

- Visual pizzazz - warping effects and so forth
- Phenomena that affect Supercruise travel besides large gravity wells - there's a massive disconnect between things that happen in normal space and things that happen in Supercruise at the moment, with the only connecting mechanic being signal sources.
- Performance to be affected by the FSD rating, Engineering and Pips.

I don't think we need to change the forward-only flight model. Just add some interactivity and interesting things

I agree that some fluff and stuff could be fun and interesting. Sadly, what I bolded, would cause the forums to enter a meltdown certain people here would have their 20 sec SC flight prolonged by another 2 secs... havoc I tell you!:x

 

[JesusRocks1988]

I agree that some fluff and stuff could be fun and interesting. Sadly, what I bolded, would cause the forums to enter a meltdown certain people here would have their 20 sec SC flight prolonged by another 2 secs... havoc I tell you!:x

Oh no, I don't mean stuff that would slow down journeys, I mean other things to interact with in Supercruise that aren't signal sources.

I have no ideas to flesh that out as yet though.

 

[M66]

My main problem with SC is how it makes my spaceship seem huge!.....I fly by an orbital in Super Cruise and the orbital/station is just a small pinpoint of light...but I know the station is really large...and my ship is really small(compared)......I never get the feeling I just missed colliding with this massive space station! (Whoosh!! just missed a little spacestation icon) Flying by a star is the same way...ALL the stars seem the exact same size..... Because it's takes very little to circle them! Sort of like walking around a soccer ball, or a beach ball placed on the ground. IF it took me say, 30 minutes to complete an orbit of a large star @max SC then I'd probably realize just how large the star is! As it is now, I can circle any star in seconds.

 

[Falcon_D]

1 thing I want improved in SC is the USS mini game. I wish FDev would revert back to the signal sources being identified.

That is, we know what type of signal sources it is when they pop up. Currently, the only time I bother to untarget my destination and target a signal source is when I’m actually trying to gather mats. During mission runs (which is about 90% of my gameplay) I don’t bother scanning the USS cause I have to untarget my destination, target the USS, slow down, wait for the scan to complete, then enter the SS if interesting or retarget my destination and carry on.

Basically, I wish FDev would remove this stop and smell the roses gameplay.

 

[Duckfather]

You do realise that SC wasn't even going to be 'a thing' in the game at all. It was a suggestion by a beta tester during the beta phase and was taken on board by the Devs. The origonal idea was to just jump between all locations, including in-system planet to planet trips etc.

 

[Frenotx]

You do realise that SC wasn't even going to be 'a thing' in the game at all. It was a suggestion by a beta tester during the beta phase and was taken on board by the Devs. The origonal idea was to just jump between all locations, including in-system planet to planet trips etc.

Super cruise could be cool... if more stuff happened in it.

 

[EUS]

Given the qty of placeholders four years on, it's a fair question, not me being trite.

Calling supercruise as it is a placeholder is just pointless jab. Can SS improved? Yes and I am certain they will be as they have been in the past (random in time vs. spatial, threat levels, etc.). FD can also add POIs, etc...all such things engine allow them to do.

Again, it's a question, not a statement.

 

[krylite]

I'd only change certain acceleration aspects of SC. Like being able to choose a certain c factor speed or raise the max speed to 3000c or 4000c. Otherwise I like it the way it is as a "warp speed" analogy where it's not really normal space or aerodynamic flight as the ship in its warp envelope is more likely traveling along space-time curves, rather than physical space. FFE had thruster manipulation with speeds up to .10c but that was really normal flight where time could be sped up to look like the ship was moving faster than lightspeed using the stardreamer.

That said, I wouldn't mind seeing more thought out cosmetic effects such as more variance in how fast the space dust flies by from sublight to 1c to 2000c, with the lightspeed barrier threshold showing some kind of visual effect:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PPUdrMzvxrc&feature=youtu.be&t=2m40s

 

[Good Death]

I posted this in the Hutton thread, but it's an idea to improve SC so I'll post it here too.

I'd love to see a supercruise boost utility module added to the game.

While in SC, and with the utility module installed, the player could press the boost button to double SC speed. This would create a lot of heat though, so it could only be held for a short time before you begin to take heat damage. Or just melt the ship if you wanted to. It would also really guzzle fuel too. After cooling down the boost could be used again, repeat as desired.

Basically a SC mini game balancing heat generation with cool down periods for speed boosts. Low emission mods would greatly help of course.

This is a great idea![yesnod] This would also increase the value of the afmu as I currently use only it to fix my fsd.

 

[Bortas]

Definite no on microjumps in system. Takes away every shade of meaning out of completing the Hutton Orbital Run; I'm fairly open to new ideas, but screwing with the Hutton Orbital Run is not one of them.

Mind to explain where the achievement lies in letting your ship fly straight for an hour while watching TV?

 

[varonica]

Mind to explain where the achievement lies in letting your ship fly straight for an hour while watching TV?

There are plenty of places that don't take an hour to fly to, go to one of those?

I mean achievement are all in the mind, I mean if you don't think something is an achievement then don't do it, but don't take them away from people who think they are.

Why do you want to go to Hutton Orbital? Because it's a long way away, but I don't want to actually take any time to get there, give me mini-jumps. But then it's the same as any other star, no point in going there, may as well throw away the Hutton Mugs as well, pointless I guess. So one achievement destroyed, lets go for Sag A* next, lets make a stargate to Sag A* because X wants to get into the "I visited Sag A* and all I got was a lousy T-shirt" club, but he doesn't actually get a T-shirt because the achievement has been rendered pointless by the stargate.

So what was the point of all of that? It's this, some things are in game just because people like them, Hutton Orbital is one of these. No-one not interested need apply, but they also need to stop trying to get rid of them, they are not there for you, don't do them.

 

[Bortas]

No-one not interested need apply, but they also need to stop trying to get rid of them, they are not there for you, don't do them.

You missed the point. Personally I'm not interested in visiting Hutton Orbital. Even if I could jump directly to it, I probably wouldn't because there's nothing of interest there for me. Just one of 10,000s of other outposts.

However, the player I replied to claimed that going to Hutton Orbital is some sort of achievement to be proud of. Was just wondering and trying to understand the achievment of being AFK for an hour while your ship is flying in a straight line. Still not getting it... since you seem to be a proud Hutton-Trucker, too... can you explain, please?

 

[Oss133]

I agree that the SC flight model feels rather basic compared to normal flight. In the early testing days it was possible to go FA off in SC and use thrusters. Not sure why it was thrown out.

I also agree that SC should look different, beyond the orbit lines. It always seemed odd that traveling faster than the speed of light doesn't change the visuals at all.

 

[Frame Farmer]

My chosen RL profession initially essentially required rapt attention at watching a countdown timer as a patient rests in a tube between scans.
My hobby, astro-photography, essentially mirrors this as I watch my monochrome, Peltier-cooled imaging sensor collect photons from all manner of light from my telescope in the desert...using 10 minute sub-frames...that I pensively watch a countdown timer for to the last second...waiting for each fuzzy frame with the anticipation of a child at Christmas.
My deepest darkest secret, is that several nights of the week I imagine myself a pilot of a multi-ton star-craft among the many lazy rivers in these glorious heavens hungry for whatever comes next as I try to keep from flying into a yet unknown sun while the siren call of witch-space does her level best to woo me back into the black.
There is sometimes challenge in watching that timer, there is sometimes frustration, but in so many ways there is peace to be found there as well--white knuckled on the sticks trying to pull the spiral and more often than not making the loop of shame. That said, truth be told I do a have 75% throttle mapped to a button on my HOTAS throttle for the A>B loop nights as well.

Last thought--if normal SC has you down, go on a neutron survey, and turn your ~60KL FSD into a @220+ by surfing the pipe to get your supercharge on. I got my first SC re-buy that way mistakenly thinking I could pull that on a tiny white dwarf a few nights ago. Went in too close and I was perpetually stuck in the wash. As my modules melted down and temps approached 600 degrees the resulting explosion did not cast a shadow.

 

[Y2K]

:/ you hyperspace between stars.. supercruise is fast in system travelling.. maybe they could enable 'press J to skip' for those console kiddies after all it still looks like 1980s BBC B.

As for me.. VR supercruise is the quiet time - especially if im going along way - hutton orbital for instance to pick up the weekly freebie ( excellent bobble head last week ). Time to catch up on Galnet, look at stats or browse tbe galaxy map for locations to visit and check each planet in system for possible mats

 

[Frenotx]

Yes, exactly. It’s not a bad mechanics, it’s just way too plain.

Like many things in elite, it feels like the skeleton of some cool ideas, and was just never fleshed out.

 

[Zeeman]

I *may be imagining things, but didn’t SC have an FA Off mode once, long ago, back in some iteration of Beta?

Z...

 

[[VR] Deggial]

I agree with the the statement that SC is a dominant game element and therefore should be as fun as possible.

I also agree that currently, SC flight it is a quite passive activity (a paradoxon?).
For the most part, we try to not miss the right time to throttle down in order to not overshoot.
Sometimes, and I guess only a minor fraction of the players does this, it is benefical to avoid celestial bodies in order to not be slowed down.
That's it, I guess.

As there is no "geography" in space other than those celestial bodies, I believe there should be a more active - and a more positive - way to interact with them.
- Rather than "slow down", there should be a noticeable "speed gain" due to gravity. I know there is already, but it is mainly painful, as it takes control away from the pilot in the worst case (over-shooting), but doesn't really help in other situations.
- This speed gain should be effective from further away than now (screw real physics and its gravity laws!), making optimal course planning a worthwhile enterprise throughout the whole trip to the target.
- In order to apease physics, the ship's trajectory could be bend by gravity wells - the closer to the well, the stronger. "Swing by" maneuvers would become an effective and fun skill.
- Drifting (asynchronicity between motion vector and ship heading) during SC should be (re-)enabled. For a short time, this was possible but disabled by FDev, as it was an unintentional behaviour.
- Introduce "SC-boosts" (as already proposed above). But not as general effect that simply speeds up SC, but a way to actively enhance - or counter - the gravity effects. Let us thrust against the gravital drag (counter the over-shooting) or joyfully embrace the welcommming pull of those stellar bodies!