Why does Super Cruise travel take so long?

[RidingTheFlow]

Why does Super Cruise travel take so long?

Because the 80-s game they took a lot of inspiration from featured these kinds of travel times from jump-in point to stations.
So they've modelled travel speeds in this one to be the same on average as they wanted this aspect of gameplay to be similar.

 

[PhanttoM]

That's the thing, though- unless an NPC spawns somewhere in the middle of nowhere, the supercruise mechanics mean interdictions tend to only happen at the start or end of a supercruise journey. <snip>

That's IMO down to bad spawn mechanics.
NPCs should spawn more frequently in "the middle of nowhere".

Wouldn't it make sense for NPCs to lay in wait along a trade/travel route, in old fashion highwayman road robbery style?
Rather than at the beginning or end where logically, re-inforcements can arrive much sooner. (Tie in police response time to that, etc.)

------
At this point it doesn't matter. I can't see Frontier ever balancing this properly, given the backlash of the old interdiction difficulty.

 

[Tarman]

There are lots of good ideas to spruce up this part of the game. Frenotx has one of my faves with an FSD active-input booster, and in other threads we had discussed both the booster and other methods of varying SC speeds without merely introducing fast travel, and some simple additions with the speed and speed rate changes that would also add a lot more depth to available gameplay in many other areas of SC such as hunter/prey mechanics and navigation.

BUT

Since I see so many players just harping about how anything takes any amount of time at all, I don't know how well these folks would handle a richer SC environment because if there were more things going on it could actually take the same or more time depending on what's happening.

Measuring this game purely against mobile phone app reaction speeds is getting kind of old, as that seems to be a separate issue from the relative thin-ness of SC gameplay. Precious little people seem to want the gameplay to be better, but a whole wack of them want it to be just as thin but faster. Could be a lost cause.

 

[Zorronov]

Are we there yet?

Sorry...couldn't resist.

 

[Frenotx]

There are lots of good ideas to spruce up this part of the game. Frenotx has one of my faves with an FSD active-input booster, and in other threads we had discussed both the booster and other methods of varying SC speeds without merely introducing fast travel, and some simple additions with the speed and speed rate changes that would also add a lot more depth to available gameplay in many other areas of SC such as hunter/prey mechanics and navigation.

BUT

Since I see so many players just harping about how anything takes any amount of time at all, I don't know how well these folks would handle a richer SC environment because if there were more things going on it could actually take the same or more time depending on what's happening.

Measuring this game purely against mobile phone app reaction speeds is getting kind of old, as that seems to be a separate issue from the relative thin-ness of SC gameplay. Precious little people seem to want the gameplay to be better, but a whole wack of them want it to be just as thin but faster. Could be a lost cause.

I'd be perfectly happy with long supercruise trips if they were full of interesting, exciting, and engaging gameplay. My gripe is not that they're long- my gripe is that it's a long stretch of no gameplay.

 

[Tarman]

I'd be perfectly happy with long supercruise trips if they were full of interesting, exciting, and engaging gameplay. My gripe is not that they're long- my gripe is that it's a long stretch of no gameplay.

Oh yeah, not you specifically for sure. You're onboard with better gameplay on the large scale, and then being able to rationally discuss specific options in that concept. It's the "let's eat this plain whitebread baloney sammige even faster cause that makes it tastier" people that mystify me. It's like they don't know about pickles and mustard and rye bread.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

Supercruise is stupidly fast in the grand scheme of things.

 

[Frenotx]

Oh yeah, not you specifically for sure. You're onboard with better gameplay on the large scale, and then being able to rationally discuss specific options in that concept. It's the "let's eat this plain whitebread baloney sammige even faster cause that makes it tastier" people that mystify me. It's like they don't know about pickles and mustard and rye bread.

Oh yes indeed. Many people seem to be under the impression that "less bad" automatically means "good". It's like engineering- making us do less rolls to get a good mod didn't make the process of modding more fun; it just made us have to suffer through poor game design less.

 

[Tarman]

Oh yes indeed. Many people seem to be under the impression that "less bad" automatically means "good". It's like engineering- making us do less rolls to get a good mod didn't make the process of modding more fun; it just made us have to suffer through poor game design less.

I'd agree somewhat on Engineering, though I'm naturally drawn to any modding or upgrading system in games; Fallout4 for example (been playing that a LOT lately) I think has a fairly decent vanilla weapon and armor modding arrangement. Gran Turismo garage work I find more interesting than the racing sometimes.

I do actually like Engineers more now, but that could be also framed as "I'm much less averse to it now that I can actually work with secondary effects like a normal person and not a Vegas junkie". The old system made me not even pay any attention to secondaries at all, what with the literal gambling to even pretend to get them, let alone trying to make equal weapon pairs. That was literally unfeasible for my gameplay under the old system. IDK if I have a wide enough perspective on it though, as I've been here since 2014 and have seen NoEngi, Engi, and NuEngi, but also haven't had the PVP meta driving me either.

 

[Chaparral]

this game has to offer - an overwhelming sense of nothingness.

That's about it isn't it. Sit and stare. How awesome. Maybe there are thousands of people exactly like you, but for the rest of us - like 6 Billion, a greater sense of interactivity is required by the biology of our brains.

 

[Frenotx]

I'd agree somewhat on Engineering, though I'm naturally drawn to any modding or upgrading system in games; Fallout4 for example (been playing that a LOT lately) I think has a fairly decent vanilla weapon and armor modding arrangement. Gran Turismo garage work I find more interesting than the racing sometimes.

I do actually like Engineers more now, but that could be also framed as "I'm much less averse to it now that I can actually work with secondary effects like a normal person and not a Vegas junkie". The old system made me not even pay any attention to secondaries at all, what with the literal gambling to even pretend to get them, let alone trying to make equal weapon pairs. That was literally unfeasible for my gameplay under the old system. IDK if I have a wide enough perspective on it though, as I've been here since 2014 and have seen NoEngi, Engi, and NuEngi, but also haven't had the PVP meta driving me either.

Oh it's certainly better. Far less aggravating to engage with. The problem is that most of that improvement just came from making us do it less, rather than making the process more fun.

 

[Dbrn47]

Because space is big, bla bla... *voice trails off*

 

[WR3ND]

Supercruise tops out at 2001c, which is roughly 372 million miles per second or the distance between Sol and Pluto in just under 10 seconds. I'd personally love if we had the option of supercruising between some stellar systems in interstellar space, maybe finding some interesting stuff way out there once in a while.

Accelerate too fast and you'd miss a lot of things including gameplay potential. I like it how it is – a decent sense of scale while generally still being within a reasonable time frame, in my opinion.

Hutton Orbital is an exception, not the norm, and that's why it stands out in significance.

 

[Vasco Sapien]

I dont mind the long drive.
Play some tunes... sip my tea... sharpen my teeth... read the articles from the latest copy of yab potlh law' be'nal.
Its parallel multitasking time.

 

[Shinji Ikari]

Because for whatever reason, a lot of people seem to think long stretches of 0 gameplay is both immersive, incredible game design, and the only possible way to convey scale.

Well, so be it. Nobody is forcing you to travel in SC for an hour, there are plenty of systems with close by stations if you can't handle the trip.

That's about it isn't it. Sit and stare. How awesome. Maybe there are thousands of people exactly like you, but for the rest of us - like 6 Billion, a greater sense of interactivity is required by the biology of our brains.

Indeed, go to a combat zone and you'll surely get that interactivity you wish.

 

[Iskariot]

Why does Super Cruise travel take so long?

I love supercruise. It is a magnificent addition to this spacesim.
It is the perfect balance between extremely fast spacetravel and still being awed by the enormity of the universe.
Soaring past a beautiful star or planet in sc is still a thrill and I must have done it thousands of times by now.

As far as far away locations in a system are concerned... I simply don't travel where I do not want to go.
I won't go to Hutton because it is too far away and has nothing to offer for my troubles, but there must be places like Hutton in the game. I think that is cool.
Even though I do not wish to travel those long distances in sc... someday this might change. Perhaps FDev could make it worth my while to travel those long distances.
There could be unique ships for sale, or some ships and modules could be extra cheap, or there could be a unique station design, or there could be an easy way to get difficult materials or data.
All these would be sufficient reason for me to do a long trip to, for example, a station like Hutton.


I would like, and have proposed, some changes to supercruise though (I posted this before but I think it is important).

CHANGE 1 PLAYER AGENCY.
I would love more player agency. I want to have more influence on flying in supercruise, more piloty things to do.
This could be done via pip management for example.
We might perhaps use pips to control certain aspects of sc travel. Pips in sc travel might influence different things compared to normal space travel.

CHANGE 2 HUD CHANGES.
I also would like the HUD to change its layout in supercruise with new HUD elements, just like it changes when you approach a planet.
I am sure FD could make something up to make it look cool and different and appropriate for Supercruise.
The HUD might give you an ideal travel solution by showing you a flight path to fly around a planet to accelerate and speed up travel.

I think these changes would serve to underline the differences between the different flight modes and would make us feel like real ace space pilots .

CHANGE 3 MINI(MICRO) JUMPS.
I would like to be able to do in-system mini jumps to other stars in the same system.
There could be rules for this to be possible:
0. Minijumps might only be possible when you are in supercruise (for fluffy technical reasons)
1. A second star has to be at least 50.000 ls (just an arbitrary number) removed from the main star for example.
2. You might need to fly 1000 ls away from the main star to be able to do a minijump
3. Minijumps might cause light damage to the FSD
4. Minijumps might consume a lot of fuel, because... reasons.
5. We might have to buy an expensive modification for the FSD to make minijumps possible.
6. Minijumps might not be possible to certain star types.
7. Another tool FD might use to regulate in system mini-jumps could be some kind of jump inhibitor installation that prevents ships from doing a mini-jump in certain systems. For example a far away military installation, orbiting a second star in the system might have such a device to prevent enemy ships from jumping to it directly.

 

[Ignition]

Because the game NEEDS to be boring.

Automated simplistic gameplay is the way to go since 2014.

 

[Frenotx]

Well, so be it. Nobody is forcing you to travel in SC for an hour, there are plenty of systems with close by stations if you can't handle the trip.

Yep. And plenty of missions that spring long trips on you without warning. Assassination missions and planetary scan missions both give you the target system, but not the target body until after you've accepted the mission, and scanned the nav beacon in the destination system. Sure you can carefully check each system and only accept missions in systems that a) you have the exploration data for, and b) have 0 distant bodies in them, but that starts to really cut into your options. I suppose you could also just abandon the mission, but that still a bunch of time wasted.

 

[Shinji Ikari]

Yep. And plenty of missions that spring long trips on you without warning. Assassination missions and planetary scan missions both give you the target system, but not the target body until after you've accepted the mission, and scanned the nav beacon in the destination system. Sure you can carefully check each system and only accept missions in systems that a) you have the exploration data for, and b) have 0 distant bodies in them, but that starts to really cut into your options. I suppose you could also just abandon the mission, but that still a bunch of time wasted.

Well then FD needs to tell you how far away the body is.

 

[govny]

because it is good as it is.