Jumping in to unknown systems still terrifies me.

Ulrich Wolfe

U
Last night it happened again. I was en route to a Guardian site, Pink Floyd on the cockpit stereo, all is calm. Another red dwarf in the next system, and ... WHAM! I jump THROUGH a near-contact binary and pop out somewhere between it and the host star. A few heat sinks later and I am out with my ship intact, but I can't say the same for my sanity.

I must have some sort of deep set phobia when it comes to close binaries. Just jumping in to a system and seeing another star looming close by is enough to send shivers up my spine; in fact it terrifies me. I am not scared of losing my ship/data, I am terrified at a deep, irrational (it's only a video game) level. Every time I jump in to an unknown system I find myself holding my breath.

(I am not a huge fan of stellar remnants, either, but I tend to avoid those, and if I can't avoid them at least I can steel myself for the encounter - it's those 'jump' surprise close binaries that get me)

Before I head back to the black, I want to tip my hat to all you steely-eyed, iron-balled explorers out there. o7
 
Last edited:

Ulrich Wolfe

U
filedetails
 

Rat Catcher

Rat Catcher
Ulrich Wolfe said:
Last night it happened again. I was en route to a Guardian site, Pink Floyd on the cockpit stereo, all is calm. Another red dwarf in the next system, and ... WHAM! I jump THROUGH a near-contact binary and pop out somewhere between it and the host star.

I must have some sort of deep set phobia when it comes to close binaries. Just jumping in to a system and seeing another star looming close by is enough to send shivers up my spine; in fact it terrifies me. I am not scared of losing my ship/data, I am terrified at a deep, irrational (it's only a video game) level. Every time I jump in to an unknown system I find myself holding my breath.
Click to expand...

That's even more fun in VR [yesnod]
 

S~P

S
Yeah paranoia, gets to us all in the end. One of the reasons I always throttle back when entering a new system. A lot easier now you know what star is coming up, jumping into a neutron star for the first time is always fun!
 

EISENHORN01

EISENHORN01
Hello hello hello....... is there anybody out there? Just honk if you can hear me.............is there anybody close?

come on come on come on I hear your fuel is down, I can ease your pain get you flying home again

Relax I need some information first, just the basic facts can you show me where your stuck.


There is no plan you are just flying,
the distant star burns on the horizon,
the radiation comes in waves,
the stars sing but I can’t hear what they say,
when I was a child I met a Thargoid,
my hands swelled up just like 2 balloons,
now ive got that feeling once again,
the fuel is gone, on life support,
i don’t know where I am,
i have become galacticaly dumb

okay okay okay

just a little update
There’ll be no more hooooonk
But you may feel a little sick.
can you still scan?
I do believe it’s working, good
that will keep you going through the sky
come on it’s time to fly

There is no plan you are just flying
a distant star burns on the horizon
the radiation comes in waves
the stars sing but I can’t hear what they say
when I was a child I caught a fleeting glimpse
of a ship up in the sky
i turned to look but it was gone
The pilot turned the engines on
frame shift drive
the ship was gone
i have become galacticly dumb


sorry folks this shows why I’m a pipe fitter and not in one of the greatest bands of all time. Apologies for butchering an awesome track if you can improve it please please do so
 
Last edited:

Saool

Saool
Ulrich Wolfe said:
Last night it happened again. I was en route to a Guardian site, Pink Floyd on the cockpit stereo, all is calm. Another red dwarf in the next system, and ... WHAM! I jump THROUGH a near-contact binary and pop out somewhere between it and the host star. A few heat sinks later and I am out with my ship in tact, but I can't say the same for my sanity.

I must have some sort of deep set phobia when it comes to close binaries. Just jumping in to a system and seeing another star looming close by is enough to send shivers up my spine; in fact it terrifies me. I am not scared of losing my ship/data, I am terrified at a deep, irrational (it's only a video game) level. Every time I jump in to an unknown system I find myself holding my breath.

(I am not a huge fan of stellar remnants, either, but I tend to avoid those, and if I can't avoid them at least I can steel myself for the encounter - it's those 'jump' surprise close binaries that get me)

Before I head back to the black, I want to tip my hat to all you steely-eyed, iron-balled explorers out there. o7
Click to expand...

You are not alone. I have the same irrational unease at very close binaries. I think, for me, it stems from the Spectrum version of Elite and the Nova mission in particular.

In that you had a fuel leak upon entering the system. You had to go scoop fuel before docking or you were dead. When you docked you were told the station was being evacuated as the star was about to go nova, and the station had no fuel left. In the Atari version there was then a mission to rescue people. When you unlocked (on the Spectrum) the normal white graphics turned red, and if you where pointing towards the star you could see it rapidly expanding. This was terrifying. Sometimes it was hidden behind the planet, but as it got bigger it appeared around the edges of the planet, getting bigger and bigger. I died on more that one occasion because I was frozen in horror (seriously). Eventually I stated doing them with my eyes closed, pressing the keys for hyperspace by touch. I also remember, as a child, having nightmares about it. I would be in space and I was surrounded by stars and all suddenly went red and rapidly expanded. Everywhere I turned I was seeing the nova mission.

This is a very odd irrational fear. But it is real. I sometimes laugh at peoples fear of spiders, but that it is whole point: it is irrational. It took me a few jumps in Elite Dangerous, to get used to rushing up to the star on exit from supercruse as it sent that same 'oh crap' tingle through me the first few times. And yes, on the few occations I have force dropped on hitting a close binary I have had to fight off that irrational surge of 'oh crap nova, oh crap nova, oh crap nova' and get it together.

I tried to find a screen shot, but could not find one, so I mocked it up in Photoshop:

hfRfsY3.png


Obviously you would never see it from this point of view as you would never get this far from the station. You had about 15 seconds to unlock and jump (hyperspace spool up took 10 of those) or you were toast... literally.
 
Last edited:

Kamiyoda

Kamiyoda
I hate jumping to any system I cant recal the star comp off the top of my head cause many of them wont tell you your jumping to a White Dwarf if there is one in system but its not the primary. Even the loading animation will be wrong u fil you drop out
 

Cmdr Nemo

Cmdr Nemo
Target the next system vector, when count down start, idle back to zero. Falling out of hyper isn't an issue regardless of type of star.
 

DNA-Decay

DNA-Decay
Saool said:
You are not alone. I have the same irrational unease at very close binaries. I think, for me, it stems from the Spectrum version of Elite and the Nova mission in particular.

In that you had a fuel leak upon entering the system. You had to go scoop fuel before docking or you were dead. When you docked you were told the station was being evacuated as the star was about to go nova, and the station had no fuel left. In the Atari version there was then a mission to rescue people. When you unlocked (on the Spectrum) the normal white graphics turned red, and if you where pointing towards the star you could see it rapidly expanding. This was terrifying. Sometimes it was hidden behind the planet, but as it got bigger it appeared around the edges of the planet, getting bigger and bigger. I died on more that one occasion because I was frozen in horror (seriously). Eventually I stated doing them with my eyes closed, pressing the keys for hyperspace by touch. I also remember, as a child, having nightmares about it. I would be in space and I was surrounded by stars and all suddenly went red and rapidly expanded. Everywhere I turned I was seeing the nova mission.

This is a very odd irrational fear. But it is real. I sometimes laugh at peoples fear of spiders, but that it is whole point: it is irrational. It took me a few jumps in Elite Dangerous, to get used to rushing up to the star on exit from supercruse as it sent that same 'oh crap' tingle through me the first few times. And yes, on the few occations I have force dropped on hitting a close binary I have had to fight off that irrational surge of 'oh crap nova, oh crap nova, oh crap nova' and get it together.

I tried to find a screen shot, but could not find one, so I mocked it up in Photoshop:



Obviously you would never see it from this point of view as you would never get this far from the station. You had about 15 seconds to unlock and jump (hyperspace spool up took 10 of those) or you were toast... literally.
Click to expand...

I’m totally stealing that screengrab as a Lave Liberation Front flag.
 

Hooplah

Hooplah
I can handle anything the game throws at me.
But when my dog suddenly barks behind me I jump out of the chair!
 

Mo Ronik

Mo Ronik
When I first start up the game I usually get a slight case of anxiety and my heart starts beating a little faster. Takes about 10 minutes for me to come back down to what I call normal. Not had any issues going into unknown systems... yet. And yes, I always throttle down to zero when I'm coming out of hyper and giving the system a good look over to see which way to steer before speeding back up. Only had one star problem (scooping too close) so far and after I got all the damage fixed I had to have a long apologetic conversation with my ship.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom