Suggestion for alternate travel mode - Slipstream

[VR CMDR Novindus]

Slipstream

TL;DR
Once you've travelled a certain distance from the primary star of the system you're in, and once you've reached a certain speed in supercruise, you can choose to enter a slipstream or space lane that allows you to travel towards a destination star system, or directly to any body in that star system you're able to target.

Details
It would be a rate of travel far faster than normal supercruise, but considerably slower than a hyperspace jump.
I would suggest an effective constant slip speed of about 5,300,000c which is around 10ly per minute.

Reaching the destination should be much like exiting hyperspace, where you're automatically pulled out, and find yourself near to the target body, travelling at minimum supercruise speed.
Logging out pulls you out of slipstream into normal space of the last star system you passed, at the outer limits of that system.

You would see the actual systems and bodies passing by as you travel through the lane, provided they're in or near your course.

Fuel usage should be fairly low (considerably less than hyperspace jumps of equivalent distance), as travel this way should be considered like freeway miles.

FSD Interdictors should not be able operate at slipstream speeds. This may make the slipstream the preferred space trucker's highway, though other dangers or challenges may be introduced, such as greater importance placed on your FSD's integrity rating, which may dictate how far you can set your destination as a way to control "jump" range, or in this case maximum slip range, after which the usual cool down period applies.

The Discovery scanner cannot be used on passing systems whilst riding the slipstream. This, as well as the comparatively much longer travel time (including the initial travel out from the star and acceleration time), makes the slipstream a poor alternative for deep space voyaging. However, explorers can benefit from using the slipstream to reach bodies closer to the outer rim of a system in more reasonable time, which means more of the galaxy will be personally explored.

The slipstream would also mean that more of the missions to distant bodies in a system will be taken up, EDIT: however it will need to be considered whether slipstreaming within the same system is allowed, or whether a body in a different system must be targeted, in order to justify the larger rewards given for long distance missions. Otherwise the rewards would need to be rebalanced. ADDED: Slipstreaming from one part of a system to another would not be viable, as at 10ly per minute all local destinations should be considered as too close. Further, to prevent abuse of the slip lanes whereby a pilot could hyperspace jump to a nearby system in order to quickly slipstream back directly to a different body in the system they just left, I suggest a mechanic called something like FSD Stream Affinity that would prevent pilots from slipstreaming to two different locations in the same system within a defined period (say 30 minutes), because their FSD drive would be pulled towards their last exit point in that system. This would be similar to how new rifts are drawn to the location of a previous rift in the same area, in Feist's Riftwar series, if you've read it. I think that would largely mitigate concerns over perceived "Fast Travel" related issues.

Accompanying this feature, I would recommend that normal supercruise acceleration and top speed are increased, and that an option is made available to override automatic speed reduction when flying near to bodies in supercruise. It could be something as simple as leveraging the boost button whilst in supercruise to override slow downs, and having the rate of acceleration increase incrementally after reaching discrete speed markers, provided you're at full throttle, which would make it easy to avoid increased acceleration when required. These acceleration rate increases could be engagingly handled in-game by a steadily blinking throttle meter and a crescendo warp sound as you approach a speed marker, followed by the visual impression of your ship lurching forward in a short burst as you pass each speed marker.

This feature would be synergistic with the ability to scoop fuel from gas giants, if there's any intention to implement that, as commanders would not always be coming out of stream near a star.

Balancing

Positives

• Lower fuel consumption than hyperspace travel
• Avoids interdictions
• Allows arrival at any target body in a system
• No stopping required at systems along the route path.
• Creates a scenario for more varied onboard activities and roles during longer slip runs

Negatives

• Considerably longer travel times
• Initial speed and distance from star requirements to enter a stream
• Maximum slip range is restricted by fuel and FSD integrity rating
• FSD Integrity rating determining the slip range means that selecting FSD class and engineering options will be a choice between better single jump range or better fastest slip range
• FSD Stream Affinity restricts ease of immediately sequential travel to distant bodies within the same star system

 

[varonica]

Slipstream

TL;DR
Once you've travelled a certain distance from the primary star of the system you're in, and once you've reached a certain speed in supercruise, you can choose to enter a slipstream or space lane that allows you to travel towards a destination star system, or directly to any body in that star system you're able to target.

Details
It would be a rate of travel far faster than normal supercruise, but considerably slower than a hyperspace jump.
I would suggest an effective constant slip speed of about 5,300,000c which is around 10ly per minute.

Reaching the destination should be much like exiting hyperspace, where you're automatically pulled out, and find yourself near to the target body, travelling at minimum supercruise speed.
Logging out pulls you out of slipstream into normal space of the last star system you passed, at the outer limits of that system.

You would see the actual systems and bodies passing by as you travel through the lane, provided they're in or near your course.

Fuel usage should be fairly low (considerably less than hyperspace jumps of equivalent distance), as travel this way should be considered like freeway miles.

FSD Interdictors should not be able operate at slipstream speeds. This may make the slipstream the preferred space trucker's highway, though other dangers or challenges may be introduced, such as greater importance placed on your FSD's integrity rating, which may dictate how far you can set your destination as a way to control "jump" range, or in this case slip range, after which the usual cool down period applies.

The Discovery scanner cannot be used on passing systems whilst riding the slipstream. This, as well as the comparatively much longer travel time (including the initial travel out from the star and acceleration time), makes the slipstream a poor alternative for deep space voyaging. However, explorers can benefit from using the slipstream to reach bodies closer to the outer rim of a system in more reasonable time, which means more of the galaxy will be personally explored.

The slipstream would also mean that more of the missions to distant bodies in a system will be taken up, however it will need to be considered whether slipstreaming within the same system is allowed, or whether a body in a different system must be targeted, in order to justify the larger rewards given for long distance missions. Otherwise the rewards would need to be rebalanced.

Accompanying this feature, I would recommend that normal supercruise acceleration and top speed are increased, and that an option is made available to override automatic speed reduction when flying near to bodies in supercruise. It could be something as simple as leveraging the boost button whilst in supercruise to override slow downs, and having the rate of acceleration increase incrementally after reaching discrete speed markers, provided you're at full throttle, which would make it easy to avoid increased acceleration when required. These acceleration rate increases could be engagingly handled in-game by a steadily blinking throttle meter and a crescendo warp sound as you approach a speed marker, followed by the visual impression of your ship lurching forward in a short burst as you pass each speed marker.

This feature would be synergistic with the ability to scoop fuel from gas giants, if there's any intention to implement that, as commanders would not always be coming out of stream near a star.

So.....fast travel....please read all the other threads on various methods of fast travel and come back and tell us why yours is different.

 

[Micha]

So.....fast travel....please read all the other threads on various methods of fast travel and come back and tell us why yours is different.

The difference is that this is primarily a proposed alternative to travel between Systems, not Planets. But the ability to target "any body in the destination System" does make it a form of fast-travel, although much slower than most of the other proposals.

One way to mitigate this being "fast travel" is that you can only engage it if the overall gravity well strength is below a certain threshold (ie, far away from any bodies, stars as well as planets) and similarly, at the destination, it would drop you out once the gravity well in the destination system reaches the same threshold. So you would never be able to get "close" to a destination body, you'd always be quite far away from the nearest gravity well.

In that case you could only use it from the edge of a system to the edge of another system in the typical case. But in the case of multiple star systems, such as Alpha Centauri, you'd still be able to target the "B" star and end up much closer to Hutton Orbital than through a regular jump.

Personally I don't mind the proposal, but only if it would replace the normal jump.
But that would significantly slow all game travel down, as well as make it much more likely that people would run out of fuel since they'd have to supercruise to a star or station (or GG) to refuel instead of the current mechanism where you drop out right next to the star after a jump. As such I don't think it'd win many supporters.

If it's alongside the current Jump mechanic then I can't really see many people using it except in degenrate cases such as Hutton - the time spent supercruising to the edge of a system, then inside the "Hyperspace Slipstream", and then supercruising at the destination system would far exceed the time spent doing a normal jump. And coding up such an elaborate extension for relatively little gain would be quite wasted dev time.

 

[varonica]

The difference is that this is primarily a proposed alternative to travel between Systems, not Planets. But the ability to target "any body in the destination System" does make it a form of fast-travel, although much slower than most of the other proposals.

I have seen other proposals that do exactly that, however the very first thing that popped into my head when I read the title was "Star Trek Voyager." Please not another stolen idea from a popular TV or movie franchise, so that had me already in the negative before I even read it.

 

[VR CMDR Novindus]

As I see it, the general issue with fast travel or rift gates in games is the bypassing of content and sections of the game world.
This proposal should have the opposite effect, as the expected result is that travel to otherwise neglected regions will increase, as currently travelling for half an hour and more to reach a planet in the same system is not often seen to be worth the effort to most players. If the game were set in a handful of more densely populated star systems (such as Firefly’s White Sun centred systems), the travel time would be more than acceptable, but we’re in a 400 billion star galaxy, so there is a fair case to be made for a more encouraging local travel mode.

Moreover, this suggestion would actually be taking commanders out into “the black” between star systems, rather than showing them a loading screen that bypasses it, though I do like the hyperspace jump sequence.

As for the comment about stealing from popular TV shows, well, aside from this being a Sci-Fi space game that has already used much of what you’d find in TV shows of the genre, and will invariably continue to do so, I don’t view that as a useful measure or filter for determining what features players would benefit from and enjoy in the game.

What I had in mind mostly was something more conducive to space trucking, and which would also come in useful for exploration in limited circumstances. But opening up the possibility for more diverse bridge crew roles (ala Star Trek) down the track by creating situations where onboard activities other than piloting and shooting are practical on longer voyages, is something I believe a lot of players may get excited about. That’s why I feel that this could be viewed not as a replacement, but as a preferable alternative to hyperspace jumps for certain activities, given also that the increased travel time would be balanced against avoiding the often annoying and repetitive FSD interdictions, and the relatively more convenient access to bodies distant from the primary star of a system. Even ship load outs would become more diverse, as unshielded open play may become more practical.

However, if this is something that the game designers or even most players would not agree with, I would suggest an alternative whereby slipstreams are actually finite preset trade, tourism, and military patrol routes that would initially be set up by the game designers, but could be subject to change caused by later design choices, community goals, and player impact on the BGS and factions. These routes should be able to go direct to any specific body or point of interest in a system, depending on context and requirements.

 

[VR Golgot]

Something like this is definitely desirable. I'd favour something faster and riskier using the existing geography & flight model gameplay. (Click my link for an example ).

I think pegging the gameplay aspect to future in-flight mechanics is the biggest issue here. It could work if those were fun, but what are they?

 

[VR CMDR Novindus]

Something like this is definitely desirable. I'd favour something faster and riskier using the existing geography & flight model gameplay. (Click my link for an example ).

I think pegging the gameplay aspect to future in-flight mechanics is the biggest issue here. It could work if those were fun, but what are they?

Very cool suggestion and sounds like a lot of fun.

And yes, you're right, until we know what on board EVA activities will be implemented other than just walking around, we won't see the full advantage of my suggested travel mode.

 

[Lestat]

I have seen other proposals that do exactly that, however the very first thing that popped into my head when I read the title was "Star Trek Voyager." Please not another stolen idea from a popular TV or movie franchise, so that had me already in the negative before I even read it.

I agree. I am not here to play Star Trek. But to play Elite Dangerous.

 

[VR CMDR Novindus]

I agree. I am not here to play Star Trek. But to play Elite Dangerous.

Star Trek has space ships, and so does Elite Dangerous. Star Trek has warp drives, and so does Elite Dangerous. There are many other similarities between the two, as I'm sure you're aware, so I guess the objection you're making is not really related to a perceived resemblance to Star Trek with this feature, but really more specifically because you're not interested in engaging in on board activities while your ship holds a course for a while. Which is fair enough.

But given that this would be an alternate form of travel, and that you seem to be content with the existing jump mechanics, you'd not be at a loss.

In any case, this suggestion is partly contingent on whether Frontier's implementation of EVA will include ship activities that are engaging enough to do repeatedly, in which case, something like this would be fairly important to have, to allow room for that type of gameplay.

 

[varonica]

Star Trek has space ships, and so does Elite Dangerous. Star Trek has warp drives, and so does Elite Dangerous.

But Star Trek and no other sci-fi show I have seen specifically has the Slipstream Drive, whereas warp drive has been around longer than all TV and movie sci-fi franchises. I just can't help thinking that stealing the Slipstream Drive from Star Trek wholesale is a bit cheeky, maybe even illegal since they appear to have invented it from the ground up. Throw out all the new drive ideas you want, but just stop stealing ideas from other sci-fi franchises, it's just lazy.

 

[VR CMDR Novindus]

But Star Trek and no other sci-fi show I have seen specifically has the Slipstream Drive, whereas warp drive has been around longer than all TV and movie sci-fi franchises. I just can't help thinking that stealing the Slipstream Drive from Star Trek wholesale is a bit cheeky, maybe even illegal since they appear to have invented it from the ground up. Throw out all the new drive ideas you want, but just stop stealing ideas from other sci-fi franchises, it's just lazy.

Now I get what you're going on about. I didn't even know that Star Trek had something called a "Slipstream drive" (I've never watched the show, just the recent last 3 movies). I was just calling my idea that because I imagined a type of twisting path streaming through space.

In any case, I just looked it up, and the Quantum Slipstream drive increases the warp factor, and therefore the speed of travel. My idea is meant to be an alternate form of travelling between systems, and so is technically a lot slower than the current hyperspace jump method overall.

The name can be changed to anything, I'm not bothered. But the idea was spawned from, and is quite specific to Elite Dangerous gameplay, with possible EVA features in mind.