[TL;DR]
A proposed community collaboration to review space travel in Elite: Dangerous, and to make reasonably workable suggestions for improving and expanding on the current mechanics.
(If you want to comment without reading everything, please at least read the first paragraph under "Collaboration and Criticism").
[INTRODUCTION]
Elite: Dangerous is at it's core, a game about space travel. Whatever activities a player wants to engage in, they must traverse varying degrees of the understatedly vast game world of around 400 billion star systems. This is a fundamental part of the experience, and one of the primary draws for players of the game. Sometimes a player's goal is a short hop or two away, and other times it can be dozens of hops away, or hour-long stretches of supercruise stillness. In context, these longer journeys are demonstrative of the epic scale of our galaxy, and serve to impress that fact upon the players, which is fitting given how much work has been put into the generation of the in-game galaxy that players have chosen to spend their time in.
While there are many discussions in these forums on the pros and cons of shorter and longer travel times, the focus of this review is not on the amount of time spent travelling, but rather on the space travel experience in the game. Of course, the amount of time spent is definitely an aspect of the experience, and should be considered, but with the overall experience and bigger picture in view.
[CURRENT MECHANICS]
To reduce the scope of this review, normal space travel will be excluded. It's probable that normal space travel is the lowest percentage of travelling done in the game. From thrusters, to boosting, to gliding in planetary approach, the required distances are generally covered in short order, with usually immediate visual and gameplay responses to hold a players attention, from dog fighting manoeuvres in combat, to approaching and landing in stations or on planet surfaces.
Use of the Frame Shift Drive (FSD) currently allows the following modes of travel.
Supercruise
With a maximum speed of 2,001c, which is subject to large bodies of mass in the vicinity, this mode is for intra-system or "local" travel, and players travelling this way are prone to interdictions.
Hyperspace
Hyperspace jumps are used to travel between star systems, with the exit location always being the primary star of the destination system. Range is dependant on ship mass, fuel, and FSD specs, as well as Guardian technology. Players travelling this way are prone to hyperdictions by Thargoids.
[PHILOSOPHY]
Space Travel in Elite: Dangerous is not only a core gameplay mechanic and a means to an end, but it is also used to balance effort, risk, and reward, so this should be kept in mind when designing changes.
Also, in putting forward suggestions, it would be worth it to note that many players are satisfied with, and even defensive of the existing mechanics, and are of the view that no changes are required.
As such, it would increase the plausibility or agreeability of a suggestion if it avoided or minimised impacting on the existing mechanics, except of course in the case where a replacement is being suggested. Otherwise, if a proposed direct change to the existing mechanics is put forward, it may be of benefit to understand the reasons why those mechanics are supported by players, so that the change or replacement can cater to those preferences where possible.
Improving space travel in Elite: Dangerous may involve making it more engaging, which can be done through increased interactions, or making it more challenging, which can be done on a skill and knowledge or effort basis, and making succeeding in those challenges more rewarding, either through reduction of costs or increase of efficacy. With time also being a factor, a suggestion may involve either an increase or decrease in travel time as a consequence of the mechanic, but this should be tempered with the aforementioned balance and player preference in mind, and so include appropriate justification.
[COLLABORATION AND CRITICISM]
For those who don't believe that any changes are required, or who believe this endeavour to be a waste of time that Frontier will never consider, please be aware that those contributing may be simply doing so for their own entertainment, and not out of a lack of realistic expectations. You're still welcome to point out any issues you see with any of the proposals, but in an effort to avoid the toxicity and decorum breakdown common to this category of suggestion, please try to remain objective and on topic, even if you don't remain positive.
Pointing out perceived problems would be appreciated, but even more so if they're accompanied by possible solutions, which is a far more productive form of contribution.
Otherwise, anyone is welcome to help work on existing proposals, or put forward proposals of their own to collaborate on. This is not something that's going to come down to a vote, though voicing your support for an idea does contribute to the general indication of player enthusiasm for a proposed feature. Ultimately of course, it's a decision for Frontier management, assuming their attention is ever drawn to it, which I'm far from doing.
[PROPOSALS]
I will edit this post to add any genuine, well constructed and fleshed out proposals put forward by any contributor. Of course, some suggestions may be very simple and not require a lot of structure and fleshing out, and they won't be excluded on that basis. I will also edit this to amend any existing proposals that have changed as a result of collaborative efforts and reviews.
To reduce scrolling, proposals will be enclosed in a spoiler, with the contributor's name as the spoiler hint text, as per below.
^ Updated 08/04/2019
^ Updated 08/04/2019
A proposed community collaboration to review space travel in Elite: Dangerous, and to make reasonably workable suggestions for improving and expanding on the current mechanics.
(If you want to comment without reading everything, please at least read the first paragraph under "Collaboration and Criticism").
[INTRODUCTION]
Elite: Dangerous is at it's core, a game about space travel. Whatever activities a player wants to engage in, they must traverse varying degrees of the understatedly vast game world of around 400 billion star systems. This is a fundamental part of the experience, and one of the primary draws for players of the game. Sometimes a player's goal is a short hop or two away, and other times it can be dozens of hops away, or hour-long stretches of supercruise stillness. In context, these longer journeys are demonstrative of the epic scale of our galaxy, and serve to impress that fact upon the players, which is fitting given how much work has been put into the generation of the in-game galaxy that players have chosen to spend their time in.
While there are many discussions in these forums on the pros and cons of shorter and longer travel times, the focus of this review is not on the amount of time spent travelling, but rather on the space travel experience in the game. Of course, the amount of time spent is definitely an aspect of the experience, and should be considered, but with the overall experience and bigger picture in view.
[CURRENT MECHANICS]
To reduce the scope of this review, normal space travel will be excluded. It's probable that normal space travel is the lowest percentage of travelling done in the game. From thrusters, to boosting, to gliding in planetary approach, the required distances are generally covered in short order, with usually immediate visual and gameplay responses to hold a players attention, from dog fighting manoeuvres in combat, to approaching and landing in stations or on planet surfaces.
Use of the Frame Shift Drive (FSD) currently allows the following modes of travel.
Supercruise
With a maximum speed of 2,001c, which is subject to large bodies of mass in the vicinity, this mode is for intra-system or "local" travel, and players travelling this way are prone to interdictions.
Hyperspace
Hyperspace jumps are used to travel between star systems, with the exit location always being the primary star of the destination system. Range is dependant on ship mass, fuel, and FSD specs, as well as Guardian technology. Players travelling this way are prone to hyperdictions by Thargoids.
[PHILOSOPHY]
Space Travel in Elite: Dangerous is not only a core gameplay mechanic and a means to an end, but it is also used to balance effort, risk, and reward, so this should be kept in mind when designing changes.
Also, in putting forward suggestions, it would be worth it to note that many players are satisfied with, and even defensive of the existing mechanics, and are of the view that no changes are required.
As such, it would increase the plausibility or agreeability of a suggestion if it avoided or minimised impacting on the existing mechanics, except of course in the case where a replacement is being suggested. Otherwise, if a proposed direct change to the existing mechanics is put forward, it may be of benefit to understand the reasons why those mechanics are supported by players, so that the change or replacement can cater to those preferences where possible.
Improving space travel in Elite: Dangerous may involve making it more engaging, which can be done through increased interactions, or making it more challenging, which can be done on a skill and knowledge or effort basis, and making succeeding in those challenges more rewarding, either through reduction of costs or increase of efficacy. With time also being a factor, a suggestion may involve either an increase or decrease in travel time as a consequence of the mechanic, but this should be tempered with the aforementioned balance and player preference in mind, and so include appropriate justification.
[COLLABORATION AND CRITICISM]
For those who don't believe that any changes are required, or who believe this endeavour to be a waste of time that Frontier will never consider, please be aware that those contributing may be simply doing so for their own entertainment, and not out of a lack of realistic expectations. You're still welcome to point out any issues you see with any of the proposals, but in an effort to avoid the toxicity and decorum breakdown common to this category of suggestion, please try to remain objective and on topic, even if you don't remain positive.
Pointing out perceived problems would be appreciated, but even more so if they're accompanied by possible solutions, which is a far more productive form of contribution.
Otherwise, anyone is welcome to help work on existing proposals, or put forward proposals of their own to collaborate on. This is not something that's going to come down to a vote, though voicing your support for an idea does contribute to the general indication of player enthusiasm for a proposed feature. Ultimately of course, it's a decision for Frontier management, assuming their attention is ever drawn to it, which I'm far from doing.
[PROPOSALS]
I will edit this post to add any genuine, well constructed and fleshed out proposals put forward by any contributor. Of course, some suggestions may be very simple and not require a lot of structure and fleshing out, and they won't be excluded on that basis. I will also edit this to amend any existing proposals that have changed as a result of collaborative efforts and reviews.
To reduce scrolling, proposals will be enclosed in a spoiler, with the contributor's name as the spoiler hint text, as per below.
Threefold Travel
Taken from comments from a number of forum members, then changed and fleshed out a little, I propose to give players three forms of inter-system travel, each with its own advantages in different circumstances.
1. Standard Hyperspace Jumps
The same auto-plotting mode that everyone knows and loves (or hates). No changes, so completely preserved.
Good for short trips, plotting on the go, new players, lazy long trip planners, or simply those who prefer it.
2. Slingshot Routing
For this, players must manually route from the galaxy map.
The player begins by selecting a star within their ship's jump range to slingshot off. From that point, the player may select another star as the next destination in the route, but within 1.5 times their ship's normal jump range, due to the slingshot effect. The second star in the route can be chosen as the exit destination, or as the next star to slingshot from, however, with diminishing returns. Each slingshot after the first suffers a range reduction factor of 0.1, so the second slingshot will have a range of 1.4 times normal jump range, the third of 1.3, the fourth of 1.2, and the fifth of 1.1. No more than 5 slingshots can be performed in a row before exiting.
Each slingshot uses half the normal fuel of the ship's maximum single jump cost, or half of the normal cost of the specific jump distance, whichever is lower.
After manually plotting a slingshot route, the player engages their FSD as usual, and enters hyperspace. However, they will spend an additional 10 seconds in hyperspace per slingshot, and exit hyperspace at the final star in their manually plotted route. It would be a nice visual effect to have the player's ship jerked dramatically in the general direction of the star they're slingshotting off for every slingshot point in the route.
The advantages of this travel mode are:
The costs of the advantages are:
This is the thinking pilot's preferred method for routing through the galaxy. It takes patience, and some time to become skilled enough to gauge the best slingshot points.
At first glance, it may appear that this method significantly reduces travel time, but with the time taken to manually plot and re-plot, and with the additional time spent in hyperspace, it won't be a significant or concerning difference. The more skilled the navigator, the more time they can save, though it would never be more than a couple of minutes at a time, while the inexperienced may actually take longer. It would also make a navigation role on the ship a little more interesting.
3. Rift Riding
A player can target a system within 5 times their ship's normal jump range, and, at twice the initial fuel of their ship's maximum single jump cost they can use their FSD to disrupt the space around them and cause an unstable rift tunnel to appear. Entering that rift is a highly dangerous prospect. Your ship's temperature will gradually increase the closer you fly to the centre, whilst flying closer to the outer edges of the tunnel will compromise your hull integrity. As time goes on, the rift narrows, making it more difficult to avoid your ship being destroyed. Once you've travelled far enough (i.e. for long enough) to reach your plotted destination, a rift into regular space will appear, which you have to fly through in time.
Steering out of the rift tunnel before reaching your selected destination will pop you into hyperspace exit, where you see the usual loading screen, and the game drops you into the nearest system depending on how long you were in the rift. If you fly past your destination exit rift when it appears, it will cause you to be thrown violently from the rift, where you still pop out at your target destination, but after taking some serious hull damage, which at that point could be enough to destroy your ship.
Entering a rift leaves no wake signal, however it doesn't close immediate behind you, and so there is a short time period where you can be pursued through it. Flying in rift space is like flying in normal space, except you cannot increase or decrease your forward velocity.
The rift moves players towards their destination system at 2ly per second, so an Anaconda with an 80ly jump range would take 40 seconds to travel an individual jump's worth of distance, and 3 minutes and 20 seconds to travel five times its normal jump range in the rift. This makes it less favourable in a time vs risk assessment as compared to a standard hyperspace jump for single hops, but more favourable overall if a player can last until reaching their destination. That means it can't be overly exploited for faster single jumps while the rift tunnel remains wide enough to navigate less dangerously.
This travel mode is for desperate escapes and thrill seekers. It wouldn't be very useful for long distance travel outside the bubble, as you'd need to be constantly repairing. So a bad choice for explorers, as they run a great risk of losing their data. This mode would best suit small ships, as they have a better chance of keeping their hulls between the centre and outer edges of the tunnel as it becomes narrower.
Taken from comments from a number of forum members, then changed and fleshed out a little, I propose to give players three forms of inter-system travel, each with its own advantages in different circumstances.
1. Standard Hyperspace Jumps
The same auto-plotting mode that everyone knows and loves (or hates). No changes, so completely preserved.
Good for short trips, plotting on the go, new players, lazy long trip planners, or simply those who prefer it.
2. Slingshot Routing
For this, players must manually route from the galaxy map.
The player begins by selecting a star within their ship's jump range to slingshot off. From that point, the player may select another star as the next destination in the route, but within 1.5 times their ship's normal jump range, due to the slingshot effect. The second star in the route can be chosen as the exit destination, or as the next star to slingshot from, however, with diminishing returns. Each slingshot after the first suffers a range reduction factor of 0.1, so the second slingshot will have a range of 1.4 times normal jump range, the third of 1.3, the fourth of 1.2, and the fifth of 1.1. No more than 5 slingshots can be performed in a row before exiting.
Each slingshot uses half the normal fuel of the ship's maximum single jump cost, or half of the normal cost of the specific jump distance, whichever is lower.
After manually plotting a slingshot route, the player engages their FSD as usual, and enters hyperspace. However, they will spend an additional 10 seconds in hyperspace per slingshot, and exit hyperspace at the final star in their manually plotted route. It would be a nice visual effect to have the player's ship jerked dramatically in the general direction of the star they're slingshotting off for every slingshot point in the route.
The advantages of this travel mode are:
-Lower fuel costs
-Greater single and total range on the same fuel
-Less time in supercruise, so less prone to interdictions
-Your wake only leads to the first star you target for slingshotting, so it helps in avoiding pursuit if you can plot quick enough.
The costs of the advantages are:
-Time consuming manual plotting, which will commonly involve some trial and error each time.
-Having to re-plot through the galaxy map after each batch jump if you're travelling long distances.
-You consume more of your tank in one commitment, so there's a higher risk of running out of fuel if you don't judge the costs correctly, and ensure you exit at a scoopable star, or one with a nearby refuelling station.
This is the thinking pilot's preferred method for routing through the galaxy. It takes patience, and some time to become skilled enough to gauge the best slingshot points.
At first glance, it may appear that this method significantly reduces travel time, but with the time taken to manually plot and re-plot, and with the additional time spent in hyperspace, it won't be a significant or concerning difference. The more skilled the navigator, the more time they can save, though it would never be more than a couple of minutes at a time, while the inexperienced may actually take longer. It would also make a navigation role on the ship a little more interesting.
3. Rift Riding
A player can target a system within 5 times their ship's normal jump range, and, at twice the initial fuel of their ship's maximum single jump cost they can use their FSD to disrupt the space around them and cause an unstable rift tunnel to appear. Entering that rift is a highly dangerous prospect. Your ship's temperature will gradually increase the closer you fly to the centre, whilst flying closer to the outer edges of the tunnel will compromise your hull integrity. As time goes on, the rift narrows, making it more difficult to avoid your ship being destroyed. Once you've travelled far enough (i.e. for long enough) to reach your plotted destination, a rift into regular space will appear, which you have to fly through in time.
Steering out of the rift tunnel before reaching your selected destination will pop you into hyperspace exit, where you see the usual loading screen, and the game drops you into the nearest system depending on how long you were in the rift. If you fly past your destination exit rift when it appears, it will cause you to be thrown violently from the rift, where you still pop out at your target destination, but after taking some serious hull damage, which at that point could be enough to destroy your ship.
Entering a rift leaves no wake signal, however it doesn't close immediate behind you, and so there is a short time period where you can be pursued through it. Flying in rift space is like flying in normal space, except you cannot increase or decrease your forward velocity.
The rift moves players towards their destination system at 2ly per second, so an Anaconda with an 80ly jump range would take 40 seconds to travel an individual jump's worth of distance, and 3 minutes and 20 seconds to travel five times its normal jump range in the rift. This makes it less favourable in a time vs risk assessment as compared to a standard hyperspace jump for single hops, but more favourable overall if a player can last until reaching their destination. That means it can't be overly exploited for faster single jumps while the rift tunnel remains wide enough to navigate less dangerously.
This travel mode is for desperate escapes and thrill seekers. It wouldn't be very useful for long distance travel outside the bubble, as you'd need to be constantly repairing. So a bad choice for explorers, as they run a great risk of losing their data. This mode would best suit small ships, as they have a better chance of keeping their hulls between the centre and outer edges of the tunnel as it becomes narrower.
A supercruise variant of jumponium. When injected into the FSD it increases acceleration for a duration, with heat and turbulence as the downsides.
This means you couldn't just start a Hutton run and inject a grade three SC boost and walk away - you'd have to be at the stick the entire time, while the ship fights you. Collisions with objects (planets, rings etc) should be significantly damaging. Time and throttle limited (the effect lasts for a certain time or until you throttle back beyond a certain point). This would make player interdiction rather more of a challenge as well.
Chained jumps
A Chained jump starts as normal, by plotting a route in the galaxy map. However, you'd tick a "Chained Jumps" box (in the same way we choose between economic and fast).
Once you start a chained jump you stay in the Witchspace tunnel and you have to take over some of the piloting - think the effect of a Thargoid interdiction, where the tunnel is moving around - you'd have to stay centered. And because it's a Chained jump, the nav comp goes into 'cautious' mode and restricts your speed to below what a normal, automated jump would be - hence you stay in the tunnel for more time between stars. This prevents Chained jumps from being a distance nullifier. (Suggestion - if we assume that people spend 60 seconds between jumps, allowing for FSD cooldown and getting to the other side of the star, Chained jumps should stay in the tunnel for 30-40s longer - hence a Chained jump saves at best 20-30s per star).
Fuel use: Chained jumps use a fixed amount of fuel to initiate the jump, a fixed amount to exit, and a random amount depending on how you exit (gracefully, appallingly, etc). While in the tunnel your ship uses normal (or slightly accelerated) running costs.
There will be turbulence (I'm a big fan of that) and the degree of it will be dependent on the last star you last chained from. (My other suggestion is that turbulence is greater at the start and end of each 'link', with the middle part of the transit being relatively calm - just not totally).
KGBFOAM's should be relatively benign, with the rest having increasingly nasty effects (some upside/downside needs to be considered here). Failure to navigate correctly (ie colliding with the Witchspace tunnel wall) would result in you being expelled from Witchspace, in a possibly random location (suggestion: a random star within a bubble the radius of your ship's maximum jump range, centered on the last star you chained from) and with varying levels of damage ranging from light to "I'm humped", and with significant fuel loss. Hence you may end up at a T-Tauri without enough fuel to jump anywhere - time to callInternational Rescue the Fuel Rats.
Ideally a perfectly executed set of chained jumps should be only a little quicker than doing it the normal way, you just use less fuel and have one hell of a ride. Using this method you could, in theory, chain jump all the way from the Bubble to Sag A, the only limit being your own physical endurance capabilities. So actually, no you couldn't unless you team up with someone physically at your location to take over piloting from you for a bit.
The only downside I can immediately see is this effectively removes the chance of being intercepted at stars en route.
Now, this is really rough around the edges, especially where fuel use is concerned. I'd like a way of staying in the tunnel for a long time that's compatible with existing Elite lore.
Thoughts?
This means you couldn't just start a Hutton run and inject a grade three SC boost and walk away - you'd have to be at the stick the entire time, while the ship fights you. Collisions with objects (planets, rings etc) should be significantly damaging. Time and throttle limited (the effect lasts for a certain time or until you throttle back beyond a certain point). This would make player interdiction rather more of a challenge as well.
Chained jumps
A Chained jump starts as normal, by plotting a route in the galaxy map. However, you'd tick a "Chained Jumps" box (in the same way we choose between economic and fast).
Once you start a chained jump you stay in the Witchspace tunnel and you have to take over some of the piloting - think the effect of a Thargoid interdiction, where the tunnel is moving around - you'd have to stay centered. And because it's a Chained jump, the nav comp goes into 'cautious' mode and restricts your speed to below what a normal, automated jump would be - hence you stay in the tunnel for more time between stars. This prevents Chained jumps from being a distance nullifier. (Suggestion - if we assume that people spend 60 seconds between jumps, allowing for FSD cooldown and getting to the other side of the star, Chained jumps should stay in the tunnel for 30-40s longer - hence a Chained jump saves at best 20-30s per star).
Fuel use: Chained jumps use a fixed amount of fuel to initiate the jump, a fixed amount to exit, and a random amount depending on how you exit (gracefully, appallingly, etc). While in the tunnel your ship uses normal (or slightly accelerated) running costs.
There will be turbulence (I'm a big fan of that) and the degree of it will be dependent on the last star you last chained from. (My other suggestion is that turbulence is greater at the start and end of each 'link', with the middle part of the transit being relatively calm - just not totally).
KGBFOAM's should be relatively benign, with the rest having increasingly nasty effects (some upside/downside needs to be considered here). Failure to navigate correctly (ie colliding with the Witchspace tunnel wall) would result in you being expelled from Witchspace, in a possibly random location (suggestion: a random star within a bubble the radius of your ship's maximum jump range, centered on the last star you chained from) and with varying levels of damage ranging from light to "I'm humped", and with significant fuel loss. Hence you may end up at a T-Tauri without enough fuel to jump anywhere - time to call
Ideally a perfectly executed set of chained jumps should be only a little quicker than doing it the normal way, you just use less fuel and have one hell of a ride. Using this method you could, in theory, chain jump all the way from the Bubble to Sag A, the only limit being your own physical endurance capabilities. So actually, no you couldn't unless you team up with someone physically at your location to take over piloting from you for a bit.
The only downside I can immediately see is this effectively removes the chance of being intercepted at stars en route.
Now, this is really rough around the edges, especially where fuel use is concerned. I'd like a way of staying in the tunnel for a long time that's compatible with existing Elite lore.
Thoughts?
My suggestion to improve Supercruise:
WHAT?
2001c max speed is fast enough, I don't see the need to improve the top end speed, but the acceleration/deceleration is a real pain. Too slow in my opnion.
The ship could get a boost in acceleration by riding planets orbit, like a sport cars reduce aerodynamic drag by riding another car wake.
Planets, moons and stars could leave a "gravity wake" that reduce the mass interference that affect our FSD acceleration.
HOW?
First you need to fly to the orbit line of a planet. Then you need to fly the ship as accurate as possible following the orbit line. When you are accurate enough the FSD can detect the gravity wake left by the planet. Once this is detected a virtual tunnel is shown on your HUD. While you ride the tunnel a loading bar shows up. Filling the bar would require some time (30 to 60 seconds). When the bar is full you have your boost ready. If you fail and leave the tunnel you'll have no boost and your ship will slow down and drift away witthout control for few seconds and when speed is lower than 1Mm/s it will exit supercruise (with no damage). You can then enter supercruise and try again.
If you succeed the ship will get a boost for acceleration and a boost for deceleration. The first one can be shot while riding the gravity wake tunnel (no outside).
Once you shoot the boost you can maneuver your ship for a limited time (let's say 5 seconds) to align your target location, after that any modification to the route will stop the boosted acceleration and will half your speed.
The boost is canceled also if you fly in the range of 1000 ls of a star, 100 ls of a gas giant, 50 ls of any planet. The speed wont'be halved in this case.
The boost increases the ship acceleration by a factor of 4x and the fuel consumption by a factor of 8x and its effect lasts for a total of 5 minutes (value can be adjusted to improve game balance). After that the ship will proceed accelerating at the normal rate. When this happens also the fuel rate will stabilize back to the normal rate. If you apply a correction to the route the speed will be halved and the ship will recover the lost speed with a normal acceleration.
The deceleration boost can be shot as soon as the ship start decelerating under the influence of another star gravity well. It can be shot whithin 5 seconds since the ships starts slowing down. This boost allows the ship to keep the current top-speed for a longer time thanks to the improved deceleration. The deceleration is again 4x times stronger and uses 8X fuel. It allows deceleration from any speed down to 100c. Any correction to the route in this phase will cancel the boost so the ship will not be able to slow down in time and you will overshoot your destination, this will force you to do a big "loop of shame".
When speed is lower than 100c the ship is maneuverable again.
WHAT?
2001c max speed is fast enough, I don't see the need to improve the top end speed, but the acceleration/deceleration is a real pain. Too slow in my opnion.
The ship could get a boost in acceleration by riding planets orbit, like a sport cars reduce aerodynamic drag by riding another car wake.
Planets, moons and stars could leave a "gravity wake" that reduce the mass interference that affect our FSD acceleration.
HOW?
First you need to fly to the orbit line of a planet. Then you need to fly the ship as accurate as possible following the orbit line. When you are accurate enough the FSD can detect the gravity wake left by the planet. Once this is detected a virtual tunnel is shown on your HUD. While you ride the tunnel a loading bar shows up. Filling the bar would require some time (30 to 60 seconds). When the bar is full you have your boost ready. If you fail and leave the tunnel you'll have no boost and your ship will slow down and drift away witthout control for few seconds and when speed is lower than 1Mm/s it will exit supercruise (with no damage). You can then enter supercruise and try again.
If you succeed the ship will get a boost for acceleration and a boost for deceleration. The first one can be shot while riding the gravity wake tunnel (no outside).
Once you shoot the boost you can maneuver your ship for a limited time (let's say 5 seconds) to align your target location, after that any modification to the route will stop the boosted acceleration and will half your speed.
The boost is canceled also if you fly in the range of 1000 ls of a star, 100 ls of a gas giant, 50 ls of any planet. The speed wont'be halved in this case.
The boost increases the ship acceleration by a factor of 4x and the fuel consumption by a factor of 8x and its effect lasts for a total of 5 minutes (value can be adjusted to improve game balance). After that the ship will proceed accelerating at the normal rate. When this happens also the fuel rate will stabilize back to the normal rate. If you apply a correction to the route the speed will be halved and the ship will recover the lost speed with a normal acceleration.
The deceleration boost can be shot as soon as the ship start decelerating under the influence of another star gravity well. It can be shot whithin 5 seconds since the ships starts slowing down. This boost allows the ship to keep the current top-speed for a longer time thanks to the improved deceleration. The deceleration is again 4x times stronger and uses 8X fuel. It allows deceleration from any speed down to 100c. Any correction to the route in this phase will cancel the boost so the ship will not be able to slow down in time and you will overshoot your destination, this will force you to do a big "loop of shame".
When speed is lower than 100c the ship is maneuverable again.
Once you have discovered secondary stars in a system you can select them in the system map and hyper jump to them.
You can use all thrusters in supercruise. Just for fun.
Problem with space is that there isn't many obstacles. Therefore the destinations need to be very engaging. Also, our own personal storyline needs to be engaging. It is bad if you get bored with Your Own Story.
You can use all thrusters in supercruise. Just for fun.
Problem with space is that there isn't many obstacles. Therefore the destinations need to be very engaging. Also, our own personal storyline needs to be engaging. It is bad if you get bored with Your Own Story.
Very first, a return to deeper system gravity. This provides a system with more "terrain", to make system navigation something beyond "point ship dat way". Right now it's closer to Desert Bus in terms of gravogeographic effects; lots of nuthin. There's not much point in introducing anything that can speed travel or provide alternate routing when there's hardly anything to slow us down or move around as it is.
Variable and alterable supercruise profiles. Having one operation profile for all ships everywhere is boring and predictable; it provides little tactical, strategic, or shipbuilding consideration for flying across any given system arrangement. Variability is already reflected a small bit in SC turn rates, but could be extended to speed profiles as well, including accel and decel parameters. Throw outfitting (and yes haters even Engineering) on top of this, and now everyone has much more of a say in how their ship handles in the mode we fly it in most. It's almost a waste, how much work goes into our normalspace flight profiles by comparison.
Frenotx introduced an active-booster concept that would burn fuel and generate heat, with a risk of ship damage if you really push the limits. This allows a dangerous override to the above SC speed variability, so if you really neeed to, you can hurt yourself to get that extra speed. It also gives a neat use for fuel tanks, because really, fuel is laying about everywares in the galaxy and fuel scoops are pretty ubiquitous kit. Having a burn tank so you can boost your way into or out of trouble (even if you cook a little >__> ) seems like a fun thing and would give a more interesting reason to cart extra fuel outside of deep-space exploration or being really really paranoid about gassing out.
Golgot had an idea for insys micro-jumps which parallels the slingshot tunnel mentioned earlier; skill-based piloting at great hazard. It'd be even faster than a booster with no chance of interdictions, but the risk of being dead if you screw it up is waaaaaay higher. I'm perfectly fine with a faster but super-high-risk method being available, because Golgot's Space Coaster of Death would be fun.
While I'm wishing for things, I'd remove system wide scanners and introduce EWAR kit and counter kit to really add spice to SC, but that's technically outside the scope of this thread. It pairs extremely well with a varied approach to supercruise operation parameters however.
Variable and alterable supercruise profiles. Having one operation profile for all ships everywhere is boring and predictable; it provides little tactical, strategic, or shipbuilding consideration for flying across any given system arrangement. Variability is already reflected a small bit in SC turn rates, but could be extended to speed profiles as well, including accel and decel parameters. Throw outfitting (and yes haters even Engineering) on top of this, and now everyone has much more of a say in how their ship handles in the mode we fly it in most. It's almost a waste, how much work goes into our normalspace flight profiles by comparison.
Frenotx introduced an active-booster concept that would burn fuel and generate heat, with a risk of ship damage if you really push the limits. This allows a dangerous override to the above SC speed variability, so if you really neeed to, you can hurt yourself to get that extra speed. It also gives a neat use for fuel tanks, because really, fuel is laying about everywares in the galaxy and fuel scoops are pretty ubiquitous kit. Having a burn tank so you can boost your way into or out of trouble (even if you cook a little >__> ) seems like a fun thing and would give a more interesting reason to cart extra fuel outside of deep-space exploration or being really really paranoid about gassing out.
Golgot had an idea for insys micro-jumps which parallels the slingshot tunnel mentioned earlier; skill-based piloting at great hazard. It'd be even faster than a booster with no chance of interdictions, but the risk of being dead if you screw it up is waaaaaay higher. I'm perfectly fine with a faster but super-high-risk method being available, because Golgot's Space Coaster of Death would be fun.
While I'm wishing for things, I'd remove system wide scanners and introduce EWAR kit and counter kit to really add spice to SC, but that's technically outside the scope of this thread. It pairs extremely well with a varied approach to supercruise operation parameters however.
Last edited:
![[Diplomacy] Carnegie](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/123/123809.jpg?1553527149){kind=avatar}
