Make Black Holes a more Dangerous encounter

[Chillybean]

Ive been playing Elite for a year or two now and the one thing ive found very disappointing is black holes.
My suggestion is to turn black holes into a sort of mini game.

If you get too close to a black hole and are dropped out of super cruise, there should be a kind of skill based flying mini game in which you have to turn and boost away from the black hole before getting sucked into it. this would be a timed event and you would be constantly sucked towards the black hole in this time but you have to align with an escape vector and boost and charge your FSD to escape within a certain amount of time.

If you fail to do this you would certainly be destroyed (which could be a unique spaghettification animation that would play of your ship being torn into shreds)
While im not sure of the reality of something like this i think black holes are something people are aware of as an incredibly high gravity mass in space and this kind of gameplay already exists already in the game in the form of high G planets that im sure many players have had a similar experience with.

Black holes should be equally as dangerous (or more) as these high gravity worlds in terms of gameplay.

 

[Warprider]

Considering neutron stars have an effect on the fsd and can totally kill you there shouldn’t be a reason that a straight black hole isn’t just as dangerous. My guess is they haven’t come up with anything yet.

 

[Hellfire85]

I'm gonna build a combat exploration ship, call it "Black-Hole" and shoot people at black holes
That'll make these places dangerous

 

[whothe]

You wouldnt even know you'd passed the point of no return until it was too late.
Isn't the idea that your ships AI does, and won't allow you to get too close? So maybe instead of the AI you get some alarms and flashing lights! Good luck turning around in time in your T-10 And if you do get too close, you have a nice little visual sequence on the way to a rebuy screen?
It's a black hole, you're in or you're out. That's how they work, no escape!
If you want it to be dangerous, why would you water down the danger with a mini game? That everyone would complain is too easy, or too hard...

 

[Chillybean]

You wouldnt even know you'd passed the point of no return until it was too late.
Isn't the idea that your ships AI does, and won't allow you to get too close? So maybe instead of the AI you get some alarms and flashing lights! Good luck turning around in time in your T-10 And if you do get too close, you have a nice little visual sequence on the way to a rebuy screen?
It's a black hole, you're in or you're out. That's how they work, no escape!
If you want it to be dangerous, why would you water down the danger with a mini game? That everyone would complain is too easy, or too hard...

theres currently no real dangers with black holes.. they are less dangerous than your average M class star.
you get too close and you drop out of super cruise and its like any star.

black holes should be different. as should neutron or white dwarfs.. these special stars should feel different because they are different.. a star thats got so large its collapsed in on itself.

"mini game" might be a word that scares people because it sounds like something that takes you out of the experience.. but it doesnt have to be.

you could consider entering any landable planet in elite a mini game. where you go from super cruise to glide to regular flight.

so you accidently get to close too a black hole. you drop out. you hear warning sirens in your cockpit that youre losing control. you turn and see an escape vecor. the galactic dust is moving in the opposite direction from you. you panic and hit boost and frame shift drive at the same time. you feel the black hole sucking you in.. you have 30 seconds remaining.. you boost again and again and hope your FSD charges in time.. you still see the dust moving backwards but suddenly your FSD kicks in and you escape the black hole.

this is what black holes should feel like if you get too close. an extremely high gravitational pull that you barely escaped.. or got sucked in and instantly and dramatically killed. it should be about reaction time too your mistake of getting to close. or youre punished for your mistake.

 

[K M Butler]

They originally were dangerous, then benerfed. Unfortunately.

 

[Skip Rockbounder]

Perhaps if ED were to offer a reason for pilots to venture closed to Black holes, there is no reason other than standing on the railroad track when a train is due simply because you're twelve.
If ED could ask for readings and provide a special bonus for complete readings of the event horizon and whatever (I'm sure that the many sci-fi/sci-fact buffs here could think of many) either way, a set of readings that are difficult to get and perhaps need a special module fitted where a mistake of dropping out of cruisespace would show you the rebuy screen, no messing for kicks, the larger the Black hole the greater the speed that the readings have to be taken at... perhaps only when facing the black hole, those readings might someday provide the technology to provide Hyperjumps with that right drive fitted...

 

[photomankc]

Yeah, I'm going to add my voice in support of those asking for this. The FSD dropout makes sense and should occur at a safe distance outside the last possible stable orbit distance. The ships way of saying "stop stupid". Something like maybe that radius + 10km. To activate FSD you must point away first now but nothing hard to do. If you press on in normal space past the stable orbit line, now you are accelerated inward and must point away and activate FSD before you reach the event horizon. That acceleration should be compounding. If you are not fast enough then 'boom' and re-buy. The more massive the black hole the less time you have to re-orient and get out.

Doesn't need to be terribly complex.

I think time dilation is something that is just going to have to be sacrificed. No reasonable way to implement that but the body itself could have features that make it at least feel like a real part of the system and not just a quirky effect.

 

[Bigmaec]

It would give us a lot of nice new rant threads for sure...

 

[myothershipisacobraiv]

Agree. The terror of the spaceways aren't so terrifying.

Black holes should be... more... than they are now. Something.

But if they're more dangerous, you should also get a warning when you're about to jump into a system that is known to have one. Right now, everybody looks to the top right of their screen when they hit the j key (again), when they start to get low on fuel. A major warning should pop out of that like with Fuel tank warnings (WARNING! JUMPING TO BLACK HOLE SYSTEM).

Any time a black hole is discovered by anybody, this information should be stored separately and made available to the game's client, so even if it's not the main star, the player still knows about it (Alert from Universal Cartographics. Black hole discovered in target system). I dunno how many black holes Elite generates per galaxy star on average but if the number is small enough it should be easy to manage, especially if you only concern yourself with the currently-occupied quadrant at a time. Even without that, you could still do this for systems where a black hole is the jump star with very little change.

 

[nanite2000]

Agreed. I would like to see more gameplay around Black Holes. I feel like they should be more of a challenge than Neutron Stars and White Dwarfs.

I like the OP's suggestion, but I would also like there to be an incentive to get that close to a Black Hole in the first place.

For example: Neutron Stars and White Dwarfs provide FSD jump range increases, making the danger worthwhile. It would be great if Black Holes provided a similar incentive.

 

[Vardaugas]

When you approach a black hole your FSD should heat up from the gravity distortion it has to overcome. Close to the exclusion zone you get a "Warning! Approaching event horizon". Once you hit the exclusion zone instead of dropping out you get "Initiating Emergency Frame Shift Activation" and you get flung through Witchspace tumbling and sparking, klaxons going off, smoke and heat damaging your systems.

Then you end up in a random system in the vicinity, maximum distance depending on the mass of the black hole and your jump range. Can be multiple times your jump range if the mass of the black hole is high enough, but your ship gets damaged more. Hopping into the Great Annihilator will most likely destroy your ship, or send you anywhere in the galaxy.

 

[SlouchMonster]

For example: Neutron Stars and White Dwarfs provide FSD jump range increases, making the danger worthwhile. It would be great if Black Holes provided a similar incentive.

High wake through a black hole maybe. point your ship at it engage FSD, too far away and you jump normally, too close and you jump to the re-buy screen, just right and you get a massive boost. If the margin for error was small it would be cool for bragging rights or in emergencies. Other than that too dangerous for normal travel.

 

[Tunstan]

High wake through a black hole maybe. point your ship at it engage FSD, too far away and you jump normally, too close and you jump to the re-buy screen, just right and you get a massive boost. If the margin for error was small it would be cool for bragging rights or in emergencies. Other than that too dangerous for normal travel.

The Kessel Run! (original variant, not the version from the movie)

 

[nanite2000]

High wake through a black hole maybe. point your ship at it engage FSD, too far away and you jump normally, too close and you jump to the re-buy screen, just right and you get a massive boost. If the margin for error was small it would be cool for bragging rights or in emergencies. Other than that too dangerous for normal travel.

I like this, and would take it further.

In Frontier: Elite II, you could force a misjump which would take you to a random location. Sometimes that location would be thousands of light years away from your jump origin.

What if black holes did something similar? If navigated correctly (or badly, depending on your point of view) you could end up jumping to a random location. Even to a star that is too remote to jump away from.

The bigger the black hole, the further you would be taken. Sagittarius A* could take you anywhere in the galaxy!

Yes, I know it’s a variation on the wormhole concept that people tend to dislike, but the random element would ensure it is not abused. It would really only be of interest to explorers.

 

[Zieman]

I like this, and would take it further.

In Frontier: Elite II, you could force a misjump which would take you to a random location. Sometimes that location would be thousands of light years away from your jump origin.

What if black holes did something similar? If navigated correctly (or badly, depending on your point of view) you could end up jumping to a random location. Even to a star that is too remote to jump away from.

The bigger the black hole, the further you would be taken. Sagittarius A* could take you anywhere in the galaxy!

Yes, I know it’s a variation on the wormhole concept that people tend to dislike, but the random element would ensure it is not abused. It would really only be of interest to explorers.

With some noticeable damage to your ship, like flat 30% off every module health.

 

[CMDR Yates]

I would be nice if we would get at least "Frameshift Drive Operating Beyond Safety Limits" and a jarring crash when we get too close, instead of a normal exclusion zone. And dangerous super hot accretion discs around some.

 

[varonica]

Ive been playing Elite for a year or two now and the one thing ive found very disappointing is black holes.
My suggestion is to turn black holes into a sort of mini game.

If you get too close to a black hole and are dropped out of super cruise, there should be a kind of skill based flying mini game in which you have to turn and boost away from the black hole before getting sucked into it. this would be a timed event and you would be constantly sucked towards the black hole in this time but you have to align with an escape vector and boost and charge your FSD to escape within a certain amount of time.

That's not how gravity works. I am all for more danger out there that can be avoided using skill and preparation, such as for black holes, but escaping from a black hole, until you hit the event horizon of course, is no more difficult than any other stellar body. Probably the worst danger from objects like black holes and neutron stars are tidal forces that could potentially rip your ship, and you, apart if you plot a course to close to the body, but you have to get quite close for that. Apart from that it's a fairly simple calculation to plot a course that would get you clear, whether you make it one or many pieces is debatable depending on the course plotted of course, but that depends on your ship and thrusters.

So to put it simply, you don't get "sucked" towards a black hole, it's just gravity, and that's a relatively simple thing to account for, so no thank you, no mini-games around black holes.

 

[nanite2000]

That's not how gravity works. I am all for more danger out there that can be avoided using skill and preparation, such as for black holes, but escaping from a black hole, until you hit the event horizon of course, is no more difficult than any other stellar body. Probably the worst danger from objects like black holes and neutron stars are tidal forces that could potentially rip your ship, and you, apart if you plot a course to close to the body, but you have to get quite close for that. Apart from that it's a fairly simple calculation to plot a course that would get you clear, whether you make it one or many pieces is debatable depending on the course plotted of course, but that depends on your ship and thrusters.

So to put it simply, you don't get "sucked" towards a black hole, it's just gravity, and that's a relatively simple thing to account for, so no thank you, no mini-games around black holes.

What do you propose instead?

 

[varonica]

What do you propose instead?

I propose that we work with the existing laws of physics and what we know about black holes, not invent an entirely knew type of physics that only applies to black holes.