What if there was no "normal" space?

[Decksmeck]

I am not suggesting this. It is just a thought.

I realize that doing the following requires one big instance and that might not be possible but...

...just for fun...would it be cool if there were no "normal space", but everything took place in supercruise mode. All travel and combat, as well as all signal sources and all other things present in the system were present and you could slow all the way down to zero and stop right at the nav beacon, as an example.

Then, there would be things to fly around during combat. Such as combat around the sun or a moon or with whole systems whizzing by. And we would have full thruster control over the ship while supercruising.

 

[starman]

There are things to fly around in CQC that doesn't seem to have helped much.

There are probably very good reasons why combat in super cruise is not allowed.

 

[Siobhan]

How does one aim/hit at 2000c?
By the time your laser beam gets to where the target is, then you're both half way across the system...

 

[Decksmeck]

How does one aim/hit at 2000c?
By the time your laser beam gets to where the target is, then you're both half way across the system...

True. It isn't realistic since we can out run lasers. But, realism aside, would it be cool to have dog fights around planets, moons, and suns?

 

[Kzak]

This situation was partially explored in Frontier: Elite 2 (and likely F:FE which I haven'y played) - you could use your thrusters to attain speed up to near the speed of light, and with a weapon that had a range measured in kilometers meant that you were in weapons range for a fraction of a second. If you didn't manage to destroy your enemy, you'd have to turn around and hope you could destroy them in the next opportunity in which you were close enough for a fraction of a second. This is what we call 'jousting' only a lot less appealing and much more time-consuming than it is in Elite: Dangerous.

 

[Jukelo]

The range of accelerations we are capable of (which is required to be able to fly around in life-sized star systems) is simply too high for 'dog fights' to happen in supercruise. Speed isn't the problem as velocity vectors can be matched, but the rate at which we can change it is.
It's like playing a first person shooter but the enemies are less than a millionth of a pixel in size and still capable of side-strafing at the normal rate. You'd need automated hitscan weapons and missiles with ludicrously large AOE.

 

[Jethro49]

This situation was partially explored in Frontier: Elite 2 (and likely F:FE which I haven'y played) - you could use your thrusters to attain speed up to near the speed of light, and with a weapon that had a range measured in kilometers meant that you were in weapons range for a fraction of a second. If you didn't manage to destroy your enemy, you'd have to turn around and hope you could destroy them in the next opportunity in which you were close enough for a fraction of a second. This is what we call 'jousting' only a lot less appealing and much more time-consuming than it is in Elite: Dangerous.

Ah yes FE2... As far as I remember, and it's not very accurate, it took in-game days or weeks to have the opportunity to land another shot

 

[Lightspeed]

We are getting there. We can shoot probes at planets in slow supercruise .... next up, the ability to shoot missiles at each other by whizzing them around a planet

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Sounds very arcadey.

 

[Crank Larson]

Someone hasn't quite realised what speed they are travelling at when in supercruise?

 

[Crank Larson]

By the time your laser beam gets to where the target is, then you're both half way across the system...

Assuming the laser is travelling at the speed of light (as lasers do...), then your ship would overtake it immediately anyway. In fact, you'd probably just shoot yourself as the laser would essentially be hitting the gun firing it (at least, it would be as soon as it left the hyperdrive bubble around your ship).

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Assuming the laser is travelling at the speed of light (as lasers do...), then your ship would overtake it immediately anyway. In fact, you'd probably just shoot yourself as the laser would essentially be hitting the gun firing it (at least, it would be as soon as it left the hyperdrive bubble around your ship).

Why would the laser even leave "the barrel" for you to overtake? If you can shoot something why would it somehow slow down for you to overtake?

 

[Crank Larson]

Why would the laser even leave "the barrel" for you to overtake? If you can shoot something why would it somehow slow down for you to overtake?

The theory on how the frameshift drive works is that it creates a bubble around your ship and then does something funky to spacetime to enable your ship to travel at ridiculous speeds. At the point the laser is fired, it will be travelling away from the ship at the speed of light. At the point it leaves the spacetime bubble around your ship, it returns to normal spacetime and continues forward at the speed of light. At which point, you've just shot yourself.

Or... If the laser and the ship are in different spacetime, they wouldn't touch. But that also means you can't fire at another ship while in supercruise, as you will be in different spacetime bubbles.

 

[B1rdy]

And we would have full thruster control over the ship while supercruising.

Good luck adjusting the speed range from 30km/s to 2001c with your throttle manually. Doing surgery with a chainsaw would be more precise.

 

[Vandaahl]

But, realism aside, would it be cool to have dog fights around planets, moons, and suns?

Yes if you think impossibilities are cool, but otherwise, no.

 

[Crank Larson]

Doing surgery with a chainsaw would be more precise.

Some tree surgeons already do.

Spoiler

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_gamRSYkpM

 

[B1rdy]

Some tree surgeons already do.

Spoiler

Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_gamRSYkpM

Then, by all means, go ahead and have your face lifted.

 

[Siobhan]

I suppose we could have Friendship Capable Missiles/Torpedoes... though by the time you've piled a FSD into it, there's not a lot of room left for munitions.

 

[Decksmeck]

I suppose we could have Friendship Capable Missiles/Torpedoes... though by the time you've piled a FSD into it, there's not a lot of room left for munitions.

Friendship Drive charging? So I wasn't the only one who heard it that way at first?

 

[Bloodsign]

I suppose we could have Friendship Capable Missiles/Torpedoes... though by the time you've piled a FSD into it, there's not a lot of room left for munitions.

There it is! I was waiting for someone to bring it up.

Though I would suggest something more like a supercruise capable drone, requiring a Drone Hangar module.