Increase supercruise drop-out distance from stations and outposts

[ebbrell]

I remember on old elite games the race to the close to a station to enter the safe zone, elite dangerous doesn't have this dangerous element.
yes there is a safe (no fire zone), but nothing is ever out of this zone for long.

when you approach a station from a distance, its great to see the station getting larger. the station comms traffic control kicks in when you are 19 - 20 km out.

when you drop out of supercruise you are about 8km out, a single boost and 3 seconds later you are in the safe zone, not one little bit of danger. when you drop out at a planetary base you can be 5 - 6km out at times meaning you are already in the 7.5km zone to request docking.

the area around a station or outpost should be dangerous like it once was. if we change the distance to be 22km out when you drop out you experience a more realistic experience. you would have no comms until you get a little closer, then you have 12km of dangerous space before you enter the safe zone of the station.

this will open up some exciting game play, while enabling bounty hunters spaces to monitor inbound traffic.
if will also make smuggling more dangerous as you will have more chance of being scanned

 

[Hellfire85]

I would love that, less so the "respect muh time" crowd.

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

I would like to see the glide mechanic added to drop outs everywhere. At that speed you would see the stations or asteroid fields rushing up towards you and finishes at around 10-15 km out.

 

[ebbrell]

I know, I don't want to add loads of time.... it doesn't take that long to travel 12km extra when boosting....
I do a load of BGS mission all of the time, I know this will impact me.... but I think the realism and danger out ways the small amount of time loss.

I often drop out near a station, an NPC which is chasing you drops in..... and disappears due to being close to station. at times I get a fine if I shoot first. this would give you a choice of killing it, or go running to the station.... while making it dangerous

 

[Tiili]

I would definitely like to see this, would give that one last chance to snatch some cargo from traders who get away or to smoke a fleeing PVP opponent.

Smuggling would also become more interesting, as right now it's possible to boost into a station in a t-9 full of illegal goods and the scans don't have time to finish before you slip in.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

I'd like this too.

As well as security flying out to meet you for scans, making smuggling harder.

There should be some sort of mechanic where if NPC security notice you, and you don't comply, your docking privileges get suspended.
So to smuggle in, you need to remain unnoticed, so boosting like a mad man is no longer the way in. Or something like that.

 

[FrogsFriend]

Yes, I'd like to see more opportunity for activities and encounters during station approach. Also, increase the distance from the station that exiting NPC ships travel before jumping, perhaps forming up in convoy-like groups. Create some time for cargo scanning and maybe some casual fast pirating, theft, assassinations or ship scanning for missions.

Initially we started with a 20km(ish) drop, but as nothing happened during the approach it was just boost, boost until you could request docking. FD quickly cut it right down to get rid of that admittedly 'wasted' time. Since then they've added background comms, improved police scanning and pirates & bounty hunters following you in but they don't have enough time to really have any effect.

 

[Juanxlink]

I know, I don't want to add loads of time.... it doesn't take that long to travel 12km extra when boosting....

I take it you never owned or used a fully laden anaconda right?

 

[DMC831]

I'd like this too, with more scan-happy aggressive patrols in high security systems to make my smuggling more fun.

A compromise I would make is supercruise slightly sped up to compensate, and then further drop outs. More time in normal space with the fun flight model, more chance of shenanigans happening, less time in supercruise (which I don't enjoy nearly as much).

I get why someone may not like making the drop out distance further though, since it takes so long to get places. That's why I suggest my compromise, but also I am biased and just prefer regular flight a billion times more than supercruise.

EDIT: Further "how I'd do it", focusing on smuggling but related to the rest too--

Faster SC, then a further drop off point. Security is waiting for you as you enter the No Fire Zone, so the drop off would be however far it'd need to be to have enough cushion so security ain't always messing up the shenanigans at the drop point.

As you approach security, if they notice you they will try to scan you a lot more aggressively. If you rush past them and seem evasive, they alert the other security about your caginess and the security at the mailslot are waiting and watching for you. Then it becomes avoiding the first layer of security via remaining cold/silent running and not just speeding past them. Aggressiveness of all security will depend on system security level, so High Security should be much tougher to smuggle to (but pay better).

As ya sneak past or speed past the first layer of security, you then deal with mailslot security, who either haven't been alerted that someone is acting fishy and they have a suspected criminal trying to land so you can coast in like you're a regular ol' trader, or they're trying to get in your way and scan the heck out of you. Speeding in is more dangerous and challenging, sneaking in safer but takes preparation. Messing up when you're trying to sneak by and then needing to use speed to get in would be fun as well.

I'd also love a mechanic that utilizes un-targeted drops into stations to avoid security patrols. I think it's a lot of fun to do those drops, and I think it's cool that they even work, but it's a cool mechanic not really used yet. The skill and timing required to do a good drop would be a nice challenge and add tension at the end of trips if it mattered somehow (my standard idea is that doing an untargeted drop well could help you avoid aggressive security).

 

[Yautja]

And what if Fdev would increase distance from Station when leaving SC to 20-25 kms, but... if you would like to end SC flight closer you could. Comms like "optimal distance missed" would appear if you go past optimal blue marker and minigame similar to interdictions kicks in and if you win, you will drop as now - around 8 kms from station, and if you loose you will drop around 20 kms behind station.

 

[Factabulous]

it doesn't take that long to travel 12km extra when boosting....

Good catch - they should disable boosting to increase your immersions since you want to spend that extra time on each trip....

 

[Robert Maynard]

Good catch - they should disable boosting to increase your immersions since you want to spend that extra time on each trip....

.... and remove thruster modifications that increase a ship's speed hence reducing the time taken to traverse the distance between the drop in point and the dock.

 

[Tiili]

Good catch - they should disable boosting to increase your immersions since you want to spend that extra time on each trip....

FD could compensate it by making the docking lift animations a lot faster

 

[Factabulous]

FD could compensate it by making the docking lift animations a lot faster

Ok - I agree with that change. Heading for outfitting is always a case of should I just switch ships to get around the cutscene .

But sorry - we were talking about the immersions

 

[Morbad]

Very early on in ED, drop out distance was 20km, and there was a lot more potential for gameplay during station approach as well as larger benefits from being able to time an accurate manual drop.

FD could compensate it by making the docking lift animations a lot faster

I actually think they are a bit too fast...multiple gs of acceleration seems like it would be annoying, at the very least.

 

[Factabulous]

.... and remove thruster modifications that increase a ship's speed hence reducing the time taken to traverse the distance between the drop in point and the dock.

Even better - how about a set of options for Immersion in Engineering.

Instead of Dirty Thrusters you could engineer for Scenic Dropouts (which disabled boost as an experimental)
Instead of Deep Plate Hull you could choose to engineer for Clean Windows
Instead of Long Range FSD you can engineer for 'No Cube' galaxy, but can no longer visit any of the systems that are filtered out
Add engineering to the FSS for autodiscovery of everything (has the side effect of making the scanner weigh 300T).

Lots of fun!

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

I take it you never owned or used a fully laden anaconda right?

I have.

It still doesn't take long. Just don't skimp on the thrusters.

 

[Kimosabe_X]

Even better - how about a set of options for Immersion in Engineering.

Instead of Dirty Thrusters you could engineer for Scenic Dropouts (which disabled boost as an experimental)
Instead of Deep Plate Hull you could choose to engineer for Clean Windows
Instead of Long Range FSD you can engineer for 'No Cube' galaxy, but can no longer visit any of the systems that are filtered out
Add engineering to the FSS for autodiscovery of everything (has the side effect of making the scanner weigh 300T).

Lots of fun!

Hmm... but no, thanks...


But imho the scratched windows should be tied to wear of the hull and not the paint...

Shouldn't be a big thing for FD to correct that... oh, wait...

 

[Ian Doncaster]

the area around a station or outpost should be dangerous like it once was. if we change the distance to be 22km out when you drop out you experience a more realistic experience. you would have no comms until you get a little closer, then you have 12km of dangerous space before you enter the safe zone of the station.

I definitely like the principle - more time in normal space, less in supercruise - but it doesn't really add that much danger or interest. It would need a bit more adjustment for that, I think.

22km drop, so say 20km to get close enough to the station that pursuers will get shot by its guns (the "No Fire Zone" is a bit of a red herring, since shooting clean ships is also an offence outside of the NFZ)

In a fast ship, that's only 40 seconds or so, and you're probably not at risk for most of that since attackers won't be waiting for you at the specific spot you dropped out, so by the time they've caught up you're most of the way to the station already.


I think what would need to happen is adding some lore about how supercruise exits near stations are causing accidents, or warping space causing really expensive metal fatigue, or something - so a nav beacon is placed a safe distance in front of the station (at least 50km, I think, with current ship speeds ... 20km would have been fine pre-engineering, but not now) and people doing automated drops come out on that instead.

There's then an obvious beacon-station line which has a reason to both have criminals hanging out on it and security ships patrolling it, and there can be some action without it feeling too contrived. System security level could then play a big role in the criminal:security ratio of NPCs - high-sec would have large frequent system authority patrols, while low-sec might have a few ships patrolling the beacon itself, but then you're on your own. (Which it does in supercruise already, just not in a very noticeable way...)

Fights become more dynamic - rather than "authority response in 1m30s" followed by them just dropping into the instance, the authority ships show up based on how far they were away to start with. More criminals might stumble on the fight and join in, or an NPC trader and its escorts might get caught up in it. A huge variety of scenarios, without them having to be explicitly coded.

More cautious pilots can do a manual drop from supercruise to come out somewhere else - though still at least 50km from the station - and sneak in that way ... or drop at the beacon but take a curved path to the station to avoid people hanging out between the two. Either way, long-range A-rated sensors and cool-running ships now have a use for both hunter and hunted.

For piracy (especially PvE piracy) dropping a few units of cargo and boosting away should probably be sufficient to shake off pursuit - they'll take what they can and get clear of the lane before the next authority patrol goes past, rather than risking following you right into that patrol.

This could be balanced easily enough in terms of time by making the supercruise acceleration curve steeper, or - since more real space combat opportunities mean that interdiction no longer needs to be the primary way of starting a fight - allowing in-system microjumps between navigation beacons.

 

[Jukelo]

Yes, I too would like it - mind you that is how the early days were like, and I think the extra time in normal space made things more interesting. There is simply more to do and more potential interactions in normal space than in supercruise.