Why does Super Cruise travel take so long?

[galahad2069]

Oh yes. I completely forgot how incredibly challenging it makes long journeys.

I don't really care how fast ppl can travel in SC, as long as it's still possible to interdict them

 

[GunnerBill]

Of course if FD made SC faster then people would just want to got to even farther away places, which would take as long and then they'd complain that SC took too long...

 

[Taimaru]

I'm happy with the current speed of Supercruise and I really don't think it should change.

 

[Factabulous]

As with many things in this game - SC time is part of a puzzle - how do I do X without doing insane / minimising my time / maximising my enjoyment? - fdev hoping you'll try and work out where not to take missions, where to prefer. Maybe even abandon long missions and learn.

Instead people just do random stuff, ignoring the info they are given, and complain.

 

[VR Golgot]

As with many things in this game - SC time is part of a puzzle - how do I do X without doing insane / minimising my time / maximising my enjoyment? - fdev hoping you'll try and work out where not to take missions, where to prefer. Maybe even abandon long missions and learn.

Instead people just do random stuff, ignoring the info they are given, and complain.

What about missions where the info isn't interrogable in advance and long journeys get sprung as a fait accompli? What about CGs that involve 8min commutes to the station each run? What if the game of 'avoid the boring gameplay' wasn't very good...

 

[Factabulous]

What about missions where the info isn't interrogable in advance and long journeys get sprung as a fait accompli?

Do it once - note the size of the system - don't take another to that system. Simples

What about CGs that involve 8min commutes to the station each run?

Skip it - or else you knew what you were in for. CGs are not mandatory

What if the game of 'avoid the boring gameplay' wasn't very good...

Can I interest you in repairing some stations in the Witch Head Nebula - while making a loss? Is very nice

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/the-enclave-overview-of-phases.515986/latest

 

[Khoraak]

Are we so desperate to complain about long supercruise rides (that could be avoided if we bothered to use MK1 Eyeball, engage brain and read what is in front of us) that we are reviving necro threads now?

In searches for possible updates, or tips, you get these threads, where you aren't in charge of them. They're not being revisited, they are being discovered. I have every right to ask, comment, complain, whatever, as long as it is relevant so why are you complaining about people talking on a discussion thread about relevant issues?

To make a system with binary stars and more, but then have all the delivery locations hundreds of thousands of light seconds away with no faster way of jumping, seems very short-sighted of the designer. Why design something so flawed just to simply avoid it? That is like making a third tier on a bus and never using it.

If you do not have the system information on that trade item, how can you use eyeball and brain to read whether the stations are in the other system adjoining the jump location? You cannot read what it won't let you see.

Another little point to make, Micky boy, is that if you create a new thread, moderators remove it, stating it's dupe and then you get warnings and infraction points against you.

 

[Khoraak]

Do it once - note the size of the system - don't take another to that system. Simples


Skip it - or else you knew what you were in for. CGs are not mandatory


Can I interest you in repairing some stations in the Witch Head Nebula - while making a loss? Is very nice

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/threads/the-enclave-overview-of-phases.515986/latest

Ok, so... don't play half of the game that they made. Cool.

 

[Khoraak]

As with many things in this game - SC time is part of a puzzle - how do I do X without doing insane / minimising my time / maximising my enjoyment? - fdev hoping you'll try and work out where not to take missions, where to prefer. Maybe even abandon long missions and learn.

Instead people just do random stuff, ignoring the info they are given, and complain.

Sigh, okay, gotta correct you here.

If you can't see the system info, you aren't given the information, so you're using a flawed argument here. Your earlier solution to this is to accept the mission, with all it's risks, fines, potential of losing ship, even, just to go see if you jump and find out theres a long SC, then somehow remember not to go there again?

Or... simply install a jump from super cruise like they already have between star systems. It doesn't ruin the game, it doesn't stop interdiction because it already exists in the game; When you have to jump in a chain of systems to get to a distant location further than your jump capability. There wouldn't be any changes to super cruise. So that would be preserved. It is just implementing a final jump in that chain of jumps.

So rather than simply add the choice of jumping star systems, so as to avoid 20 minute boredom, we have to find them all manually then cancel the mission, take a fine, lose our ship, waste gameplay time... nah your idea doesn't seem a very good one.

 

[Shadowed]

I don't like the slow down aspect when approaching a gravity well. It should 'pull' us toward it, not feel like an airbrake. And the effect should barely be noticeable anyways.

 

[Florenus]

I don't like the slow down aspect when approaching a gravity well. It should 'pull' us toward it, not feel like an airbrake. And the effect should barely be noticeable anyways.

When using Frameshift Drive you're actually not moving, but the space is moving around you. Speed is not affected by gravity in normal way. You slow down around planets because that is how the drive is programmed, not because it's affected by gravity well.
That's how I understand it anyway.

 

[varonica]

I don't like the slow down aspect when approaching a gravity well. It should 'pull' us toward it, not feel like an airbrake. And the effect should barely be noticeable anyways.

No it shouldn't, because we are in SC, which is not normal space, the max speed of SC depends on the strength of the local gravitational field, so when the local gravitational field gets stronger you get slowed down in SC, makes complete sense.

 

[Shadowed]

No it shouldn't, because we are in SC, which is not normal space, the max speed of SC depends on the strength of the local gravitational field, so when the local gravitational field gets stronger you get slowed down in SC, makes complete sense.

When using Frameshift Drive you're actually not moving, but the space is moving around you. Speed is not affected by gravity in normal way. You slow down around planets because that is how the drive is programmed, not because it's affected by gravity well.
That's how I understand it anyway.

Fair enough. Thanks for the schooling! I still hate it though

 

[[VR] Goooost]

Well here's my epiphany:

It's because we can't SC between star systems.

Otherwise there is no reason why FD couldn't tweak the SC speed algorithms to allow much higher speeds as you leave the local gravity well, why we couldn't creep up to, say, 5000c instead of 500c when travelling between bodies in the same system. In fact, no real game play reason why you couldn't increase the speed at a geometric rate as you move away from a planet, moon or star.

OK, the hutton truckers might choke on their egg and chips but I think even they might (albeit secretly) enjoy being able to both cruise to any place in a star system and do so without their head hitting the keyboard from chronic sleep deprivation and/or boredom.

So why can't we? Well because if we could do that we would be then able to cruise on to the next star (which just happens to be in the next system along) in a reasonably short time, and currently if you do that you end up effectively in witch space, sitting at the position where there should be a star right in front of you but in fact you see nothing but space dust.

Now I'm not suggesting that we have to change the speed of travel between bodies orbiting the same star (much), but come on, once your more than 10Kls from the nearest astronomical object there is basically N.O.T.H.I.N.G to see, so at that point you could ramp up the speed as high as you need to make the next 30kls or 90kls or .22Lyrs a more reasonable gaming experience.

But to do that without the need for glass walls between the star systems, you'd need to be able to seamlessly SC from one system to the other.

Now I'm not saying that would be easy for FD to achieve, but I think if they could do it then it would greatly improve the exploration side of the game and also increase the CMDR traffic to a lot of systems in the bubble. And not to mention giving people the option of taking the scenic route to the next star along instead of always having to H-Jump.

Supercruise speeds are fine, but there should be a boost that lets you temporarily hurt FSD integrity to accelerate. This wouldnt affect super long distances like hutton or other star systems because you wouldnt be able to sustain a boost that long. The Supercruise travel times are necessary gameplay real estate to build on for things like spacelegs. If they eliminated the wait, then introduced things to do aboard the ship, nobody would then use the feature because it would mean them kind of parking the ship in space. It's much better if you have a few minutes to kill so you might as well use spacelegs in the mean time. That's why we have a supercruise computer.

 

[Ian Skippy]

Yeah, except you realise of course that you aren't actually, you know, flying a space ship? if you want realism play KSP at time x1, I'm sure you'll find that a spectacular gaming experience.

Don't give me the "space is big" nonsense, as soon as you go over (or even near) C, you are in fairy-land and it is a simple choice between different game play mechanics.

Sure. 'Space is big' is no argument why going to Hutton should take 90 minutes instead five, ten or or fifteen. Or why it currently takes 90 instead of 900. It is just a throwaway phrase to defend the status quo.

In game design terms, any stretch of time spend doing nothing is garbage. So either SC should be drastically shortened, or we should have stuff to do. Allowing the scanning of a system during SC would have been an obvious massive improvement but for some reason FD completely missed that opportunity. Space legs is the next.

 

[Lestat]

I think people need to start listing to my Advice. If the mission is too far then Discard. Even if the task does not tell you how far something is. Getting to that destination and finding out it 300,000 LS you have a choice and option to discard. It like any Combat, trade or passenger mission that you take in the middle of that mission you found you can't complete. Like any missions you choose, it will affect your Reputation. Good or for the bad, it all depends on that player.

Things that can help people is view Galaxy map to see if it Binary or Trinary systems. Buy system data before accepting the mission.

Ya, we get the few that will try to dispute using common sense. But that all that needed to avoid long-distance SC travel.

 

[Globusdiablo]

Well here's my epiphany:

It's because we can't SC between star systems.

Otherwise there is no reason why FD couldn't tweak the SC speed algorithms to allow much higher speeds as you leave the local gravity well, why we couldn't creep up to, say, 5000c instead of 500c when travelling between bodies in the same system. In fact, no real game play reason why you couldn't increase the speed at a geometric rate as you move away from a planet, moon or star.

OK, the hutton truckers might choke on their egg and chips but I think even they might (albeit secretly) enjoy being able to both cruise to any place in a star system and do so without their head hitting the keyboard from chronic sleep deprivation and/or boredom.

So why can't we? Well because if we could do that we would be then able to cruise on to the next star (which just happens to be in the next system along) in a reasonably short time, and currently if you do that you end up effectively in witch space, sitting at the position where there should be a star right in front of you but in fact you see nothing but space dust.

Now I'm not suggesting that we have to change the speed of travel between bodies orbiting the same star (much), but come on, once your more than 10Kls from the nearest astronomical object there is basically N.O.T.H.I.N.G to see, so at that point you could ramp up the speed as high as you need to make the next 30kls or 90kls or .22Lyrs a more reasonable gaming experience.

But to do that without the need for glass walls between the star systems, you'd need to be able to seamlessly SC from one system to the other.

Now I'm not saying that would be easy for FD to achieve, but I think if they could do it then it would greatly improve the exploration side of the game and also increase the CMDR traffic to a lot of systems in the bubble. And not to mention giving people the option of taking the scenic route to the next star along instead of always having to H-Jump.

SC is also the in-game window for PvP, aka interdictions.

 

[Hell Razor5543]

The way I look at the acceleration issues (being so slow) is this;

Near to any Astronomical Body (including asteroid belt fragments) Space is 'bumpy', and the FSD slows down so as not to take/cause damage to the vessel through 'vibration'. The further you get from any Body the 'smoother' Space gets, so less 'vibration' and the quicker the FSD can accelerate. This is why, when you are close to a Body the acceleration is slow, but when you are in Deep Space the acceleration is quicker.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Yes, I find SC too slow, too. But if I were to choose, I'd rather implement SC for travelling between star systems to cut down the repetitive jumping all the time.

 

[JesusRocks1988]

IMHO anything up to around 25,000ls is fine. I don't mind traveling that at all. Once you go beyond that it starts to get silly. I don't mind spending an extended amount of time in supercruise to get a sense of "space is big", but go over 50kls and it's "yeah yeah yeah, space is big, I get it. This is just boring".

I would propose that supercruise speeds and accelerations stay as they are now for when you're nearby bodies, but when you are travelling between stars that are 50kls+ apart, then you can press a button to "boost" the acceleration to ludicrous speeds in order to keep that dead time down to a reasonable level. Maybe, like a mass lock, being only able to activate it once you're 10kls away from any given body, and it slows automatically like a gravity break once you get within 10kls of the bodies on the other end.

Food for thought. It wouldn't be instant, might still take a couple of minutes and it'd be optional, but it would prevent 20min+ journeys and going AFK.