Hi there Commanders. It is a common knowledge that when flying in SC to the station you should throttle back to the middle of the blue zone as soon as time to destination timer gets to 7 seconds (or so) and keep it this way until you ready to disengage your FSD. This is what supposed to be the fastest way to travel in SC. I was just thinking the other day, what if you go full speed until getting really close to the station and intentionally flying around, basically doing controlled version of what is known as loop of shame. It appears to be that when circling around station this way you slowing down at much faster rate and under certain conditions it might be faster than gradually slowing down over longer period of time. I tried to experiment with this stuff but so far it is more like hit and miss, perhaps it also depends on the distance to the station and such. Maybe it is possible to get that loop, or rather spiral, accurate enough to be completed right in front of the station? Just curious if anybody tried anything of that nature.
7 seconds vs loop of shame.
- Thread starter B.Roberts
- Start date
Yes! This is what I was thinking about. Thanks for the tip.
In certain systems you can SC into a station at full throttle then at the last minute target a distant body with the effect you stop almost dead relative to the station you had been focused on.
Refocus on the station and proceed to disengage in an orderly fashion.
It all depends in if there are suitable bodies nearby to retarget.
Refocus on the station and proceed to disengage in an orderly fashion.
It all depends in if there are suitable bodies nearby to retarget.
If I'm not in a hurry, or in a ship that doesn't turn well in Supercruise I'll stick to the 6 second timer, using gravity braking around a gas giant or similar, adjusting the throttle to maintain 6 secs.
If I'm in a Python (where I spend most of my time) I'll throttle back to zero at 3 secs with the target station in the top corner of the screen (without using headlook) and spiral in.
If I'm in A Cobra (MkIII) I'll again aim for 3 secs but usually maintain full throttle or near it.
If I'm being pursued by a mission pirate or whatever and I don't want to get interdicted in any ship I'll carry on at full throttle to around 4 secs eta, throttle back & make a fairly sharp 90deg turn towards the destination, such that I loop around the destination with the NPC flitting back & forth either side of me (ie they never get a good enough angle to interdict).
I enjoy that final approach, like golf it's easy to learn the rules & you can spend the rest of time perfecting your technique
If I'm in a Python (where I spend most of my time) I'll throttle back to zero at 3 secs with the target station in the top corner of the screen (without using headlook) and spiral in.
If I'm in A Cobra (MkIII) I'll again aim for 3 secs but usually maintain full throttle or near it.
If I'm being pursued by a mission pirate or whatever and I don't want to get interdicted in any ship I'll carry on at full throttle to around 4 secs eta, throttle back & make a fairly sharp 90deg turn towards the destination, such that I loop around the destination with the NPC flitting back & forth either side of me (ie they never get a good enough angle to interdict).
I enjoy that final approach, like golf it's easy to learn the rules & you can spend the rest of time perfecting your technique
Good luck with learning this - it makes supercruise way more interesting [1], and you can usually save at least a couple of minutes per trip.
Planetary approaches can also be significantly optimised over the 6 second approach - two key things to consider in addition to the space approaches:
1) Travelling parallel to the surface gives a 250% maximum speed boost - but even a degree or two off loses most of it
2) The 200m/s speed limit for orbital cruise is a vertical speed limit. If you're going near-parallel to the surface you can quite safely hit the orbital cruise line at 1Mm/s and then use orbital cruise itself for the rest of the braking
Have fun!
[1] My two big complaints about supercruise: the final approach is the only interesting bit, so once the destination is more than about 300Ls away it's all the same for the rest ; the way Frontier have developed it - and especially supercruise assist - actively discourages finding out about the interesting bit.
Planetary approaches can also be significantly optimised over the 6 second approach - two key things to consider in addition to the space approaches:
1) Travelling parallel to the surface gives a 250% maximum speed boost - but even a degree or two off loses most of it
2) The 200m/s speed limit for orbital cruise is a vertical speed limit. If you're going near-parallel to the surface you can quite safely hit the orbital cruise line at 1Mm/s and then use orbital cruise itself for the rest of the braking
Have fun!
[1] My two big complaints about supercruise: the final approach is the only interesting bit, so once the destination is more than about 300Ls away it's all the same for the rest ; the way Frontier have developed it - and especially supercruise assist - actively discourages finding out about the interesting bit.
It is not the loop of shame, it is the loop of inspection! 
Dude in the 2nd vid must have super fast reflexes, he can start the "Helix of Death" exactly at 0.05s and disengage it at 0.04s.
50 ms and 40ms wow
50 ms and 40ms wow
Or you could use the Supercruise Assist high-speed dropout.
Set SA throttle control to manual, approach at 100%, drop to 75% at 7 seconds, wait a bit (until maybe 20ls out), then go back to 100% throttle until the countdown reaches 4 seconds, then drop back to 75% throttle to re-engage SA. Seconds later you will auto-drop at your destination (don't try this with a planet, only a station, beacon etc).
Set SA throttle control to manual, approach at 100%, drop to 75% at 7 seconds, wait a bit (until maybe 20ls out), then go back to 100% throttle until the countdown reaches 4 seconds, then drop back to 75% throttle to re-engage SA. Seconds later you will auto-drop at your destination (don't try this with a planet, only a station, beacon etc).
To add to @Maro-Val's video, here's a video comparing all four common techniques:
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gy4zca1yjKw
Supercruise IMO is one of most underrated parts of Elite Dangerous, and the time savings can really add up. It was even better before Frontier nerfed the effects of gravity wells during the Premium Beta, though. It required better navigation, it was faster due to being able to take advantage of the greater effects of gravity while braking, and it created terrain in the system, so it created opportunities to ambush the unwary. But the players who insisted on using the slowest technique complained about how "slow" travel was, Frontier listened, and here we are today.
- "Blue Zone" (aka supercruise assist)
- 7 second rule
- Loop of "Shame"
- Gravity Braking
Supercruise IMO is one of most underrated parts of Elite Dangerous, and the time savings can really add up. It was even better before Frontier nerfed the effects of gravity wells during the Premium Beta, though. It required better navigation, it was faster due to being able to take advantage of the greater effects of gravity while braking, and it created terrain in the system, so it created opportunities to ambush the unwary. But the players who insisted on using the slowest technique complained about how "slow" travel was, Frontier listened, and here we are today.
It is not the loop of shame, it is the loop of inspection!
It's what was once called "a glorious arc". A whole different mindset.
It's actually possible to approach at 0:05 but you have to constantly pull the throttle down just enough or you will hit 0:04 and overshoot. You also can't approach at 0:05 as soon as you hit 0:05 because at that speed the margin of error is so small that you can't go over for even a second or you'll hit 0:04 and overshoot at high speed. At that distance though, you can usually save it by turning off.
It's always better to approach at high speed and swing around with the gravity with a speedy ship.
And 0:07 is not the thing. Why did that become common knowledge? Was old SC slower? 0:06 is the thing. 0:05 is the the thing at half distance or 80% distance on far-flung stations that have the more-forgiving drop zone, and 0:04 is the thing at about 20-30% distance.
It's always better to approach at high speed and swing around with the gravity with a speedy ship.
And 0:07 is not the thing. Why did that become common knowledge? Was old SC slower? 0:06 is the thing. 0:05 is the the thing at half distance or 80% distance on far-flung stations that have the more-forgiving drop zone, and 0:04 is the thing at about 20-30% distance.
Yaffle
Volunteer Moderator
The 0:07 came from the early guide to supercruising, alas I forgot who the poster was (Fangrim possibly?). It's stuck around because it does work, and is reliable. Since those heady early days it's been refined significantly - principally by the buckyballers - to the techniques above.
Occasionally you can achieve a stable orbit and go round in circles forever.
What I do is go full blast at the station and when you get the ''too fast..slow down'' message I slam the ships nose down and throttle off and when one speed segment drops, I pull the nose back up and centre on the station with the throttle set just before the indicator mark goes blue. (Works every time but REALLY should only work with a vehicle/ship in an atmosphere as theoretically you are using the broadside bulk of the vehicle/ship as an non-aerodynamic drogue to slow you down on approach*).. whatever. o7
* For continued ''immersion'' we can pretend retro's mounted on the top of our ships are all firing to slow us down in the nose-down-attitude.......
Last edited: