Hi, Overall the orbital flight and glide mechanics are good on approach and have some nice tactile feedback, but they can sometimes feel very arbitrary and punitive when you are trying to accomplish anything short of the standard 'descend to port' routine. It's great how you can extend the glide by 'keeping your nose up'. And it keeps you from face planting the earth when you pitch too low. The problems become obvious when taking off for general planetary exploration, or point to point travel on a single planet. In summary, its fairly hostile to 'near surface' planetary travel and forces a player back to a high speed/orbit to achieve anything.
PROBLEM:
Frame Shift Escape Vector
The need to always turn your ship 90deg up when you really want to fly closer to the horizon is off putting. It makes sense at very low altitudes only.
SOLUTION:
The escape vector becomes progressively closer to the horizon with altitude. It is just simply too high. There are some 'FS mass lock' etc mechanics here, but the altitude needs to be pushed down. You can travel out of mass lock at a gentle 10deg angle, and still need to pitch vertically in order to actually engage FS. Maybe those two should be aligned.
PROBLEM: HUD Pitch red zone
I get it. If we wanted to face plant a planet in FS we would all just play FE2
. The HUD red zone protects us from this, especially as we approach at high speeds. But when taking off and engaging FS in those early moments, it becomes an unforgiving exercise in not dipping your head too low, lest you drop FS and start over. This is compounded by the fact that this is exactly the natural action to do once you engage FS (unless you are leaving the planet), with your ship pointing up at the escape vector, the next move is to look at that planet you are hoping to traverse.
SOLUTION: Simply add a warning flashy/sound and timer when we dip into red. Maybe give us 2-5sec depending on how close we are to the ground. Extra depth, more fluid and sensory and allowing flight mechanics to not feel literally tied to a line on the screen.
PROBLEM: Orbital Flight (HUD blue zone)
Another good mechanic on approach, but punishing when climbing to altitude. When entering FS the orbital flight band from a low speed/alt its usually the case you want to go faster than your initial attempt and need to climb. Pitching up of course results in an immediate slowdown. So this becomes another excercise in point your ship vertically in order to achieve anything. It will pay dividends of course as the extra altitude will greatly speed up the orbital flight band. But why this zig zag guess work?
SOLUTION: The HUD 'blue zone' should have a much more progressive falloff when pitching up, especially at lower altitudes. There should be no speed penalty at all for pointing away from a planet, and no need to fly in a staircase pattern.
And a mention for 'Too low for glide'
Altitude cutoff too high. You can be too low for glide at an altitude significant higher than a typical glide on entry might begin.
I understand there are some conservative choices here to make sure players do not head butt planets, murder the game engine (with high speed/low alt flight) and also some loading related aspects. But the above suggestions are largely about balancing for feel, than doing something new. Cheers!
PROBLEM:
Frame Shift Escape Vector
The need to always turn your ship 90deg up when you really want to fly closer to the horizon is off putting. It makes sense at very low altitudes only.
SOLUTION:
The escape vector becomes progressively closer to the horizon with altitude. It is just simply too high. There are some 'FS mass lock' etc mechanics here, but the altitude needs to be pushed down. You can travel out of mass lock at a gentle 10deg angle, and still need to pitch vertically in order to actually engage FS. Maybe those two should be aligned.
PROBLEM: HUD Pitch red zone
I get it. If we wanted to face plant a planet in FS we would all just play FE2
. The HUD red zone protects us from this, especially as we approach at high speeds. But when taking off and engaging FS in those early moments, it becomes an unforgiving exercise in not dipping your head too low, lest you drop FS and start over. This is compounded by the fact that this is exactly the natural action to do once you engage FS (unless you are leaving the planet), with your ship pointing up at the escape vector, the next move is to look at that planet you are hoping to traverse.SOLUTION: Simply add a warning flashy/sound and timer when we dip into red. Maybe give us 2-5sec depending on how close we are to the ground. Extra depth, more fluid and sensory and allowing flight mechanics to not feel literally tied to a line on the screen.
PROBLEM: Orbital Flight (HUD blue zone)
Another good mechanic on approach, but punishing when climbing to altitude. When entering FS the orbital flight band from a low speed/alt its usually the case you want to go faster than your initial attempt and need to climb. Pitching up of course results in an immediate slowdown. So this becomes another excercise in point your ship vertically in order to achieve anything. It will pay dividends of course as the extra altitude will greatly speed up the orbital flight band. But why this zig zag guess work?
SOLUTION: The HUD 'blue zone' should have a much more progressive falloff when pitching up, especially at lower altitudes. There should be no speed penalty at all for pointing away from a planet, and no need to fly in a staircase pattern.
And a mention for 'Too low for glide'
Altitude cutoff too high. You can be too low for glide at an altitude significant higher than a typical glide on entry might begin.
I understand there are some conservative choices here to make sure players do not head butt planets, murder the game engine (with high speed/low alt flight) and also some loading related aspects. But the above suggestions are largely about balancing for feel, than doing something new. Cheers!
Last edited: