Newcomer / Intro Gravity Wells and Speed

[HarlinQuinnX]

Hi, Commanders!

I understand the reason (and science) behind speed going from 50% throttle to 300% throttle when entering or slingshotting through gravity wells. What I can't quite grasp is how to best manage it. I see a lot of posts saying "manage your speed," "set throttle in the blue," and the like, but that doesn't seem to make any difference. The only way I get out of the "SLOW DOWN!" mode is to bank 90 degrees or more (and even then I have to do it multiple times while on approach on occasion). Is there something I am missing? Is there a better way? It really sucks when you're on approach to a station, get lined up with the mail-slot side (according to sensors), then suddenly you're rocketing towards it too fast and have to change trajectory, and now you no longer have that optimal angle when you drop from SC.

 

[Rick6549]

When the timer hits 7 seconds, slow down to the blue section. If the timer ticks back up make it say 7 again, then slow down, follow until you can drop out.

 

[HarlinQuinnX]

That I always do. I keep throttle in the blue at all times once I get to the 7- to 10-second mark, adjusting accordingly. I will still, on occasion, suddenly and drastically accelerate, requiring me to break off and re-align. I also have this happen while on approach to planets. What I was hoping was that there was maybe some trick I was missing beyond just keeping the throttle in the blue and breaking off vector if suddenly you get the "SLOW DOWN" warning.

 

[Ashnak]

The SLOW DOWN is highly misleading - it doesn't mean that you should slow down, it means that you are slowed down (due to flying through an area of higher gravity than your FSD can handle at that speed).

If you want to approach a station, the safe way is to set the throttle to the middle of the blue and leave it there. Slightly faster is to only throttle down when your ETA drops to seven (7) seconds. 6 still works, 5 will require some fast action on your side to slow down a bit more. Still faster, but requiring quite a bit of training, is to leave the throttle on full and use the planet to brake. If you get it just right, you'll be slowed down just enough. If you get too close, you're stuck in the gravity well. If you're too far away, you'll overshoot - so that approcah is specific for each station.

Furrycat made a nice comparison of the most common approach techniques for the BRC in a video once:

 

[Tyres O'Flaherty]

As an aside, slow down can mean "you must slow down now" or it can mean "you are being slowed down".

It's all context.

Edit: ninja'd!

 

[Rick6549]

That I always do. I keep throttle in the blue at all times once I get to the 7- to 10-second mark, adjusting accordingly. I will still, on occasion, suddenly and drastically accelerate, requiring me to break off and re-align. I also have this happen while on approach to planets. What I was hoping was that there was maybe some trick I was missing beyond just keeping the throttle in the blue and breaking off vector if suddenly you get the "SLOW DOWN" warning.

The slow down warning is telling you that you are slowing down, it isnt an instruction. It goes away when you get away from the gravity well and thats when you start speeding up.

 

[HarlinQuinnX]

In my experience, the only time* I get the "SLOW DOWN" in red is when I am approaching something I have targetted, regardless of distance, and suddenly start accelerating (since gravity wells don't appear to be visible I assume I passed into or through one). I get the part about coming in for a landing, and I think that is the only part you all are catching (no offense intended). Allow me to give an example that just happened to me in the game.

I am doing a bit of exploring on my way out to the 5,000 LY point to unlock an engineer. I jumped into a system, scooped fuel, ran the FSS, and found a planet worth mapping about 1200 LS out. I set the destination in the system panel, line up, and put the throttle at about 75%, which is about the middle of the blue. With about 200 LY to go and no nearby stars or planets (other than the one I am flying towards), I suddenly begin accelerating wildly (throttle position has not changed) and the "SLOW DOWN" warning comes up. At this point, I cut throttle (it makes no difference in the acceleration, but slows me fast after the next step) and dive until I am perpendicular (90-degrees-ish) to my original trajectory. Then and only then does the SLOW DOWN warning go away, and my ship begins to decelerate. Now I put the throttle back into the blue and bank 180-degrees to line back up with the planet I had intended to map. I get to within 10 LS (because I'm scanning, not landing, and the planet is not landable anyway) and drop the throttle to 50% to slow my approach, and the intention is to cut to 0 once I am within .25 to .45 LS, depending on the size of the planet, for DSS use. However, cruising in slowly, I suddenly get the SLOW DOWN and I begin rocketing forward again, requiring me to bank out about 90 degrees in order to slow down once more and re-approach. This time I don't experience any sudden acceleration.

There has to be another way to decelerate beyond banking out then re-aligning.

*I understand and admit I get the message if I am blatantly going too fast for what I am trying to do (like dock), or landing, but I mostly see it when the sudden acceleration occurs. Yes, I see that technically my speed is dropping according to the numerical readout at the top of the gauge, but the throttle gauge fills completely, the ship appears to speed based on the environment, and there is no slowing down.

EDIT: I also understand what you all are trying to tell me with regards to landing. I do actually follow that procedure, as that was one of the first things I looked up when I started to play. I do, however, randomly accelerate while doing so on occasion, which is the crux of my issue.

 

[wetwire]

Try ignoring the message.
When you encounter a gravity well, If you watch your Supercruise speed of (light) "c" it should be dropping drastically. Your throttle indicator will shoot up past the blue despite not having changed your physical throttle position.
Picture it like driving a car through deep water. When you hit the gravity well it has a maximum speed limit and will put a drag on your engines which will sound like they are over revving, you will slow down and the "slow down" message will appear. once your speed drops to the acceptable "speed limit" of the gravity well the engine noise will stop and you will stop rapid decelerating. Assuming your not putting the peddle to the metal (or throttle in this case) and instead leaving it in the blue zone, you will slow down just fine without having to hard bank or turn away.

 

[HarlinQuinnX]

Try ignoring the message.
When you encounter a gravity well, If you watch your Supercruise speed of (light) "c" it should be dropping drastically. Your throttle indicator will shoot up past the blue despite not having changed your physical throttle position.
Picture it like driving a car through deep water. When you hit the gravity well it has a maximum speed limit and will put a drag on your engines which will sound like they are over revving, you will slow down and the "slow down" message will appear. once your speed drops to the acceptable "speed limit" of the gravity well the engine noise will stop and you will stop rapid decelerating. Assuming your not putting the peddle to the metal (or throttle in this case) and instead leaving it in the blue zone, you will slow down just fine without having to hard bank or turn away.

I get it, and the analogy makes sense, I just don't get why if I do what everyone suggests I still overshoot like no tomorrow.

 

[Para Handy]

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[Para Handy]

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[HarlinQuinnX]

Set a keybind to "75% Throttle" - engage that at (or before) 0:06 ttg and you will never overshoot.

That's exactly what I do. I set throttle to 75% (I have a HOTAS, but I do have a bind to set throttle to 75%), and on occasion, I get the whole SLOW DOWN thing, and while I understand it is a warning, not an instruction, 99% of the time I blow right on past whatever I was attempting to approach.

I don't mean to sound ungrateful or argumentative to anyone or anything presented, I am simply not having the effect and experience as I see it described everywhere. If I am able, ad it happens again on my way to something I won't pancake against (planets), I'll try to post a video. maybe there's something I'm drastically missing.

 

[wetwire]

Yeah a video of the situation should help. A visual aid would help quite a bit, because just biased on your description i was trying to picture it in my head and being 10ls away at 50% throttle right after a loop and still getting pulled so hard you have to turn course seems strange.

 

[Para Handy]

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[aRJay]

If you have bound a 75% throttle setting and use that the overshoot shouldn’t happen however if you move your throttle lever after that or it slips then that will override the bound setting and you won’t get the auto throttle effect.

I see the Slow Down information message, you know it’s information because it is in red all instructions are in blow like the disengage message, quite often as I pass asteroid clusters as I leave the star and if I look at my speed I notice it drops only to recover after I get away from the gravity well the sound the engines are making isn’t acceleration but more like the sound a car makes when you select a lower gear to try to keep your speed on a hill.

You can demonstrate to yourself that Slow Down is unrelated to a targeted destination by cruising through the moon system of a planet once you have your speed up to 5c or more with no destination chosen you will get the Slow Down messages as you get to near anything.

 

[Dommarraa]

The ships clever automatic gearing uses the targeted bodies gravity well to calculate exactly how much juice or breaks are required to keep you at target throttle, and most of the time the 75% throttle advice works fine.
However, in a few situations, the targeted body is not the only body who's gravity is having a big effect. The the ships calculations are wrong, and everything gets out of hand. Examples are: approaching close moons of gas giants, or pairs of planets. It is certainly pretty rare, and rare enough for the 75% advice to be nailed on correct, but like all rules, isn't 100% correct.
If you find a station where 75 still gives the slow down message, check out how you approach it, as it is perfectly possible for it to work depending on the relative position of the effecting body.

 

[Ant hill]

(since gravity wells don't appear to be visible I assume I passed into or through one)

Yep. I get this a lot. Wish I knew what was causing it. Sometimes you get this effect and it's not immediately obvious what the issue is. I never stop to check the map and try to find out though.
Also I think you are course correcting as the norm to the slow down message. I don't ever change my trajectory, just cruise on through. Why bother?
I had always thought the loop was never such a bad result either. Despite its common name it's s reasonably quick way of getting to your destination. The video above demonstrates this.
No offense to this great forum and it's fantastic members but our mystery slow downs you might have to investigate yourself. Please return with an answer.

 

[Para Handy]

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[Factabulous]

Wish I knew what was causing it. Sometimes you get this effect and it's not immediately obvious what the issue is. I never stop to check the map and try to find out though.

No offense to this great forum and it's fantastic members but our mystery slow downs you might have to investigate yourself. Please return with an answer.

Sounds like you are the one who is bothered so maybe you are the one who should investigate and report back - good luck! o7

 

[Dommarraa]

Understanding speed control and gravity wells is non-trivial, but not rocket science (even though lots of people get it wrong)
Explaining it on the other hand, in a clear and complete manner, I have found impossible.

I tried to come up with a car analogy, that goes along the lines of the Gravity Well being the gas pedal, and the ship throttle being a set of variable gears, and it works so far, but the analogy soon gets so tortured, convoluted or has so many caveats, that it ends up being pointless. It really frustrates me, as one of my special tech skills is being able to identify how code works by just looking at the results, but in this case, I draw a total blank.