Can you orbit planets and moons?
- Thread starter Squizzle
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Hm..getting to a low orbit when the planetary expansion comes some time after release would be a godsend imo, for a number of reasons (from using the exploration feature set to get close and map or scan a planets surface to providing the first point for entering a re-entry transition procedure to get to the surface).
From the little I know, I think FDEV is not planning on something like that though. It may be a technical thing that has to do with the skybox that remains fixed whatever the frame of influence is.
From the little I know, I think FDEV is not planning on something like that though. It may be a technical thing that has to do with the skybox that remains fixed whatever the frame of influence is.
If you're in an instance with a space station and are at zero relative speed, then you're in orbit of whatever it's orbiting. Similarly for planetary ring objects, or cargo cans found randomly. Probably works the same for instanced capital ships I guess. Not sure how far away from the other object you can get and still maintain that "orbit", mind you.
It's not a real simulated orbit of course. You don't shift your orbital path when you accelerate. Instead you and the other object are treated as a single "orbiting" object that's actually on a rail around the planet or moon. If it were a real orbit, you could point yourself away from direction of the orbit, burn hard and then fall into the planet by gravity alone.
The real issue is how ship speeds are handled- always capped below 500m/s relative to the nearest object. That's fine if the nearest object is a space station, but if it's a planet then you're probably not at orbital velocity and should be falling towards it.
Beat me to it. I think the only way you can orbit a planet at the moment is to drop into 'real' space at a station or other point of reference that is orbiting something.
Really?, wow...hadnt noticed will def check out...this thread reminds me of something else that would be great to have in game which is 'match speed' to objects or 'orbit target' Automatically I mean, perhaps by upgrade? Any word on such a thing?
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While I can understand the reference frame shift, I think FD might be missing a trick here. Supercruise could be used as the mechanism for altering your frame of reference (as hinted by the name of the drive...), with the result of getting your exit wrong leaving you in the wrong frame (with potentially disastrous consequences).
This is effectively what we're doing when we approach a station in supercruise. We get to within 1000km of the thing with our relative speed low enough and we disengage from SC. It'd be more immersive -- and clearer, I think -- if our speed was shown as relative to our target. To exit SC cleanly you need to be travelling at a low relative speed and within a specific distance.
The reason I think this would be better than the current implementation is that at the moment it's pretty jarring when you transition from one frame to another. If you're approaching a planetary ring, you see the rings suddenly stop rotating as you enter its frame. It'd be much neater (and more skilful) if you had to match relative speed with the rotation of the rings to be able to drop out correctly. If you didn't, you'd be faced with some extremely fast moving rocks!
This would also be useful for the situation where we want to land on a planet. You'd have to match your supercruise exit velocity to the rotation of the planet (and position yourself appropriately) to be in a position to rendezvous with the dock.
This is effectively what we're doing when we approach a station in supercruise. We get to within 1000km of the thing with our relative speed low enough and we disengage from SC. It'd be more immersive -- and clearer, I think -- if our speed was shown as relative to our target. To exit SC cleanly you need to be travelling at a low relative speed and within a specific distance.
The reason I think this would be better than the current implementation is that at the moment it's pretty jarring when you transition from one frame to another. If you're approaching a planetary ring, you see the rings suddenly stop rotating as you enter its frame. It'd be much neater (and more skilful) if you had to match relative speed with the rotation of the rings to be able to drop out correctly. If you didn't, you'd be faced with some extremely fast moving rocks!
This would also be useful for the situation where we want to land on a planet. You'd have to match your supercruise exit velocity to the rotation of the planet (and position yourself appropriately) to be in a position to rendezvous with the dock.
Nope
So the only way to orbit one body is to be within the island instance of an object that already orbits said body? And by dropping from supercruise at a random location near a planet, you'd magically float in that position relative to the planet, forever?
That'd be the only way to do it, and it still doesn't behave like a real orbit. Would probably suit OPs purposes for "parking" though.
Real orbit mechanics would mean re-writing the physics of ED from the ground up to work as Newtonian (like FE2 and FFE, but even more complex), and would completely change the nature of the game.
You done gone mentioned the "N" word!
You done gone mentioned the "N" word!
Very interestingly...
