Chasing Comets

[DeathFish]

Well why not?

They are out there, I see them all the time, and if I had a special build of ship, that was no good for anything else, but had a scarily high top speed, I could catch one and harvest the G5s that we know all comets are packed to the gills with.

But the process would be extremely risky. Scarily so. Even a slight mismatch in speed next to a comet doing a billion miles a second, and I am toast in my stripped down ship (to get the speed, I can't even have shields, nothing but the basics, and a limpet controller, and a small cargo rack). However. if I do manage to catch one, and with my third hand I manage to shoot a comet charge limpet into it, I can blow the mother to bits in a massive explosion that makes depth charging an asteroid look like amateur night. They will see me doing it in the next sector. Space will rock.

Then—assuming I wasn't too close when it went bang--I have to drop out of supercruise, track down the location of the fragments, harvest them (while defending myself from pirates and thargoids and the rest) and I am done.

Fdev, are you up for this? Do you dare to create a new class, the elite of the elite, the comet chasers?

 

[Para Handy]

You do know that those are not actually comets?

They are ships in supercruise.

Comets in the real world don't travel at FTL speeds.

 

[ALEX CAOS]

there i a bug right now for Installtion and Cz the fly about 3m/s near planets.

So you simulate it for your own fun, btw you too slow

 

[Florenus]

Fdev, are you up for this? Do you dare to create a new class, the elite of the elite, the comet chasers?

But they're already in game. Equipped with interdictors.
The elite of the elite [haha]

 

[Hanerib]

There actually are invisible comets in game, they are pretty cool obscure hobby.

 

[ZAKALWEINC8876]

You do know that those are not actually comets?

They are ships in supercruise.

Comets in the real world don't travel at FTL speeds.

I must admit for the first few days of playing i thought “this game looks great, apart from the comets, they look pants and change direction randomly”

Then after a while i facepalmed

o7

 

[Sylow]

I must admit for the first few days of playing i thought “this game looks great, apart from the comets, they look pants and change direction randomly”

Then after a while i facepalmed

o7

Don't worry. You are not alone.

 

[Vardaugas]

They need to be big enough for a mass lock, then you can ride a comet. I imagine it to be a rather hazardous environment.

 

[Kingtutuk]

They need to be big enough for a mass lock, then you can ride a comet. I imagine it to be a rather hazardous environment.

Would be fun though

 

[DeathFish]

You do know that those are not actually comets?

They are ships in supercruise.

Comets in the real world don't travel at FTL speeds.

There are ships in supercruise and there are comets. Watch the tails.

 

[DeathFish]

They need to be big enough for a mass lock, then you can ride a comet. I imagine it to be a rather hazardous environment.

That would be the whole idea - it would be extremely hazardous, but would have huge rewards. Even getting it right on be would be worth a dozen rebuys. No margin for error at all. Huge, gratifying explosion when you plant the bomb.

FX: dons goggles.

 

[Andovar]

You had me until "comet charge limpet"
Please, no more limpet types.

Anyway, yeah, it would be nice for comets to make at least a visual appearance in the game at some point.

 

[DeathFish]

Take a good look at them. I totally agree that there are ships in supercruise, those are the lights without tails. But there are also comets, which have tails, which always face away from the nearest star. Took me some time to realise there was a difference.

And hey, if the bright lights with tails aren’t comets, then we need some.

 

[Bryan K]

There are ships in supercruise and there are comets. Watch the tails.

Nope. Just ships in supercruise. The “tails” look different because of varying distances and trajectories.

FDev have already stated that comets have not been visually integrated into the game. You’ve unfortunately made the oldest mistake since trying to land on a pad backwards.

You can even target them when you get close enough, and see that they’re ships.

 

[DeathFish]

You had me until "comet charge limpet"
Please, no more limpet types.

Anyway, yeah, it would be nice for comets to make at least a visual appearance in the game at some point.

Ok, so we have a special comet gun, that fires a special charge... and you have to close to under 2mm but not less than 1mm or you get blown to hell too when the round strikes (-:

 

[DeathFish]

Nope. Just ships in supercruise. The “tails” look different because of varying distances and trajectories.

FDev have already stated that comets have not been visually integrated into the game. You’ve unfortunately made the oldest mistake since trying to land on a pad backwards.

Then plan b, we need comets to chase. Not too much of a problem introducing them, I reckon. Doesn’t everyone land on pads backwards these days?

 

[DeathFish]

But they're already in game. Equipped with interdictors.
The elite of the elite [haha]

Yay, sure, but ships are reasonably easy to sneak up on. This would be a case of get your judgment right and you might get a shot, get it wrong and you wouldn’t even be close.

 

[Limoncello Lizard]

You have to be Chuck Norris to catch one

 

[Bryan K]

Then plan b, we need comets to chase. Not too much of a problem introducing them, I reckon. Doesn’t everyone land on pads backwards these days?

Only those who don’t understand the hologram.

Trouble with comets is that the truly interesting ones (with comae) would require complex atmospherics, and physics found therein, which we still don’t really have.

They’d also require gameplay. Chasing them doesn’t really count, since the chase would just be flying to them in supercruise and entering their frame of reference. No comet moves slowly enough to be caught up with in normal flight. So the only gameplay outside of selfies would be either mining them or landing on them, and both require time, and that hasn’t really been a priority for FDev for the last few years.

 

[Para Handy]

There are ships in supercruise and there are comets. Watch the tails.

Have you ever actually seen a comet?

I mean a real actual comet up there in the sky.

They do not travel at FTL speed - they hang in your sky barely moving from day to day.

Sorry to break your dreams.