Dot to do navigation?

Agent 57 · Jul 31, 2014

Are we restricted to predefined routes?

At first I thought it was fuel but if I can jump from point A to point B then immediately to point C without refuelling - why can't I go direct point A to point C?

Is it the ship range? In which case why can't I point my ship at C, jump half way then jump again?

This is Elite, mother of all openworldyness ***, what am I doing wrong?

The way I'm playing right now feels more like Outrun when I was really expecting GTA3

nicomak · Jul 31, 2014

Agent 57 said:
Are we restricted to predefined routes?

At first I thought it was fuel but if I can jump from point A to point B then immediately to point C without refuelling - why can't I go direct point A to point C?

Is it the ship range? In which case why can't I point my ship at C, jump half way then jump again?

This is Elite, mother of all openworldyness ***, what am I doing wrong?

The way I'm playing right now feels more like Outrun when I was really expecting GTA3

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1F2WNaMJeONfvjxfea2zDFj9I7W_hVwmyS-fKM4W2UNg/edit#gid=0

your ship has hyperspace range and since you cant go outside the 55system bubble you wont find a way to exit this area above and reach every 55 systems with your first sidewinder. if your ship range is 7 you cant jump to a system 8LY away, but you can do 2 jumps instead, as long as they're all bellow 7LY. you're also limited by your mass. you cant always do a jump if you have more than n canisters, as shown by the red numbers on that graph. And it has to be System To System only. Who knows how hyperdrive is supposed to work, it may have to be directed toward a Massive object or it simply fails to engage itself for whatever unknown technical reason.

I think there is something in the ddf about automated multiple-jumps.

buy a new ship and you should have a different range.
later, you will be able to modify/replace your engine.

That's quite similar to what Frontier had, except for cargo/mass which wasnt taken into account.

Joe Spivey · Jul 31, 2014

Your jump drive relies on there being a gravity well at the other end to 'catch' you (this is why you come out near the target sun). If there is no gravity well at the far end the jump drive cannot work, hence you cannot jump to 'nothing' and then jump again.

Agent 57 · Jul 31, 2014

Joe Spivey said:
Your jump drive relies on there being a gravity well at the other end to 'catch' you (this is why you come out near the target sun). If there is no gravity well at the far end the jump drive cannot work, hence you cannot jump to 'nothing' and then jump again.

Ah ok. I suppose that makes sense. Is that the case for supercruise too? Could we supercruise to the middle of nowhere, to be in range of point c, and jump from there?

It just feels really restrictive to me, all this space but we can only actually travel to set locations. I feel like i'm 'driving' to a series of check points when all I want to do is drive on the grass.

fireFly1000 · Jul 31, 2014

You can enter supercruise and go wherever you like.

Enride · Jul 31, 2014

Agent 57 said:
Ah ok. I suppose that makes sense. Is that the case for supercruise too? Could we supercruise to the middle of nowhere, to be in range of point c, and jump from there?

It just feels really restrictive to me, all this space but we can only actually travel to set locations. I feel like i'm 'driving' to a series of check points when all I want to do is drive on the grass.

You can go out into "no mans space" with supercruise but it will take a LONG time and you will find absolutely nothing out there.

I also believe that getting to the middle between two starsystems with supercruise will drain your fueltank even more then doing the extra relay jump to reach said system.

With better spikedrives and bigger fuelcells you will be able to jump greater distances but you will always come to situations where you have to make one or more relay jumps to reach your target, with greater reach comes greater aims.

So all in all, everything ingame makes sense by lore and "physics" and by that you will be forces to follow certain routes based on your equipment and position in the galaxy.

Neo-ST · Jul 31, 2014

fireFly1000 said:
You can enter supercruise and go wherever you like.

Yeah and die of old age trying to reach the nearest system...

peteuplink · Jul 31, 2014

The jump drive system in this game seems awfully similar to the one used in a sci-i story I read years ago (may have been the Nights Dawn Trilogy books by Peter F. Hamilton). In those stories a ship would be unable to do a 14LY jump if it's engine range was only 8LY, but it could do two 7LY jumps if there was a system inbetween it's current location and it's destination, and if it had the fuel. However it couldn't jump 7LY into empty space and then another 7LY to it's destination as the ship needed to lock onto a gravity source for jump terminus stability.

Something like that anyway.

Dante80 · Jul 31, 2014

peteuplink said:
The jump drive system in this game seems awfully similar to the one used in a sci-i story I read years ago (may have been the Nights Dawn Trilogy books by Peter F. Hamilton). In those stories a ship would be unable to do a 14LY jump if it's engine range was only 8LY, but it could do two 7LY jumps if there was a system inbetween it's current location and it's destination, and if it had the fuel. However it couldn't jump 7LY into empty space and then another 7LY to it's destination as the ship needed to lock onto a gravity source for jump terminus stability.

Something like that anyway.

Welcome to the Elite games. doing that since 1984..XD