Elite Dangerous, its biggest downfall

[Cobramac]

Greetings Commanders

This is all my opinion, based on experience of having played the original elite and all its incarnations including fan made versions such as oolite. I believe I've played most space game, including Freespace, I-War, Freelancer, X series and all the other titles that tried to quench my thirst for Elite and the world it opened up back in the 80s.
I came to this game as an avid space sim fan and an elite fanboy, having played this continuing to play this game in the hope that it remains fun and addictive for a long time.
David Braben was always a visionary in my eyes, what he and Ian bell created in Elite was nothing short of a timeless masterpiece of simplicity and innovative game play far beyond what was and thought of back then.
David Braben and Frontier and achieved with Elite dangerous something special and with horizons continue to develop and add the an already amazing space game that rightfully bears the name ELITE, However i believe there is one thing that could be improved that would alter game play in the most profound way reminiscent of the original Elite and turn this behemoth of a game into an unstoppable gaming experience some someone such as myself and friends with whom i've had the pleasure playing with.

SUPERCRUISE



Sadly this is imo one the biggest Achilles heel this game has, It is the one this that totally detaches the players from the superb gameplay that the rest of the game offers. The flight engine in normal space is as close to perfection as one can get imo, the action levels and combat in normal space are really well implemented, the immersive level of the cockpits, the sounds, the stunning vistas of nearby celestial bodies leave one breathless with beauty.
Did i mention the Sounds, can't praise it enough. The docking, the stations, the ships themselves, all so well done its everything i imagined as a child playing the original.



Supercruise destroys all of this for potential gameplay enhancement, interaction is limited in supercruise, one has little to no sense of being in a living breathing universe, this is dramatically even more evident in busy systems. NpCs and Commanders are simple blips on a radar, wizzing past at such speeds that one forgets they even exist, these is little sense of danger, little sense of accomplishment when you make to a station, little to no fear when you travel in Anarchy systems, little to no fear in any system to be honest, even highly populated systems and yes i play in Open.



I humbly ask Frontier Developments and David Braben to bring us closer together, bring back the gameplay that made the original elite such a chest pounding adventure, allow us to fear seeing a group of ships on our radar, wondering if they are pirates, traders, assassins, other commanders and either make a course adjustment to go way around them to avoid them or go close as hell to buzz them.



Npc and player interdictions and a very poor substitute compared to how we all would feel if in system travel was to be done all in regular space. New technology would allow us to have drives that we could push to the limits of their capacity in normal space as long as they do not have mass lock interference just like in the original elite. flying in formation with your friends would be possible, blockades would be possible, there are countless positives of removing supercruise and implement the new drives that allow us to transverse large areas in little to no time as long as they the drives were not masslocked or disabled. The elite fans over at oolite implemented such a system years ago and the game play it allows is astounding, flying past formations of ships on your way to a docking station or planet, placing interactive dynamic player events on route would then be easy, ie police blockade where they are scanning for ships, ambushes, etc etc etc. Escorting Npc Ships from sun to station, or wherever in system.



To close off, i think this is the biggest thing that causes new players and eventually leave the game instead of building their virtual space lives on here. My friends have all but left. There is such potential of your to have a sandbox game that folks with live in for years or even generations, but Supercruise is the hurdle, its the great detractor to the possibilities, no more immersion breaking signal areas to one to drop out of instances, no more vanishing targets from supercruise to normal space and back again in those assassination missions.



I want to wave at my fellow commanders as i pass them on a busy trade lane, offer an escort and stop and chat as we admire each others ships etc etc etc. the only places we have this now is the station instance or the resource sites or the static combat areas.

By all means, you can still have your network limitations of max 32 players per instance, but make normal space and areas of interest all part of normal space, allow us the sandbox to develop the game play that will benefit the entire player base.



I don't believe there are any technical difficulties that Frontier Developments cannot overcome, With David and his team i trust that the words CAN NOT or NOT Possible are never uttered in their Studio with only a question of time and resources.


Please make it happen
For folks such as myself the above changes are worth waiting for no matter the time it takes to implement.
Thank you for reading this.

 

[ZXdunny]

I would like them to change how we discover things in SC. Currently, you only have to kill the engines (drop to 30km/sec) and wait for interesting (or not) things to pop up very close to you. It's like every second or so dice are thrown, and if you get a double six then a new point of interest (signal source) is generated nearby. It doesn't matter what speed you're going - the signal source will be less than a minute's flight away.

Instead, I'd like all interesting stuff generated when the instance is created. Some intelligent placement would be nice - nearby an old CZ for example, or in amongst the asteroids... They can be discovered using the Disco scanner and be marked on the orrery display (which we're still waiting for) so you can choose which source you want to fly off and investigate. As can others - would be great to be able to drop out of SC to find your mates at a signal source you've all chosen beforehand. Occasionally add more sources as old ones are cleared by players.

That would really help immersion, I feel. You could drop out at a wreck and find that someone else has been there... or that pirates are waiting for you. As it is, you know that if you just float about, something will pop up nearby. That breaks immersion for me.

D.

 

[shreddog]

Very well written post. But I think you forget about the scale of the planetary systems. With what you proposed there would be two outcomes, either shrink the distance between planetary objects, or, allow for velocity in normal space be insanely fast, like faster than light, and then what would the difference from supercruise be.. Everything would just be zipping by.

Edit: Oh I forgot to say. I would be in a really bad mood if they reduced planetary systems to the usual arcade size we see in different space games.

 

[Roberto]

allow for velocity in normal space be insanely fast, like faster than light, and then what would the difference from supercruise be.. Everything would just be zipping by.

Indeed. Space is big. Really big. Etc.

 

[Siilk]

I think you have some merits in your post, Cobramac. It may be not as dramatic as you make it sound and not that important when exploring an uninhabited star system but the lack of ship-to-ship interaction in supercruise(only basic scanning and interdiction is available) makes it a rather lackluster experience when it comes to busy systems. And if other ship don't have an FSD interdictor, it cannot even interact with you at all, can't even drop to "normal space" near you if you cancel supercruise if I understand the game mechanics correctly(I assume it will be a different instance for him, even if he will drop at the same location).

But it seems that it's the unavoidable flaw of the game engine that is not actually simulating the whole galaxy(or even an individual star system) as a single coherent space but rather as a "world map"-like galaxy where individual "region map"-like instances of supercruise-flyable star systems are located. And the latter in turn only have persistent instances(or rather sets of instances, they can be different for different players) of "normal" space around the stellar objects; the rest of the system seems to only have a pocket of "normal" space when someone is dropped from supercruise at a random location and in that case it's a dynamically-created instance that will be inaccessible to most players unless they are dropping to a wing member who is there or using a wake scanner to drop to follow another player. E : D gurus, feel free to correct me if I got something wrong, that's just my impression based on the observed game behaviour.

Bottom line: is "supercruise space" a bad thing? I would say so. Does it ruining the game? Not really. Does it makes ship to ship interactions lacking compared to what those could've been with star systems being uniform single-instance areas and ships in supercruise behaving in the same manner as they are under "normal" speed(deployable hardpoints, toggleable flight assist etc)? Sure. Will that be changed? No, I highly doubt that.

 

[Cymek]

Perhaps add in various types of space hazzards that force you to alter direction or face damage. Make space travel dangerous. What about if the pilot module could get sick and has to get to a station to get medical care or he/she can die the equivalent to your ship being destroyed.

 

[Limoncello Lizard]

I think supercruise is a great mechanic, and that it has been implemented well.

 

[diddycarter]

I like the idea of supercruise but its getting really boring right now. its just not fun anymore. and takes wayyy too much time.

 

[Sapyx]

They need something like Supercruise because, as others have stated above, space is too darned big to play in a realistically-scaled universe without it. FE2/FFE used a Newtoninan or "normal space" flight model for in-system travel. In Newtonian flight, "speed" is largely irrelevant; "acceleration" is what gets you places quickly. The ships in FE2/FFE could accelerate at up to 30g (they used some handwavium about gel-filled acceleration pods to explain why the pilots didn't turn to mush at those g-forces), and even then it usually took in-game days to travel from the arrival point to the destination planet. In FE2/FFE, we had individual time controls; in a multiplayer game, everyone must be on the same clock, so individual time controls are ruled out. The only possible answer is therefore a kind of in-system hyperdrive to allow faster-than-light travel, otherwise it would take in-game weeks to fly to Pluto.

The other drawback with Newtonian flight is the technical impossibility of forcing engagement in combat that resembles anything like the combat we currently have in ED. It's simple physics: ships travelling at 0.05 lightspeed in real space would flit past each other in a femtosecond. Velocity-matching someone who didn't want to match velocities with you was pretty much impossible. FE2/FFE "cheated" by magically matching the pirates velocity with yours whenever they got close. And if you wanted to avoid combat altogether, all you needed to do was speed up or slow down just slightly and they'd miss you by millions of kilometres. I barely made it past Competent in FE2 because I avoided all combat I didn't feel like doing; even with the computer "cheating", avoiding an interception was all too easy. I routinely flew into Anarchy systems and arrived safely without firing a shot, despite there being dozens of pirates trying to catch me. With velocity-matching interceptions impossible, "dogfight-style" combat is also impossible; they'd be forced to reduce combat to firing lasers and missiles at radar screen blips from a million kilometres away using fully automated computer-controlled weapons, because human skill and reaction times simply can't cut it at those ranges and velocities. And who in the current pewpew crowd would be satisfied with "realistic space combat" like that?

I wasn't on board during primary beta testing, but as I understand it, they tested a couple of different flight model options and Supercruise was by far the most popular option.

 

[h347h]

They need something like Supercruise because, as others have stated above, space is too darned big to play in a realistically-scaled universe without it. FE2/FFE used a Newtoninan or "normal space" flight model for in-system travel. In Newtonian flight, "speed" is largely irrelevant; "acceleration" is what gets you places quickly. The ships in FE2/FFE could accelerate at up to 30g (they used some handwavium about gel-filled acceleration pods to explain why the pilots didn't turn to mush at those g-forces), and even then it usually took in-game days to travel from the arrival point to the destination planet. In FE2/FFE, we had individual time controls; in a multiplayer game, everyone must be on the same clock, so individual time controls are ruled out. The only possible answer is therefore a kind of in-system hyperdrive to allow faster-than-light travel, otherwise it would take in-game weeks to fly to Pluto.

The other drawback with Newtonian flight is the technical impossibility of forcing engagement in combat that resembles anything like the combat we currently have in ED. It's simple physics: ships travelling at 0.05 lightspeed in real space would flit past each other in a femtosecond. Velocity-matching someone who didn't want to match velocities with you was pretty much impossible. FE2/FFE "cheated" by magically matching the pirates velocity with yours whenever they got close. And if you wanted to avoid combat altogether, all you needed to do was speed up or slow down just slightly and they'd miss you by millions of kilometres. I barely made it past Competent in FE2 because I avoided all combat I didn't feel like doing; even with the computer "cheating", avoiding an interception was all too easy. I routinely flew into Anarchy systems and arrived safely without firing a shot, despite there being dozens of pirates trying to catch me. With velocity-matching interceptions impossible, "dogfight-style" combat is also impossible; they'd be forced to reduce combat to firing lasers and missiles at radar screen blips from a million kilometres away using fully automated computer-controlled weapons, because human skill and reaction times simply can't cut it at those ranges and velocities. And who in the current pewpew crowd would be satisfied with "realistic space combat" like that?

I wasn't on board during primary beta testing, but as I understand it, they tested a couple of different flight model options and Supercruise was by far the most popular option.

SCs alternative is terrible. Then you look at Infinity Battlescape and just shake your head. Combat for that game looks like the most boring thing I can think of and its going to be the majority of the game. Wait let me see if it was even funded.(It looks very close to reaching funded but it won't get any stretch goals, only way I would have touched it is if it nailed all the stretch goals. Not a good time of the year to hold a kickstarter IMHO)

Super cruise, instancing, and Wing Commander style combat is the way to go.

 

[WR3ND]

I think supercruise is a great mechanic, and that it has been implemented well.

I agree. I'm just not too keen on the comet like animation (or lack there of) of other ships in supercruise. I'd prefer trail lines that fade out over time and actually follow the path other ships take. Also, contrary to the OP's post, getting interdicted in supercruise is really the only risk the game even has, as all the other times you are willingly choosing to go into combat.

Even though I don't agree with it, I commend the OP for presenting their point of view in the way that they did. This kind of constructive criticism is refreshing to see.

 

[Cobramac]

Very well written post. But I think you forget about the scale of the planetary systems. With what you proposed there would be two outcomes, either shrink the distance between planetary objects, or, allow for velocity in normal space be insanely fast, like faster than light, and then what would the difference from supercruise be.. Everything would just be zipping by.

Edit: Oh I forgot to say. I would be in a really bad mood if they reduced planetary systems to the usual arcade size we see in different space games.

Thank you for your comments, i dont think there would be any need to shrink the the distances as with "sublight" thrusters could accelerate your ship to massive speeds in normal space.

The difference with supercruise would be that you would only be able to accelerate your ship beyond the normal space limits if there are no objects, ie ships, planets, debris etc that masslock your ship. Once you engage your sublight, you travel is normal space at high speed, but as soon as your ship encounters a mass it drops your out into your standard speed, to avoid being constantly masslocked otw to a station, some would not take the direct route as this would be naturally full of traders. police, pirates, players etc, so you would plot your course to avoid this if you wish, but the trade lanes would be there and some smart pirates could even set ambushes outside the trade routes hoping the catch you on your diversion.

As an example of this, you jump into the system, now you choose your destination and after-burn to get away from anything stopping you from engaging your "sublight", you finally notice the mass lock indicator go out and now you can engage your sublight drive, on the way to the station, you come across a pirate group/ debris/ traders etc that cause your ship to be masslocked. You automatically drop out of sublight speeds and back to normal speeds, now your options are try to avoid/ outrun them with After burners to get to the point of not being masslocked and re engage sublight, or interact, attack pirates, talk to traders, offer escort, pirate the trader, give fuel to the stranded ship that is sitting there, etc etc, the possibilities are endless. Elite used a simplified version of this. they called interplanetary drive if i#m not mistaken, you had to engage the J key to accelerate beyond normal which only worked if you were not masslocked.

It made the interaction so much better and yet there were ways to avoid it if you so wished by flying around the trade routes (shortest distance).

 

[W4rSkuLL]

Maybe to boost the action in SC you could be hit by micro meteorites and sustain hull dmg and fuel leaks some times. Rare but it could make SC a little more dangerous. These could also pull you out of SC in some cases. And in SC the HUD could be used much more for information, like pop up tags on the ships. Maybe even with an avatar some time. To get a feeling of who flies the ship your targeting. The pop up tag could display information who your target is targeting and what its actions are. If its interdicting, where it is traveling and its mission goal if you have the right scanner. Lets say it scans the ships log. The only problem with micro meteorites is that explorers need some sort of protection from it. I dont know if its possible but maybe make miniature small lightly glowing holograms of the ships in SC instead of the glowing balls. So hologram of the ship and a pop up tag which shows ship information immediately. When hit by micro metorites you get a bump like turbulence on a plane and an alarm goes of if its severe dmg to hull or fuel leaks. Or even module dmg. Launch sensors which attaches to ships to show where they are heading in SC. Or launch probes into wakes. To see whats there. Or where the target jumped.

 

[Cobramac]

I think you have some merits in your post, Cobramac. It may be not as dramatic as you make it sound and not that important when exploring an uninhabited star system but the lack of ship-to-ship interaction in supercruise(only basic scanning and interdiction is available) makes it a rather lackluster experience when it comes to busy systems. And if other ship don't have an FSD interdictor, it cannot even interact with you at all, can't even drop to "normal space" near you if you cancel supercruise if I understand the game mechanics correctly(I assume it will be a different instance for him, even if he will drop at the same location).

But it seems that it's the unavoidable flaw of the game engine that is not actually simulating the whole galaxy(or even an individual star system) as a single coherent space but rather as a "world map"-like galaxy where individual "region map"-like instances of supercruise-flyable star systems are located. And the latter in turn only have persistent instances(or rather sets of instances, they can be different for different players) of "normal" space around the stellar objects; the rest of the system seems to only have a pocket of "normal" space when someone is dropped from supercruise at a random location and in that case it's a dynamically-created instance that will be inaccessible to most players unless they are dropping to a wing member who is there or using a wake scanner to drop to follow another player. E : D gurus, feel free to correct me if I got something wrong, that's just my impression based on the observed game behaviour.

Bottom line: is "supercruise space" a bad thing? I would say so. Does it ruining the game? Not really. Does it makes ship to ship interactions lacking compared to what those could've been with star systems being uniform single-instance areas and ships in supercruise behaving in the same manner as they are under "normal" speed(deployable hardpoints, toggleable flight assist etc)? Sure. Will that be changed? No, I highly doubt that.

Thank you for your comments, you raise some very valid points, the instancing would also have to be reworked, ie instead of all the different instances, ie beacon, stations, signals, etc etc, they would have to add it all to normal space and then instance that based on activity, i could complicate the P2P networking architecture and make more sense using server based technology, but i'm not informed enough to have a valid option on this matter.

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Maybe to boost the action in SC you could be hit by micro meteorites and sustain hull dmg and fuel leaks some times. Rare but it could make SC a little more dangerous. These could also pull you out of SC in some cases. And in SC the HUD could be used much more for information, like pop up tags on the ships. Maybe even with an avatar some time. To get a feeling of who flies the ship your targeting. The pop up tag could display information who your target is targeting and what its actions are. If its interdicting, where it is traveling and its mission goal if you have the right scanner. Lets say it scans the ships log. The only problem with micro meteorites is that explorers need some sort of protection from it. I dont know if its possible but maybe make miniature small lightly glowing holograms of the ships in SC instead of the glowing balls. So hologram of the ship and a pop up tag which shows ship information immediately. When hit by micro metorites you get a bump like turbulence on a plane and an alarm goes of if its severe dmg to hull or fuel leaks. Or even module dmg. Launch sensors which attaches to ships to show where they are heading in SC. Or launch probes into wakes. To see whats there. Or where the target jumped.

Great ideas Commander, after all its the interaction we all miss in the end.

 

[W4rSkuLL]

Thank you for your comments, i dont think there would be any need to shrink the the distances as with "sublight" thrusters could accelerate your ship to massive speeds in normal space.

The difference with supercruise would be that you would only be able to accelerate your ship beyond the normal space limits if there are no objects, ie ships, planets, debris etc that masslock your ship. Once you engage your sublight, you travel is normal space at high speed, but as soon as your ship encounters a mass it drops your out into your standard speed, to avoid being constantly masslocked otw to a station, some would not take the direct route as this would be naturally full of traders. police, pirates, players etc, so you would plot your course to avoid this if you wish, but the trade lanes would be there and some smart pirates could even set ambushes outside the trade routes hoping the catch you on your diversion.

As an example of this, you jump into the system, now you choose your destination and after-burn to get away from anything stopping you from engaging your "sublight", you finally notice the mass lock indicator go out and now you can engage your sublight drive, on the way to the station, you come across a pirate group/ debris/ traders etc that cause your ship to be masslocked. You automatically drop out of sublight speeds and back to normal speeds, now your options are try to avoid/ outrun them with After burners to get to the point of not being masslocked and re engage sublight, or interact, attack pirates, talk to traders, offer escort, pirate the trader, give fuel to the stranded ship that is sitting there, etc etc, the possibilities are endless. Elite used a simplified version of this. they called interplanetary drive if i#m not mistaken, you had to engage the J key to accelerate beyond normal which only worked if you were not masslocked.

It made the interaction so much better and yet there were ways to avoid it if you so wished by flying around the trade routes (shortest distance).

I think this subject has been speculated about and crystal balled to death before. You want the jump drive back. I was speculating about this 3 years ago when E.D was a kick starter project. I think SC was chosen because of the distances and the interdiction mini game. I think SC works nice and much can still be added into it. I think we still see SC in its simplest form.

 

[Cynaqq]

Thank you for your comments, i dont think there would be any need to shrink the the distances as with "sublight" thrusters could accelerate your ship to massive speeds in normal space.

The difference with supercruise would be that you would only be able to accelerate your ship beyond the normal space limits if there are no objects, ie ships, planets, debris etc that masslock your ship. Once you engage your sublight, you travel is normal space at high speed, but as soon as your ship encounters a mass it drops your out into your standard speed, to avoid being constantly masslocked otw to a station, some would not take the direct route as this would be naturally full of traders. police, pirates, players etc, so you would plot your course to avoid this if you wish, but the trade lanes would be there and some smart pirates could even set ambushes outside the trade routes hoping the catch you on your diversion.

As an example of this, you jump into the system, now you choose your destination and after-burn to get away from anything stopping you from engaging your "sublight", you finally notice the mass lock indicator go out and now you can engage your sublight drive, on the way to the station, you come across a pirate group/ debris/ traders etc that cause your ship to be masslocked. You automatically drop out of sublight speeds and back to normal speeds, now your options are try to avoid/ outrun them with After burners to get to the point of not being masslocked and re engage sublight, or interact, attack pirates, talk to traders, offer escort, pirate the trader, give fuel to the stranded ship that is sitting there, etc etc, the possibilities are endless. Elite used a simplified version of this. they called interplanetary drive if i#m not mistaken, you had to engage the J key to accelerate beyond normal which only worked if you were not masslocked.

It made the interaction so much better and yet there were ways to avoid it if you so wished by flying around the trade routes (shortest distance).

Nice and dandy but,

How do the trade routes work if ships and stuff mass lock each other out of sublight travel? Are they somehow imune to this effect or do they take months to travel from station to nav beacon before they jump to another system? A lot of people put a lot of thought into this, including me. Supercruise makes more sense than any other method of space travel used in games up to date. It could be designed differently, animations and all but still, one on one interaction while on route in faster than light travel is as impossible as it sounds. sublightspeed travel as you mentioned in your posts is impossible to implement in this game with realistic inter-celestial-body distances it has, simply because we can not control the passage of time independently, as others have pointed out.

I'm not saying SC can't be made more interesting and interactive, but it's a design decision on top of​ the current base mechanic of in-system FTL.

 

[Liberty Valance]

My only complaint is how rare it is to actually find another player. While I don't actively look for other players, I do take into account the size of the sandbox. I realize even if there were millions of players, the odds of running into them would be... astronomical. I wouldn't have it any other way. I love this sandbox. This is the best game ever made by human hands. Ever. Period.

 

[metatheurgist]

Thank you for your comments, i dont think there would be any need to shrink the the distances as with "sublight" thrusters could accelerate your ship to massive speeds in normal space.

The difference with supercruise would be that you would only be able to accelerate your ship beyond the normal space limits if there are no objects, ie ships, planets, debris etc that masslock your ship. Once you engage your sublight, you travel is normal space at high speed, but as soon as your ship encounters a mass it drops your out into your standard speed, to avoid being constantly masslocked otw to a station, some would not take the direct route as this would be naturally full of traders. police, pirates, players etc, so you would plot your course to avoid this if you wish, but the trade lanes would be there and some smart pirates could even set ambushes outside the trade routes hoping the catch you on your diversion.

As an example of this, you jump into the system, now you choose your destination and after-burn to get away from anything stopping you from engaging your "sublight", you finally notice the mass lock indicator go out and now you can engage your sublight drive, on the way to the station, you come across a pirate group/ debris/ traders etc that cause your ship to be masslocked. You automatically drop out of sublight speeds and back to normal speeds, now your options are try to avoid/ outrun them with After burners to get to the point of not being masslocked and re engage sublight, or interact, attack pirates, talk to traders, offer escort, pirate the trader, give fuel to the stranded ship that is sitting there, etc etc, the possibilities are endless. Elite used a simplified version of this. they called interplanetary drive if i#m not mistaken, you had to engage the J key to accelerate beyond normal which only worked if you were not masslocked.

It made the interaction so much better and yet there were ways to avoid it if you so wished by flying around the trade routes (shortest distance).

That just sounds like super cruise to me. The problem with the SC game is it's a bit boring and opaque. You see USS, SSS and WSS and you have no idea what they're about so odds are you ignore if you're trying to trade or deliberately dive into every one if you're doing a mission. I've long argued that the SS should resolve, they should start as unidentified but as you scan them they should resolve in things like - black box, ship distress signal (may be a trap), unattended cargo (may be a trap), firefight, system authority call for assistance, etc. You can then choose how to react. This is basically what you're describing except it's still in SC.

 

[stad_]

Well written post and I agree with the sentiment. Supercruise does suck.

My issues with the current implementation of SC is the following:

1. Warping into a system is always empty. You have to wait for NPCs to spawn. Even if you are in an SC instance with 15 ships if you drop SC and then re-enter, all the NPCs are gone. This is dumb. This only changes if another CMDR is in the instance and you join this instance AND this instance has been alive long enough for NPCs to spawn. I can also meta-game know I'm jumping into a system with CMDRs because the network bandwidth OSD spikes when I'm warping/loading into a system.

2. Any NPC threat in SC can be removed by dropping SC. And any normal space threat can be removed by re-entering SC. The cops in this game are too stupid to chase you from normal space when you jump to SC. And they are too stupid to wait for you in SC to re-enter. THIS IS WHY MURDER IS SO EASY to get away with especially in high-sec space. The cops literally disappear due to the currently implementation of SC.

3. NPCs spawn and crash into objects instantly because they are stupid. You ever notice "Low energy frame wake"s everywhere? That's a stupid NPC entering SC while pointed at a star.

4. NPCs break the rules when flying through SC. They can accelerate too fast and they can drop warp too fast. This surprises me that this "feature" is going live in season 2.

5. Some NPCs are too stupid to interdict you. They fly in circles around you, making it nearly impossible for you to interdict them. Once I notice an NPC has locked on me, I have to make my best effort to let him get behind me so I can engage.

I love this game in every other facet. The flight model is universally praised as being among the best. But I still have some serious gripes with the current implementation of SC.

 

[Herik]

That just sounds like super cruise to me. The problem with the SC game is it's a bit boring and opaque. You see USS, SSS and WSS and you have no idea what they're about so odds are you ignore if you're trying to trade or deliberately dive into every one if you're doing a mission. I've long argued that the SS should resolve, they should start as unidentified but as you scan them they should resolve in things like - black box, ship distress signal (may be a trap), unattended cargo (may be a trap), firefight, system authority call for assistance, etc. You can then choose how to react. This is basically what you're describing except it's still in SC.

THIS^^, you are right and I repped you; -giving the player more information, and this information resolving itself as you approach these locations, is necessary....Also adding a couple of new and different (surprise SS's) would be wonderful; -perhaps an airless rogue planet or moon, unknown and spun off from their expected orbits....Or a wayward (large) asteroid, not seen in the rings. Both examples with 'Horizons' would be orbit-able and land-able; with the possibility of appropriate content (sans outposts).