Newcomer / Intro Escape Vector bug?

[Balalaika]

Hi guys I think I've just experienced an anomaly and I just want to reconfirm with you guys is it an actual bug or working as intended?

On every occasion when I got pulled into a star, what I would immediately do is to lock on the star, and make sure it is directly behind my ship, always when I active supercruise this way, the escape vector will be directly in front of me and I can jump out. I practiced this because the first time when I got pulled into a star, I tried to jump into the next system and it didn't work.

But just now, I had the exact opposite situation, as I get pulled into a brown dwarf, I locked onto the brown dwarf, position it directly behind me and activated my FSD, the escape vector is not in front of me. So I go to the Navigation menu again, unlock and relock the star, and tried to position the star behind my ship again and tried to FSD out again but still the escape vector is not in front of me. Only after awhile that I realized that the hollowed dot on my radar is actually the next targeted system in route, I managed to aim my ship at it and jump away, but by then my hull is already below 10% and I got burnt to death in my next destination.

So is this incident working as intended? Why is it last time I'm not able to escape by jumping into the next system and now it seems like the only way to escape is to jump to the next system?

 

[Hellhawk666]

Not sure if this is answering your question, but it's better to supercruise away from a star rather than jump directly into hyperspace for the next destination. I can only imagine that the situation you have described was an anomaly or due to unusual positioning of the various objects.

 

[Lucien Trask]

I'm an absolute newbie, so I'm not sure if this will help, but for this, I mapped 'Enable Frame Shift Drive to Supercruise' to Shift+J, then if I get caught inside the gravitational pull of a star, I hit that bad boy, and it will show me where to line up my escape vector.

 

[Balalaika]

Thanks for the reply guys, I forgot to mention that I'm was dropped out from supercruise when I said I got pulled into the star. From pass experience, whenever this happens it is impossible to hyperspace to the next system, you will first have to supercruise out through the escape vector. I know when the star is directly behind me, the escape vector will be right in front of me, which is what I'm trying to do. I think the reason why the escape vector is not there, is because I'm still locked onto the next system as my destination, despite the fact that I have unlock and re-lock the star multiple times.

 

[Ozram]

That's a curious one. I do the same thing as you but haven't encountered that bug. I'll be curious to read on and see if anyone else has had it happen.
Out of curiosity, did you live to tell the tale?

 

[happyfunball]

I think the reason why the escape vector is not there, is because I'm still locked onto the next system as my destination, despite the fact that I have unlock and re-lock the star multiple times.

Right, the default keybind operates both the hyperjump and supercruise. Sometimes it can get confused and think you want to jump, but you can't, and it won't go into supercruise. This may be the problem you're having. Try following Lucien's suggestion and bind supercruise only to a key. Then whenever you use that key, it doesn't matter if you're locked on target or not, you'll always go into supercruise.

 

[furrycat]

Escape vector is for re-entering supercruise and is only needed if you're too close to the star. After flying away from it in normal space for a while you might find you can just cruise immediately without realigning.

Jumping to another system just requires lining up the destination vector. You don't need to escape.

It does indeed sound like you were pressing the wrong control and not making the frame shift you expected.

If you are at the star because of an emergency stop you are more or less guaranteed heat buildup over 100% when getting away. If it gets too high because you spent too much time looking around for your destination you can always cancel the frameshift and wait for the ship to cool down. Temporarily disabling modules will help with that by reducing power consumption. Don't be afraid to turn things off. You have seven minutes of life support...

 

[Lucien Trask]

You have seven minutes of life support...

Something I discovered yesterday when my power plant was insufficient for the turrets I had loaded onto my Viper. Was quite cool seeing the cockpit freezing over, whilst having no idea how to get myself going again.

 

[Rob_the_Sparky]

This is not a bug, but working as intended. It is just that you had your next jump programmed in so it was pointing to this. The escape vector is a nice big blue graphic on screen so not too hard to know if you are pointing at it or not. The first thing is not to hit the star in the first place. A couple of options: first is to zero the throttle while in hyperspace, you won't see this do anything until you arrive then you will stop quickly rather than cruise into the star. Other one is to steer away from the star as soon as you arrive.

If you do get stuck trying to find the escape vector then shut down the jump drive and let the ship cool down before trying again. Some ships handle better than others and all ships heat up more if you draw more power so an option is to reduce power draw before attempting the jump out (hint: shields take a lot of power). This will give you a bit longer before taking damage. Bigger power supplies also help slow down the rate at which you get hot and generally the ship will run cooler.

- - - Updated - - -

Something I discovered yesterday when my power plant was insufficient for the turrets I had loaded onto my Viper. Was quite cool seeing the cockpit freezing over, whilst having no idea how to get myself going again.

Only done then once, but I found the alarming bit was the NPC trying to kill me whilst trying to figure out what the hell had just happened!

 

[Rocky-451]

When you exit from hyperspace and enter a system, simply pitch sharply to avoid getting too close to the star (as another poster mentioned). That means you stay in supercruise and you don't have to worry about the escape vector business. If you do end up getting too close and come to an emergency stop, just use the compass to locate the escape vector.

 

[Balalaika]

Hi guys thanks again for the replies. I know the consequence of wondering too close to the star and how to escape it, though I did learn it the hard ways.

I think the proper explanation would be what furrycat has explain, after I was dropped from supercruise for getting too close to the star, I managed to cover enough distance that I am no longer affected by the star's gravity so I don't need to jump into an escape vector. I dug deeper into my own grave when I thought that hollowed dot on the radar is the sun but in fact it is the system in route. But it still doesn't make sense that the navigator still locked onto the next system as my destination when I have unlock and relock onto the star multiple times. I have friend's that experienced target locking and destination are not working correctly, just pure bad luck that it happened when I'm trying to escape the sun. It is also interesting to know that you can escape the star/plantet's gravity pull even outside supercruise, I've always thought at this point the only way to get out alive is to supercruise out of it. I guess I could be saved if you have set seperated buttons for supercruise and hyperspace.

@Ozram I spent too much time trying to figure out what's going on and unlock and re-locking the star, by the time I realized the radar is pointing at the next system and I align myself to jump out, my hull's already below 5% and I burnt myself to death before I can start disabling my modules. *sniff* But I'm lucky that this only happened to my undergear Hauler that I use mainly for travelling long system to pickup my other ship. Fair price for this valuable lesson.

 

[some_lettuce]

Hey, just for anybody else that may be surfing forums trying to figure out this issue in the future, I fixed this problem by landing at the port I was stuck at, entering the hangar, quitting to desktop, validating the game files, then relaunching the game in single player. I was able to leave as normal after doing this.

 

[SlickPBW]

Necro

 

[Martyn W]

Its a good idea to have orbit lines on when jumping. Then you can immediately see the exclusion zone of the star when you arrive. Helps to avoid it.

 

[Para Handy]

oh do behave - 5 years this time ....