Flying towards a planet slows you down?
- Thread starter Dietger
- Start date
It depends where your throttle is. If it's full then the system will try to slow you down as you are closing towards the planet but it will fail and you'll overshoot it. If you are at 75% throttle then the ship will slow down correctly and you won't overshoot the planet. The idea is that the FSD is using the gravity of large masses to slow down or accelerate. So the more planets you have around the slower it goes.
You're looking at it the wrong way OP. You're not slowing down the closer you are to a planet, you just can't fly as fast. Of course as you get closer it appears you are slowing down i.e. decelerating but that isn't really the case.
o7 commander!
I too wondered at this, and while I don't know for sure, I THINK I understand the solution:
Frame Shift Drives (henceforth FSDs), according to lore, warp space in front of them ala the same concept as an "alcubierre" (spelling?) drive. Essentially, the vessel rides a "wave" of warped space-time which is continuously generated in front of the ship, hence the continuous acceleration.
HOWEVER, if you are flying towards an object with mass, and since all objects with mass warp space time into what you might consider a "gravity well", or "field", or "Sphere of influence" in more technical terms, that means that the warping affect of your drive is now moving into an area of space-time which is ALLREADY warped in the same "direction", lessening the affect of the drive's warp, translating to a loss of speed. However, the drive is STILL warping space-time curvature, even if it is, as you fall towards the center of the "well", a lessened affect.
SO, you essentially have to slog your way "UPHILL" while actually moving "down" towards the center. BUT when you pass that point and begin to move back "up" the "well", your drive is now warping space-time curvature FAR more against the grain than normal, hence the increased acceleration until you leave the sphere of influence, and space-time "flattens out".
I hope that made sense. Its very counterintuitive to think of going down into a gravity well as going "uphill" for your FSD, and vice versa. I also hope my assumptions are right. If not, feel free to correct me, oh mighty lore whights, with thy knowledge and thy wurd, so that I might be set upon the true path...
I too wondered at this, and while I don't know for sure, I THINK I understand the solution:
Frame Shift Drives (henceforth FSDs), according to lore, warp space in front of them ala the same concept as an "alcubierre" (spelling?) drive. Essentially, the vessel rides a "wave" of warped space-time which is continuously generated in front of the ship, hence the continuous acceleration.
HOWEVER, if you are flying towards an object with mass, and since all objects with mass warp space time into what you might consider a "gravity well", or "field", or "Sphere of influence" in more technical terms, that means that the warping affect of your drive is now moving into an area of space-time which is ALLREADY warped in the same "direction", lessening the affect of the drive's warp, translating to a loss of speed. However, the drive is STILL warping space-time curvature, even if it is, as you fall towards the center of the "well", a lessened affect.
SO, you essentially have to slog your way "UPHILL" while actually moving "down" towards the center. BUT when you pass that point and begin to move back "up" the "well", your drive is now warping space-time curvature FAR more against the grain than normal, hence the increased acceleration until you leave the sphere of influence, and space-time "flattens out".
I hope that made sense. Its very counterintuitive to think of going down into a gravity well as going "uphill" for your FSD, and vice versa. I also hope my assumptions are right. If not, feel free to correct me, oh mighty lore whights, with thy knowledge and thy wurd, so that I might be set upon the true path...
Gunner!
What you say is true.
HUD showed declining numbers, but speed relative to the body seemed not to drop. Looking at it. [weird] But still my oafish self can't make head or tail of it.
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Super Cruise drive slows down the stronger gravity is. I was never sure if this was the ships computer slowing you down automatically, or just an issue with the drive and gravity.
If you're flying away from a star, you'll see that you accelerate as you move away and can reach speeds of over 1000c if you get far enough out.
Also, when you fly pas a planet or asteroid cluster, it seems as if your ship is accelerating toward it, but it's just the engine sound increasing, like when you downshift, the car slows down but the engine RPMs increase.
If you're flying away from a star, you'll see that you accelerate as you move away and can reach speeds of over 1000c if you get far enough out.
Also, when you fly pas a planet or asteroid cluster, it seems as if your ship is accelerating toward it, but it's just the engine sound increasing, like when you downshift, the car slows down but the engine RPMs increase.
Although to all intents and purposes the effect is as you say. This is only my personal opinion but it is how I have resolved the mechanic of the Frame Shift Drive:
It is not possible to travel faster than light. Yet from our perspective (frame of reference) galaxies at the edge of and beyond the edge of the observable universe appear to be travelling away from us* at close to the speed of light or indeed faster than light i.e. the non-observable universe. But this is Relative to us. They aren't travelling at light speed and neither are we because our respective frames of reference are local.
The FSD changes the ships frame of reference so that the effect of your motion in the local frame of reference is faster than the speed of light yet actually in your new frame of reference you aren't moving at lightspeed at all. Where it changes the frame of reference to (or how) I have no idea!
* EDIT
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o7 Tom Areani!
You make sence. But. Since, relative to ward the object, speed remains the same? I hope I get this right! How does my ship know, it does not???? Seems like an logical mistake to me. Ship should think as ship. Not like a degree in physics? Displaying the relative speed? Sorry folks don't want to be smart, just wondering.
Cheers
It's just a gameplay feature. Your speed drops as you near objects of interest to make maneuvering easier, and to speed up travel in empty areas. It seems to be based on gravity but that's not entirely accurate since unknown signals and nav beacons also affect your FSD's top speed.
GunnerBill, Physic, that's something new to me, although I have my own concept about TIME, I see the consequences about being where we are - relative - but I lag in education to see behind experience.
Cheers
Right aRottenKomquat.
But seeing them damn developers are Engländers, they may have some ace up there sleeve!
Really? I'm out in the middle of nowhere so I can't experiment right now but I've never noticed any impact on maximum speed from passing a USS flying round systems in the bubble, only ever a gravity well effect.
Same here. USS signals don't slow you down and nav beacons are too close to the star so they won't have any meaningful effect.
You can overshoot a USS if you have it targeted, just like a space station. Which leads me to the conclusion that the slowdown and runaway engine sound is more about the ships computer trying to slow you down. Not just the target gravity.
Some really great replies to a really intelligent question. This is why this exploration forum stands out as probably the friendliest and most informed.
I think it is based on gravity but USS kind of illustrates what happening. I think pretty certain the FSD forms some sort of warp bubble that allows you to fly faster than light. Real world experience might lead you to think it takes vast effort to hold that bubble up but actually I think in ED it takes the engine effort to increase or decrease the bubble, almost as if space kind of plastic, push to open, push to close.
There's a limit to how quickly the engine can grow a bubble (bigger warp bubble, faster speed) and this is affected by gravity, which tends to prevent a <change> in the warp bubble, making it harder to accelerate (when space is sticky) and harder to slow down, as when you target a USS and you're close in, the engine can't disassemble your warp bubble quickly enough (without imploding) and you overshoot.
That's my theory anyway.
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They must be pretty darn dense to impact the FSD the same way a moon or planet does... I'm pretty sure you're wrong.
EDIT: nothing new, I hadn't seen the second page
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