Flying towards a planet slows you down?

[Cdr Voorheez]

Im.a simple soul and think in simple terms. I've always visualized it as gravity breaking. Space time has ripples and dips. If you fly close to a body with great mass space time is distorted significantly which in turn will affect your perceived momentum.
I think.

 

[Jackie Silver]

I've never tried to understand it in terms of quasi-fictional physics, just as a game mechanic. FSD works better the further away from a big mass it is. Except when it's being used to make an instantaneous long range shift, when apparently it homes in on the biggest mass in the target area. Makes perfect sense.

THOU SHALT NOT VIOLATE CAUSALITY WITHIN MY HISTORIC LIGHT CONE.

OR ELSE.

 

[duckofdeath]

The slow-down near an Signal Source or Nav Beacon only happens if you target them. So, in short, the FSD adapts its speed both to what you target and what you're near.
It's to make flight easier as the FSD top speed is beyond ludicrous speed. This added slowdown also applies if you target a planet you're near.
There is an inconsistency in the mechanics that causes your ship to accelerate/decelerate slower if you're targeting a nearby body or signal source. This means that the fastest way to travel to a station or planet is by not targeting it, but only fly towards it with a guesstimated speed. It's however so hard to get that speed right without the guidance of things like the 75%-throttle that you're not going to save time doing it manually in the long run.
One thing I often use to help my exploration woes is to unlock a planet I'm about to overshoot, if I go below the 6-second limit. If you don't unlock the target you're in for a "loop of shame", as the FSD won't let you slow down fast enough. If you unlock the planet from your target, you can slow down a lot faster and avoid the loop of shame.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Also worth noting that while the maximum speed with automatically controlled deceleration is 75% throttle, you can safely go faster than that depending on why you're approaching.

If you're just trying to get a surface scan, 75% lets you travel in a straight line and carry out the continuous scan (and once the scan's started you might want to slow down or stop anyway so you don't get caught too deep in the gravity well)

If you're trying to *land* you can get into orbital cruise much faster by travelling at 85-99% throttle but taking a spiral path. Also works for approaching stations or USSes. The optimal path depends quite a bit on your ship, your destination, and if any other large masses (cobinary planets, moons, gas giants, etc.) are nearby - but as a starting point, try to keep the destination about 40 degrees above your direction of travel (just over the top of the screen if playing on a monitor - you'll need to use the compass and/or headlook a bit) and the rest will come with practice.