A friend of mine and I got talking about what we like and dislike about Elite, since we've reached a point where most of our goals are more or less achieved and we find ourselves looking for new ways to enjoy the game. As you can see from the title, it has to do with traveling and exploring which in-system-jumps would theoretically also be a part of. But as this has already been discussed at length by other forum members I'll focus on different aspects of our idea first.
The idea is to use mechanics already implemented in the game to create something new. As you know, the FSD boost uses minerals collected on planets to temporarily increase your jump-range. Our idea however is based around the reboot-system that every ship has. Here is how it would work:
You plot a route and enable "FSD-overcharge". As soon as you jump, you'd get an escape vector overlay like the one you know from interdictions, departing from planets etc.. What you then do by following the escape vector is you skip along your plotted route instead of dropping out of hyperspace at every waypoint. You'd need to dodge all the systems you want to skip in order to continue jumping. While all that is going on your ship uses sort of a partial reboot to constantly repair your FSD, which is taking damage due to the fact that you are kinda sorta maybe forcing it to do more than it is build for.
As far as the ingame science is concerned we thought the process might be explained by the FSD having a second operating point at which it consumes the fuel quite differently from normal, actually resulting in very little fuel being used at all. The downside is of cause that puts a lot of strain on the hardware, which is why it is not the standard.
And as you might have guessed: Since the jump requires manuel input, messing up means that you crash-land in a system along the way with wrecked drives, so you'd need to do a complete reboot of your ship to get everything back up and running.
However, assuming you don't mess up, there would still be a price to pay. The reboot can't keep up with the repairs so that your FSD slowly does get damaged.
Those are the basics, so let's talk balancing:
We first thought of this as a way for explorers to kickstart a deep space expedition. So it was supposed to be pretty long-range. The main limiting factor of jump range is the fact that your ship is essentially eating itself inside out to keep going. So in turn the damage your ship takes per Ly is the most important part regarding the viabillity of the idea.
To push the jump-range way up, we thought of 9% damage every 1.000Ly. That would carry you quite a way out without causing damage that can't be fixed with a field maintenance unit. Otherwise it'd more of an expedition-killer. If you prefer, you could also use it as a leap back into civilized space on your way back, so that you don't strand in the middle of nowhere if something goes wrong.
So that's our idea. It's supposed to spice up traveling, make it a bit more about immediate risk and satisfaction and offer a fast way around civilized space if you think you're up for it and shorter on time than you are on credits.
Let me know what you think.
The idea is to use mechanics already implemented in the game to create something new. As you know, the FSD boost uses minerals collected on planets to temporarily increase your jump-range. Our idea however is based around the reboot-system that every ship has. Here is how it would work:
You plot a route and enable "FSD-overcharge". As soon as you jump, you'd get an escape vector overlay like the one you know from interdictions, departing from planets etc.. What you then do by following the escape vector is you skip along your plotted route instead of dropping out of hyperspace at every waypoint. You'd need to dodge all the systems you want to skip in order to continue jumping. While all that is going on your ship uses sort of a partial reboot to constantly repair your FSD, which is taking damage due to the fact that you are kinda sorta maybe forcing it to do more than it is build for.
As far as the ingame science is concerned we thought the process might be explained by the FSD having a second operating point at which it consumes the fuel quite differently from normal, actually resulting in very little fuel being used at all. The downside is of cause that puts a lot of strain on the hardware, which is why it is not the standard.
And as you might have guessed: Since the jump requires manuel input, messing up means that you crash-land in a system along the way with wrecked drives, so you'd need to do a complete reboot of your ship to get everything back up and running.
However, assuming you don't mess up, there would still be a price to pay. The reboot can't keep up with the repairs so that your FSD slowly does get damaged.
Those are the basics, so let's talk balancing:
We first thought of this as a way for explorers to kickstart a deep space expedition. So it was supposed to be pretty long-range. The main limiting factor of jump range is the fact that your ship is essentially eating itself inside out to keep going. So in turn the damage your ship takes per Ly is the most important part regarding the viabillity of the idea.
To push the jump-range way up, we thought of 9% damage every 1.000Ly. That would carry you quite a way out without causing damage that can't be fixed with a field maintenance unit. Otherwise it'd more of an expedition-killer. If you prefer, you could also use it as a leap back into civilized space on your way back, so that you don't strand in the middle of nowhere if something goes wrong.
So that's our idea. It's supposed to spice up traveling, make it a bit more about immediate risk and satisfaction and offer a fast way around civilized space if you think you're up for it and shorter on time than you are on credits.
Let me know what you think.