Newcomer / Intro I think I've figured out what those blue rings around planets are for in Super-Cruise

[Boff'in]

So I should really look at some tutorials first before posting.

But has anyone noticed those blue rings around planets during your approach in Supercruise.

I think I've figured out their use.

Keeping your throttle in blue and flying below or above the solar plane / target planet.

Your ship automatically starts slowing down around gravitational bodies.

I think the blue lines are a relation between the gravitation pull of the planet with regards to your speed.
Sort of "desired" lines of orbit.

When the rings appear align you nose of your ship on the outside of the furthest ring, (same side as the station you are aiming for) until it fades away, and then move in to the next ring, and keep repeating until your nose is close to the station.

Your ship should have decelerated perfectly with regards to speed and distance.

1) Now it's not perfect, I've still overshot the whole planetary system, (the familiar over-whine of the engines have kicked in), but this happened long before, and it was a huge heavy haul from a far distant place so I had a lot of momentum)
2) I haven't tested properly this technique with say just keeping the throttle in the blue and aiming *at* the station.


/Cmd Woakes

 

[nicomak]

Simply keep 100% until you get to 00:07 seconds of your destination, then drop to 75%, you should be fine and wont overshoot. You may even go back to 100% in the last 10MM but be carefull with that.

 

[Boff'in]

I shall give that a go, thanks.

 

[Mr. Bridger]

So I should really look at some tutorials first before posting.

But has anyone noticed those blue rings around planets during your approach in Supercruise.

I think I've figured out their use.

Keeping your throttle in blue and flying below or above the solar plane / target planet.

Your ship automatically starts slowing down around gravitational bodies.

I think the blue lines are a relation between the gravitation pull of the planet with regards to your speed.
Sort of "desired" lines of orbit.

When the rings appear align you nose of your ship on the outside of the furthest ring, (same side as the station you are aiming for) until it fades away, and then move in to the next ring, and keep repeating until your nose is close to the station.

Your ship should have decelerated perfectly with regards to speed and distance.

1) Now it's not perfect, I've still overshot the whole planetary system, (the familiar over-whine of the engines have kicked in), but this happened long before, and it was a huge heavy haul from a far distant place so I had a lot of momentum)
2) I haven't tested properly this technique with say just keeping the throttle in the blue and aiming *at* the station.


/Cmd Woakes

There is a full description in the manual, basically they are just to give some persepective as you approach from a distance.

 

[Dommarraa]

Well I agree that they are the gravitational influence markings for objects, and I had not noticed how they vanish as you approach.
Not willing to disregard a new tactic other then the all pervasive "100% till 7 secs" rule which seems a little dull and sub-optimal. Will investigate a little.

 

[Zafaron]

Interdiction

I've found it safer to stay at 75% the whole time in supercruise. It seems to be easier to escape interdictions when you are in the blue range of your throttle even while you're getting interdicted.

 

[Dukov Nook]

I turned orbit lines in hud off. There is no reason for them and all they do is clutter the display. I also turned mouse pointer on to add a pip to the center of the display.

Do both. you will be glad you did.

 

[willowfan]

The orbit lines are useful when surveying a system, because unless you're useing an advanced scanner some bodies can only be spotted by following another orbit and looking for parallax movement against the starfield.

 

[Mountain Dewed]

There is a video on youtube(might look for it later to link) that shows a curved approach that saved 15 minutes from his 2 other straight line approaches. Is kinda cool how it works but I've noticed getting in quicker when using this sometimes(I may not hit it right everytime?).

 

[Dukov Nook]

There is a video on youtube(might look for it later to link) that shows a curved approach that saved 15 minutes from his 2 other straight line approaches. Is kinda cool how it works but I've noticed getting in quicker when using this sometimes(I may not hit it right everytime?).

If you do a high velocity approach and then slingshot around, it does make point to point time faster.

However, it also tends to leave you on the wrong side of a station, increasing your time to dock, so it kind of works out to a wash.

 

[Crazy Joe]

Simply keep 100% until you get to 00:07 seconds of your destination, then drop to 75%, you should be fine and wont overshoot. You may even go back to 100% in the last 10MM but be carefull with that.

My technique is to go at full speed until I get to the point where the distance from the station is about 10 times the speed I'm doing and then putting the throttle in the exact middle of the blue zone. So for instance I'm doing 20c and when the distance hits 200 Ls I put the throttle in the middle of the blue zone. This technique does require you to keep your nose pointed at the target in order for the slowdown mechanism to work correctly and of course works best with a HOTAS type device or at least with a controller with a analog throttle control.

The only problem I've seen sometimes is that on short trips you can overshoot the target because the human response time between seeing the switchover point and lowering the speed is too long and you carry too much speed with you and still overshoot the target, so for short hops I don't go to full speed anymore but keep the throttle at a lower setting.

 

[cmdr lowest]

I think the lines are just there to show the orbits of the planets.

I turn them off as they are distracting. (LH screen option)

Turning them on for exploring purposes is a good idea. Will give that a go when I can afford an Asp.