For me, one of the most tedious aspects of ED is super-cruise. It's awesome to begin with don't get me wrong but it gets tedious and tiresome after a while.
So, whilst the idea of an in-system jump is nothing new, I'd like to propose a slight alternative: instead of trying to make SC fun, speed it up.
To begin I'd like to clarify that I don't want to remove the aspect of scale; that's very important to me, however I would like to see technology improve as the game progresses.
Now, an FSD works by attaching itself to the heaviest body in a system and pulling the ship towards it (or .. something).
In order to retain the scale of the game but at the same time combat tedium, the lore could state than an FSD cannot attach itself to any other body in the system: it must be the heaviest star. So to combat this, engineers came up with a novel solution: hyper-cruise*
Hyper-cruise is a combination of hyperspace and super-cruise. Enabling a ship to travel at incredible speeds within a system.
As an example, Hutton Orbital could be accomplished in half the time or faster^.
In order to balance this whole thing out, I propose the following:
First, a specific FSD is required to accomplish the jump. Only a ship equipped with a class 3 or higher module can use it due to the nature of it's size and power requirement. In addition, the over-all distance that the FSD can accomplish between stars (it's LY distance) is reduced; this can however be corrected through engineer upgrades, as can it's power requirement.
Second, ships can be equipped with an Advanced Frame Shift Drive Interdictor. It functions by "tethering" the user to the ship in jump and yanking them out of it. This mechanic cannot be countered, however, the target is returned to super-cruise and not normal space. The interdictor, whilst in super-cruise, is running at the slowest speed (30km/s) but the target is at full, meaning the interdictor now needs to catch up to their target and then begin a regular interception. The cooldown from being yanked out of hyper-cruise is longer than it would take a ship to catch up and initiate an interdiction.
Third, a ship cannot counter the Jump Interdiction because controls become inoperable during jump. The pilot is free to navigate his or her UI (and later move about the cockpit and ship) but the ship itself is uncontrollable. Once out of hyper-cruise, normal control is returned to the pilot.
* The name is a work in progress.
^ For those unaware, Hutton Orbital is a station in the Alpha Centauri system. It orbits the planet Eden (which in turn orbits Proxima Centauri). It's notorious for it's incredible distance from the primary, Alpha Centauri A. A whopping 6,784,404 ls (0.22Ly). It takes players approximately 1.5 hours to reach.
So, whilst the idea of an in-system jump is nothing new, I'd like to propose a slight alternative: instead of trying to make SC fun, speed it up.
To begin I'd like to clarify that I don't want to remove the aspect of scale; that's very important to me, however I would like to see technology improve as the game progresses.
Now, an FSD works by attaching itself to the heaviest body in a system and pulling the ship towards it (or .. something).
In order to retain the scale of the game but at the same time combat tedium, the lore could state than an FSD cannot attach itself to any other body in the system: it must be the heaviest star. So to combat this, engineers came up with a novel solution: hyper-cruise*
Hyper-cruise is a combination of hyperspace and super-cruise. Enabling a ship to travel at incredible speeds within a system.
As an example, Hutton Orbital could be accomplished in half the time or faster^.
In order to balance this whole thing out, I propose the following:
First, a specific FSD is required to accomplish the jump. Only a ship equipped with a class 3 or higher module can use it due to the nature of it's size and power requirement. In addition, the over-all distance that the FSD can accomplish between stars (it's LY distance) is reduced; this can however be corrected through engineer upgrades, as can it's power requirement.
Second, ships can be equipped with an Advanced Frame Shift Drive Interdictor. It functions by "tethering" the user to the ship in jump and yanking them out of it. This mechanic cannot be countered, however, the target is returned to super-cruise and not normal space. The interdictor, whilst in super-cruise, is running at the slowest speed (30km/s) but the target is at full, meaning the interdictor now needs to catch up to their target and then begin a regular interception. The cooldown from being yanked out of hyper-cruise is longer than it would take a ship to catch up and initiate an interdiction.
Third, a ship cannot counter the Jump Interdiction because controls become inoperable during jump. The pilot is free to navigate his or her UI (and later move about the cockpit and ship) but the ship itself is uncontrollable. Once out of hyper-cruise, normal control is returned to the pilot.
* The name is a work in progress.
^ For those unaware, Hutton Orbital is a station in the Alpha Centauri system. It orbits the planet Eden (which in turn orbits Proxima Centauri). It's notorious for it's incredible distance from the primary, Alpha Centauri A. A whopping 6,784,404 ls (0.22Ly). It takes players approximately 1.5 hours to reach.
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