Is SCA supposed to do this?

[Jaggid Edje]

I'm running trade missions in my new Cutter while also semi-afk doing other (non-game) work. I have it fitted with the new SCA module to facilitate the semi-afk status, but what I've been doing is leaving throttle at full and then alt-tabbing back to throttle to 75% when I'm closer to the station at which point SCA takes over. It has been my first day of really using SCA much.

Something that has happened more times than I care to admit is that I am slow alt-tabbing back to the game and engage the SCA with only 0:04 or so time left to arrival. And that's when I noticed, SCA still exits supercruise accurately on stations even though speed is still quite a bit in the "red zone". We're talking so far in the red that the marker is barely even on the visible part of the bar. I can reproduce this every time flying to stations as long as I engage SCA at :04 (0:03 or less is a bit too late).

Is this supposed to work? If I had super-amazing reflexes to exit supercruise at exactly the right position, could I do this manually too? Either way, this is a big plus for use of SCA imo, saves some time by allowing one to wait longer before going to 75% throttle and makes the final approach way faster as well.

 

[Factabulous]

It's been reported before you can go full speed to your target then engage SCA at around 00:04 and it will still drop you at the right place. I'm lazy so I don't do it (and I don't think it always works)

 

[Siobhan]

You can do it manually, but you have to be very lucky...

 

[Jaggid Edje]

You can do it manually, but you have to be very lucky...

Interesting, I always just assumed you had to be in the blue before you could exit SC. I definitely don't have the reflexes to do it manually at the speeds involved anyway.

@Factabulous Hadn't seen those previous reports; I would have been using SCA more prior to this if I had.

 

[Schmack]

To be perfectly honest, I don't consider that time to be significant. Some do. It takes longer to post a text than all those gains added.

 

[Jaggid Edje]

To be perfectly honest, I don't consider that time to be significant. Some do. It takes longer to post a text than all those gains added.

I post while my ships are flying between jump entry and stations I'm going to, so in terms of game impact those take 0 time.

 

[aRJay]

Don't try this heading for planets, every time I have engaged it late heading for a planet it has flown me straight into it.

 

[Siobhan]

Interesting, I always just assumed you had to be in the blue before you could exit SC. I definitely don't have the reflexes to do it manually at the speeds involved anyway.

Managed it a few times, when barrelling in towards the station having misjudged a gravity braking manoeuvre and just pulled hard back on the throttle in panic while hitting the disengage button and hoping there's plenty of toilet tissue left...

The closest I think has been about 1 second, but it's not skill, just blind luck...

Looks cool as hell when it works though.

 

[Jack Schitt]

Sounds like it might be doing an automated version of this:

Spoiler

I haven't tried this with the SCA but I do this all the time when flying manually. Right around the 4 second mark is the sweet spot for throttling up at 30Mm. With practice, and a good feel for the braking effect from the local gravity well, you can even throttle up early if you can be sure that the ETA will hit 4 seconds at the exact moment that the distance closes to 30Mm.

The later you leave it, the shorter the SAFE DISENGAGE READY window will be before you pass the station. If your ETA is less that 0:04 when you throttle up you'll overshoot.

I haven't tried any of this with the SCA but it sounds like it might be fun. A bit like flying up to stations full throttle at maximum time acceleration in Froniter: Elite II before engaging the autopilot at the last second. Get it right and you halved the journey time. Get it wrong and you were halfway across the system before you knew it.