I received an anonymous "tip" in the comm's panel. It requested that I fly to the co-ordinates at 27.68 and 17.54 (which was the longitude and latitude) on planet A 1 in the Ceti Sector HR-W c1-16 system to scan encrypted data. Getting to the planet was easy enough, but finding the surface location using the co-ordinates wasn't. Eventually found it by flying with one eye on the HUD in a low orbit until I got close and then in normal space to reduce the area to the specific location, but it was pretty clumsy and time consuming.
Are there any tips or tricks to quickly find and hit a location at given coordinates on a planet?
O7
I don't personally use the method that I'm about to mention, but it is a (sub-optimal) alternative if you find yourself continually struggling.
If you approach from one of the poles, and find the longitude that you need (this takes some practice), then you can simply fly along it until you are ready to drop into Glide. If you are starting from one of the poles, then any direction is either North or South, by default. This method effectively removes having to keep track of one of the numbers while in flight, which can make it easier. It takes longer to do it this way, though, and I don't really recommend it. I'm only mentioning it so that you have more options to try out to find the one that works best for you.
Another thing to keep in mind - the diameter of the planet makes a difference. On some planets, under/over shooting by 1 degree could mean 20-50 kilometers, but on others it might be 300 kilometers. That might not sound like a lot, but if your ship flies at 300 meters per second, that is 1000 seconds, or 16.7 minutes.
Like most things in life, practice makes perfect. I would use one of the Alien crash sites to practice (assuming those haven't become waypoints like the Ruins have), and just keep doing it until you are happy with your execution. At some point, we are likely to get the ability to enter coordinates that will then show up as a Navigation waypoint, so the longevity of this skill is probably on its last legs, but I think it's still a skill worth developing.
Riôt
