Ok here's my thought.
It occurs to me that certain systems (I'll use Alpha Centauri as the example system for this post) have REALLY long flight distances to get to some of the stations from the system arrival point. Hutton Orbital, for example, is .22 ly from the system arrival point. The last time I accepted a mission to Hutton Orbital, I abandoned the mission because by the time I was approaching maximum speed in supercruise, i was still faced with another 90 minutes of flying just to get to the star within Alpha Centauri that Hutton Orbital orbits. Of course, being the noob that i am, i tried to engage my fsd but i couldnt - the jump distance was below the minimum jump range of my fsd. So i thought, how could this be rectified? Here's what i've come up with so far:
A micro jump fsd modification. Why? Well, frankly, to benefit explorers and traders. Could you equip a ship in such a way that your minimum jump range is less than a ly? Sure. But why would you? If you're a trader or explorer, you want long legs - not short ones. Your profit in those roles comes from longer trips, not shorter ones for the most part. More importantly though, what would the benefits of such a drive be, and where would its limitations lie?
Well, the benefit would be that you would use it for jumps of less than a ly, as an in system jump. It wouldnt be meant for shortening a 500k ls jump and could even be coded so that the minimum jump range is .10 ly (or at whatever distance the measurement switches from ly to ls).
It could also operate as an additional "gear" if you will, bridging the gap between a hyperspace jump and supercruise. You wouldnt completely jump into hyperspace, but you would accellerate faster than supercruise and you could cut a 90 minute supercruise flight down to 30 minutes. You still feel like its a long flight by comparison to most hops, but you get your goods to that isolated station faster, thus bringing more business to otherwise unfrequented systems.
It could be offered one of two ways.
First as an engineer upgrade to your fsd where you trade some overall jump range and heat buildup for short range flexibility.
The other way could be for it to be a completely separate fsd of various classes for the types/sizes of the various ships and would require the player to sacrifice something in their optional internals (a passenger cabin for example).
Either way, a mass penalty would apply as well as a heat buildup (operating temperature runs a bit higher when the module is active) as well as a power drain penalty for the capacitor.
So those are my thoughts. Please keep in mind, it is a preliminary idea, some of the aspects I've suggested for this might need to be tweaked for the gameplay's benefit, but as an idea i think it is something that could work and may encourage newer players or younger ones to seek out those hard to reach places in the galaxy.
Let me know what you guys think.
It occurs to me that certain systems (I'll use Alpha Centauri as the example system for this post) have REALLY long flight distances to get to some of the stations from the system arrival point. Hutton Orbital, for example, is .22 ly from the system arrival point. The last time I accepted a mission to Hutton Orbital, I abandoned the mission because by the time I was approaching maximum speed in supercruise, i was still faced with another 90 minutes of flying just to get to the star within Alpha Centauri that Hutton Orbital orbits. Of course, being the noob that i am, i tried to engage my fsd but i couldnt - the jump distance was below the minimum jump range of my fsd. So i thought, how could this be rectified? Here's what i've come up with so far:
A micro jump fsd modification. Why? Well, frankly, to benefit explorers and traders. Could you equip a ship in such a way that your minimum jump range is less than a ly? Sure. But why would you? If you're a trader or explorer, you want long legs - not short ones. Your profit in those roles comes from longer trips, not shorter ones for the most part. More importantly though, what would the benefits of such a drive be, and where would its limitations lie?
Well, the benefit would be that you would use it for jumps of less than a ly, as an in system jump. It wouldnt be meant for shortening a 500k ls jump and could even be coded so that the minimum jump range is .10 ly (or at whatever distance the measurement switches from ly to ls).
It could also operate as an additional "gear" if you will, bridging the gap between a hyperspace jump and supercruise. You wouldnt completely jump into hyperspace, but you would accellerate faster than supercruise and you could cut a 90 minute supercruise flight down to 30 minutes. You still feel like its a long flight by comparison to most hops, but you get your goods to that isolated station faster, thus bringing more business to otherwise unfrequented systems.
It could be offered one of two ways.
First as an engineer upgrade to your fsd where you trade some overall jump range and heat buildup for short range flexibility.
The other way could be for it to be a completely separate fsd of various classes for the types/sizes of the various ships and would require the player to sacrifice something in their optional internals (a passenger cabin for example).
Either way, a mass penalty would apply as well as a heat buildup (operating temperature runs a bit higher when the module is active) as well as a power drain penalty for the capacitor.
So those are my thoughts. Please keep in mind, it is a preliminary idea, some of the aspects I've suggested for this might need to be tweaked for the gameplay's benefit, but as an idea i think it is something that could work and may encourage newer players or younger ones to seek out those hard to reach places in the galaxy.
Let me know what you guys think.