Microjumps intra-system

[777Driver]

Okay cool, you want a game where you point your ship in a straight line with zero game interaction for an hour and a half and unless you headbutt your joystick you literally can't go wrong so you can pretend that it's better than micro jumping.

I'd like a game where space travel is still dangerous even 1000 years from now, where ships systems need to be monitored a little to get the best out of them and the best get more out of their systems on very long trips and the worst can't make it at all, where explorers need to actually use their sensors and smart use of star and planet sling shots along the way rewards decent players, where top FSD speeds are gained from skill not from pushing your Thrustmaster throttle to max and then watching Netflix.



.

I am all for more complex systems onboard our ships. On the flip side traveling to hutton (something that is incredibly rare for most of us) is the equivalent of traveling down a highway on cruise control for an hour, flying straight and level on a 6 axis autopilot, or a ship cruising along in a straight line for an hour. Nothing complicated and doesn't need to be.

Cruising is considered boring, the great thing about ED is you are not forced to do long voyages. The op made the choice to perform the longest supercruise trip in game, then complains that he finds it boring :-/

 

[NeilF]

Hi and welcome.

Been asked many times. Currently there are no plans although it has been discussed many times between the dev teams.


Personally I'd prefer some kind of supercruise boost mechanic like slingshotting planets or something. Make it more interesting rather than cutting it out entirely.

Yeh... Sling shots might add some nice variety into SC.... From two and a half years ago - https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=94624

 

[Crank Larson]

Okay cool, you want a game where you point your ship in a straight line with zero game interaction for an hour and a half and unless you headbutt your joystick you literally can't go wrong so you can pretend that it's better than micro jumping.

I'd like a game where space travel is still dangerous even 1000 years from now, where ships systems need to be monitored a little to get the best out of them and the best get more out of their systems on very long trips and the worst can't make it at all, where explorers need to actually use their sensors and smart use of star and planet sling shots along the way rewards decent players, where top FSD speeds are gained from skill not from pushing your Thrustmaster throttle to max and then watching Netflix.

That's fine - the game you want and the game that you seem to think I want (though I haven't actually stated my position on this at all) both already exist. Incidentally, if you search the forums you'll find some video and threads where people state that it is already possible to slingshot planets (I've come across these several times). I've never tested this myself, and have no idea if it is true, but you may want to look this up if that's what you want to do... If it isn't currently possible, I certainly wouldn't object to it being implemented, but it should still take a lot of time/effort to get to Hutton Orbital...

 

[Jintosh]

Hello everyone, im new to the forums.
But I was wondering if some of you could help me out.
I was wondering, if there are active plans to introduce micro jumps into the game.
Backstory: Just today i went and did the Centauri-travel, yeah you know the one. The one thats .22LY and takes 2 hours or so.
After doing multiple 200k+ LS missions just to grind out some rep.
Now, i dont mind the grind, not in the least. But i DO hate those tedious travelling times in super-cruise.
Please, give us the possibility to microjump intra-system between stars, at least so that we can reach it close to 1000 LS or something like that.
But just having us travel hours and hours through Hypercruise to preserve "the scale" of the game is barely the best option.
We get it. The game is huge. I looked at the galaxy map, trust me, I get it.
These travel times are what is pushing me away from the game.

Basic answer (and in my opinion the right answer) is 'no'. The long supercruise trips have always been a part of the games, and long may they be so. I can't count how many times I've done the Hutton run and wouldn't want to change it as it's part of the flavour I enjoy in the game.

 

[son of khzvoltz]

i like the idea BUT it should be optinal, that what the guy is getting at

 

[zebasxx]

I really hope your post came true some day... this is definitely the worst part of ED.

 

[zebasxx]

Come one!!!!! what could be more stupid that spend 10 minutes watching a white ball inside a circle.... it so stupid..... I can feel my life going away while I wait that stupid amount of time....

 

[Kaocraft]

The thing is, I've never been to Hutton. I've been meaning to go for ages, but it's a long trip and so far I've always had something else higher on my list of priorities. It's startlingly similar to my relationship with some notable places in the real world.

No other representation of scale could convey a feeling of scale so effectively as there being places which you would never make the journey to casually, or might even be too far away for you to visit at all. Hutton's remoteness has helped me to experience and appreciate the scale of ED, but I've never spent 90 minutes flying in a straight line in supercruise.

This is a really important point. In order to appreciate what you have done and will do, there have to be things which feel like they are out of reach or too demanding or too far away or just plain not worth the trouble. It's just as important as always having something that is achievable and accessible.

 

[Grey Wolfe]

YouTuber Kirk Fickert posted on this topic just this morning.

Some interesting ideas ...


[video=youtube_share;CTO-sCccz9w]https://youtu.be/CTO-sCccz9w[/video]

 

[DMaster]

I liked the idea of microjumps since the first time i heared about it. For sure, it should only possible to microjump to other stars in the system, not to other bodies.

Commanders that don't like the idea of microjumps, because they want to feel the deep space, are not forced to use them. Those, that still complain about it, are scared that they can not withstand and will use it, once they are implemented.

 

[Andovar]

Originally, there were no white dwarf/neutron boosts too. The galaxy is just so large and people just keep asking for ways to get around quicker. So, they made the White Dwarf/Neutron Star boosts.

Which was a great way to add gameplay (and some eyecandy), and increase travel "speeds".
While i don't like the idea of microjumps, as they add nothing. I think the planetary slingshotting idea has merit.
As long as it's something optional, and has a modicum of skill involved, then it would be a worthwhile addition without removing any sense of scale.

 

[EUS]

I'd prefer a player owned nav sat that costs say, $100million, you're allowed one in your hold at a time, that the player deploys it wherever they want (outside of no fire zones) in whichever solar system they enter, and after deploying it, this becomes the hyperspace exit for the player.

 

[andrewg_oz]

I'm strongly against the idea of micro-jumps. To me, it would turn Elite into a 'space game' without the 'space'.

It would also turn all systems into single-micro-jump sized places - make them all not just smaller, but also feel exactly the same, small, size. All the variations in system size and layout that the stellar forge currently produces would effectively disappear.

I think micro-jumps would, for the sake of some immediate gratification, remove the potential for some extra more interesting gameplay to be added.

That extra gameplay might take some time to be developed (if at all), instead, I would like the user interface to be improved to allow commanders to make more informed decisions about potential destinations. Wherever the game currently displays station/planet information, it should also show the distance of that station/planet from the entry point. Just like the game currently shows Ly distances to systems.

I would also like to see economic changes to make it worth commander's flight times to go to these distant places. Not in terms of distance per sé, but rather in terms of commander visitation statistics - the fewer commanders visiting a station, the better paying the missions, the cheaper the commodity buy prices, and the more expensive the sell prices. More distant stations will naturally have fewer commanders visiting, so the economics should naturally improve prices/payouts to encourage commanders to visit and make it worth their while.

The reverse - more commanders visiting a station would reduce mission payouts, increase buy prices and decrease sell prices. This is getting off this topic, but that would also perhaps address places like Quince, where the sheer numbers of commanders visiting should surely have a significant impact on the local economy.

tl;dr - no micro-jumps, keep supercruise, improve display of destination distance information, add economic effects based on commander visitor numbers.

 

[ChiefRedCloud]

FOR THE MUG ....

Chief

 

[shadragon]

Much fun.. much splat.

Much support tickets.

Supercruise NEEDS to be variable.

It already is. It's controlled with your throttle.

 

[Seipheris]

I'm in favor of this, nothing more infuriating when your milk run turns out to be a pain in the butt because the target station is 700,000 Ls out from the point where you entered the system.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

No, Hutton Orbital is supposed to be so painfully far away that no one ever really wants to go there, unless they really WANT to go there.
I've a bit over 80 hours flying to Hutton. You can figure out how many trips that is. It's also when I get a chance to catch up on watching The Expanse.

 

[thirstyfish]

Space is big. Get used to that idea. This isn't some iOS game where you can pay in premium currency to fast forward something.

Sounds like the OP wants to take the space out of a space game.

 

[CMDR Ellegon]

A big no to micro jumps. This is a game about travelling/flying in space, so yeah, let us remove the travelling.

While we are at it, we could also implement all the other "great" ideas from the forum: autopilot, auto-trading, auto-fighting etc. At the end, all that is left is the "I Win" button. /sarcasm

Places like Hutton Orbital are special because they are so remote and it takes a long time to get there. If you don't want to invest the time, I can understand that. Simply don't go there, the game can perfectly well be played without ever travelling the really long in-system distances.

 

[VR StarLightPL]

OK, I will bite - today.

It would also turn all systems into single-micro-jump sized places - make them all not just smaller, but also feel exactly the same, small, size.

That extra gameplay might take some time to be developed (if at all), instead, I would like the user interface to be improved to allow commanders to make more informed decisions about potential destinations. Wherever the game currently displays station/planet information, it should also show the distance of that station/planet from the entry point. Just like the game currently shows Ly distances to systems.

<in comedian voice>Oh the hypocrisy! Why but it would deny yourself the marvelous gameplay of going to the galaxy map via a convenient button on the mission board, opening the system map, finding the station / port in local tab, and checking the distance there? On the orrery view no less, soon(tm)¹ no etas no guarantees(tm)! And it wouldn't solve the issue of having the mission redirected mid-flight to a place like Hu(r)tton² orbital...</comedian voice>

OK so micro jumps are a somewhat cheap thing to do and lie on the opposite spectrum of the anomaly that is the Alpha Centauri system. Originally a joke or a "cheap-ish" way to "convey feeling of vastness" Hutton gained a masochist-like cult following. E: D must be a heaven for masochists btw., but I digress.

I've written several times in "autopilot = blasphemy!" threads that I wouldn't mind long travel times if I had something to do. Netflix doesn't exist in 3303, so that doesn't count. I like the idea of slingshots, and I also like the elite feet idea of having something to do inside the ship whilst traveling. Even micro jumps don't sound as bad, if they for example had to be prepared according to nav instruments. Remember Han Solo prepping jump under pressure? That could be fun, and add some skills to highwaking too, instead of the dull 15s timer.

But for sake. Hutton is madness. Hutton does not have anything even remotely special - its an "watch the grass grow/paint dry" type experience. It's like being bumped back to pre-ftl travel. And remember there is no valid in-lore reason on why we can't jump to other stars which are separated by seriously vast distances. There should be a sensible middle ground. IDK the exact value - half an hour maybe WITH possible gameplay inside? Seems like enough punishment... Balance would be most welcome, and believe me a 30 minutes trip is something that still would be "nopenopenope" to many people. It is a creator's "joke" (or POI) which carried over from previous game incarnations. But it is nothing than an anomaly.

Protesting every attempt to make the gameplay (try to remember there is the word GAME in gameplay?) just a tad more convenient (or interesting), just because "space is big deal with it" or because "it has gained a cult following, pardon, active community, all 47 of them" is like Yorkshire Cyclist Association³ protesting the introduction of public transport "because it will kill the local cyclist culture, chaps!". On a similar note we should immediately remove the FSD upgrades and neutron boosts from the game, because the early explorers feel offended by them! Hello and good morning, what shall we be offended with today?

1: (tm) = the meme...
2: hurt (a) ton
3: just made it up

Much support tickets.

"Won't fix" is a valid resolution for a ticket, one in which FDev in general excels at, especially regarding gameplay bugs. (Support's great though and its not their fault most of the time).