My take on the new flight assists

[Sylow]

3. Supercruise assist:
This was the most disappointing function for me... my biggest gripe is that it flies the entire distance with throttle in the blue zone instead of maximum throttle, basically doubling the travel time. Since it also just flies in a straight line, this totally devalues the function IMHO... my ship can fly in a straight line without computer assist but at full throttle, so one is probably better off just letting the ship fly unassisted while doing something else. Sure, you might miss your destination, but even flying a loop of shame wastes less time than flying the entire distance with hand brakes on.

Yea. For the docking and undocking, new players can watch and learn. It's slower than a veteran player does it, but hey, it actually doesn't violate the speed limit, so there's that. And being a bit slower allows the new player more time to watch and learn. (And is an inventive to eliminate it. )

But the supercuise assest is bad. It may or may not carry the ship to the given destination. But it's worse than teaching nothing: it teaches things wrongly. People just get told to fly in the blue zone all the time and be done for. No throttle adjustment, no avoidance of gravitation wells, nada.

Although i also see that the later, without further information to the player, would teach nothing, either. The ship would have to display some info like "rerouting around gravitation" to teach the new player, why it is flying in an arc instead of a straight line. But teaching nothing still beats teaching wrong.

4. Hyperspace dethrottle:
Useful for anyone who dethrottles after every jump anyway, but - as the supercruise assist is otherwise worthless - probably not worth wasting an optional slot for.

I also have to test again. I think it didn't work for me. It sure displayed that it would throttle down right after the jump. But i guess it then just used my HOTAS throttle setting instead. Reflexes took over and i evaded the star, but i guess i have to try once again, sitting on my hands, to make sure that it really fails. Then report.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

You have to spend a module slot for this? Lol. You're better off doing it yourself in any of the cases. At least is got the docking feature integrated. I used it once to experience cinematic-like sequence with the muzak.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

I also have to test again. I think it didn't work for me. It sure displayed that it would throttle down right after the jump. But i guess it then just used my HOTAS throttle setting instead. Reflexes took over and i evaded the star, but i guess i have to try once again, sitting on my hands, to make sure that it really fails. Then report.

It definitely worked for me (Xbox pad). Come to think of it, this will be quite useful for using the Neutron highway to Colonia unless you're a living on the edge kind of guy.

 

[Bortas]

You have to spend a module slot for this? Lol. You're better off doing it yourself in any of the cases. At least is got the docking feature integrated. I used it once to experience cinematic-like sequence with the muzak.

Well, in case you aren't aware of this, all ships got an additional C1 optional internal slot for this purpose. Small ships even got two.

Of course, since the new slots aren't restricted, there are better uses for them

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Well, in case you aren't aware of this, all ships got an additional C1 optional internal slot for this purpose. Small ships even got two.

Of course, since the new slots aren't restricted, there are better uses for them

Would have been better to just make it internally standard function rather than adding more power creep with additional slots.

 

[Bigmaec]

Well, in case you aren't aware of this, all ships got an additional C1 optional internal slot for this purpose. Small ships even got two.

Of course, since the new slots aren't restricted, there are better uses for them

My wallet is hurting because of all that reactive lightweight armor I buy/have bought

 

[yianniv]

I also tried the new modules. The ADC is good, one more convenience and small QoL. I can't, however, find the logic behind the blue zone limit for the SCA. Even if it's for beginners, it's supposed to be cruise control, which can actually control cruising...
I'd prefer if you could set a speed (any speed), press a key to activate it and let your ship cruise automatically until you change speed or something else happens (e.g. interdiction) where it disengages automatically.
As it is now, it's not a gift, just empty wrapping. It's annoying to me that they have to cripple most things they introduce to the game.

Appart from that, I appreciate the additional module slots!

 

[cheesenbiscuits]

I’m liking orbital insertion very much,I haven’t worked out what to use it for other than some cool photo opportunities.

 

[Sylow]

It definitely worked for me (Xbox pad). Come to think of it, this will be quite useful for using the Neutron highway to Colonia unless you're a living on the edge kind of guy.

I can believe that.I also guess it works perfectly fine with keyboard and mouse. The game sets the throttle to zero after the jump and as long as there's no new input, it remains there. Neither the keyboard nor the console controller sends new throttle data before the player does anything. In contrast a HOTAS throttle constantly delivers data. No matter if you move it or not, it transmits at which position it is now. And due to the long data range and analogue sensors, the data even fluctuates a little bit. Not enough for any human to notice, but the lowest bits keep changing. So any check looking for a change will trigger. Thus the game immediately sets the throttle to this input value, overriding the assist.

Mind you, i also have no easy workaround here. I mean, the game can't just permanently ignore the throttle after a jump. It has to accept the input. But at least for me and my HOTAS, things are unchanged: I throttle back during the jumpm which also stops me reliably after the jump.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

I can believe that.I also guess it works perfectly fine with keyboard and mouse. The game sets the throttle to zero after the jump and as long as there's no new input, it remains there. Neither the keyboard nor the console controller sends new throttle data before the player does anything. In contrast a HOTAS throttle constantly delivers data. No matter if you move it or not, it transmits at which position it is now. And due to the long data range and analogue sensors, the data even fluctuates a little bit. Not enough for any human to notice, but the lowest bits keep changing. So any check looking for a change will trigger. Thus the game immediately sets the throttle to this input value, overriding the assist.

Mind you, i also have no easy workaround here. I mean, the game can't just permanently ignore the throttle after a jump. It has to accept the input. But at least for me and my HOTAS, things are unchanged: I throttle back during the jumpm which also stops me reliably after the jump.

Yes I should've probably worded my post better, i.e. it works for me probably because I don't have a HOTAS. I would've thought though that the throttle input is ignored (and throttle is held at zero by the game) until you move it on the HOTAS, but no idea how easy that is to implement.

 

[Sylow]

Yes I should've probably worded my post better, i.e. it works for me probably because I don't have a HOTAS. I would've thought though that the throttle input is ignored (and throttle is held at zero by the game) until you move it on the HOTAS, but no idea how easy that is to implement.

No worries, your wording was clear enough, i just wanted to elaborate on it. And yes, i at the start also hoped that there would be some "only changes when the throttle input changes" routine. And actually i consider it even quite likely that the game internally has a routine like that. But unfortunately it fails due to the analogue nature of the input sensors.

The routine would need some kind of delta-dead-zone. If the input value changes but the change is less than 5% of throttle value, the throttle would still be held at zero. That would probably work, although it would also irritate people that you after a jump, when stopped, would fist have to throttle down a bit and then throttle up again to get to full speed. But it's unfortunately the best idea i could come up with.

 

[VR SenseiMatty]

The only thing is fine for me wiht this supercuise assistant is to orbiting the planets or stars. Can't say this is something awesome unless there are no chance to set the orbital parameters (at least, the orbital velocity, distance to the planet and the direction), but it feels ok. Just ok. Frankly speaking, these new assistants left some strange feeling of something.... unfinished. Not so useful, and not so aestetic - they can't take you to where you need and you can't see something really different with them too.

I agree on the orbital flight. I feel unrealistic to exit supercruise very near to the planet without being affected by its gravity and not falling on it. In fact I remember in the classic Star Trek series they always "parked" the Enterprise in orbital flight and I wanted to suggest an "automatic orbital parking".

 

[Deleted member 182079]

No worries, your wording was clear enough, i just wanted to elaborate on it. And yes, i at the start also hoped that there would be some "only changes when the throttle input changes" routine. And actually i consider it even quite likely that the game internally has a routine like that. But unfortunately it fails due to the analogue nature of the input sensors.

The routine would need some kind of delta-dead-zone. If the input value changes but the change is less than 5% of throttle value, the throttle would still be held at zero. That would probably work, although it would also irritate people that you after a jump, when stopped, would fist have to throttle down a bit and then throttle up again to get to full speed. But it's unfortunately the best idea i could come up with.

That would make sense. And I believe there's an option to disable the function altogether so people getting annoyed with it could just do that (at least I think I've seen it when I browsed through the right hand panel yesterday).

 

[SteveLaw]

Not quite sure how actually not doing something can be beneficial for any learning process.

Observational learning - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Sylow]

That would make sense. And I believe there's an option to disable the function altogether so people getting annoyed with it could just do that (at least I think I've seen it when I browsed through the right hand panel yesterday).

Yes, you can switch it off. But in my eyes this auto-stop would be the only potential reason to have this module. The way it handles in supercruise, i won't touch it for that ever again. So the best way of switching it off is by emptying the module slot.

 

[Deleted member 182079]

Yes, you can switch it off. But in my eyes this auto-stop would be the only potential reason to have this module. The way it handles in supercruise, i won't touch it for that ever again. So the best way of switching it off is by emptying the module slot.

Agree, which is why I will remove it from my ships in due time (and when I find a better use for that size 1 slot!).

 

[avow555]

Pretty cool with the new gadgets although not happy they are modules.
Would prefer every ship got them as standard as module creep is just getting silly.
SCA needs improved as it's way too slow.
It may be fun if the orbit could be refined a bit, polar, equatorial and choose your orientation during orbit.

Should be useful for the rookies and film makers.

 

[Old Duck]

Going afk (like really afk) while supercruising - assisted or not - is probably the most reliable way to return to a rebuy screen.

Unless you're using it for exploration. That's my plan (I'm waiting for the update to the update), especially in those systems that are like Hutton Orbital without the orbital.

As for blue zone, I'm told it may not be that much slower if you are crossing vast distances, due to the way SC works. If I'm AFK (during which I'm doing house chores in vicinity of my gaming rig), then an extra few minutes in usually a 20 minute journey is no big deal to me.