Newcomer / Intro New Commander, With Questions

[WellFooled]

Greetings!

I'm new to the game, with only a couple weeks play time, and while I think I've gotten over the initial learning curve there are a few things that I'm still having trouble figuring out. Thanks in advance for any help you can give me understanding ED!

First, Is there anyway to do a Frameshift Jump to another point inside the system that you're already in? I frequently encounter systems with a very distant star included besides the one I jump to and it can be annoying to super cruise to the other star. Along with this, those distant stars will show up in my System View, but if they're far enough away I can't pick them out with the naked eye, let alone target them, so I often can't make the long super cruise trip even when I wish I could.

Second, I overshot things a lot! Mostly because I'm too lazy to gradually slow down as I reach a target, but also because I think there must be mechanics to acceleration that I don't understand. Sometimes I can easily accelerate to great speeds while in super cruise, but other times I struggle to reach even minor velocities. It feels like I'm in the wrong gear! Do celestial bodies slow you down or pull you in? Or is there something about my flight controls I'm missing?

And third, is there any way to know which face of Coriolis stations has the dock entrance? I've been told to look at my Mini-map, but I haven't yet figured out how that helps lol

Thanks again for your time and your help.

 

[dannyboy]

Welcome

The short answer to the first question is no, sadly. I think it's a fairly requested feature but I don't believe FD have any plans to change the supercruise mechanics (though I could be wrong).

The simplest option when going into supercruise is to stay at full throttle until the countdown timer reaches 7 seconds, then throttle back to the middle of the blue zone so that the auto-throttle kicks in. That way you won't overshoot.

Once you're closer than 0.10ls and the range units switch to Mm, you can throttle back up a bit and still drop out of SC close to the station, as long as you time it right.

With the Corioli (?), the dock almost always faces towards the planet that the starport orbits.

 

[nazartp]

Greetings!

I'm new to the game, with only a couple weeks play time, and while I think I've gotten over the initial learning curve there are a few things that I'm still having trouble figuring out. Thanks in advance for any help you can give me understanding ED!

First, Is there anyway to do a Frameshift Jump to another point inside the system that you're already in? I frequently encounter systems with a very distant star included besides the one I jump to and it can be annoying to super cruise to the other star. Along with this, those distant stars will show up in my System View, but if they're far enough away I can't pick them out with the naked eye, let alone target them, so I often can't make the long super cruise trip even when I wish I could.

Second, I overshot things a lot! Mostly because I'm too lazy to gradually slow down as I reach a target, but also because I think there must be mechanics to acceleration that I don't understand. Sometimes I can easily accelerate to great speeds while in super cruise, but other times I struggle to reach even minor velocities. It feels like I'm in the wrong gear! Do celestial bodies slow you down or pull you in? Or is there something about my flight controls I'm missing?

And third, is there any way to know which face of Coriolis stations has the dock entrance? I've been told to look at my Mini-map, but I haven't yet figured out how that helps lol

Thanks again for your time and your help.

First: no.

Second: in supercruise the magic number is 0:06. On approach to your target once the time left indicator reaches about 8 - 9 seconds, reduce your speed for the slider to be in the center of the blue zone. Alternatively, you can bind a key to 75% speed. You will hit your target every time. The speed changes due to proximity to celestial bodies and other ships - the closer you are, the slower you will move. If the speed is your goal, try to manoeuvre around the celestial bodies, so the gravity does not affect you.

Third: without deploying your hardpoints target the station. On the left hologram showing the target you will see arrows pointing towards the entrance. As simple as that.

 

[quickr]

1. No, only supercruise while you are in a system. You think you know distant in system travels? Try visiting hutton orbital
2. Even the most experienced players over shoot sometimes. It's all about practice. And yes, celestial objects have this thing called gravity.
3. Entrance always faces the planet they are orbiting.

 

[willowfan]

Greetings!

I'm new to the game, with only a couple weeks play time, and while I think I've gotten over the initial learning curve there are a few things that I'm still having trouble figuring out. Thanks in advance for any help you can give me understanding ED!

First, Is there anyway to do a Frameshift Jump to another point inside the system that you're already in? I frequently encounter systems with a very distant star included besides the one I jump to and it can be annoying to super cruise to the other star. Along with this, those distant stars will show up in my System View, but if they're far enough away I can't pick them out with the naked eye, let alone target them, so I often can't make the long super cruise trip even when I wish I could.

No, you can't jump between two stars in the same system. Though there is talk of micro-jumps being introduced at some point in the future.

Second, I overshot things a lot! Mostly because I'm too lazy to gradually slow down as I reach a target, but also because I think there must be mechanics to acceleration that I don't understand. Sometimes I can easily accelerate to great speeds while in super cruise, but other times I struggle to reach even minor velocities. It feels like I'm in the wrong gear! Do celestial bodies slow you down or pull you in? Or is there something about my flight controls I'm missing?

When the timer reads 7 seconds to go throttle down to 75% (you can bind a key to this to make it easy) you will then find you auto decelerate at the right rate to safely disengage.

And third, is there any way to know which face of Coriolis stations has the dock entrance? I've been told to look at my Mini-map, but I haven't yet figured out how that helps lol

Thanks again for your time and your help.

The letterbox is always on the face turning anti-clockwise. It is also the face rimmed with white navigation lights (the rear face has red lights). If you look at the holo image on the left you will see arrows pointing to the side with the letterbox (it is easier to see if the holo is green).

 

[WellFooled]

Thanks everyone, for the awesome (and very quick!) answers! I appreciate it.

Since there's no way to make a Frameshift Jump in a system, is there anyway to know which direction a distant star in the same system is? That way at least I could set a course in SuperCruise and go make lunch

When I discover a previously undiscovered Star System with multiple distant stars, it bothers me when I can't explore the other stars in it...there could be an Earth Like planet there

 

[willowfan]

Either get an Advanced discovery scanner (a snip at a mere 1.5M CR) which will show the position of everything within a system or follow the orbit line of the known star and use observation of parallax movement to spot the nearby stars moving against the background.

 

[WellFooled]

Either get an Advanced discovery scanner (a snip at a mere 1.5M CR) which will show the position of everything within a system or follow the orbit line of the known star and use observation of parallax movement to spot the nearby stars moving against the background.

My intermediate scanner fails me D: Thanks for the info willowfan, I'll try to spot the star with your advice the next time I find one.

 

[quickr]

Since there's no way to make a Frameshift Jump in a system, is there anyway to know which direction a distant star in the same system is? That way at least I could set a course in SuperCruise and go make lunch

I strongly advise against it

 

[Blaubart]

most question have already been answered so i just have an addendum:

Your maximum speed in supercruse kinda depends on the gravitational pull affecting you. so: the bigger an object and the closer you are to that object, the slower you will go.

It is mostly but not exclusively influenced by close stars or Planets. Exception: In systems like LHS 3447 (one of the start systems) you have all incomming jumps going to one star but most of the stations in another stars orbit, several Ls away. So, you have a steady stream of AI and player Ships going in the direct line towards the other system. If you go with that stream, you won't get much faster than 100c. What i recommend here is going in an arc or a 45° angle away from the jump-in-star and the ship-stream you'll speed up to 700c or more, you can go paralell to the AI-ship-stream and start going to your actual destination when youre about 1000Ls away.

This extra maneuver will make you get there A LOT faster. I'm talking saving up to 10 minutes in an average sized dual-star system.

about the spotting of unmapped stars: there are great videos on youtube showing you how to spot unmapped celestial bodies. Just notice that far away system still seem to move very slowly even if you're at a 90° angle to them. It also helps to know the color of the stars you're looking for (which is represented in the systems map) so you don't have to stare at every dustparticle for several seconds.

last but not least: in case you are looking for a Base: they will always show up as soon as you enter the system (take a look at your Navigation-panel) If the base is next to another star, Just lock the station and you know where to go.

ok, one more thing: if there is another star in the system and you can't spot it, pay attention to your Sensor. If the star has Resource sites of any kind in it's orbit (asteroid belts or Planets with rocky or metal rings) AI ships will eventually fly there to mine the Fields. You can follow them and find the system that way. In case they suddenly disappear in a FSD-cloud they were just passing by to travel to another system though. But they usually only do that in the vicinity of the "jump-in-star" which is always the star with the biggest mass btw.

 

[dayrth]

Welcome commander

I think your questions have been answered here. One thing I would say is about overshooting. When in super cruise you will continue to accelerate toward your destination until you start to get close. The frame shift drive will then start to slow. If you set your throttle to 75% this will give you good acceleration on the way and slow at the correct rate for safe disengage without the need to loop. This works for stations, outposts, extraction sites, signal sources and nav beacons.

If your destination is a station orbiting a planet, head for the planet first then out toward the station, as the entrance will point roughly toward the planet. With outposts it doesn't matter.

Hope this helps.

 

[azdour]

First, Is there anyway to do a Frameshift Jump to another point inside the system that you're already in? I frequently encounter systems with a very distant star included besides the one I jump to and it can be annoying to super cruise to the other star. Along with this, those distant stars will show up in my System View, but if they're far enough away I can't pick them out with the naked eye, let alone target them, so I often can't make the long super cruise trip even when I wish I could.

While others have said no I believe Frontier are thinking about letting us micro-jump to the different stars. Direct jumps to planets and stations is a no-go because it will greatly reduce the pirate or bounty hunters ability to scan for and intercept their prey.

 

[WellFooled]

Thanks everyone for all the additional detail. Particularly Blaubart, thanks for the tip on following npcs to find distant stars (and avoiding them if traffic is heavy enough to slow me down!), that's a thought I would have never had myself. I guess I assumed the npc's participation in the world wasn't that complex. Is it much more detailed? If I followed, for example, a single mining npc would it eventually head back to a station to sell its haul and perform maintenance? Do trading npcs have set routes that could be mapped?

I just returned from a three day long exploration trial run and I'm happy to report that the sound piloting advice I've received here has stopped me from adding any Cobra sized craters to the universe. Thanks again everyone!

Now time to try my hand at Pirating.

 

[Hell Razor5543]

Welcome aboard. There are 2 things I do in super cruise to help make things easier. I will fly a curved path, dropping below the orbital planes of the planets, so that it is likely I will then be able to see the orbital paths of the objects around the planet I am approaching (they will be in concentric circles rather than flat lines), and then I will head towards a point between the planet and the station, curving towards the station as I close on it. When I drop out of SC the 'letter box' is normally facing me.

 

[Blaubart]

Thanks everyone for all the additional detail. Particularly Blaubart, thanks for the tip on following npcs to find distant stars (and avoiding them if traffic is heavy enough to slow me down!), that's a thought I would have never had myself. I guess I assumed the npc's participation in the world wasn't that complex. Is it much more detailed? If I followed, for example, a single mining npc would it eventually head back to a station to sell its haul and perform maintenance? Do trading npcs have set routes that could be mapped?

I just returned from a three day long exploration trial run and I'm happy to report that the sound piloting advice I've received here has stopped me from adding any Cobra sized craters to the universe. Thanks again everyone!

Now time to try my hand at Pirating.

You're welcome . I don't know how good the NPC simulation actually is. Since there are often ships blown up by stations because the AI can't dock properly, I do not think they affect the actual economy. What i did notice from BH in RES is, that miners do leave the res after a very long time of mining so maybe they are full eventually. But i did not follow them to check if they actually head to a station or something like that. I think its just that the game tries to popuplate the systems a little and gives away hints like that on the way. However i can't guarantee you that there are no other res-sources around if there aren't any ships going towards a system.

 

[WellFooled]

Hello again!

I've recently upgraded to an ASP and have begun trying to help out my faction take some systems and this has put me at odds with some other players. After being interdicted a few times and having my butt handed to me, I think its time to give some serious consideration to upgrading my combat components and I was hoping I could get some help and suggestions.

At the moment I have the two default pulse lasers (F rated) and two (G rated) Multi-canons on my small Hardpoints, my Medium Hardpoints are empty.

I'm assuming I want a good combination of laser based weapons and kinetic weapons to get through shields and hull, but I'm having a hard time understanding what is and isn't an upgrade. Some hardpoints show increased damage-per-second, but a decrease in Damage. I'm assuming that DPS is the stat I should most care about? I'm also wondering if there's any way to know what kinds of hardpoints a station is selling without traveling to it? I'd love to track down better ranked Multi-canons to replace the ones I have, but I haven't been able to find any above an F rating.

Thanks in advance for any help you can give!

 

[markkuk]

At the moment I have the two default pulse lasers (F rated) and two (G rated) Multi-canons on my small Hardpoints, my Medium Hardpoints are empty.

When my Asp was armed for combat, I had four small gimballed beam lasers and two medium gimballed multicannons. You should use the mdium hardpoints for kinetic weapons.

I 'd love to track down better ranked Multi-canons to replace the ones I have, but I haven't been able to find any above an F rating.

Currently all weapons with the same size, type and mounting have the same rating. Weapon variants with different ratings existed in beta test stage, and they may return sometime in future.

 

[WellFooled]

When my Asp was armed for combat, I had four small gimballed beam lasers and two medium gimballed multicannons. You should use the mdium hardpoints for kinetic weapons.

Currently all weapons with the same size, type and mounting have the same rating. Weapon variants with different ratings existed in beta test stage, and they may return sometime in future.

Ah, that explains it >< So the only way to get a more powerful Multi-cannon would be to find ones that fit the Medium Hardpoint? And thanks for the outfitting suggestions for my ASP, if I may ask though, why should I use my medium hardpoints for kinetic weapons?

 

[cmdr lowest]

Ah, that explains it >< So the only way to get a more powerful Multi-cannon would be to find ones that fit the Medium Hardpoint? And thanks for the outfitting suggestions for my ASP, if I may ask though, why should I use my medium hardpoints for kinetic weapons?

Because you get a damage penalty for using small cannons against large ships. Smaller calibre shells don't penetrate large vessels as well.

Similarly you get a damage boost for using medium cannons against small ships.

This isn't the same for thermal weapons hence people use the smaller hardpoints for lasers, for stripping shields and the larger hardpoints for larger calibre kinetic weapons.

 

[WellFooled]

Because you get a damage penalty for using small cannons against large ships. Smaller calibre shells don't penetrate large vessels as well.

Similarly you get a damage boost for using medium cannons against small ships.

This isn't the same for thermal weapons hence people use the smaller hardpoints for lasers, for stripping shields and the larger hardpoints for larger calibre kinetic weapons.

Thanks Commander! Learning all these details are really helping me put the pieces together.