Orrery concept and current orrery

[[VR] Mad Mike]

Actually Elite improved quite a lot since launch.

In some areas sure. In others for me personally it has gone backwards.... But regardless I still think what NMS has added for free is massive.

 

[killminster]

I was always an orrery skeptic and my thoughts on its usefulness, or lack thereof, have mostly been borne out.

However I'm glad they put it in and can see that it has some potential. First and foremost it needs to display all if the POIs and signal sources that appear in the nav panel with the same filtering options. Going from the FSS and identifying orbital bodies and signals and seeing them populate on the orrery would give both systems a more cohesive feel and appeal.

And I actually prefer how it's been executed over concept art. It looks more like a navigation tool that an imaginary spaceship commander might use rather than a child's plaything.

 

[phong]

I understand the concept of an orrery. But whenever I find an interesting system and look at the game's orrery for it... I don't know what i'm looking at.

blue inverted triangle is you.yellow inverted triangle is selected destination.Use zoom and rotate to decide optimum path.
The debate seems to be about aesthetics versus engineering solutions to represent our place in relationship to our environment.
The orrery gives a sense of scale and is a primarily a navigation tool.Like a lot of tools,it may not get used a lot but if used well it can help to inform your future decisions in ways you were not previously aware of.

 

[Sylow]

I like, that the distances are a model in same size-relation. When out exploring and i find multiple bodys of intrest, i use the orrery to plan a route in-system for saving time and getting as less slowdowns through gravity as possible.

Yes, the eye-candy could have been a bit better but the scale is important for me. It has improved my gameplay a lot!

Same here. Indeed it's not as pretty as the concept art. It never is. The term "art" in the name already is a giveaway. But it makes mapping bodies in a system much easier. In the old system (which in some other threads some people still fight toes and nail to get it back) figuring out a good route was cumbersome. You had to turn and check all bodies, make the map in your mind, then plan based on that. It was possible, but usually it was actually faster to just fly to the closest body, then work your way out, despite the inefficient route you took.

On the orrery i quite often can see in just a glance what can be a rather efficient loop through through the system, where i have to plan in a detour, etc. It's much more convenient. So yes, it could be prettier, but it is useful, and that's what counts for me.