A planetary approach autopilot that guides you in when u have met the conditions: in orbit of the planet you are attempting to approach, have the base/signal/settlement you wish to approach to locked, have the planetary approach module installed. i have this suggestion because i hate to break it to you frontier but regular planetary approaches are a pain. i was also thinking this module would BE the planetary approach suite as in the module becomes optional just when it is not installed you must manually approach like you do now
Planetary approach autopilot
- Thread starter Bitgedon
- Start date
Lestat
Banned
So I take it you are getting too close to the planet while trying to get to a location so it takes some time? One trick I do is Locate the Base or location before getting close to the Planet Moon and try to aline with it before getting close to the planet and come in at an angle.
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I'm not sure of the problem, approaching a locked point on a planetary surface is a piece of cake, I have to break it to you, but if you find they are a pain then you are doing it wrong, that's the only thing I can possibly suggest. How exactly are you approaching planetary landing areas, be they bases, geo/bio features of other such marked features? Once you understand the approach needed then it's just, "fly straight there."
Enough of the hand holding, this is supposed to be a "fly your spaceship game"
Fact is you can target a surface base from the map when setting your route, next thing you know it will be auto- jump, auto to ASC, the ship flys itself to the planet, approaches the base and lands itself, where is the interest in that?
Yep. I agree with the OP. In fact we should have a full on autopilot where you can set the destination, or waypoints, have have the ship fly there while intelligently avoiding obstacles and flying or approaching at the right speed so as not to "crash". And it would also request for permission to dock automatically and land for you.
Just throw away that ADC/SDC /SC and replace it with the venerable Autopilot.
Or... for multiseat ships, just have your co-pilot do it for you.
Easy to implement. NPC algorithm.
Yes, I still manually fly my ships and land them 90% of the time.
But since long trips are boring, or if I'm just a bit lazy or not in the mood for that 12 jumps + 350,000Ls to the starport trip, I could assign the autopilot or co-pilot to do it, while I go and check out the galaxy map, or watch a YouTube, or even check out INARA.
And for those who don't like it... just platy the game manually your own way. And don't buy an AP.
Just throw away that ADC/SDC /SC and replace it with the venerable Autopilot.
Or... for multiseat ships, just have your co-pilot do it for you.
Easy to implement. NPC algorithm.
Yes, I still manually fly my ships and land them 90% of the time.
But since long trips are boring, or if I'm just a bit lazy or not in the mood for that 12 jumps + 350,000Ls to the starport trip, I could assign the autopilot or co-pilot to do it, while I go and check out the galaxy map, or watch a YouTube, or even check out INARA.
And for those who don't like it... just platy the game manually your own way. And don't buy an AP.
But since long trips are boring, or if I'm just a bit lazy or not in the mood for that 12 jumps + 350,000Ls to the starport trip, I could assign the autopilot or co-pilot to do it, while I go and check out the galaxy map, or watch a YouTube, or even check out INARA.
And for those who don't like it... just platy the game manually your own way. And don't buy an AP.
Yes, we could replace the entire game with spreadsheet and don't bother with any of that graphics stuff, I mean who needs it since no-one is going to see it, just the inside of star ports, that would be nice.
Yes, we could replace the entire game with spreadsheet and don't bother with any of that graphics stuff, I mean who needs it since no-one is going to see it, just the inside of star ports, that would be nice.
Well, who knows I might actually have time to do a spreadsheet and some other stuff done while COMMUTING in a computer game.
LOL... commuting in a computer game. Who'd ever thought?
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I'm not saying a planetary landing autopilot shouldn't be added (though if it's being stuck in the standard planetary landing suite there needs to be a very easy way to turn it permanently off!), but if you're finding planetary approach boring and slow, you're probably not doing it in a very effective way.
If the planet is particularly large - above about 1.5G surface gravity - then the drop through the orbital cruise layers can take a while. Fortunately most landable planets are much smaller than that.
For other planets and moons, though, it's possible to get to surface sites pretty quickly as follows:
- approach the planet with the place you want to get to on one of the 'edges', maybe slightly out of sight
- keep your speed fairly high (throttle 90% or so), aim to hit the orbital cruise zone at about 500km/s, at a shallow angle [1]
- Fly at the top of the orbital cruise zone, throttle to 100%, keeping your attitude at zero degrees as you orbit, to maintain 500km/s speed (if you drop more than a degree either side of horizontal, you'll lose a lot of speed)
- When the approach timer gets to about 5 seconds, or the target gets to about 40 degrees below you, dive towards it. On bigger planets you can just go straight in fast from here and the planet's gravity will slow you down safely. On smaller planets, you'll want to drop back to 90% throttle again, and maybe curve your approach. [2]
- if you still have excess speed, enter glide at a shallow angle (~10 degrees). Your vertical speed must be less than 5km/s, so at a shallow angle you can be going well over 10km/s and still be safe. Glide drops you instantly to 2.5km/s, and then you can dive to line up with the target.
It takes a bit of practice [3], but if you time it perfectly you can often get from approaching the planet to dropping out of glide at the target in under a minute (easiest on large moons - 0.3G or so - tougher to time right on the really small moons or big planets)
I find it really fun - you have to watch your instruments, the planet, listen to the noise your drive is making, almost feel the gravity well as it grips your ship and makes your controls heavier, with split second timing needed to keep it fast but avoid crashing out.
[1] If you're going 500km/s at a steep angle, you'll get the "too fast" warning and drop out and it will hurt. Your vertical velocity must be less than 200km/s, but at a shallow enough angle you can have a little over 1Mm/s total speed.
[2] Once you've got the hang of it, you can speed this up further by diving down near-vertically then pulling up when about 100-200km out from the target, to get through the mid-heights quickly, and then use the sharp braking effect when just over the drop line to burn off that speed travelling near horizontal again.
[3] I'd recommend practicing in a nice agile ship like a Viper or Cobra. You can get benefit out of this in an Anaconda, too, but you have to plan your approach a lot better and further ahead, and you won't be able to do that if you don't have the instincts for the gravity wells, which are much easier to obtain in a ship which can turn corners.
If the planet is particularly large - above about 1.5G surface gravity - then the drop through the orbital cruise layers can take a while. Fortunately most landable planets are much smaller than that.
For other planets and moons, though, it's possible to get to surface sites pretty quickly as follows:
- approach the planet with the place you want to get to on one of the 'edges', maybe slightly out of sight
- keep your speed fairly high (throttle 90% or so), aim to hit the orbital cruise zone at about 500km/s, at a shallow angle [1]
- Fly at the top of the orbital cruise zone, throttle to 100%, keeping your attitude at zero degrees as you orbit, to maintain 500km/s speed (if you drop more than a degree either side of horizontal, you'll lose a lot of speed)
- When the approach timer gets to about 5 seconds, or the target gets to about 40 degrees below you, dive towards it. On bigger planets you can just go straight in fast from here and the planet's gravity will slow you down safely. On smaller planets, you'll want to drop back to 90% throttle again, and maybe curve your approach. [2]
- if you still have excess speed, enter glide at a shallow angle (~10 degrees). Your vertical speed must be less than 5km/s, so at a shallow angle you can be going well over 10km/s and still be safe. Glide drops you instantly to 2.5km/s, and then you can dive to line up with the target.
It takes a bit of practice [3], but if you time it perfectly you can often get from approaching the planet to dropping out of glide at the target in under a minute (easiest on large moons - 0.3G or so - tougher to time right on the really small moons or big planets)
I find it really fun - you have to watch your instruments, the planet, listen to the noise your drive is making, almost feel the gravity well as it grips your ship and makes your controls heavier, with split second timing needed to keep it fast but avoid crashing out.
[1] If you're going 500km/s at a steep angle, you'll get the "too fast" warning and drop out and it will hurt. Your vertical velocity must be less than 200km/s, but at a shallow enough angle you can have a little over 1Mm/s total speed.
[2] Once you've got the hang of it, you can speed this up further by diving down near-vertically then pulling up when about 100-200km out from the target, to get through the mid-heights quickly, and then use the sharp braking effect when just over the drop line to burn off that speed travelling near horizontal again.
[3] I'd recommend practicing in a nice agile ship like a Viper or Cobra. You can get benefit out of this in an Anaconda, too, but you have to plan your approach a lot better and further ahead, and you won't be able to do that if you don't have the instincts for the gravity wells, which are much easier to obtain in a ship which can turn corners.