Thanks Tetra. I hadn't noticed the DRP line before, I'll keep an eye out next time. I anticipate the droping to glide at around 30km, give or take 10, so I've always tried to keep in roughly horizontal at that alt until I get closer.
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Newcomer / Intro Planetary Landing Tips
- Thread starter Skürt Avil
- Start date
Until about a week ago, I'd forgotten what the Flight Assist was meant to do (recently returned after 5 years). I thought it was used to turn the Supercruise Assist on and off! The default setting on my PC is press and hold to turn it on and off, not very responsive. Thinks I'll check my bindings, thanks.
I'm using mouse and keyboard, and the mouse seems to want to yaw all the time if you don't move it back to the recticle, so I don't think I'll be attempting any heavy G landings. Well, obviously not intentionally but if I lose it while landing in the coming weeks, I'll know why.
Your can do three solutions for your mouse issue:
And make sure the mouse indicator is on so you can see where you are pointing your mouse.
- Add a deadzone, just big enough so you can "zero in" your mouse by hand (if it is too big, you'll have trouble aiming)
- Use relative mouse axis (you have to actively move your mouse for pitch/yaw), the preferred setting for FA off flying
- Set a button to reset your mouse to zero (preferably on the mouse itself), so you can "force" all yaw an pitch to end (works for me far more realiable than deadzone, without any aiming issues)
And make sure the mouse indicator is on so you can see where you are pointing your mouse.
For resetting the mouse, I use the wheel to unlock the "free view". It also resets the mouse to dead center. Just click 2 times on che mouse wheel in rapid succession to get the controls reset.
In my (little) planetary landing experience (disclaimer: never landed on high g planets yet), I found a good way to enter glide when around 4-500 kms from the target and making a slow, controlled glide (but I guess on high-gs this is way harder to achieve) untile about 10-15 km from the target. With engineers planetary outposts it works quite well.
Going in slow enough to feel in control is good.
Once in orbital cruise (at least at the moment you enter glide), pitch of minus 10-20 degrees is good in my experience, depending on the ship (type, loadout, engineering, cargo) in high G environments.
With some shields & armour*, everywhere is safe to land and even goof off a bit:
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ok8QYnT3gzs
*at least do heavy duty engineering on that lightweight alloy, might save the day (but will of course not protect from really derpy moments, like accidentally hitting boost)
Once in orbital cruise (at least at the moment you enter glide), pitch of minus 10-20 degrees is good in my experience, depending on the ship (type, loadout, engineering, cargo) in high G environments.
With some shields & armour*, everywhere is safe to land and even goof off a bit:
*at least do heavy duty engineering on that lightweight alloy, might save the day (but will of course not protect from really derpy moments, like accidentally hitting boost)
The ideal angle I've found is 25 degrees. Puts me right over the target 6kn out every time
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Doesn't that send you to sleep? Or maybe you watch yootoob to pass the time?
I like to keep to 45° - 50° - just feels better but it is only a personal choice.
I'm not even sure what angle I take to enter planets. I just throttle to 50%, pitch up until the curvature of the body is just hidden below my hud and then watch my distance/height until I'm within 100km and 60km ish respectively, then pitch down a bit and enter glide from there. And if you ever see giant red bands in the middle of your view you're coming in too steep.
Did you try that on high G worlds, like HD 148937 3?
Downward thrust sounds to me like a very unsoft touchdown.
Hawk has already touched that, I'll give you bit more details:
This way you will be gliding at a reasonable angle and you will drop directly over your target.
An example:
EDIT> I did not land for a while and was speaking from the top of my head... I was wrong regarding the altitude/distance ratio... Sorry mate!
- enter the orbital zone
- fly leveled towards your target
- depending of the size of the planet fly at 30-50% throttle, do not pitch down or up yet, keep it around 0% pitch
- if you want to see your target, you need to fly upside down, if you are Ok just following your heading instrument on the left from your radar, you dont need to turn upside down
- when your target distance is roughly 1.5x or double your altitude, just quickly nose down towards your target and keep at it, until you drop
This way you will be gliding at a reasonable angle and you will drop directly over your target.
An example:
- altitude: 400km
- distance to target: 6790km
- keep flying at 400km altitude until the distance is 600-800km
- now pitch down directly towards your target.
EDIT> I did not land for a while and was speaking from the top of my head... I was wrong regarding the altitude/distance ratio... Sorry mate!
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4km/s descent rate is a bit extreme. Maybe a typo. That is 8947 miles per hour. It is also several times faster than any ship in Elite can fly.
Same, I feel like my best ones are at around 40 degrees, entering glide between 50 and 70km
That sounds a bit dangerous. On occasion, I've had to exit glide to prevent me crashing by tipping my nose up above 5°. Not sure how you do that quickly from ~90°.
Then again, it's the name of the game!
Impossible to crash directly from glide...
Also, by doing it like I told you will give you an angle of around 45 degree...
After you get within roughly 7km of your target, you are automatically kicked out of glide and your speed decreases to normal speed... If you throttle down during the glide, you will immediately stop after you are kicked out of the glide and you will end up hovering at the altitude of around 6km above your target...
The only location where you need to be careful, is planets with more than 2G gravity... Anything below 2G is pretty safe using the method above, unless your ship has super weak thrusters...
I wasn't aware of that, thanks!
I had to correct my initial guide, I was wrong about the altitude/distance ratio... Sorry, now it should be ok... One has done it so many times, that you no longer think about it and then when you have to describe it to someone when sitting away from the game, you make a mistake...
Yes, used it on a 5g world - point is as its on an axis it is possible to set a constant slow speed. Unlike a button which is all or nothing.