While I understand the need and importance of supercruise, I currently find it rather dull. It is far more simple that flying in "real space", and often ends up just being tedious in my opinion. I suggest the following to make supercruise a little more engaging, and to make those extra-long trips a little more interactive.
Supercruise Overdrive
To engage overdrive, simply press and hold the button use for Boost in real space. For as long as you hold the button down, your possible supercruise max speed (size of the throttle) will slowly rise above what would normally be possible for the current amount of nearby gravity well. This will generate heat at a rate that also rises as the max speed does. Additionally, a noticeable amount of fuel will be consumed, again at an increasing rate the more your max speed is boosted. Both the heat and the fuel consumption start out fairly small, but will get absolutely unsustainable if the button is held down for long amounts of time. Finally, your maneuverability will be severely diminished while the overdrive is active, much like it is when your current speed is over your max. Releasing the button will cause your max possible speed (and all associated drawbacks) to quickly drop back down to normal, with even giant amounts of overdrive reverting back to normal in no more than a few seconds. You current speed will behave as normally, dropping down to your new maximum in the same way it does when you get over your max speed now. A brief cooldown (like the FSD cooldown) would ensue to prevent someone from just quickly tapping the button repeatedly.
What this does
As some of you may have noticed, your supercruise acceleration (both speeding up and slowing down) is entirely based on your current max speed. In fact, it seems to be some % of your max speed per second. This is extremely apparent when approaching a signal source out in deep space. If you're going a little too quick as you're getting close and are going to overshoot, you can de-target the signal source (which causes your max speed to shoot up, since there are no actual gravity wells nearby), and press all stop. Your ship will almost immediately come to a complete stop, since the amount of speed you had before is such a small percentage of your max. Engaging the supercruise overdrive would have a similar effect. With a higher max speed, you'll be able to speed up / slow down more quickly, allowing you to more quickly escape gravity wells, and (with good timing) more quickly decelerate at your destination. It would add a new skill to flying in supercruise, since you'd need to be familiar with your ship's thermal characteristics how fuel capacity. You'd need to get good at when to start the overdrive sequence too, since you can't just hold it at a desired level. Start the overdrive too late, and you wont have the acceleration you need to stop at your destination. Start it too early, and the heat and fuel consumption will force you to disengage the overdrive before you get to your destination and likely lead to an overshoot.
This would also lead to some interesting supercruise chase dynamics. It be a constant balancing act of heat and fuel management, and deciding when to engage the overdrive. Remember- your maneuverability goes way down while in overdrive, so the objective would be to reorient yourself first, then use the overdrive to open up the distance. I'm envisioning tense moments of "chicken" where both pirate and trader have their overdrives engaged, both desperately dumping heatsinks and repairing heat-damaged modules to try and keep the overdrive going longer than the other party. "I can't give it anymore, captain. The FSD is tearing itself apart, and fires are breaking out on all decks!" "KEEP IT TOGETHER, MAN! WE CAN'T AFFORD TO LOSE THIS CARGO!" It could be especially interesting during an actual interdiction attempt, if running the overdrive while lined up more quickly swayed the bar in your favor, but running it while not lined up more quickly swayed it in favor of the other party. It may only be one extra button press, but I think overall it would add a lot to supercruise gameplay. This of course would fit very well with my other recent suggestion, the Auxiliary Coolant Reservoir module.
Note: For the visuals, I'd love to see some sort of view stretching action going on that gets more severe the longer your keep the overdrive engaged. You know, something to really convey a sense of speed. From the third-party perspective, the little "star" that ships show up as could get brighter, and the trail could change color / get longer. All details subject to debate and change of course; it's just what I envisioned.
Supercruise Overdrive
To engage overdrive, simply press and hold the button use for Boost in real space. For as long as you hold the button down, your possible supercruise max speed (size of the throttle) will slowly rise above what would normally be possible for the current amount of nearby gravity well. This will generate heat at a rate that also rises as the max speed does. Additionally, a noticeable amount of fuel will be consumed, again at an increasing rate the more your max speed is boosted. Both the heat and the fuel consumption start out fairly small, but will get absolutely unsustainable if the button is held down for long amounts of time. Finally, your maneuverability will be severely diminished while the overdrive is active, much like it is when your current speed is over your max. Releasing the button will cause your max possible speed (and all associated drawbacks) to quickly drop back down to normal, with even giant amounts of overdrive reverting back to normal in no more than a few seconds. You current speed will behave as normally, dropping down to your new maximum in the same way it does when you get over your max speed now. A brief cooldown (like the FSD cooldown) would ensue to prevent someone from just quickly tapping the button repeatedly.
What this does
As some of you may have noticed, your supercruise acceleration (both speeding up and slowing down) is entirely based on your current max speed. In fact, it seems to be some % of your max speed per second. This is extremely apparent when approaching a signal source out in deep space. If you're going a little too quick as you're getting close and are going to overshoot, you can de-target the signal source (which causes your max speed to shoot up, since there are no actual gravity wells nearby), and press all stop. Your ship will almost immediately come to a complete stop, since the amount of speed you had before is such a small percentage of your max. Engaging the supercruise overdrive would have a similar effect. With a higher max speed, you'll be able to speed up / slow down more quickly, allowing you to more quickly escape gravity wells, and (with good timing) more quickly decelerate at your destination. It would add a new skill to flying in supercruise, since you'd need to be familiar with your ship's thermal characteristics how fuel capacity. You'd need to get good at when to start the overdrive sequence too, since you can't just hold it at a desired level. Start the overdrive too late, and you wont have the acceleration you need to stop at your destination. Start it too early, and the heat and fuel consumption will force you to disengage the overdrive before you get to your destination and likely lead to an overshoot.
This would also lead to some interesting supercruise chase dynamics. It be a constant balancing act of heat and fuel management, and deciding when to engage the overdrive. Remember- your maneuverability goes way down while in overdrive, so the objective would be to reorient yourself first, then use the overdrive to open up the distance. I'm envisioning tense moments of "chicken" where both pirate and trader have their overdrives engaged, both desperately dumping heatsinks and repairing heat-damaged modules to try and keep the overdrive going longer than the other party. "I can't give it anymore, captain. The FSD is tearing itself apart, and fires are breaking out on all decks!" "KEEP IT TOGETHER, MAN! WE CAN'T AFFORD TO LOSE THIS CARGO!" It could be especially interesting during an actual interdiction attempt, if running the overdrive while lined up more quickly swayed the bar in your favor, but running it while not lined up more quickly swayed it in favor of the other party. It may only be one extra button press, but I think overall it would add a lot to supercruise gameplay. This of course would fit very well with my other recent suggestion, the Auxiliary Coolant Reservoir module.
Note: For the visuals, I'd love to see some sort of view stretching action going on that gets more severe the longer your keep the overdrive engaged. You know, something to really convey a sense of speed. From the third-party perspective, the little "star" that ships show up as could get brighter, and the trail could change color / get longer. All details subject to debate and change of course; it's just what I envisioned.
