General Stable SCO for old Ships

BinaryDuck

BinaryDuck
Before starting, I want to reinforce that this is not a call to nerf the SCO ready ships that are being added to the game. I know this is a move from frontier to be able to get more money so they can keep the development of Elite running for a longer period of time. This is a call for adding something to make the older ships get as close to the SCO ready ships performance without completely removing their advantage.

Right now, the SCO on older ships even if useful in some situations, is very problematic for use on extended periods of time, because of the higher fuel consumption, heat generation and ship instability. I would like to suggest the addition of a “FSD (stable SCO)” option for purchase.

The SSCO should be acquired like we do right now with guardian modules, trough unlocking in tech brokers. The SSCO should still be less efficient than a SCO in a specialized ship, but would at least decrease the disadvantage of older ship models compared to the new ones.

I believe that leaving the SSCO 30% to 20% less efficient in all areas compared to the SCO ready ships should be enough to bring older ships closer to a more acceptable performance but not as good as the new ships.

Additionally, these modules should not have any effect on SCO ready ships, so they are not needed for people that already have them equipped and engineered.
 

Monk

Monk
eh...I like the idea of having to slap on heat sinks and and an extra fuel tank on my ancient T9 to get it to even work with new tech. To that effect, maybe FDEV can introduce an additional module, or perhaps a utility you have to consume that would stabilize flight and improve efficiency.

FWIW, the Cobra Mk III performs admirably in SCO so long as I bring some heat sinks and I'm ready to play rodeo cowboy on the joystick. I was using it recently to hunt HGEs and I was pretty happy with its performance.
 

CMDR Daiyus

CMDR Daiyus
Alternatively, an optional internal similar to the experimental weapon stabiliser, that would bring the stability to similar levels of the dedicated ships? From a lore perspective it sounds like the traditionally manufactured hulls are simply not strong enough to handle the extra boost, so it makes sense to reinforce it through an optional internal like other physical reinforcements. Sure, hull reinforcements could be argued to get this extra ability, but it could be explained away as needing a different type of exotic structural reinforcement for the SCO pressures.
 

BackToTheMud

B
CMDR Daiyus said:
Alternatively, an optional internal similar to the experimental weapon stabiliser, that would bring the stability to similar levels of the dedicated ships? From a lore perspective it sounds like the traditionally manufactured hulls are simply not strong enough to handle the extra boost, so it makes sense to reinforce it through an optional internal like other physical reinforcements. Sure, hull reinforcements could be argued to get this extra ability, but it could be explained away as needing a different type of exotic structural reinforcement for the SCO pressures.
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No! How about you don't punish smaller, "weaker" ships everytime something new is added?..
 

Northpin

Northpin
BinaryDuck said:
Before starting, I want to reinforce that this is not a call to nerf the SCO ready ships that are being added to the game. I know this is a move from frontier to be able to get more money so they can keep the development of Elite running for a longer period of time. This is a call for adding something to make the older ships get as close to the SCO ready ships performance without completely removing their advantage.

Right now, the SCO on older ships even if useful in some situations, is very problematic for use on extended periods of time, because of the higher fuel consumption, heat generation and ship instability. I would like to suggest the addition of a “FSD (stable SCO)” option for purchase.

The SSCO should be acquired like we do right now with guardian modules, trough unlocking in tech brokers. The SSCO should still be less efficient than a SCO in a specialized ship, but would at least decrease the disadvantage of older ship models compared to the new ones.

I believe that leaving the SSCO 30% to 20% less efficient in all areas compared to the SCO ready ships should be enough to bring older ships closer to a more acceptable performance but not as good as the new ships.

Additionally, these modules should not have any effect on SCO ready ships, so they are not needed for people that already have them equipped and engineered.
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Not gonna happen as long they will have new ships to release.
After all, those new ships have to have some solid advantages to sell in the pre-order phase and maybe afterwards too
 

DjVortex

DjVortex
In my opinion the current implementation of SCO drives is fine. I think it has a good balance of "performance at a cost": Sure, you can reach several thousands of c of supercruise speed in just a few seconds, but the cost is quite enormous, in fuel usage, heat generation and maneuverability of the ship. It makes the SCO drives feel less like pure power creep.

It also makes sense that new ships handle SCO drives much better because in the in-universe lore it's explained beautifully: Ship manufacturers are designing new ships explicitly to handle SCO better. This gives an absolutely beautiful in-universe reasoning for so many new ships to be suddenly developed.

One could argue that further in-universe technological development of the SCO drives could make them less burdensome to use in the old ships, and that would make perfect sense, and I don't have a lorewise in-universe-wise argument against that. However, from a gameplay meta-perspective I think the drawbacks are acceptable and make sense, to balance a bit the "power creep".
 

metatheurgist

metatheurgist
Lore, HA! Since when has making sense ever mattered in this game. We're in the game where 'rare' mats are more common than common mats now. 😄
 

varonica

varonica
The SCO drive is so advantageous even for older ships that all my ships I use regularly already have it fitted, even my T9, and with mats so easy to get these days engineering them was easy, I already had all the mats I needed. What we don't need to do is make SCO the same no matter what ship, new or old. Not only can I get round faster in my T6, it actually came out with a higher jump range after engineering, what else do I need?
 

Tifu

Tifu
Monk said:
FWIW, the Cobra Mk III performs admirably in SCO so long as I bring some heat sinks and I'm ready to play rodeo cowboy on the joystick. I was using it recently to hunt HGEs and I was pretty happy with its performance.
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Good to know, thank you. I was contemplating putting an SCO drive on my Viper 4 eventually.
 
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CMDR Daiyus

CMDR Daiyus
BackToTheMud said:
No! How about you don't punish smaller, "weaker" ships everytime something new is added?..
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I quite like flying smaller ships, and part of that is because they are "weaker" and need more thought put into how to build them, with the positives and negatives amplified. A choice of extra fuel vs. FSD booster is something I enjoy figuring out, and optimising for the specific build I have in mind, as I would enjoy the challenge of SCO reinforcement vs. other stuff. There's not a build I've ever devised where I haven't thought "I wish I had an extra x slot", but that's part of the fun. I get that's not everyone's cup of tea, but it's that type of ship building that keeps the game interesting for me. Horses for courses I guess.
 

metatheurgist

metatheurgist
Tifu said:
Good to know, thank you. I was contemplating putting an SCO drive on my Viper 4 eventually.
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I have one on mine works fine. I don't even see the need for heat sinks, just stop to cooldown every once in a while. Either way you're still getting there faster.
 
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