Supercruise Assist keybind. Yes, again.

[CMDR Dropstone Ted]

It is extremely super annoying to have to go into navigational menu to toggle supercruise assist (SA) mode.

Yes, SA only operates at 75% throttle, so currently if a player is traveling at >75% throttle, they can activate SA from the Navigation menu but the SA functionality will not engage until the throttle is manually reduced to 75%. No, the ability to set a keybind to set various percentages of throttle speed does not provide the same functionality as something that specifically activates/deactivates SA.

Here are the situations where a keybind would be useful:

1) Upon exiting hyperspace jump, if in-system destination system has already been plotted from Galaxy Map, SA can be activated by keybind. While SA is active, player may still choose to use full throttle for the bulk of the journey to save time, then use separate keybind to drop to 75% throttle for the final approach to the station. Some situations warrant switching around a bit between full throttle and SA-capable throttle speeds, with SA mode engaged throughout.

2) Being interdicted in the right circumstances can deactivate SA, while maintaining the destination target. A keybind to easily reactivate SA without having to go back into the Navigation menu would be incredibly useful, especially in cases when interdiction occurs near the destination and the need to reactivate post-evasion needs to happen extremely quickly to avoid overshooting target.

3) On approach to a planetary landing, it is common to activate SA to handle the deceleration from "maximum" supercruise to orbital flight, but strategically deactivating SA at the right moment to prevent the ship automatically (constantly, repeatedly) trying to enter a rotational orbit before getting to the OC altitude. Currently, this can get really tricky as making this work requires going into the Navigation menu, selecting the target, and deactivating SA right as the ship is ignoring the destination target and is instead trying to redirect the ship to follow a rotational orbit.

4) There are circumstances when one wants to toggle in and out of SA, frequently when the path to a station is behind or near a ring or planetary exclusion zone. Want to be able to quickly key in and out of SA to allow slight steering modifications at 75% speed without triggering the auto-centering of the target that occurs when SA is active.

UPDATE: 5) See Nadreck's post below: In a system with multiple Carriers, you can't activate SA to fast-drop onto your own Carrier without having to navigate a massive list.

All of the situations above would benefit from a keybind, as they are situations that I encounter many multiples of times, every single playing session. Whatever code is executed by going into Navigation / Location (select target) / Supercruise Assist; just make a keybind for that. On / Off. Shouldn't have to do anything when a target isn't enabled or a player isn't already in supercruise. Huge Quality of Life improvement for what should be minimal effort. Please, thank you.

 

[Para Handy]

(I seriously cannot understand why people waste a slot for this after they have learned how to pilot their ship. But hey, it is your choice people, fill your boots.)

 

[Northpin]

yep, it has my stamp of approval
being interdicted 5 times in a row and having to reactivate it 5 times from the nav panel, it gets annoying rather quickly

(I seriously cannot understand why people waste a slot for this after they have learned how to pilot their ship. But hey, it is your choice people, fill your boots.)

It's about efficiency. Nothing can beat the fast SCA dropoff in a SignalSource or a station.

with SCA and ADC i can do the roundtrip Robigo Mines - Sothis 5A in 10 minutes flat. (actually less than that, i usually do 6 runs per hour and that implies spending some time to pick up missions too)
All my material gatherers, traders and mission runners have at least a SCA, most have ADC too.

 

[Para Handy]

.........
It's about efficiency. Nothing can beat the fast SCA dropoff in a SignalSource or a station.
.......

Ah yes, where would Elite be without its exploits.

 

[Northpin]

Ah yes, where would Elite be without its exploits.

A SCA is (and should be) much faster than human reactions in picking the right fraction of second to disengage the FSD at destination.
But i guess you can consider it an exploit pretty much like any other piece of AI in the game (FA ON, auto-rotation inside stations, DC and ADC)

 

[Para Handy]

A SCA is (and should be) much faster than human reactions in picking the right fraction of second to disengage the FSD at destination.
But i guess you can consider it an exploit pretty much like any other piece of AI in the game (FA ON, auto-rotation inside stations, DC and ADC)

No - I was not referring to its normal use - I am speaking about those uses where the heading is held off-target until mere seconds ttg then pulling heading onto target the SCA drops out with no emergency drop, just hey-presto here is the station, no curve of contrition required. There are videos of people showing this.

 

[Nadreck]

It's definitely needed.

Especially when combined with that other annoyance, the inability to filter Carriers from the Nav panel without hiding your own Carrier. This means that in a system with multiple Carriers, you can't activate SA to fast-drop onto your own Carrier without having to navigate a massive list.

 

[Northpin]

No - I was not referring to its normal use - I am speaking about those uses where the heading is held off-target until mere seconds ttg then pulling heading onto target the SCA drops out with no emergency drop, just hey-presto here is the station, no curve of contrition required. There are videos of people showing this.

You dont need to keep the heading off-target. Stay on target, full speed, and engage SCA somewhere between high 5s or up to low 4s or even high 3s depending on how big is the gravitational mass near the station/uss.
As i said, SCA should have much higher precision in disengaging the FSD at right distance since it does not have to rely on hand-eye coordination (3306 is quite stupid in this regard)

So while you may consider it an exploit, i consider it as working as intended for a piece of 34th Century Ship automation.
It requires some experience to use it properly, else you will face plant into the planet or you will do the SCA loop of shame

Now if SCA would be smart enough to come around instead of faceplanting your ship in the planet when the station is on the otherside...

 

[CMDR Dropstone Ted]

You dont need to keep the heading off-target. Stay on target, full speed, and engage SCA somewhere between high 5s or up to low 4s or even high 3s depending on how big is the gravitational mass near the station/uss.
As i said, SCA should have much higher precision in disengaging the FSD at right distance since it does not have to rely on hand-eye coordination (3306 is quite stupid in this regard)

My strategy is to engage SCA immediately after entering SC to an in-system destination and keeping the throttle at 100% for the bulk of the trip to a station (which effectively deactivates SCA). At around 6s out I cut power to 75% which engages SCA, centers target in reticle, and begins max deceleration. When speed drops to about 2 - 2.5c, then it's back to 100% throttle for just a couple seconds, then back to 75% to let the SA do the work of dropping at the station at near 1c. About half the time this results in a dramatic passage through the station upon dropping out of SC, ending up about 3km on the other side. This is, far and away, the fastest way to navigate to any location in-system.

So while you may consider it an exploit, i consider it as working as intended for a piece of 34th Century Ship automation.
It requires some experience to use it properly, else you will face plant into the planet or you will do the SCA loop of shame

Now if SCA would be smart enough to come around instead of faceplanting your ship in the planet when the station is on the otherside...

Exactly. SCA is a tool that, if used properly, greatly enhances the QoL for the pilot and makes in-system navigation much more efficient. It is therefore differentiated from, say, the AutoDock module which makes docking / launching slower and prone to increasing the chance of being driven into the interior wall of a station by a glitchy AI.

 

[CMDR Dropstone Ted]

It's definitely needed.

Especially when combined with that other annoyance, the inability to filter Carriers from the Nav panel without hiding your own Carrier. This means that in a system with multiple Carriers, you can't activate SA to fast-drop onto your own Carrier without having to navigate a massive list.

Haven't sprung for the FC yet so hadn't encountered that use case yet. I've updated the OP to make that #5 on my list.

I'm only at 5.2 billion in credits so have a bit of buffer to build up before springing for the FC. Really trying to resist liquidating my Corvette/Anaconda assets, which I only keep for vanity since I spend about 99% of my time in the Python. Want the FC to lug my ship hoard around the galaxy with me. I look forward to what appears to be a long list of nits to pick with the FC implementation.

 

[gorankar]

SCA does not care what your throttle settings are once activated and on target. It engages. It used to require you to throttle into the blue but not for quite some time.

I include SCA on almost every exploration build. Flying multiple tens of thousands of LS out to some planet or interstellar phenomenon I wish to scan is a right pain with out it.

 

[Brrokk]

My strategy is to engage SCA immediately after entering SC to an in-system destination and keeping the throttle at 100% for the bulk of the trip to a station (which effectively deactivates SCA). At around 6s out I cut power to 75% which engages SCA, centers target in reticle, and begins max deceleration. When speed drops to about 2 - 2.5c, then it's back to 100% throttle for just a couple seconds, then back to 75% to let the SA do the work of dropping at the station at near 1c. About half the time this results in a dramatic passage through the station upon dropping out of SC, ending up about 3km on the other side. This is, far and away, the fastest way to navigate to any location in-system.




Exactly. SCA is a tool that, if used properly, greatly enhances the QoL for the pilot and makes in-system navigation much more efficient. It is therefore differentiated from, say, the AutoDock module which makes docking / launching slower and prone to increasing the chance of being driven into the interior wall of a station by a glitchy AI.

Docking computer can have its moments but these days I find it very reliable. I'm now confident enough in its abilities to let it go and check something on a web site, keeping one ear open for problems. Both are great QoL features and I have them in all ships where there's room

 

[Para Handy]

SCA does not care what your throttle settings are once activated and on target. It engages. It used to require you to throttle into the blue but not for quite some time.

I include SCA on almost every exploration build. Flying multiple tens of thousands of LS out to some planet or interstellar phenomenon I wish to scan is a right pain with out it.

You can turn off that automatic throttling in the ship panel of the UI can't you?

Or is that something else?

 

[CMDR Dropstone Ted]

You can turn off that automatic throttling in the ship panel of the UI can't you?

View attachment 185941

Or is that something else?

That's something else, and I've had this setting on Manual Throttle so long I don't rightly remember what Automatic Throttle does anymore. I think it would automatically set your throttle to 75% or whatever is the max that SCA allows. By having the SCA activated on a target, and with the Manual Throttle setting, one can effectively deactivate / reactivate the functionality of SCA by adjusting the throttle in and out of the blue zone. But it's the mechanic of being able to set SCA in the first place that is the purpose of a separate keybind.