Supercruise Assist Orbit

[esteban0331]

Hey, I am not sure if someone already has suggested this but I would absolutely love to have the ability to adjust Orbital ship configuration while in Supercruise Assist. This would be such a simple feature to implement as I am sure the current AI uses a set of instructions already. All I want to be able to do is to adjust them.

For example. I would love to be able to set the following configurations:

• Orbit altitude. I assume only circular orbits are taken into account (as opposed to elliptical) and this is fine. Let us decide how far away from the planet we want to be. This can be a value in a range dictated by the planet characteristics.
• Orbital period / speed. This one should be quite simple. Let us choose how long it takes to do a full circle. The range depends on the planet size and gravity. Unless we want to be realistic and set that to fixed depending on the orbit altitude and the planet characteristics.
• Orbital inclination. May be quite tricky to implement but I suggest a visual interface to set the orbit in a zoom-in planet view including the direction. This way a player can pre-configure the orbit to fly over the desired target.

This should be such an easy enhancement to implement but the immersion level and playability gain would be fantastic. The game put so much emphasis on astrodynamics yet so little is directly available to the player. This improvement would make us want to spend more time in super-cruise and would be great help for explorers!

 

[varonica]

Hey, I am not sure if someone already has suggested this but I would absolutely love to have the ability to adjust Orbital ship configuration while in Supercruise Assist. This would be such a simple feature to implement as I am sure the current AI uses a set of instructions already. All I want to be able to do is to adjust them.

For example. I would love to be able to set the following configurations:

• Orbit altitude. I assume only circular orbits are taken into account (as opposed to elliptical) and this is fine. Let us decide how far away from the planet we want to be. This can be a value in a range dictated by the planet characteristics.
• Orbital period / speed. This one should be quite simple. Let us choose how long it takes to do a full circle. The range depends on the planet size and gravity. Unless we want to be realistic and set that to fixed depending on the orbit altitude and the planet characteristics.
• Orbital inclination. May be quite tricky to implement but I suggest a visual interface to set the orbit in a zoom-in planet view including the direction. This way a player can pre-configure the orbit to fly over the desired target.

This should be such an easy enhancement to implement but the immersion level and playability gain would be fantastic. The game put so much emphasis on astrodynamics yet so little is directly available to the player. This improvement would make us want to spend more time in super-cruise and would be great help for explorers!

Orbital altitude and Orbital Speed are essentially the same thing, your speed will determine what height above the surface you orbit. They aren't mutually exclusive, they are mutually dependant. You can have a low orbit and high speed, or a high orbit and low speed. You can't have a low orbit and low speed or a high orbit and high speed, they aren't orbits, one is a descending trajectory, the other is a passing trajectory. You can have a low orbit, it will be a high speed orbit, you can have a high orbit, it will be a low speed orbit.

Inclination is one option, but maybe that depends on how you approach the planet, I don't know if that makes a difference because I don't use that function.

Unless we want to be realistic and set that to fixed depending on the orbit altitude and the planet characteristics.

Physics determines that, not desire, so yes it would have to be fixed.

 

[Han Zulu]

It would be nice to also be able to adjust which side of the ship facing the planet. I like to be on my side, and see the planet to left or right, rather than over my head. Also, I'd like to have a key-binding for activate/deactive the assist.

 

[esteban0331]

@varonica, excuse my ignorance about physics, I get my training from Kerbal but at the end of the day this is a game in which we have engines powerful enough to do whatever we want around planets. I traveled around planets at different speeds at the same altitude so ...
My 'desires' are simply a bit of control to SuperCruise Assist like exactly what Han Zulu said: give us control on how we face the planet - 100% there. I end up rolling all the time but the AI brings me back to the same config all the time.