Supercruise overcharge and station placements now nearer the planets)

[Woakes]

Background blurb
One of the core "features" (and also it's biggest bug) with Elite Dangerous is it's hard-science approach to the 1:1 scale of the galaxy.
With mini "jumps" from arena to arena, designed out of the game giving way to free-form flight, a decent scalable FTL drive was an absolute necessity and hade to function gameplay wise.
There has been so many "genius" things that went into supercruise that the original design team don't get enough credit for.
The way how it "slows down" and "speeds up" relativisitcally due to the mass of the near by planetary bodies, allowing for chasing ships to "catch up" to something accelerating and ridiculous speeds.

But then comes "the comprises"
The acceleration and deceleration process could take a long time. (fixed with the overcharge)
So no getting stuck for minutes on end trying to fly out of the gravitational well of a gas-giant - yay.

Orbital stations however, are not orbital stations.
they are very far FAR away from the planetary bodies to accomodate the original time-consuption of accelerating and decelerating near planets.
So even IF you are lucky enough to get a little "orbital station" with a cockpit or concourse view that is facing planets. It's far.....far.....far....away.
The grandeur and impressiveness of planetary rendering,
that epic feeling of being in a massive space simulation, is just tossed asside to become some minor detail in the sky-map.

This should be the "standard", not the exception

and the name of this station, Azeban Orbital outpost, which is in the tutorials. It's a "rigged" location by the developers.

Much like the odyssey tutorial with Blue sky, red sunsets, and ringed atmospheric planet.
They looks great, but so very very rare in the game to just see "all the time".

But we could get more Azeban Oribtals if the station placements were "tighter" to the planets, and now with the overcharge accelerating away from the gravitational mass isn't much of a issue.

 

[varonica]

But we could get more Azeban Oribtals if the station placements were "tighter" to the planets, and now with the overcharge accelerating away from the gravitational mass isn't much of a issue.

That's backwards, all stations were originally closer to the planets in the original beta release, but due to complaints from players about the length of time it took to fly into and out of the gravity well they were moved further out for the release of the game, but not all of them were moved further out, there are still a few from the original pill that were left. In fact there's a station that's so close it's within the exclusion zone around the planet. So it's probably not this station that's in a rigged location, it's all the others!

It's doubtful whether FDEV will move any closer to the planets but new stations? That would be nice!

Orbital stations however, are not orbital stations.

Maybe you want to rethink that statement, it doesn't matter how far out a station is, if it is orbiting a planet/moon it's an orbital station, that's a fact.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

Come out to Colonia - all the stations out here were added later, so are in nicely tight orbits.

(Which helps on approach even with the conventional FSDs, because it allows much better use of the planet for gravity braking)

 

[Woakes]

That's backwards, all stations were originally closer to the planets in the original beta release, but due to complaints from players about the length of time it took to fly into and out of the gravity well they were moved further out for the release of the game, but not all of them were moved further out, there are still a few from the original pill that were left. In fact there's a station that's so close it's within the exclusion zone around the planet. So it's probably not this station that's in a rigged location, it's all the others!

It's doubtful whether FDEV will move any closer to the planets but new stations? That would be nice!



Maybe you want to rethink that statement, it doesn't matter how far out a station is, if it is orbiting a planet/moon it's an orbital station, that's a fact.

"Orbital stations however, are not orbital stations." - I put that there, JUST for you

 

[Alec Turner]

Tangential to the main point of the post but Robert Aitken Orbital in Firdaus is another good one if folks fancy some sightseeing.

In fact, all the stations used for the "Close Encounters" Buckyball Race are close orbiting (hence the name).

 

[varonica]

"Orbital stations however, are not orbital stations." - I put that there, JUST for you

Sure you did!

 

[Fizzatron]

I think it's worth considering moving the stations closer to the planets now we have that module in play. I think it's a good point. It would be great if we could see a Coriolis station from the ground of some planets even. I don't know how difficult it would be to make happen, but if it were put to a vote by Frontier, I think I'd be for it.

 

[metatheurgist]

I think it's worth considering moving the stations closer to the planets now we have that module in play. I think it's a good point.

Uhh, the people that don't have any interest in that new module say no thank you.

 

[varonica]

Uhh, the people that don't have any interest in that new module say no thank you.

I mean, even the people who do have interest in the module probably won't be using a ship equipped with it all the time! If I come in from the black, where I probably would use it, and decide to run a few missions or cargo runs around the bubble I am certainly not going to use it. I'll maximise my cargo space by dumping the fuel scoop and try and do runs as quickly as possible, I wouldn't want a C class FSD hampering my jump range and making me more vulnerable to attack, and then suddenly having all the stations moved right next to planets just to make it easier for me to be interdicted on there way there or away.

 

[varonica]

You know, thinking on it now, this is the sort mad stuff I expected engineers to be doing when they were first announced, not just upgrading, but using mad seat of the pants and fly by fencing wire stuff to make ships do weird and outlandish stuff. I mean engineers all around were a sad disappointment for me, just like going down to the local mechanic and getting him to swap out the standard air cooler and installing a cold air intake kit, I mean that's all it is basically, just standard upgrades, not the stuff I thought they were going to be doing, oh well, at least we have SCO now.

 

[Dragsham]

making me more vulnerable to attack

I kill two birds with one stone. Whilst out smuggling, I actively await a pirate attack. Raising influence is a booger. So why not do 2 aspects of it at once hehe.

 

[varonica]

I kill two birds with one stone. Whilst out smuggling, I actively await a pirate attack. Raising influence is a booger. So why not do 2 aspects of it at once hehe.

Influence? What's that? I am one of those players who simply don't care if their actions support or hinder any faction, large or small, I do it for the money or the mats and no other reason, if it impacts the local faction, or not as the case may be.....I see no reason to care at all!

 

[DjVortex]

The farthest I have seen a station orbit a planet is over 50 ls from said planet, which is a humongous distance in this context.

Are there any stations even further away from the planet they are orbiting?

 

[Dragsham]

@varonica
Oh iam too. If l have a dodgy load I just dump at the nearest black market. Don't want it affecting my turf hehe

 

[Crank Larson]

One of the core "features" (and also it's biggest bug) with Elite Dangerous is it's hard-science approach to the 1:1 scale of the galaxy.

Not really. Very soft science with a lot of handwavium around.

 

[Flimley]

If the SCO were a small module which could be added to work in concert with any FSD. Then all would be good in this case.

Flimley

 

[Cosmo]

Not really. Very soft science with a lot of handwavium around.

Compared to other space sims and space-themed games, ED is more grounded in science. Such as no anti-gravity or gravity generating tech. The Frame Shift Drive has a technical explanation.

 

[Brrokk]

Background blurb
One of the core "features" (and also it's biggest bug) with Elite Dangerous is it's hard-science approach to the 1:1 scale of the galaxy.
With mini "jumps" from arena to arena, designed out of the game giving way to free-form flight, a decent scalable FTL drive was an absolute necessity and hade to function gameplay wise.
There has been so many "genius" things that went into supercruise that the original design team don't get enough credit for.
The way how it "slows down" and "speeds up" relativisitcally due to the mass of the near by planetary bodies, allowing for chasing ships to "catch up" to something accelerating and ridiculous speeds.

But then comes "the comprises"
The acceleration and deceleration process could take a long time. (fixed with the overcharge)
So no getting stuck for minutes on end trying to fly out of the gravitational well of a gas-giant - yay.

Orbital stations however, are not orbital stations.
they are very far FAR away from the planetary bodies to accomodate the original time-consuption of accelerating and decelerating near planets.
So even IF you are lucky enough to get a little "orbital station" with a cockpit or concourse view that is facing planets. It's far.....far.....far....away.
The grandeur and impressiveness of planetary rendering,
that epic feeling of being in a massive space simulation, is just tossed asside to become some minor detail in the sky-map.

This should be the "standard", not the exception

and the name of this station, Azeban Orbital outpost, which is in the tutorials. It's a "rigged" location by the developers.

Much like the odyssey tutorial with Blue sky, red sunsets, and ringed atmospheric planet.
They looks great, but so very very rare in the game to just see "all the time".

But we could get more Azeban Oribtals if the station placements were "tighter" to the planets, and now with the overcharge accelerating away from the gravitational mass isn't much of a issue.

I suspect the overcharge FSDs are going to be a minority. Most of us will probably carry on prioritising jump range.

 

[Shurimal]

I suspect the overcharge FSDs are going to be a minority. Most of us will probably carry on prioritising jump range.

Exactly. SCO is a task specific module when you build a ship for in-system and neighboring system activities ("green water navy"). For longer range activities ("blue water navy") and trading classic FSD-s work better.

 

[galahad2069]

Not really. Very soft science with a lot of handwavium around.

True, even where it wasn't absolutely neccessary, like the stellar forge. A lot of big planetary systems look weirdly unstable dynamically, with large, massive, ringed bodies very close to one another, secondary satellites in suspiciously impossible orbits, etc etc. I guess it would be funny to watch such systems fall apart if you ran a numerical integration on them.