Supercruise-placeholder? Or is this it?

One of my biggest beefs of this game is SC.
Specifically the flight model of SC.
Forward only, no thruster, boost, fa off capability, yet for the average player, it's probably the type of flight we spend the most time in. I know it's the flight mode I have spent at least 80% of my time in (exploration, mission reasons, USS hunting).
I think it needs a redesign, lore be damned (if that's the reason for the flight model), needs some fun injected, or less time spent in it.
Flying in normal space is great, there must be a way to improve the SC flight model. Even a little.
Maybe it's me.
 
SC is just in game fluff. In the year 3304, there is not auto pilot feature for SC??? Really??? If the game is going to waste my time by making me fly through a solar system instead of simply letting me jump to my target, I should at least be able to select a station, outpost, or surface station, click a button, and go to it completely autonomously. For Christ's sake, we're on the verge of having cars do that right now in 2018 (thanks Tesla)!

The whole mechanic exists simply for "game play" fluff and nothing more.
 
adding in stuff to supercruse will only add time to it. As to this whole "We have this stuff in 2018" - maybe that was what caused WW3! .. so we dumped that tech!
 
A few things I think Supercruise needs:

- Visual pizzazz - warping effects and so forth
- Phenomena that affect Supercruise travel besides large gravity wells - there's a massive disconnect between things that happen in normal space and things that happen in Supercruise at the moment, with the only connecting mechanic being signal sources.
- Performance to be affected by the FSD rating, Engineering and Pips.

I don't think we need to change the forward-only flight model. Just add some interactivity and interesting things
 
Riddle me this. Why does it tumble you out of Supercruise when you use your AFMU on your thrusters? It is my understanding the FSD is what propels you forward during Supercruise and allows Faster Than Light travel. Shouldn't using the AFMU on your FSD knock you out of SC?
 
Riddle me this. Why does it tumble you out of Supercruise when you use your AFMU on your thrusters? It is my understanding the FSD is what propels you forward during Supercruise and allows Faster Than Light travel. Shouldn't using the AFMU on your FSD knock you out of SC?

that doesn't seem like a good riddle ..
 
For me, improving SC should be the number 1 thing on the list of gameplay that needs to be improved. We spend a lot of game time in supercruise and it's just a point and do nothing mechanic. Also, having it has led to the next greatest gameplay atrocity. USS.

I was as excited as anyone when 2.4 was going to be about the Thargoids, only to be disappointed when they simply became re-skinned combat zones. We never even see them in supercruise. Looks like they've at least done away with it. We should too.
 
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I think I'd like to see the addition of an up/down thruster inclusion, that affects the z, while maintaining forward movement.
 
Leave SC alone.
Certainly not include mini-jumps. I think the effort of the long haul is what makes such things rewarding.
If you don't want to go to Hutton orbital, nobody is making you.

Maybe a few more signal source types to investigate. Or being able to locate nice landing spots from space would be useful. Number of time I've dropped to plant surface looking for some geysers or crash sites to find nothing. Would be handy if I had a clue where to look. Don't mind if it's a bit inexact or even misleading at times, just get me heading for the correct bit of planet would do.
 
Maybe I wouldn't mind small changes to the supercruise mechanic (for example better acceleration for smaller ships, and definitely a redesign of the USS mechanic and persistence) , but I'm sure I wouldn't want to see FAoff or aerobatics done in supercruise. I'm fine with the basics of it. Supercruise wasn't meant for dogfighting, that's what normal space is for, supercruise was meant to allow players to experience the realistic size of interplanetary space, and bodies, and orbits.

Whether supercruise needs a redesign sooner rather than later is just a matter of opinion. Personally I believe there are more important things which need to be looked at.
 
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I posted this in the Hutton thread, but it's an idea to improve SC so I'll post it here too.

I'd love to see a supercruise boost utility module added to the game.

While in SC, and with the utility module installed, the player could press the boost button to double SC speed. This would create a lot of heat though, so it could only be held for a short time before you begin to take heat damage. Or just melt the ship if you wanted to. It would also really guzzle fuel too. After cooling down the boost could be used again, repeat as desired.

Basically a SC mini game balancing heat generation with cool down periods for speed boosts. Low emission mods would greatly help of course.
 
Definite no on microjumps in system. Takes away every shade of meaning out of completing the Hutton Orbital Run; I'm fairly open to new ideas, but screwing with the Hutton Orbital Run is not one of them.
 
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