First of all, I love this game. Seriously. I've played nothing but ED in the last few weeks and I cleared my save today just so I could enjoy the early game hours again. Of course I know many things can be improved and that eventually with more gameplay content being added this will be a great universe to get lost in. Even though it saddens me that those will probably come as paid expansions/DLC (and because this game is REALLY expensive here in Brazil) I understand that such are the times we live in and I'm kind of looking forward to it - I'll gladly pay for them. Also, despite a bunch of design choices I disagree with, I learned to enjoy even those, as they fit together nicely in ED's universe and setting.
Except for supercruise. I hate it.
Hate, hate, hate it.
If one day I stop playing ED, is because of supercruise. As I bought the game after launch I didn't followed the developing process but I seriously cannot understand how supercruise ended as the mandatory way of travel in-system. At first I thought that there was some design reason behind it, I even found
this little gem in older posts that gave me some hope, but after hours digging in the forum to try and understand why this atrocious thing was left in the game to no avail, I was baffled. Of course, I can understand some players liking it, hell, it even makes sense that explorers have to do it (even so the way that Supercruise is presented is ridiculous: you can't see things normaly travelling at the speed of light or above it, photons that hit your retina travel slower than you - but I digress) but I cannot believe I'm the only one who wish that it was possible to simply jump in Hyperdrive to discovered planets/stations. I get that some players like sightseeing; fine, then explorer ships could be lighter and faster, able to reach really high speeds that are not FTL, and they would sightsee the hell of the galaxy, leaving us, BH and traders to jump around. Hell, I don't know. Anything would be better than Supercruise - literally, even if SC was to be stay exactly as it is, with micro-jumps, it would be better. People always go on about how there's no perfect game and such, well, I feel that ED could be perfect when all promised content are added - and supercruise
removed.
But I didn't created this thread just to rant. I honestly would like to ask the community
why? What gives? Does the majority of players like Supercruising around? Was there, at some point during development, any questioning about it, like someone saying that it was boring, lacking realism or anything? I mean, it does break
many of laws of physics. Is there any plans to add the possibility of micro-jumps or (what I feel would be better) free jumping between celestial bodies? Can I hope for one day being able to jump directly to a station in my jump range or should I just resignate myself to how things are now?
EDIT:
It's clear that most of the community actually claimed for supercruise and, therefore, I feel like I'm overruled and there's no sense in arguing for some change to it; chances are that's not going to happen. So, I better get used to it. But it seems that most people didn't understood my beef with supercruise, so I feel the need to clarify:
I'm not against it because it's boring, I'm against it because the way it's presented is unrealistic. FTL travel is simply impossible unless using some method of hyperdrive or wormhole mechanic. Even if it was possible, you would be travelling faster than light, as in 'the very mechanism that allows us to see anything'. We'd be out running photons and as I said elsewhere, assuming that we're in some kind of 'bubble' when SC is on, we'd only be able to clearly see inside our ship or the immediate outside; everything else would be really distorted or not seen at all. This is not simply a personal thing: this is a fact.
Now, personally, I'd prefer a realistic game. Micro-jumps or POI hoping are both bad, both destroy freedom of travelling, but they are
more realistic. The ideal, obviously, would be a kind of coordinate system of travelling, were you're actually in a place in space in any given time, travelling FTL in hyperdrive through space. FDev claimed that this would be hard to achieve from a technical perspective, but I think the real problem was the multiplayer component, since from a normal space frame of reverence, someone in hyperdrive would be nearly invisible - so, so long interdictions. So long protracted, close encounters, space combat. The only real combat would happen around planets and stations (I find that much more interesting, but that's me). People say it would kill exploration, I can't see how it could: instead of finding a celestial body and waiting a few minutes to reach it, you'd do it instantly. Same thing, only faster. How does this kill exploration? What in fact micro-jumps kill is
sightseeing. Is this what you're saying, that sightseeing=exploration?
Anyway, I must point out that I know when I'm defeated and, to be honest, SC is here to stay. As I said, I must get used to it, or get out. If you feel this discussion - hating on SC - is pointless because of it, by all means, go to the next thread.
