Supercruising to another star system reveals design flaws

[Thomas Jefferson Jones]

- when approaching a Station - show a coarse 3D model of it instead of a weird blue dot. Allow for an emergency stop when trying to "ram" it in SC, just like on any other object.
(super simple, easy to implement, solves the whole "Station suddenly pops up out of nowhere" and "I'm passing 30km out and can't see that giant Starport, flew right through it?!" issues)

USS :
Oh boy, don't get me started.
Bug-reported many months ago already...
USS are currently
- generic
- extremely script-obvious
- 100% predictable
- still 100% location-unaware
--> as a result, often highly annoying, useless or plain nonsensical

Yep I agree with those points, a basic station LOD in SC would be a great and natural addition, not really visible at .c speeds but certainly something you could see when crawling at 30km/s.

And the USS system needs to be completely scrapped and replaced with a sensible scanning mechanic where the player can actively sweep a system for certain types of objects. Having USS random yet heavily script-aware of active BB missions puts a layer of artificiality over the game that is not welcome.

 

[VRMan]

The solution is simple, but it'll require you to see some kind of 'loading screen/progress bar' when entering the system. I think it's a fair point, albeit a real edge case.

So you are talking about something like this.

 

[Zed]

I retested this shortly after release when I found 2 star systems 0.33ly apart - Took about 90 minutes to test.
The I reported it because there's also start ports as far as 0.22ly from the jump in point and I think's it's reasonable to expect someone to only another 50% in SC.
It's more than possible to do this seamlessly, it just needs to be done slightly differently than when making a hyperspace jump and of course there may be wasted CPU & GPU cycles if you change your mind and turn around.

 

[Jex =TE=]

What about the big star on your Radar. Doesn't the "target" equal the gravitational center of the system or something? In another thread, someone was explaining how to search systems by jumping to a system and then going to the galactic map and choosing that system again which would then change the lock to the gravitational center which you could then use to help you find planets - is that not the case here - what star is that on his radar? (lol, "radar")

 

[Jukelo]

This. Wanting to SC between systems is such a monumentally stupid waste of time and it would have been a ludicrous decision to include the ability to do so in the game.

Knowing that you could swloboat if you wanted, even though it wouldn't have any real purpose from a practical standpoint would add so much to the feeling of immersion. Of course it's a bit of a technical challenge and requires juggling with double precision, but considering the scale of what FD have achieved so far in this regard, it is obviously entirely within their reach.
As for it being a monumentally stupid waste of time, should I remind you that FD went out of their way to create a procedurally generated galaxy of 400 billion stars, when the average space truck simulator player probably wont see more than a few hundreds in the span of his career within the game, and that even if the entire playerbase went exploring, it would require several generations of players doing exploration 24/7 to map the whole thing?
Although using PG to create 400 points isn't all that hard and time consumming, what we have here is of very good quality and most certainly did require a lot of time and effort to get just right. Some might go as far as to say it was a monumentally stupid waste of time. Others might say, some monumentally stupid decisions still give bloody cool results.

 

[Cmdr. Numa]

There are two very valid reasons why one could want that to be possible:

1. to explore a system that you can't jump to, sacrificing the time needed to do so.
2. to bypass a permit/blockade situation, though showing up in a system you're not allowed to be in should send all the authorities after you, guns blazing.

 

[lonely flyer]

Breaking News: Video game found to have limitations (36 dead).

 

[Yank31]

The physics, the numbers, everything seems to hold up so nicely that at some point I started to have unrealistic expectations, I suppose.

"Fixed" it for you.

I did try it out of despair myself, when in the very beginning, I picked a long ranged mission and didn't have the FSD power to make the jump. I did not wait 9 hours though, gave up after 15-20 minutes, and abandonned the mission, too.

But I was into money, not pioneering.

I do believe you have all rights to be disappointed, and even say that you were disappointed, both are perfectly fine in my book.

***

Btw, do we have a clear understanding on how instances work, by now?

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There are two very valid reasons why one could want that to be possible:

1. to explore a system that you can't jump to, sacrificing the time needed to do so.
2. to bypass a permit/blockade situation, though showing up in a system you're not allowed to be in should send all the authorities after you, guns blazing.

And a third one : because it would actually make sense.

 

[Tetsuko]

As I mentioned somewhere, the game already appeared so well made in every aspect of the physics that I could feel, that I had developed somewhat unrealistically high expectations for things that most people really would not care about. But to answer your question, because it feels more immersive and I want to immerse myself fully in an experience that is so well made as ED.

So what you're basically saying is that the game has a mechanism for travelling rapidly from one star system to another, and because it ought to be able to be done that way, you want to have the ability to do it by spending hours and hours (and hours) doing it the hard way. And you are unsatisfied with the game because you can't? I'm having a hell of a hard time here not breaking into abuse.

It's like Loretta in the Life of Brian wanting the right to have babies.

 

[Sapient6]

And a third one : because it would actually make sense.

That's super. Would you be on board to having the upcoming expansions (landing on planets and walking around stations) nixed in order for FD to deliver this feature instead?

In software development you can generally do what you want, they could make it so you could complete that 9 hour SC trip to the neighboring system, but it will come at the expense of time and resources. Since time and resources are limited they have to consider how often this feature would be used. The vast majority of the playerbase would never use this feature. The vast majority of the playerbase that used this feature would only use it once. It would come down to mostly "hey, it would be cool to know that you could do that". And that doesn't stand up well to any cost/benefit analysis.

It would be cool to be able to SC to a neighboring system, but there aren't any current or future features that I'd actually want to sacrifice for that.

 

[Jex =TE=]

So what you're basically saying is that the game has a mechanism for travelling rapidly from one star system to another, and because it ought to be able to be done that way, you want to have the ability to do it by spending hours and hours (and hours) doing it the hard way. And you are unsatisfied with the game because you can't? I'm having a hell of a hard time here not breaking into abuse.

It's like Loretta in the Life of Brian wanting the right to have babies.

LOL even though it's a huge waste of time, it would be cool if we could fly using SC and the test is interesting though nobody is ever going to use it - ok, mostly nobody

 

[Jukelo]

Options are bad mkay

 

[WalterHWhite]

So you are talking about something like this.

I watched 30 seconds of that and gave up. Maybe that was your point?

 

[Yank31]

That's super.

Thank you for taking my comment for what it is - a lighthearted suggestion, you know, space, dreams, forum, game, relaxing.

Glad you refrain from giving me a lecture about how dumb this lighthearted comment could sound if taken from the point of view of time / resource management and the beloved company life. I mean, we're not all young adults that need to constantly demonstrate and remind each others that "life is hard, get real son, etc", and that's refreshing.

Imagine the boredom, dare I say nonsense, if we, mere forum users, were all behaving like actual developpers here.

 

[Dbrn47]

Just fly to Hutton Orbital daily. IMMERSION.

 

[xondk]

You cannot supercruise from system to system, oh well, who wants to sit and wait that long a time anyway? That is my reaction.

That said even with an instanced system, there could be border a 'simple' one would be one that if you go beyond x,y,z in position coordinates (depending on the system you are travelling from's size), you enter deep space(already kinda does this, it has a border where it changes to deep space), a timer that checks dunno every x minute, and if you keep targetting and having above a certain speed away from the system main star and towards another system, it would at a certain point unload original system and load you into new system?

At least as I see it this should mean that it wouldn't cause any problems or begin to cost server resources unless the person is dedicated to go to the new system in super cruise? And given how few would likely do it, I think it might solve the issue, though that said, I am likely never going to do it so it isn't an issue for me, but I can understand that some would want to.

Course should be a low priority thing.

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Just fly to Hutton Orbital daily. IMMERSION.

To be fair, haven't been there yet but that you have to travel for a long time to get a good place with rare's? to sell for large profit is that a problem? I don't think so.

 

[Protoplasmic traveler]

I did not know this and I am going to pretend I did not read this thread - I will remember never to super cruise to an adjacent star system however (because the thought had crossed my mind)

 

[N-Zed]

If we're talking about hyperspace jumping from system to system there really is nothing wrong with the instancing jump at all. In fact, I rather like witchspace. The thing that confused me was the Super Cruise method in general. I was surprised to see that once inside a system I jumped to, that super cruising was, in of itself a form of "limbo instancing" - sorry I don't know proper terms for these sorts of things. Then you get to a certain distance from said thing you want to interact with; be it station, way point, nav beacon, USS, etc. and POP there you are!

I would have thought super cruise was just that, you going crazy fast forward toward your destination, why the need for a whole other environment for that? Is it because things, even in the system itself, are too far apart for the game to draw? Isn't that what culling and LOD is all about? Drawing things as you get nearer to them? Can someone help me understand this mechanic better?

 

[Loskene]

I can only think of supercruising to another system being done if you have just enough fuel in the tank to cruise for several hours but not enough to jump to the nearest star, which sounds like a paradox, since I'm assuming hyperspace jumps use less fuel than the same trip done in supercruise. I actually tried this once when I derped and went on a long run without a fuel scoop, but quickly realised accelerating at about 1Ls/s^2 makes interstellar supercruise too painful. If it's ever going to be viable as a gameplay mechanic, and I think from the way it works now that's not the intended case, supercruise acceleration needs a serious kick up once you get away from the nearest source of gravity. Although I'd like that anyway to make 20,000Ls+ cruises more bearable. It's not like you can ever interdict someone in the void anyway.

 

[Zvanya]

How does attempting something the game does not intend to be possible, and failing, reveal a design flaw?

It's as if you tried to cross an ocean in a rowboat and them complain that the boat was poorly made when you fail. Only more so.