Told I don't like simulation games..
- Thread starter Dbrn47
- Start date
...i just hit over 200,000 km/s in an overloaded, underpowered Mk1 Cobra. So that's fully 2/3 C.
I would content that 9/10 folks would consider 2/3 quite a large fraction..
But of course, since i do have Stardreamer to play with, at max time acceleration (10,000x), i have an effective speed of 2 * 10^12 m/s
So that's 2000,000,000,000 (two trillion) meters / sec.
Or more than 6,671 times lightspeed.
That's in "normal space", remember.
In "normal space" my ED Eagle has a top speed of 140 m/s, IIRC. God knows what it does in "supercruise", i don't use it.
Hyperspace is of course instant, and there's no good reason we couldn't have selectable hyperspace targets - Pioneer does; you right-click a star on the galaxy map to cycle thru the major bodies in the target system you want to exit hyperspace near, so if it's a binary, tertiary, quaternary or whatever, you can choose which star or brown dwarf etc. you wanna jump to.
Besides, why would ED's "astrogation console" only be able to target large bodies when they're far away? Many binaries are further apart than some discrete systems in the denser regions of the galaxy, yet you can jump between the latter but not the former - it's logically inconsistent, and totally failing to capitalise on the gaming potential. Just squandering it all away with the 90% entirely passive up-a-bit, left-a-bit screensaver. I mean, "supercruise".
You're kinda missing the point that it's what you're doing while travelling that makes the difference. Sure, space is big, but that doesn't mean interplanetary flight has to be reduced to an up-a-bit, left-a-bit 20 minute dot-tracking exercise.
Space was big in previous Elites, too, but they're a lot of fun to play - i typically use autopilot for interplanetary travel, switching to external view to pan around and take in the views and flybys etc. Or just fast-forward thru the whole journey when i can't be bothered to sit thru it... But ED doesn't even have autopilot yet. And we had to beg, for years, just for an external view.
It's the quality of the interaction with "the game" that matters. Yes, space is big. That's precisely why seamless speed and full pilot control of velocity is so central to the experience of spaceflight, but also, why it's vital to respect players' time and provide some means of interesting interaction to keep them preoccupied doing things they want to do, whether in-flight entertainment or managing ship systems or whatever. But it has to be elective stuff. Not simply being forced to nurse a crosshair up-a-bit, left-a-bit until you're catatonic and drooling, as some strange numbers in indecipherable units count down at a rate that's fluctuating in a totally unintuitive manner, whilst also being shown what appear to be units of time but which seem to bear no causal correlation to any useful or informative aspect of your flight or arrival time..
To each their own ...
Chief
Chief
Hey, that's really cool .. That's what I'd like to see for an in-system cruise control, virtual tours of star systems and whatever. Cheers for posting.
If the OP decides to avoid long travel times.. by avoiding stations with far out distance from jump points ... then I'd say the game is accurately simulating the kind of decision making framework, that any self-motivated, time-managing, self-employed spaceman-with-ship would be making on a daily basis (assuming he reads the map).
Never thought of that did you!
D)
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Previous Elites were all about the spaceflight. I love it, me - was playing with a cool close binary i found earlier:
[video=youtube_share;IjHFW_KfV7Q]https://youtu.be/IjHFW_KfV7Q[/video]
..it's an anarchic system, with a red dwarf orbiting a red giant, so i slid into the closest orbit around the dwarf i dared, intersecting the L1 Lagrangian between the two bodies. So each time i cycled thru the L1, my orbital trajectory was thrown off a bit, making it a little chaotic. I kept the engines off, just coasting, riding the contours of the interacting gravity wells in perpetual freefall, and only using any thrust when under attack. These episodes however also introduced further orbital instability, but i just wanted to let it roll by itself and see what would happen; would it elongate and propel me into the giant? Or perhaps cause an impromptu transfer orbit around the giant, possibly to be recaptured by the dwarf as i fell back around?
I noted that my average velocity around the dwarf was slowing, implying that i was gradually being drawn, or else drifting, outwards, into a widening but also more elliptical trajectory, which could always go either way - maybe it'll pull you back for one last hull-smouldering fling, to be hurled outwards at great speed as it drops away beneath you... or else, a death-spiral, inexorably winding ever inwards and downwards, faster and faster in accelerating sweeps, as the temperature gauge peaks and that HUD message pops up to say "You're going to die soon!"..
..but neither was to be, and i ended up getting mullered by an Imperial Courier. Still, all good fun - especially considering that 99% of the time i was doing nothing more than panning around in external view, not even making corrective thrusts...
You know that somewhere out there, there must be a system like this with a planet also in close orbit to one or other star... and maybe one with a system of moons too!
That's always been the great thing about the last two games, for me anyway - one minute you can be playing with gravity, planning efficient transfer orbits thru multi-body systems, and the next you're in a furball fighting 5 other ships at once. No other game has that balance of simulation and arcade action. Least of all, ED, sadly.. which doesn't seem to have much of either..
It's from Children of a Dead Earth, if you're interested. A game that simulates space war using real orbital mechanics and physics and only technologies that actually exist.
It's completely bonkers, really.
Can't do that though .. unfortunately time acceleration .. is 100% incompatable with the multiplayer galaxy.
I think that brings other benefits though, albeit new and different ones.
You might be interested in this thread though; https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showt...ding-Worlds!?p=6429440&viewfull=1#post6429440
Cheers again. o7
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I went to Hutton Orbital once. On my way there, I stopped at several signal sources, collecting mats and extra cargo. I also read a comic book. My speed went up to 1850c or something like that. I didn't do it for the sake of doing it. I just accepted a mission that sent me there. It was easy credits. As far as I'm concerned, it's not worse than taking on a mission that asks you to destroy X pirates of a minor faction that spawns once in a blue moon and end up taking longer than a Hutton run. I did brought back some mugs that I sold for a pretty good profit. And I managed to wreck my paint job and ended up with 500k in ship integrity repair. That was cool.
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See, the signal sources are a good idea in theory.
However, you have to spend an age slowing down to enter one, then, once done, you have to spend another age getting back up to your previous speed.
It's madness, if you could drop into signals, and regain your previous speed much faster, they might be useful for this kind of flight, and putting highly valued ones, (or even special ones, which you can't even get anywhere, perhaps even totally unique ones!) in these long distance areas would give them more meaning.
Being able to in-system jump to other stars (or even large gas giants?) would be good too.
And no, it wouldn't break piracy/interdiction. Either, you could follow them using the same mechanic, or, you could even introduce a new "Medium wake" which allows you to follow them (using a wake scanner) and catch up to them some more, even. This'd even make there be more reasons to use the wake scanner, in normal play, as it was clearly intended when they attached materials to its use.
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You already do .. if you're in deep space, no gravity disruption, you accelerate way faster.
Actualy it would disrupt because now all you're doing is wake-frogging; intercepting and speed matching is piloting. The problem with in-system jumps too, is instead of some stations being remote (and you can choose to go or not) now none of them are? I really really (really) hope FD never do that! Remoteness .. is one of outer-space's most recognisable characteristics.
I'm a relatively new player, so my opinion may not be as valuable here (I mean because time may dull my view), but what I like most about ED is the feeling of freedom of space flight. Never really felt it before, finally feel it in ED.
I supercruise long distances the way I would if I were truly flying through space (and how I wish I could commute every day): I wouldn't just sit there and twiddle my thumbs. I would read, listen to music, make a call, watch some news. Frankly, the addition of the galnet radio has me amped.
If I were flying in space and knew my journey would take an episode of Stranger Things before arrival I would definitely put it on.
I supercruise long distances the way I would if I were truly flying through space (and how I wish I could commute every day): I wouldn't just sit there and twiddle my thumbs. I would read, listen to music, make a call, watch some news. Frankly, the addition of the galnet radio has me amped.
If I were flying in space and knew my journey would take an episode of Stranger Things before arrival I would definitely put it on.
I avoid the missions to stations that involve Long SC cruises, as. Like OP says I not to be doing something, and staring at a screen for 10 mins is not fun.
Either in system jumps, or more Nav beacons that act as high wake destination points would mean you spent more time flying and less time watching Netflix.
If there was a medium wake thhhat could only be to targettted. In system Nav beacons, that would improve game experience and give pirates set locations to hang out in (player or NPC). Players could also have the option of low waking to a destination, if they are carrying high value cargo, or are smugggling or really really really want to do the Huttton run..
Cant FSD technology get developed so things like this occur?
Either in system jumps, or more Nav beacons that act as high wake destination points would mean you spent more time flying and less time watching Netflix.
If there was a medium wake thhhat could only be to targettted. In system Nav beacons, that would improve game experience and give pirates set locations to hang out in (player or NPC). Players could also have the option of low waking to a destination, if they are carrying high value cargo, or are smugggling or really really really want to do the Huttton run..
Cant FSD technology get developed so things like this occur?
