Travel Methods

CMDR DragonHorn

CMDR DragonHorn
Crapulous said:
You know I just started looking into what the supercruise speed caps actually are. I'm not that far along with it yet, but from what I gather it is based on distance from the local star and that star's radius. Within 140 Ls there is a big drop off in the speed cap. Beyond 140 Ls, if you are traveling away from the star it's just a linear function with distance as the input variable; if you are traveling towards the star, it's a power function of the form:
Code: 
Speed Limit = 0.25 * Distance^Star Radius

There's still a lot of testing I need to do, though. Including figuring out what that orange disk is in the orrery view and if it has any impact on anything whatsoever (got any ideas?).

As for fuel tanks, I'm actually in a situation where that might be useful to me right about now: jumping from neutron star to neutron star. Since you can't refuel at these stars, I have to add in an extra regular jump after every 4-5 boosted jump to get more fuel. If I had a fuel tank that let me get 10 jumps before having to refuel, that would cut the number of extra jumps needed in half :)

A bit of a niche use-case, but useful if you are traveling in the right places.
Click to expand...
I was talking about actual SC speed cap, which is 2001 and doesn't make any sense. Say, you'd have an option to either travel long distance via jumps, as you do now, or you could stock up on fuel tanks (which should not affect top speed) and go to Beagle Point, f.e. via supercruise, than make a single jump to the system. Of course journey would take quite some time, but you would save fuel and would have to see only one loading screen instead of few thousands... That's a rough sketch, but more travel methods - the better IMHO.

On your example, that would be ultra niche use, since neutron highways aren't everywhere, and having even 1 relatively big tank may butcher your jump range quite a lot. You will need to scoop eventually, so squeezing one extra jump... I don't really know how big of a difference it may be.
 

Crapulous

C
CMDR DragonHorn said:
I was talking about actual SC speed cap, which is 2001 and doesn't make any sense. Say, you'd have an option to either travel long distance via jumps, as you do now, or you could stock up on fuel tanks (which should not affect top speed) and go to Beagle Point, f.e. via supercruise, than make a single jump to the system. Of course journey would take quite some time, but you would save fuel and would have to see only one loading screen instead of few thousands... That's a rough sketch, but more travel methods - the better IMHO.

On your example, that would be ultra niche use, since neutron highways aren't everywhere, and having even 1 relatively big tank may butcher your jump range quite a lot. You will need to scoop eventually, so squeezing one extra jump... I don't really know how big of a difference it may be.
Click to expand...
I dunno... I mean, Beagle Point is over 65,000 Ly away from Sol. So even if the supercruise speed cap was lifted to 10,000,000 c AND you reached that speed instantaneously AND you could throttle back to zero speed instantaneously at the end of the journey, it would take you 2.4 days of travel time to get there. So make it 100,000,000 c? Well then this trip would take you 0.24 days (or 5.7 hours) and under the same conditions the trip to Colonia would take just under 2 hours. If everything is going to be so relatively easy to get to, though, why have anything far away in the first place?

I do agree that it would be cool to have other travel methods; but what I'd like to see is something that has the potential to make travel more convenient or faster, but that still requires player input (either as a solo CMDR or as a group). This way you could get the other travel methods while still preserving the sense of vastness of space.

Edit: I realize I’m being a real downer with all of my posts. I just wanted to say I’m not opposed to improving the travel mechanics in game. It’s just that, in my eyes the things people are proposing aren’t improvements so much as they are a means of circumventing the existing mechanics.

I don’t think the game would be better by removing mechanics and the challenge they provide, however tedious you or I may find that challenge. Rather I think alternatives should bring their own active mechanics and challenges.
 
Last edited:

Ettanin

E
CMDR DragonHorn said:
I was talking about actual SC speed cap, which is 2001 and doesn't make any sense. Say, you'd have an option to either travel long distance via jumps, as you do now, or you could stock up on fuel tanks (which should not affect top speed) and go to Beagle Point, f.e. via supercruise, than make a single jump to the system. Of course journey would take quite some time, but you would save fuel and would have to see only one loading screen instead of few thousands... That's a rough sketch, but more travel methods - the better IMHO.
Click to expand...
While in theory interesting, in practical terms not possible because while you have the load screen, the skybox is recalculated, the new system (re)generated and an instance adjudicated, so yes, interstellar travel between systems is not possible because the engine doesn't support it.

See for example here:
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rHMYXSGDcI
 

Spacegamejunkie

Spacegamejunkie
Crapulous said:
I suppose. But that doesn’t seem to be FDev’s vision for the game; at least for now. Apex Interstellar may be exactly what you’re looking for. Time will tell...
Click to expand...
I hope that will be the case, But they will probably find a way to nerf that too.
Like not having a system permit to pass through, so your stuck at mad dogs shack,
until you can pay a bribe or transport your ship there for a few Billion Credits.
 

VR CMDR Novindus

VR CMDR Novindus
FWIW @avarusbrightfyre I suggested pretty much the same concept not too long ago in the Suggestions forum, to thankfully only a single sample of the usual troll-fare.

Travel Options

Disclaimer: This is not a suggestion for "fast travel". TL;DR: Extended hyperspace jumps limited by your ship's total range, but taking the same time as manually jumping. The modes of long distance travel in Elite are basically a mixture of repetitive actions, or just waiting. In keeping with...
forums.frontier.co.uk forums.frontier.co.uk
 

avarusbrightfyre

A
[VR] CMDR Novindus said:
FWIW @avarusbrightfyre I suggested pretty much the same concept not too long ago in the Suggestions forum, to thankfully only a single sample of the usual troll-fare.

Travel Options

Disclaimer: This is not a suggestion for "fast travel". TL;DR: Extended hyperspace jumps limited by your ship's total range, but taking the same time as manually jumping. The modes of long distance travel in Elite are basically a mixture of repetitive actions, or just waiting. In keeping with...
forums.frontier.co.uk forums.frontier.co.uk
Click to expand...
Hey, the more people who bring something up, the better the chance it actually happens. :)
 

Lysette

Lysette
i think the nearest to a possibility to get something like that implemented is when it is somewhat bound to the ship transfer system - just the other way round - that you can order a ship (not necessarily that one you are in though) to a remote location, which you had already visited. This wouldn't break the game and would just be the transfer system in reverse - with or without you in the ship though.

The implementation effort required for it is not too high and has a chance imo - everything more complex than this most likely not - FDev is busy with Odyssey and later on expansions to this system will take up their available time. But this here would be reasonable and possible seen from the amount of effort required.
 

Spacegamejunkie

Spacegamejunkie
I am for anything that improves playing the game.
But I did not ask for New Travel methods,
I only ask that they give the option to Automate the Jumps,
so that I am somewhat free of the Jump Loop, on long Trips to a Destination.
Much like the Manual Docking Loop, where even if you like to do it,
it becomes a little thin, after the 100th Time.
So now we have Auto Dock, where you can use it or not, Your Choice.
I would like to see an Option for long Trips as well, with no need to reinvent the wheel.
 

CMDR ROGER

C
'Hypercruise' and having to sit through a longer transit might just increase the boredom. Besides, hyperspace is solidified in the lore. Since the days when Elite was set in 8 galaxies inhabited by aliens ruled by the mysterious GalCop, the only aspect that has changed is the time spent in hyperspace. With witchspace times reduced to a few seconds, there's no real reason to make any big changes to interstellar travel.

Sidenote, what happened to the ability for ships to go from system entry to docking fully autonomously? Give me an an autopilot module!
 

avarusbrightfyre

A
CMDR ROGER said:
'Hypercruise' and having to sit through a longer transit might just increase the boredom. Besides, hyperspace is solidified in the lore. Since the days when Elite was set in 8 galaxies inhabited by aliens ruled by the mysterious GalCop, the only aspect that has changed is the time spent in hyperspace. With witchspace times reduced to a few seconds, there's no real reason to make any big changes to interstellar travel.

Sidenote, what happened to the ability for ships to go from system entry to docking fully autonomously? Give me an an autopilot module!
Click to expand...
It really depends on your perspective. If I have to choose between active boredom that requires my constant attention, and passive boredom that allows me to focus my attention on something more interesting, it's not really much of a contest. Jumping between systems in the current way is active boredom for me, while super cruise is more of a passive boredom.

When you look at super cruise, you're still taking several minutes to get from one part of the system to the other, and it's certainly boring, but I haven't really had any complaints with it because for the most part I can point my ship toward the destination and then pay minimal attention to my progress until I start getting close. Once I'm within a certain range, I refocus on actually flying and getting ready to drop out of super cruise. An interstellar version of this would be pretty much the same thing. I would absolutely love to see a change where you basically just jump into a hyper cruise that works just like super cruise, just at much faster speeds and your targets are star systems instead of planets and stations.

But I agree that it is very unlikely the developer will be receptive to that big of a change, so I would settle for a new type of jump drive limited by fuel range instead of mass. And if they choose not to change anything at all, that's cool...it's their game. I'm just hoping maybe they're open to a bit of a compromise to entice people like me back in. It's on them to keep their customers, and if they aren't open to change I can choose to walk away if I'm not happy with the product, much like I mostly have already.

I think a full autopilot function would certainly resolve the issue that generated this post, though I like some of the other ideas better. I'm on the fence about it being completely automated from start to finish. My gripe is mostly with the back to back repetitiveness of the way interstellar travel works right now, not necessarily that I'm required to fly the ship manually at all. I do think 100% autopilot would be the most true to life option, because a society at that technology level would have absolutely created that level of automation for all aspects of flight, and likely have made it a requirement to use it at all times to ensure safe space travel, but many players would complain that "it's not playing the game" if you let the ship fly itself. I don't really understand that argument, but it appears to be a large concern for a very large group of the player base.
 
Last edited:

Robgoudy

Robgoudy
Spice and a Spacing Guild Navigator is required for distances such as you propose, unless you let some murderous AI plot your course through a star :)
 

Lysette

Lysette
ok, let me try out an example, where I see the highest chance to get it implemented - let's assume it would, the question I'm asking is, if it would, would you be comfortable with it?
I assume, that a reverse version of the transfer system could eventually be accepted by FDev and the implementation effort required would be reasonable as well. So you could send ships from where you are to any shipyard, which you have visited in the past. And you could stay in a ship during transfer as well as a passenger, but you wouldn't be able to login until the transfer is complete.

let's say you visited Colonia before and are in a shipyard in the bubble. You want to transfer your current ship to Colonia by the transfer service and stay in it as passenger. Transfer time is 64 hours and the fee is a couple of million credits - just like with the empty ship. You pay your fee, get the confirmation message and the warning, that you won't be able to login for the next 64 hours - you confirm and get logged out. The transfer is in progress now and you will not be able to login until arrival.

This is doable imo and it might bring more life to the game as well, because transfers between Colonia and the bubble would increase in numbers and players would have more choice where they want to play without the tedious long journey between both areas. They would still have to do it manually first time, but not later on.

in my mind this would be a solution, which benefits not just the person seeking the transfer, but as well the game in a whole.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom