Distant (and surface based) stations do make a strategic topography though for BGS actions. If everything was 'flat' and one jump away you'd lose that.
We could use more nav beacons
- Thread starter Jibroni Gibironi
- Start date
Distant (and surface based) stations do make a strategic topography though for BGS actions. If everything was 'flat' and one jump away you'd lose that.
True to an extent, but since nothing can happen to you on the journey it's basically just a boredom threshold.
(And one that Fleet Carriers now allow bypassing anyway, because "flat" seems to be what players want)
True- I fall into the nutty camp who does not care about transit times. Its these periods where Galnet and local news should fill but we know where that went.....
The game would suck if everything was one jump away. Having travel time is important. An extra jump in system to a star wouldn't eradicate that though. It would just remove the ~1 hour doing nothing bit. The bit where no game interaction can ever occur.
I'd be interested to know what the maximum LS distance is from a star to its furthest body. I'm sure there still exist some extreme values for you to enjoy.
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I much prefer filling SC space with more areas of control- like patrol zones for security (i.e. trespass and you get interdicted and hunted), 'dead' spots with radar blackouts (for smuggling) and its you weaving around or in these areas (thus making something of SC agility).
Me too.
It'd be extremely difficult to properly construct that procedurally and appropriately across all possible outcomes though.
Nav beacons don't actually control or affect the ability to arrive at particular destinations. I think the lore explanation is that they simply are there to provide nav data. Also something of a holdover from the early days of development where there was no supercruise planned, but you'd drop in at the nav beacon then make in-system jumps to various bodies. Not sure based on that how exploration would have worked... i wasn't really into ED back then so not sure what the devs were thinking in relation to that. What I do understand though is early (alpha) backers wanted flight between planets rather than micro jumps.
What actually controls in the jump location is highest mass in the system. Put nav beacons wherever you want, you still won't be able to jump to them.
So basically, i think what you are asking for is (like has been suggested before) is micro-jumps (in system jumps). Perhaps limited to only objects of a certain mass (ie: stars)?
It would create a rather big shift in how the game is played, and it would have a lot of people in favour and a lot of people against, resulting in a change that would probably just flip the unhappy into being happy and the happy into being unhappy, with no overall net gain.
Plus the Hutton joke would be ruined!
What actually controls in the jump location is highest mass in the system. Put nav beacons wherever you want, you still won't be able to jump to them.
So basically, i think what you are asking for is (like has been suggested before) is micro-jumps (in system jumps). Perhaps limited to only objects of a certain mass (ie: stars)?
It would create a rather big shift in how the game is played, and it would have a lot of people in favour and a lot of people against, resulting in a change that would probably just flip the unhappy into being happy and the happy into being unhappy, with no overall net gain.
Plus the Hutton joke would be ruined!
More experienced players can mostly* avoid long SC by not taking those missions, avoiding those stations (and now by using a FC). ofc some don't seem to learn, and so will never like it.As ever, ED has a spectrum of players, and the ones who dislike something are noisier.
fdev could make long SC more appealing, for instance by allowing USS resolution during those cruises - other games typically flag up RNG situations while flying (pirate attacks / salvage opportunities in Rebel Galaxy Outlaw work ok). ofc that would require a USS resolution method that doesn't require diversion (pointing at the USS, use of Nav Beacon), or loss of time (entering the FSS). If you could do something more than basic resolution (that eats up even more time) then that would be good - imagine if you could not only resolve HGE but find out what is in them - or determine the type of Distress Call so you know if you can help - or find out the salvage in a Degraded USS. That would actually make long SC a reward (as you combine the SC with the USS resolution, killing 2 birds with 1 stone). Some would complain about the longer times to fully resolve a USS - but some complain about everything
As always with these things - it's a difficult balance - without long SC there would be no mythology around Hutton Orbital, but everyone has different ideas about what the balance should be.
* yes, I am aware there are exceptions - as ever
Yes, all of this - if it was fifteen minutes during which things happened, it would be absolutely fine. People might deliberately seek them out for the interest! But the idea of travel being the interesting bit seems to have gone missing somewhere between FFE and Elite Dangerous.fdev could make long SC more appealing, for instance by allowing USS resolution during those cruises - other games typically flag up RNG situations while flying (pirate attacks / salvage opportunities in Rebel Galaxy Outlaw work ok). ofc that would require a USS resolution method that doesn't require diversion (pointing at the USS, use of Nav Beacon), or loss of time (entering the FSS). If you could do something more than basic resolution (that eats up even more time) then that would be good - imagine if you could not only resolve HGE but find out what is in them - or determine the type of Distress Call so you know if you can help - or find out the salvage in a Degraded USS. That would actually make long SC a reward (as you combine the SC with the USS resolution, killing 2 birds with 1 stone). Some would complain about the longer times to fully resolve a USS - but some complain about everything
(Frontier clearly know it's rubbish since the furthest station in Colonia where they had a choice about its placement given the system it's in is just over 4000 Ls out ... and none of them are over 30,000 Ls. Similar figures for Witch Head, Pleiades, etc.)
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I think those who are unable to figure that out deserve to suffer the long travel times personally. This world is too easy on the thought deficient imoMore experienced players can mostly* avoid long SC by not taking those missions, avoiding those stations (and now by using a FC). ofc some don't seem to learn, and so will never like it.As ever, ED has a spectrum of players, and the ones who dislike something are noisier.
fdev could make long SC more appealing, for instance by allowing USS resolution during those cruises - other games typically flag up RNG situations while flying (pirate attacks / salvage opportunities in Rebel Galaxy Outlaw work ok). ofc that would require a USS resolution method that doesn't require diversion (pointing at the USS, use of Nav Beacon), or loss of time (entering the FSS). If you could do something more than basic resolution (that eats up even more time) then that would be good - imagine if you could not only resolve HGE but find out what is in them - or determine the type of Distress Call so you know if you can help - or find out the salvage in a Degraded USS. That would actually make long SC a reward (as you combine the SC with the USS resolution, killing 2 birds with 1 stone). Some would complain about the longer times to fully resolve a USS - but some complain about everything
As always with these things - it's a difficult balance - without long SC there would be no mythology around Hutton Orbital, but everyone has different ideas about what the balance should be.
* yes, I am aware there are exceptions - as ever
Dude, that was not was I was claiming. I know full well that you don't have to drop out at them. I was merely stating that Nav Beacons are wrong in their current iteration. You shouldn't have to drop out at them to scan them, they should be broadcasting continuously across the entire solar system.
In fact those Supercruise times create nice remoteness for some places. Something like Hutton Orbital is in sense more far away from hustle and bustle of Federation society than some border system station some small number of LS away from its star. System maybe far away from Sol, but with current FSD drives not many jumps away. While Proxima sits near Sol but still takes great amount of time to reach there.
That time requirement is taken account in mission rewards to such station. If you see on mission board some typical data courier mission paying out anomalously high sum you can be sure its target is one of those long supercruise stations.
Indeed, some remoteness is good to have.
If everything is at one click distance, things can get dull pretty fast.
Exactly. On top of that, this huge galaxy we have to play in would seemingly become much smaller and the vast distances even more insignificant than the fsd has already made them.
Agreed.
There's definitely a range of variance between some suggestions here and "one click distance" though.
I'm actually sure no one yet suggested "one click" to reach a destination. It's fine to disagree but sometimes the need to exaggerate the proposal being made does somewhat invalidate the arguments being made to support that disagreement.
I'd personally be happy if that 100-500+ kls range between stars be filled with stuff but I'm thinking that's just going to annoy those who love screen gazing just as much as being able to jump to a star in system would (more so because the latter is something they could choose to ignore but the former ain't)
Actually the OP's proposal includes the wording "... all I have to do is pick the one that is closest to my destination ..." - and time and again we get various suggestions for effectively eliminating (or minimising) supercruise travel by using in-system mini-jumps - people forget that the introduction of supercruise was a choice made by the players and they also seem incapable of just not accepting (or abandoning) missions with those long in-system journeys.
You could even have in system jumps controlled by system permit or system grants that must be paid for and can only be bought at the most remote station in each system and maybe even only when friendly rep. So you will always have to do the long trips at least once but thereafter can chose instead to jump between the system stars.
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That's still not "one click to the destination" though. He said explicitly that there would be, as an example "5 minutes travel instead of 10-15..."
No one has suggested the exaggerated proposal of skipping travel entirely. But it's being used as a counter argument. It's just slippery slope.