Why can't supercruise be different?
- Thread starter Squashie
- Start date
Your argument may be correct, but you forget, ED is a space flight simulator, with a game tacked on to it. Realism is the key to what FD are doing here, or close to it. Obviously they had to add some elements to it to make it worth playing, ie: the gameplay elements. But it's still a simulator.
I agree; 'slingshotting' would be fun, not necessarily easier. Also it makes sense, in my SciFi reading...
Not in case of USS. If nothing is chosen and you are flying in a straight line, you can literally stop from 50c to crawl in a few seconds.
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That's the thing though. This is a game, and alot of the things in the gae are not accurate or real. They are there for game play purpose.
Slingshotting by using orbits etc sound soooo much more fun than going in a streight line and adjusting your throttle so that you ship auto slow down to approach a station which can take FOREVA!!!!!!!!!
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1. so it is a mechanic of a real life than.
2. Agreed, but slingshotting and choosing your own speed is so much more FUN!
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YES THANK YOU!!!!!!! So short and to the point. Like E = MC2
People saying real this or that should understand that most of this stuff is lore and is there to better the game-play.
The biggest thing I hate about SC is that if I miss that 6-7s remaining window to slow down and the "slow down" message lights up on my UI... I can't actually slow down. I hate it when I put the throttle to zero and I continue to accelerate. The SC mechanism automatically slows me down as I approach my target, but it won't let me decelerate when I need to so I am forced to either turn away from my target to slow down, or overshoot. Very annoying. I like the implementation of the SC travel in E, but oh how I hate the slowing down as I approach my target. My eyes glaze over, I start to fall asleep.. and then suddenly SLOW DOWN... lol.
And the AGONY of the wait. It's riiiiiiggghhhttt theeeerreeeeee....... Every single time! the closer I am the slower and slower and AGHAGHGAHGHAG! (sorry even thinking about it makes me sweat)
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reverse thrust
Also if it was done for real how long do you think it would take to dock?
ooohh oohhh I got this one I got this one.
5 hours.
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Yep which is why everyone should stop comparing it to real life and understand that everything done should be for fun and as it stands now it's just not. Like that guy said. It's like his spouse driving.
This is the proof of hand holding as described in one my other threads.
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Any minigame gets old fast. Which is why GTA 5, X3 TC, Free lancer and other games were so fun. No forced minigames.
X Reunion on the hand had everything as a mini game, which is why if got boring and annoying Fast.
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Why did they remove it and what did it do?
That is realistic though, there should be (isn't unfortunately) an equal deceleration to acceleration power. If you want to stop somewhere and you are travelling at high high high, really high, velocities then you need to decelerate whilst you are still millions of kilometers from your target in order to brake to a stop actually near it and not at the next star, woops.
Personally I would like the ability to remove the auto throttle (or have it auto pilot completely), you cant manually control your deceleration due to hitting sweet spot each time. Id like to use throttle forward to accelerate and throttle reverse to decelerate. Or at least try it once or twice then come complain its too hard
This would be better than what it is now. I would rather have a consistent acceleration and deceleration through out the system in SC than the unpredictable mess it is right now.
Also, upgrading SC drive would be a huge plus even in the current state. Make things happen faster, sharper etc.
sooo much missed opportunity with this game.
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A lot of people have asked for the ability to slingshot, but if it were implemented in any way close to "real life" mechanics I think you'd find it *way* less fun than it sounds.
To see what I mean, try executing a slingshot in Kerbal Space Program *without speeding up the clock*. Many hours later you can tell us what it was like.
Well this is not Kerbal, and that game is designed to take hours upon days to get anywhere and to do anything.
This is dumb, if it was an assist there would be no missing the target and overshooting - USS should not have the same gravity wells as planets, it's one of the most idiotic and tedious aspects of the entire game that they do. F D should do a review of the most BORING aspects and change them, this is No. 1.
If what Sovereign says is true (I haven't checked) the current situation appears to be perfect. The artificial slowdown imposed by the flight computer helps people land the easy, if slow way. Once you become a better pilot, though, you can turn that off and land the harder and faster way.
You sir are skilled with words and read my mind and expressed my thoughts in a better way than I ever could
Thank you.
I admire your hardcore ethic and would like to petition your course.
Not sure how far behind the thread I am here. Just thought I'd drop a little knowledge for you.
Gravity effects do not travel at the speed of light, though their particles do. If the effect of gravity occurred at the speed of light, Earth would be orbiting the Sun's position (where it was 8 minutes ago). What is observed is a static field that shows Earth's current trajectory orbiting the current/instantaneous position of the Sun. So, while the particles might travel at c, they exist in a a kind of medium or field where activity at one end is instantaneously felt at another end. For example, if you shove one electron into one end of a wire then one electron will instantaneously appear out of the other end even if that end is a light year away (super simplified). All of the particles move together at the speed of light in response to increases and decreases in field pressure. Same goes for gravity...as a massive object moves in towards the Sun, all bodies (in all the Universe, technically, though it is extremely inconsequential at distance since gravity effects drop off at 1/R^2) feel the changing gravity field instantly.
Ok, science lesson over, retreating to read the rest
My thoughts exactly.
let me upgrade my SC drive to go hard, or but an auto pilot that will just get me there, or use the current assisted with upgrades to make it faster.
There are just sooo many ways to improve it. And soo much gameplay is based around SC that I think Devs should look into it ASAP.
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Not sure how far behind the thread I am here. Just thought I'd drop a little knowledge for you.
Gravity effects do not travel at the speed of light, though their particles do. If the effect of gravity occurred at the speed of light, Earth would be orbiting the Sun's position (where it was 8 minutes ago). What is observed is a static field that shows Earth's current trajectory orbiting the current/instantaneous position of the Sun. So, while the particles might travel at c, they exist in a a kind of medium or field where activity at one end is instantaneously felt at another end. For example, if you shove one electron into one end of a wire then one electron will instantaneously appear out of the other end even if that end is a light year away (super simplified). All of the particles move together at the speed of light in response to increases and decreases in field pressure. Same goes for gravity...as a massive object moves in towards the Sun, all bodies (in all the Universe, technically, though it is extremely inconsequential at distance since gravity effects drop off at 1/R^2) feel the changing gravity field instantly.
Ok, science lesson over, retreating to read the rest
oohhh soo much cool info. Wish I was a little smarter to comprehend
Yes, it does. How does one mass interact with the mass of another? Information must be traded and effects applied. This is facilitated, theoretically, by the radiation of gravitons into a field from a source with mass. No propogation is observed because the effects are instantaneous across the field.
Edit:
Actually, this leads me to an interesting thought experiment about the gravity field being established at near the big bang as matter cooled into it various flavors, including gravitons.
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I'm not sure if we're talking past each other or not. I'm saying a way apparently already exists to bypass the slowdown and 'take manual control' by selecting off the target and dropping manually. As I said, I haven't tested that particular mechanic. I've just begun experimenting with bypassing the slowdown by using planet-braking, myself.
It works, but only for USS and you have to quickly enough select it as target when close enough.
Still sucks though as you will over shoot or stop short because you don't really know how far it is with out selecting it.
This is interesting...I'm not familiar with low-amplitude gravity waves. Where are they observed?
EDIT: AAAANDD enough of me trying to derail the thread
I would actually vote for much more significant gravitational effects in super cruise. I think you should get punished very harshly for getting too close to a planet (opens up an avenue for risk assessment when in escape or pursuit).
Right now, I like how I can just fly full throttle all the way to the station I want and then use the slow down effects of the planet to get me in position...it has taken a lot of practice but I'm pretty sure I can super cruise faster than most people (based on my anecdotal evidence watching streams and other players in open). I make a ton of maneuvers in super cruise...in order to keep potential threats at bay and to maximize my travel. So, for the most part, SC isn't boring for me but I do see room for improvement. Though, I'm really at loss of ideas. I can't think of solid ways to improve the travel mechanics without creating more problems for the game or for the multiplayer aspect of it all.
I think this is a much more difficult problem to solve than most people give it credit for
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Hmm, I love the way SC is designed. Just enough in the way of idiosyncrasy to make it an exotic form of travel, without taking away the fun of flying a spaceship. Enjoying flying a spaceship in and of itself is probably a determining factor in one's enjoyment in the current form of SC and this game, I think. And I so love it.
Well it's weird but think of the drive as a giant turbine or something that creates a field going from strength 1 to 10. At half throttle in SC you're at 5. Now since it's like a turbine or reactor or similar the field generator can't instantly go from 10 to 5, it needs to spool down to not catastrophically blow up or something.
Now to further expand on this, assume that the field strength, while it's what decides your SC speed isn't he only thing since nearby gravity fields affect it depending on size. So you can be traveling over 1000C far away in a large system, or when you get within a gravity field you're suddenly limited to as little as sub 1C speeds.
Now assume it takes the field 10 seconds to spool down from 10 to 5 when you pass a planet that has slowed you down, now it takes you 5 seconds to completely leave the gravity field of the planet at your current speed and the further away from the planet you get closer to the edge 5 seconds away the less the field impacts you, this means that even though you have turn the throttle down to 5 or even to 0, the drive is still spooling down so you will still be accelerating as the gravity field is still at a higher power than your physical throttle setting.
Sure they could have made changes instant, but would the game be as immerive then, would it feel as "physical"? or would it be more like an FPS in space where all input is instant... maybe... maybe not, but this is how they decided to go.
Now to further expand on this, assume that the field strength, while it's what decides your SC speed isn't he only thing since nearby gravity fields affect it depending on size. So you can be traveling over 1000C far away in a large system, or when you get within a gravity field you're suddenly limited to as little as sub 1C speeds.
Now assume it takes the field 10 seconds to spool down from 10 to 5 when you pass a planet that has slowed you down, now it takes you 5 seconds to completely leave the gravity field of the planet at your current speed and the further away from the planet you get closer to the edge 5 seconds away the less the field impacts you, this means that even though you have turn the throttle down to 5 or even to 0, the drive is still spooling down so you will still be accelerating as the gravity field is still at a higher power than your physical throttle setting.
Sure they could have made changes instant, but would the game be as immerive then, would it feel as "physical"? or would it be more like an FPS in space where all input is instant... maybe... maybe not, but this is how they decided to go.
