Why does it take forever to break out of a tiny planet's gravity well (not so the Sun)

CMDR Regulas

CMDR Regulas
This is a question for F-Dev

Please can you explain why it takes so long to break away from a tiny icy planet's gravity well in super cruise, sometimes as long as
two minutes travelling over 400 Ls below light speed before my Python can break away from a planet, it's very frustrating when you are trying to chase down and interdict a wanted NPC, they seem to have no such problem and accelerate away from you and you are practically stationary compared to them.
But it takes seconds to break away from the sun in any system, surely a sun has more mass?
This needs to be balanced, it's been bugging me since the game launched! I'm surprised no one else has said anything about this or am I the only one experiencing this weird anomaly
 

lukeren

L
I haven't thought about it, but you got a point.
Getting too close to a planet is a right pain, getting away takes ages, not so with a star.
 

CMDR Regulas

CMDR Regulas
Sorry I'm just speaking generally, it takes a long time to get up to light speed is what I mean and it takes over 400ls to break away from the gravity well.
 

CMDR Regulas

CMDR Regulas
Seonid said:
What were the distances to the star and the planet respectively?
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Not sure that is relevant as it's the same in any system and at any distance from a star. When you jump into super cruise from a starport/station/outpost that is orbiting a planet see how long it takes you to break out of the planets gravity well. you'll see what I mean.
 
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Leper Messiah

Leper Messiah
Yeah it makes exploring a pain in the buttocks as well. Takes forever to explore a system and visit every planet and moon up close.

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Seonid said:
Gravitational effects are subject to the inverse square law, so I can promise you that distance is a major factor.
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That makes sense, we escape the sun easier because even though the darn thing is huge in our screens we're still a massive distance away, compared to a planet or a moon.
 
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Seonid

Seonid
Simple example from the system I have just jumped into, when I hyperspace in the star is 2 Ls away and when I am at the station the planet is 2 Mm away. That's the reason why.
 

777Driver

777Driver
As explained above, we can SC away from stars much faster due to the massive distance between the ship and star. We are able to get much closer to planets.

You can see this effect enhanced when you compare acceleration time in SC between a standard sized star and a supergiant. Take a trip to Betelgeuse, EZ orionis or for an extreme example try VY Canis Majoris. You will hit 10 times the speed of light within seconds.
 

Seonid

Seonid
The problem is also compounded by the simple fact that we humans are really really bad at judging scale with no reference point, this is usually most obvious when estimating ship sizes.

[video=youtube;W4bEQlVvUvI]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4bEQlVvUvI[/video]
 

Whiterose

Whiterose
I may be weird here, but I actually enjoy this, shows a bit of physics is actually going on rather than simply just getting from A to B, the same when the sling shot effect kicks in.
 

Jaeger

Jaeger
Whiterose said:
I may be weird here, but I actually enjoy this, shows a bit of physics is actually going on rather than simply just getting from A to B, the same when the sling shot effect kicks in.
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Yeah, then when you consider the gravity effect of USS's it becomes nonsense again.
 

Leper Messiah

Leper Messiah
Whiterose said:
I may be weird here, but I actually enjoy this, shows a bit of physics is actually going on rather than simply just getting from A to B, the same when the sling shot effect kicks in.
Click to expand...

Yeah, once my brain kicked in and understood then the "exploring" issues I have are there for a reason. I still wish we could break away a BIT quicker, it's probably my number 1 beef with exploration (I have completely and utterly no patience what so ever, I tended to browse the forum and do weights when exploring!).
 

Mephane

Mephane
777Driver said:
You can see this effect enhanced when you compare acceleration time in SC between a standard sized star and a supergiant. Take a trip to Betelgeuse, EZ orionis or for an extreme example try VY Canis Majoris. You will hit 10 times the speed of light within seconds.
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While still fuel scooping. :D
 

lovely lovely

L
Force = GM1M2/d^2

so hopefully the effect of all the stars and other celestial objects on your ship are included in this simulation just like in real live...................just kidding - who'd wanna write that algorithm !

:)
 

emacinnes

emacinnes
lovely lovely said:
Force = GM1M2/d^2

so hopefully the effect of all the stars and other celestial objects on your ship are included in this simulation just like in real live...................just kidding - who'd wanna write that algorithm !

:)
Click to expand...

Given that the ship is in ficticious "supercruise" mode and has already broken a number of real world laws anyway, there's no need for it to selectively pay attention to others when it already knows how to break the big ones :) There's no inertia in SC*, nor is it restricted to light speed, so why would it be impacted by gravity.

* sudden acceleration in deep space from 0 to 2000c for example.

i.e. the situation is going to be much worse after planetary landings come in, if it follows the inverse square law to the letter, and we have to launch from the surface, then try to go to SC and take 20 minutes to get to orbit (granted this is better than flying up on just thrusters and it takes hours, but still. Game first, realism second.). It'll need to be tweaked a bit for sure, not necessarily removed, but dampened a bit.
 
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