Why We Can't Frame Shift Jump to Planets

[FrogsFriend]

... "navel orange" ... Donald Trump..... Brexit

What??? Are navel oranges under threat??? Is that the secret message of this whole thread??? Why wasn't I told before Christmas rolled around???

Btw, could we get a poll (or 2... or 3) demanding player-ship impact craters for immersion?

Happy Christmas one and all.

 

[varonica]

What??? Are navel oranges under threat??? Is that the secret message of this whole thread??? Why wasn't I told before Christmas rolled around???

Btw, could we get a poll (or 2... or 3) demanding player-ship impact craters for immersion?

Happy Christmas one and all.

That would be nice, then we could have a competition,who can make the biggest crater

Merry christmas all!

 

[xondk]

DB, as is his right, created a game he would like. What is unfortunate is that his delusion of 'wait time = game play' is not fun for many players. Granted, apparently for DB it is but for others, not so much.

Its interesting how the same words are interpreted differently depending on the person hearing them, because I heard it as him wanting to keep the scale of the game intact but yeah.

Here's some questions, if you could jump in and then jump to another minor target, when would you get pirated? attacked? how would that even possibly work?
How would you meet random events? USS' if your total time in flight was a minute at most?

- - - Updated - - -

Even with mini-jumps, Hutton Orbital could still be a 'travel achievement' for the folks who want to brag about it. It's a really simple concept: Don't like it? Don't use it! And as for the minority who believe that everything in space should take an age to get to, I have this thought to share with you: it is possible to appreciate the vastness and scale of the cosmos without having to endure said vastness and scale. Astronomers have been doing it for hundreds of years.

I would remind you that around 70% voted against instant transfer, and that at least in my mind tells me that people want the sense of scale to remain intact, so maybe, just...maybe "as for the minority" as you put it, doesn't exist, maybe you are the minority? Maybe the majority wants to keep the sense of scale intact, because that is one of the the appeals of the game?
As for it being possible to appreciate the scale without having to endure it, do enlighten me, because your example makes no sense, astronomers do not have a choice in the matter, they can only look at the scale, but I am 100% sure, if getting from solar system and then to a planet only took a few minutes, comparable to a bus ride, you bet the sense of scale would suddenly drop.

 

[Odan Brota]

Because David Braben himself said it recently on the charity livestream - he doesn't want the players to be deprived of the monotony of pure wait time as you travel in SC. His reference was the travel time to Hutton and if minijumps were allowed, then there'd be no Hutton Orbital travel achievement (he didn't say that word but that's what his clear reference was regarding, the time sink to travel in SC is part of the game and his design)

DB, as is his right, created a game he would like. What is unfortunate is that his delusion of 'wait time = game play' is not fun for many players. Granted, apparently for DB it is but for others, not so much.

Personally, jumping to smaller celestial bodies like planets I could compromise on and simply allow minijumps to larger gravity bodies like secondary stars. That would take out a lot of the SC waiting timesink but still leave in-system flight in SC as necessary between planets, stations, etc.

One thing I will give him, is that Elite does "feel" massive in comparison to the 'other' game. Being able to mini-jump really takes the sense of scale out.

 

[vernonator]

Because David Braben himself said it recently on the charity livestream - he doesn't want the players to be deprived of the monotony of pure wait time as you travel in SC. His reference was the travel time to Hutton and if minijumps were allowed, then there'd be no Hutton Orbital travel achievement (he didn't say that word but that's what his clear reference was regarding, the time sink to travel in SC is part of the game and his design)

DB, as is his right, created a game he would like. What is unfortunate is that his delusion of 'wait time = game play' is not fun for many players. Granted, apparently for DB it is but for others, not so much.

Personally, jumping to smaller celestial bodies like planets I could compromise on and simply allow minijumps to larger gravity bodies like secondary stars. That would take out a lot of the SC waiting timesink but still leave in-system flight in SC as necessary between planets, stations, etc.

This....as I type this I am in SC to a station 400,000+ ls from my jump point. Whats the purpose? Give us long wait times so we can run and take a crap while still playing the game? As much as I enjoy parts of the game THIS is what makes me leave every few months for a break.....I have NEVER even seen a game where people talk about watching Netflix while they play. Oh well off to the crapper for me

In all seriousness I am a casual player with a wife, 2x kids a full time job, a home and yard, etc etc etc. I am lucky to get 1hr in the evening 3-4x @ week to play. When one of those sessions is more than 1/2 in SC in one system ....well is sucks plain and simple.

 

[Deleted member 110222]

Man some people wouldn't stand a chance doing my in-game career of surface salvage if they can't stand a 100k ls flight to a station. Sifting through the sand for junk... Now THAT takes time.

Shame, because I get paid mega-bucks!

 

[vernonator]

Man some people wouldn't stand a chance doing my in-game career of surface salvage if they can't stand a 100k ls flight to a station. Sifting through the sand for junk... Now THAT takes time.

Shame, because I get paid mega-bucks!

But thats YOUR choice, I get assigned missions and have no other option but to spend 30min of my precious game time twiddling my thumbs while I SC to nowhere.

 

[mojododo]

But thats YOUR choice, I get assigned missions and have no other option but to spend 30min of my precious game time twiddling my thumbs while I SC to nowhere.

The missions you take are also your choice. The game also gives you all the information as to station distance before you take the mission. If your wasting time in sc, its only you who are wasting your time. Read the missions more closely and look at the target system map before accepting the mission, find the target stations distance from drop-in and choose to or not take it. (Yes exceptions when no sys data available)

 

[TenakaFurey]

https://s30.postimg.org/r8thwpudr/Screenshot_0033.jpg
That's what happens when attempted by Sidewinders.
Nuff said?

While this is a joke, I feel there is a legitimate question behind it.

There are some valid reasons for the time taken to reach a planet.

It includes aspects such as emphasising the scale of a system and providing players with time to engage in activities such as piracy and interdiction.

The downside is that many players see it as a way to simply waste time. Some destinations...Hutton for example...can take nearly 2 hours to reach. 2 hours of doing little or nothing in game.

Now, while I can see the advantages in emphasising scale, and I don't mind the tine myself...too much...many people do see it as time away from in game activities that they DO want to take part in. Trading...fighting....etc.

Brabens remark about Hutton is well taken. Such sites and achievements provide players with a point of pride. The "I visited Hutton and all I got was this lousy T-shirt" aspect.

So the question is....are these travel times valuable enough to keep? Are there mechanics which can be implemented to make Supercruise less monotonous, more involved? Are there solutions which could keep the sense of scale and achievements such as going to Hutton?

Should there be more encounters, more Signal Sources for players to investigate?
What if the speed limit was increased?
What if the Torus Jump Drive was reintroduced?
What about in system jump points....or intersystem jump points such as those shown in The Dark Wheel?
Maybe quicker transit speeds could be achieved as a result of experience in the game or buying in new and improved tech so that sense of scale remains at the start but once the player is jaded, it can be bypassed.

As for places like Hutton....could there be other solutions? Maybe the reason it is so far away is because it is researching something or doing something that requires or enforces a slow transit?

As for piracy and interdictions....solutions would present themselves.

So the question is... is the long transit times desireable or is it better to have some mechanic that can shorten them? If it is desireable, then it can be left as is. If not...there are solutions that can be provided

 

[Ralph Vargr]

Why is everything 400,000 light-seconds away?

 

[Conch]

we should stop asking for inner system jumps, and ask them to make SC faster. especially the braking...

 

[koop26]

This....as I type this I am in SC to a station 400,000+ ls from my jump point. Whats the purpose? Give us long wait times so we can run and take a crap while still playing the game? As much as I enjoy parts of the game THIS is what makes me leave every few months for a break.....I have NEVER even seen a game where people talk about watching Netflix while they play. Oh well off to the crapper for me

In all seriousness I am a casual player with a wife, 2x kids a full time job, a home and yard, etc etc etc. I am lucky to get 1hr in the evening 3-4x @ week to play. When one of those sessions is more than 1/2 in SC in one system ....well is sucks plain and simple.

That's because Elite Dangerous isn't any other game. It's completely its own thing, and really doesn't share much with games in its own genre. They don't have massive marketing teams at EA or Ubisoft deciding what lowest common denominator of gamers want.

 

[lecorsobreton]

So apparently, at least one anaconda tried jumping next to the planet, if i'm to judge crater size Good one OP.

But thats YOUR choice, I get assigned missions and have no other option but to spend 30min of my precious game time twiddling my thumbs while I SC to nowhere.

But YOU chose to accept that mission. You probably already know, but before accepting a mission, open the galaxy map and the system map, if it's available. Check how far is the station/mission destination and then accept the job or not. Granted sometimes you don't have a system map and get a nasty surprise. But at the same time, a lot of USS and the like pop up during SC. You have plenty to do if you want to.

 

[Pumabear8]

we should stop asking for inner system jumps, and ask them to make SC faster. especially the braking...

Definitely this, super supercruise, with a price, use it on a journey less than 10000ls and you overshoot by twice that distance, maybe even make it an engineer mod.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

That's because Elite Dangerous isn't any other game. It's completely its own thing, and really doesn't share much with games in its own genre. They don't have massive marketing teams at EA or Ubisoft deciding what lowest common denominator of gamers want.

In the words of Stone Cold Steve Austin:

The fact that Elite is NOT any other game is part of its appeal TO ME.
I'm so glad that, despite all the whining and crying Elite has not become the PvP'ers dream space-shoot-em-up, nor has it become a trader's paradise of endless hauling of stuff across the infinite void, bereft of anything happening.

Elite is unique, or as unique as it may get - it offers just enough of everything to legally claim to offer everything there is to do with a game of this type.

It's not Eve or Star Citizen, or Freelancer or Kerbal or anything else. And when the day comes that we can stand up and walk around, I'm sure there will be plenty more QQ that Elite isn't CoD in space either - and I'll be just as glad that it's not.

Now with that said...

I'm all too willing to accept that we can't micro-jump across star systems without creating Navel Orange Planets - or because David Braben Said So, or Whatever Reason You Like - however...

Perhaps there is room for some middle-ground. How about this: Along with The Lousy Tee-Shirt, the option to purchase a specialized "upgrade" at places like Hutton and those other extremely distant stations, that does allow for a significantly increased Super Cruise rate when traveling to those locations? Yes, it would require some highly-skilled "magical coding" on the programmers' end to verify that:
1. The Upgrade has been previously purchased.
2. The player is actually in the system the module is designed to operate in.

It could be called a "Hypercruise Upgrade", and allow us to reach higher-that-supercruise speeds in the systems with these extreme long haul locations, and would have to be purchased at one of these locations, meaning we'd have to have made the pilgrimage to them at least once without them.

Having made dozens of trips to Hutton Orbital, I know I'd welcome the "Hutton Orbital Hypercruise Upgrade" to reduce the number of episodes of X-Files I watch en route. And note, I did say Reduce - not Eliminate. I don't mind a 5 or 10 minute trip to a distant location. A two-hour trip of passing USS, maybe being interdicted, but usually nothing at all... let's just say THAT novelty has long, long since worn off.

 

[vernonator]

Because Braben thinks it adds "Game Play and give a sense of scale"....rubbish its bad design and wastes people game time. I have played ALOT of games over the years (started with Wolfenstein on the Apple IIc) and have NEVER had a game where players watched movies or browsed the web, or read a book while playing the game. FD needs to respect our time and allow for a speedier transition to these far off stations/planets.

 

[TenakaFurey]

Because Braben thinks it adds "Game Play and give a sense of scale"....rubbish its bad design and wastes people game time. I have played ALOT of games over the years (started with Wolfenstein on the Apple IIc) and have NEVER had a game where players watched movies or browsed the web, or read a book while playing the game. FD needs to respect our time and allow for a speedier transition to these far off stations/planets.

Never played Warcraft then? I remember browsing the Internet whilst on combat, never mind travel.

 

[Dooguk]

Because Braben thinks it adds "Game Play and give a sense of scale"....rubbish its bad design and wastes people game time. I have played ALOT of games over the years (started with Wolfenstein on the Apple IIc) and have NEVER had a game where players watched movies or browsed the web, or read a book while playing the game. FD needs to respect our time and allow for a speedier transition to these far off stations/planets.

I imagine a real Commander would get bored flying to Hutton, so maybe he would watch SpaceFlix, or read a book, keeping one eye on the instrument panel. With the advent multi-crew and space legs, we could leave somebody else in charge of the bridge.

 

[TenakaFurey]

I imagine a real Commander would get bored flying to Hutton, so maybe he would watch SpaceFlix, or read a book, keeping one eye on the instrument panel. With the advent multi-crew and space legs, we could leave somebody else in charge of the bridge.

Regardless.....his point stands.

A game should keep you engaged while you are playing it and internet breaks should be rare and far between. That "dead time" does contribute to the sense of scale in game but it also contributes to the sense that there is nothing to do and that the game is empty

Is it possible to keep the good...the sense of scale...but get rid of the bad...internet browsing and the feeling of emptiness?

 

[Edith_The_Hutt]

I like cruising to planets when they're a few thousand light years out and I appriciate the Hutton run because it's a thing. I wouldn't say no to a module which allowed you to make a micro jump to a star, gas giant or beacon in the range of 10,000 to 1,000,000 ls. That's just a dull range