You can actually crash into planet at 0 throttle SC position

jacozilla · Jul 24, 2015

So I was reading forums, watching some videos on youtube re: exploration and cool nebula I may want to visit next, etc - while I was out on an exploration trip.

My ship had just scanned a planet - from like oh, ~10-15 LS out, forgot exact distance. It was a small planet so was reasonably close but wasn't like just a few LS away.

After scan completed, I throttled to zero, and got immersed in watching a bunch of cool videos by a youtube guy that has a ton of episodes re: elite and exploration. Not quite sure how much time passed, but it was a reasonable amount of time, I watched at least a few dozen videos.

Suddenly I heard the emergency stop crash sound and my ship is staring at a looming planet and the alarms are going off re: emergency crash stop. Fortunately it wasn't a star, so no heat dmg. And because I was at 'zero' throttle my speed was under the emergency stop = take dmg threshold, so no dmg.

But it sure surprised me that even at that barely minimal speed which I had essentially considered same as stopped in space, you actually can make some distance and crash into a planet if all you do is throttle down to zero, not drop out of SC to normal.

So lesson learned, next time I take a mini break to watch videos while exploring, drop out of SC into normal - safety tip!

Jason S · Jul 24, 2015

Perhaps the planet moved, not you, but it is all relative movement so what is your real speed anyway

thebullfrog · Jul 24, 2015

You know, it seems stupid obvious, because if you look at the display it clearly shows you are still moving a lot faster than your max speed in "normal" space at min. throttle. But just last night I did the exact same thing straight into a star. The sense of scale gets thrown off and it feels stopped at a few thousand miles per hour. Suddenly hearing the computer scream "Warning! Taking heat damage" serves as a helpful reminder.

bartmoss · Jul 24, 2015

jacozilla said:
But it sure surprised me that even at that barely minimal speed which I had essentially considered same as stopped in space, you actually can make some distance and crash into a planet if all you do is throttle down to zero, not drop out of SC to normal.

Hmmm. Interesting. I wonder if that's an oversight/bug, or an insight into the workings of the FSD.

At first glance I thought "well, it makes sense - that explains why we drop out of hyperspace close to suns - deeper gravity well needed" but then you do drop out if you approach rings, and you can also get quite close to black holes.

You should probably file a bug report.

Agony_Aunt · Jul 24, 2015

jacozilla said:
So lesson learned, next time I take a mini break to watch videos while exploring, drop out of SC into normal - safety tip!

If you are in the orbital path of the planet you could still get a planet in the face.

You'd probably have to be AFK for a good long time though... perhaps start watching Battlestar Galactica again...

Morbad · Jul 24, 2015

30km/s (minimum SC speed) is nothing to sneeze at when in close proximity to something.

This is on par with many asteroids/meteors and such.

Retu81 · Jul 24, 2015

Morbad said:
30km/s (minimum SC speed) is nothing to sneeze at when in close proximity to something.

This is on par with many asteroids/meteors and such.

It's about the speed the Earth orbits around the Sun.

gooddoc · Jul 24, 2015

I have my own rules regarding my ship position even when at 0 throttle, SC or not

1. Never leave ship pointing towards ANY body, when going to another screen other than main view
2. Never sit close to ANY body then go & do something else & keep the game running
3. Never leave ship on planetary orbit plane unless Im watching the screen & my hand is near my joystick
4. When finishing a session, ALWAYS move UP or DOWN from the planetary plane & be at least 1000LSs from any body, then SAVE & QUIT.

jacozilla · Jul 24, 2015

Morbad said:
30km/s (minimum SC speed) is nothing to sneeze at when in close proximity to something.

This is on par with many asteroids/meteors and such.

Yup, learned that the hard way, although not as hard as the guy that ran into the sun.

was watching obsidianant's elite videos for i think ~45 min on side monitor while my ship was 'parked' at 0 throttle, or so i thought

probably it was a combo of me sitting right in the planet's orbital path coming at me, and me heading toward it at 30 km/s
(bad time for me to have recently learned about turning off orbital lines as well lol)

Kosmetas · Jul 24, 2015

In SC at zero trottle you are going 30.0km/s.

Yaffle · Jul 24, 2015

Retu81 said:
It's about the speed the Earth orbits around the Sun.

Or 100 times the muzzle velocity of a .22 long rifle bullet.

Of course, speed is all about frames of reference, which the game sort of auto-selects for you. I would guess it was relative to the nearest significant object, in this case being the planet just scanned. But I may be wrong.

dienerinlb · Jul 24, 2015

I know 30 km/s seems slow in sc, but that's still 108,000 kph, or 66900 mph. You're still moving very fast. It's just the scale that makes it seem slow.

Morbad · Jul 24, 2015

Yaffle said:
Or 100 times the muzzle velocity of a .22 long rifle bullet.

Of course, speed is all about frames of reference, which the game sort of auto-selects for you. I would guess it was relative to the nearest significant object, in this case being the planet just scanned. But I may be wrong.

Frame of reference seems to be fixed until you switch flight modes.

Upon entering a system you are in the main star's frame of reference, but if you leave SC near another body, you enter that object's frame of reference and stay there until you enter SC again.

Yaffle · Jul 24, 2015

Thanks for the clarification.

drkaii · Jul 24, 2015

I wouldn't worry about it at all. That emergency drop at under 1Mm/s never ever does damage at all. Seriously, you got bigger things to worry about out in the black

In fact, this method is the only way to get into a ring system (if there's no RES), and I use it all the time. It's always a thrill as you are still moving very very fast

Morbad · Jul 24, 2015

drkaii said:
In fact, this method is the only way to get into a ring system (if there's no RES)

You can drop out manually, but it is usually easier just to collide at low speed.

Driftwood · Jul 24, 2015

Agony_Aunt said:
If you are in the orbital path of the planet you could still get a planet in the face.

You'd probably have to be AFK for a good long time though... perhaps start watching Battlestar Galactica again...

Depends on the planet... if you were sitting in this ones orbit path just blinking would probably make you have a "bug vs windshield" moment.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=169162&highlight=mass+locked
I'm thinking all the craters on that planet weren't actually meteors but Cmdr's!

Faybs · Jul 24, 2015

drkaii said:
I wouldn't worry about it at all. That emergency drop at under 1Mm/s never ever does damage at all. Seriously, you got bigger things to worry about out in the black

In fact, this method is the only way to get into a ring system (if there's no RES), and I use it all the time. It's always a thrill as you are still moving very very fast

Yep, if you want to actually mine at a ring system and not be bothered by NPC pirates that's about the only way to do it.

drkaii · Jul 24, 2015

Driftwood said:
Depends on the planet... if you were sitting in this ones orbit path just blinking would probably make you have a "bug vs windshield" moment.

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=169162&highlight=mass+locked
I'm thinking all the craters on that planet weren't actually meteors but Cmdr's!

I actually tried this and made a video, click this link to skip right to the bit where the moon hits me head on

https://youtu.be/EIZkmjXbe04?list=PLmZswJzvjc8eGygYrJNJfyFiOj58WjkwH&t=282

Spanksh · Jul 24, 2015

Morbad said:
Frame of reference seems to be fixed until you switch flight modes.

Upon entering a system you are in the main star's frame of reference, but if you leave SC near another body, you enter that object's frame of reference and stay there until you enter SC again.

Nope, SC selects whichever celestial body it deems most relevant (biggest/closest). The body it is using as reference is the one displayed at the bottom left on your HUD. When you go to New Africa you can switch between staying stationary to the planet and being dragged by the extremely fast moon, simply by getting a few km closer to the moon. All while staying in SC. You can switch back and forth as much as you want.