Asking if anyone has figured how to use SCO similar to the 7 second/75% rule when near a target in supercruise?
Right now when I use SCO to cut down long trips I either overshoot and Loop of Fame (not a typo f** shame in all situations) it back to 7 seconds from the target or shut it off further than I would like.
There’s a certain amount of “inertia” with the SCO and it will continue running above the max speed of normal supercruise for several seconds after clicked off.
It maintains more of that speed if you have your FSD set to 100% throttle.
Anything less, and your FSD will work to slow you down.
That matters in two ways.
If you're doing the long distance burst, you want to keep it at max between bursts.
If you're shutting off the overdrive because you're close to the destination, you'll want to reduce throttle as well.
Also, ships that are specifically designed for SCO, like the Python II and Type-8, not only fly more stable but also reduce speed from SCO faster, so you can keep max throttle/SCO active until you're closer to your destination than other ships can, without overshooting.
That’s a good point about the 100% throttle that I hadn’t considered. Thanks for the insight, I’ll play around with that next time I’m cruisin’ around.
I haven’t had an opportunity to play around with the new ships yet. I kinda feel like some of the legacy ships perform better with SCO than others. Do we think it’s maybe related to maneuverability? I think my DBX trajectory seems way more unstable versus my phantom or mamba, not 100% sure.
After testing the ships the impression left with me was those that had a high degree of super cruise maneuverability felt the effects of the control interference the most. Your experience with your DBX reflects mine too and also found the mamba/fdl much more stable
I've noticed that happens when jet cone boosting, where a ship like an Eagle gets tossed around but a Type-10 barely moves.
I wouldn't be surprised if the same game mechanics are used for both.
I noticed that the other day. I normally coast off SCO speed at about the halfway mark like you. The other day though my throttle was only at 75% and that coasting speed didn't last nearly as long. Had to jump back into SCO and made sure to keep throttle up. Let's you slow down a bit faster if need be as well
bursting is great overall but it does compromise on fuel. It takes a lot of fuel to get the overcharge going, before it even has a chance to pick up speed. A burst will make that happen many times while a single burn will theoretically have no unnecessary fuel usage
I use SCO and keep a check on the countdown, SCO all the way to like 4 or 5 seconds out (not 7), then after deactivating SCO throttle down to middle of blue zone, until you see time back up to the 7 seconds, then adjust up and down to maintain that 7 seconds arrival. Takes a bit of practice.
This works on destinations typically 1000ls to 20000ls
Less than that you need to just do a 2 second SCO boost otherwise you will overshoot, and longer than that you need multiple bursts of SCO otherwise you just overheat or run out of fuel.
I worked out the “10 second speed” rule. Divide distance in lightseconds by 10 and watch your speed not distance or time to target. When I see the the speed in c hit the number I kill SCO. Gets me close without loop of shame about 90% of the time.
No. It could have been implemented in a different way and just be like the old Supercruise but faster, but instead we get this janky, thirsty, hot and stressful experience that is best used sparingly and I fucking love it.
I fully expect that sometime after the war, Ram Tah will make some kind of breakthrough in understanding thargoid FTL tech and we’ll either have engineering for better stability/fuel economy, or just better base modules.
depends on range, if it's over 2000 ls, 7 second rule applies. if it's over 1000 ls, try to anticipate when it will get to single digits (which is rapidly ticking down). if it's under 1000 ls, jsut give it a tap to get you up to 10-12ish ls speed then disengage it and cruise normally.
as far i know i stop boosting when my speed is 1/3 of the remaining distance, that’s almost perfect for 600ls-20,000ls. anything under 600ls i usually overshoot it slightly but it doesn’t really matter (still faster than not boosting) and any longer than 20,000ls and you’ll need to boost for a short bit to gain speed and then repeat otherwise you’ll run out of fuel before you get there (i have a 32 ton fuel tank atm it’s far less you can go with 16 tons)
i still occasionally fuck up and semi majorly overshoot or undershoot but at the absolute worst you’re still getting there quicker so i’ve found it quite forgiving in that sense. i haven’t tried timing an emergency drop to get close to a destination but for reference i flew into a star while boosting with a sidewinder for the hell of it and it ate half my fsd and around 30% hull, so probably not a sustainable approach lol
I try to deactivate at 10s but can't figure out a rule that always works tbh. It seems like something you have to 'feel' out, depending on distance from the target. In some cases you can push it until 0:07 but in other cases you have to deactivate at 10s or even sooner.
I hit 75% and then boost until the timer gets to 10 seconds and turn it off, sometimes have to push back to full throttle for a few seconds then back to 75% and that gets me in quick and easy wherever I’m going
Testing the idea of a new SCO "7 second" rule currently and it's difficult. Some factors in the old rule are more relevant now such as gravity wells and where you and your destination are relative to them due to how distance from main bodies affects super cruise speeds after you drop out of SCO.
I wouldn't suggest making any in-game decisions based on this but as a very loose rule from testing so far, dropping out at double your speed in distance from your destination seems to get you close without looping. As in speed of 5,000c, dropping out at approximately 9,000-10,000 l/s. But this varies wildly the further your destination is from its main star and when travelling at different speeds. Interested to know if we can continue to rely on the ETA timer or another measure like distance.
I look for 30-15 seconds, depending on distance, and my ramped up speed usually gets me to the 7 second rule quite reliably
My main takeaway from this is everyone uses a 7 second rule.....I use 6, never knew people were using 7.
But my answer so far is waiting for it to get to 10 seconds while in SCO which seems to work but only just and not always. I suspect that the shaking of the shop will always make it something of a random affair
yeah, same. In fact, I'm pretty sure if you throttle to 75% at 7 seconds, it'll eventually tick down to 6 anyway won't it?
Same. I'm in the Six Squad.
There is a way to drop to stations without even slowing down.. but i rather not tell to keep running cargo interesting. ☺
Short distance (Under 1000 LS) I run it until it hits under 1 minute. Long distance I hold it until 20-15 seconds.
I let off the boost at 3 seconds. You'll slow down to 6 and maybe a bit past, but it should drop down to 6 again fairly quickly. From there, you just set your throttle to 75 and proceed as normal. Also, I'm still finicking with the details to be able to do it consistently, but you can do the supercruise assist trick out of an SCO boost. I'm pretty sure my pilot is jello now but I can drop out at a station from superluminal speeds.
Lots of interesting info, I picked up a P2 to try everything out so theres no real course correction needed but always drop out to far away or miss the 6 seconds. I get the feeling that once the P2 become available for everyone achilles or sirus will have an unexpected breakthrough to help with this. Maybe even a SC SCO Assist though Fdev really does squeeze you on modules in the P2.
For longer trips, I usually boost in spurts. There’s a certain amount of “inertia” with the SCO and it will continue running above the max speed of normal supercruise for several seconds after clicked off. This allows the ship to cool, conserve fuel, and still get to the destination much more quickly. I usually wait until my heat drops to roughly resting SC heat before initiating another boost, and terminate when heat is getting close to 100%.
My technique for shorter boosts has been to aim for about halfway to my destination. So if where I’m going is 5000 ls away, I aim to kill the boost around 2500 ls. It doesn’t always work, but the same inertia will dissipate and while I’m coming out of the boost with 2 or 3 seconds on the clock, it’ll tick back up above 7 and I don’t risk the loop of shame. Though, it still happens sometimes. I don’t think there’s necessarily a perfect way to do it, as it is still kind of experimental tech.