3 ms·

That's a good point about loading times. I haven't played it yet and was just assuming it needs a load screen from system to system.

Cthulhu_ 8y ago
If Elite is anything to go by, they 'hide' the loading by showing you flashy 'jump' animations. IMO it takes far too long to get anywhere - and I've traveled in a similar way in Eve Online.
- wlesieutre 8y ago
  Yes, travel from one place to another isn't instantaneous, and they "hide" the loading while you travel. But the game's not supposed to be a fast paced space shooter (check out Everspace for that!), and I don't think they'd take out the travel times even if they could. Trips between moons are maybe 10 seconds, and trips between planets will be longer. But it's very pretty, and the visual effects make it feel fast. Canonically I believe quantum drive around a system is moving about 0.2c. If you don't want a "quantum drive" scene going from one place to another, you're also free to make a seamless flight using regular engines! Port Olisar to Daymar takes a bit under 10 hours. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_iXlgxsEVc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_iXlgxsEVc (timelapse of that trip condensed to 15 minutes) And if you're in something bigger than a single seat fighter, you can get up and do other stuff around your ship while it's traveling, but it's not a good idea in areas with pirates. Still, more options than a Mass Effect elevator. Flying around a planet/moon all the way down to the surface, getting out of your ship and walking around, and going inside the various outposts happens completely seamlessly. I've only fired it up a couple times since beta 3.1 came out, but my first trip down to Yela was pretty mindblowing.
wlesieutre 8y ago
For a bit of SC terminology, there are two separate fast travel modes: "jump drive" for long distance FTL between systems and "quantum drive" for zooming between planets within a system. We don't know a ton about the final design for system-to-system jumps yet, but the original concept is that you have to actively fly your ship through a somewhat twisty "jump point" wormhole thing and come out the other side. That would be long enough to cover the loading time, but it's all active gameplay instead of loading screens. It also won't need to load the whole system when you jump in, only the "low poly" versions of planets and moons and whatever large scale spacescaping objects (gas clouds, etc.) are visible from where you come out. The more detailed versions of planets and moons only need to stream in once you pick where you're going within the system spool up your quantum drive to get there.

Cthulhu_ 8y ago

If Elite is anything to go by, they 'hide' the loading by showing you flashy 'jump' animations. IMO it takes far too long to get anywhere - and I've traveled in a similar way in Eve Online.

wlesieutre 8y ago
Yes, travel from one place to another isn't instantaneous, and they "hide" the loading while you travel. But the game's not supposed to be a fast paced space shooter (check out Everspace for that!), and I don't think they'd take out the travel times even if they could. Trips between moons are maybe 10 seconds, and trips between planets will be longer. But it's very pretty, and the visual effects make it feel fast. Canonically I believe quantum drive around a system is moving about 0.2c. If you don't want a "quantum drive" scene going from one place to another, you're also free to make a seamless flight using regular engines! Port Olisar to Daymar takes a bit under 10 hours. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_iXlgxsEVc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_iXlgxsEVc (timelapse of that trip condensed to 15 minutes) And if you're in something bigger than a single seat fighter, you can get up and do other stuff around your ship while it's traveling, but it's not a good idea in areas with pirates. Still, more options than a Mass Effect elevator. Flying around a planet/moon all the way down to the surface, getting out of your ship and walking around, and going inside the various outposts happens completely seamlessly. I've only fired it up a couple times since beta 3.1 came out, but my first trip down to Yela was pretty mindblowing.

wlesieutre 8y ago

For a bit of SC terminology, there are two separate fast travel modes: "jump drive" for long distance FTL between systems and "quantum drive" for zooming between planets within a system. We don't know a ton about the final design for system-to-system jumps yet, but the original concept is that you have to actively fly your ship through a somewhat twisty "jump point" wormhole thing and come out the other side. That would be long enough to cover the loading time, but it's all active gameplay instead of loading screens. It also won't need to load the whole system when you jump in, only the "low poly" versions of planets and moons and whatever large scale spacescaping objects (gas clouds, etc.) are visible from where you come out. The more detailed versions of planets and moons only need to stream in once you pick where you're going within the system spool up your quantum drive to get there.