How the hell do you fly this thing now? WTF?

Lorddarthvik

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I'm confused, and panicked.
I haven't played since the early days of 3.4 and didn't follow anything SC related apart from these forums, so now I'm kinda feeling like a fish outta water.

I've tried the 3.5 PTU yesterday, hopped into my 300i, with KB+M controls only, and I was really confused by the new throttle system. After some fumbling around I figured out that if I roll the mouse wheel I can set a top-speed-limiter (da fakk is dat?), and if I keep pushing WASD I can go in a direction at that speed as long as I push the button. If I don't push any buttons I come to a full stop.
WTF????
WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH CGI???
I really have to keep pushin W to "go forward" with my ship??
Seriously this is the new flight mechanic, or I'm just dumb and couldn't find the real "throttle" controls?

More importantly, do I have to keep pushing some button the same way if I'm using a joystick with a throttle slider?
I want to FLY my ships, not "walk" them... Am I screwed for good?
 

wmk

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"C" key, by default; hit once to engage cruise control, hit again to disengage. Switching to decoupled also disengages cruise control. Mouse scroll wheel sets the target speed. You can even decrease the "speed limiter" to 0; this means you can use speed limiter as an equivalent of the old "W" throttle key.

You can also fly decoupled, however dense atmosphere always slows down the ship, similarly to Earth atmosphere slowing down aircraft in real World.

One of the reasons of implementing cruise control in 3.5 is that with the new flight model you would have to press and hold an old "W" key while flying in atmosphere in the coupled mode, not only when leaving any planet in a large ship, like before.

I personally don't like it, but I already used to the cruise control -- however, it would be fair to mention that I've been testing this already for over a month in ETF; besides, I've been flying in decoupled for a long time, so if I don't want to use cruise control, I simply switch to decoupled. But I feel your pain; and I was one of Evocatis trying to bring the old "W" key behavior back.
 

Deroth

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I'm confused, and panicked.
I haven't played since the early days of 3.4 and didn't follow anything SC related apart from these forums, so now I'm kinda feeling like a fish outta water.

I've tried the 3.5 PTU yesterday, hopped into my 300i, with KB+M controls only, and I was really confused by the new throttle system. After some fumbling around I figured out that if I roll the mouse wheel I can set a top-speed-limiter (da fakk is dat?), and if I keep pushing WASD I can go in a direction at that speed as long as I push the button. If I don't push any buttons I come to a full stop.
WTF????
WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH CGI???
I really have to keep pushin W to "go forward" with my ship??
Seriously this is the new flight mechanic, or I'm just dumb and couldn't find the real "throttle" controls?

More importantly, do I have to keep pushing some button the same way if I'm using a joystick with a throttle slider?
I want to FLY my ships, not "walk" them... Am I screwed for good?
Step 1: Grab an alcoholic beverage of your choice
Step 2: Drink said beverage
Step 3: Repeat Steps 1 and 2 until you feel like a fish in water
Step 4: Try flying your 300i with the new flight model again

Thing I don't understand is that if I let off the throttle [W], why does my ship stop and not keep moving like Newtonian rules say it should? Is it actually firing forward thrusters to make me stop or?
If you're in coupled mode, yes. Switch to decoupled mode to see closer to Newtonian behavior.
 

FZD

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Nov 22, 2016
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I haven't tested 3.5 yet, but on paper I like the idea that I don't need to hold down Shift when trying to go places with Starfarer. If the implementation matches the understanding I got, I'm one happy panda...

Wait, I finally got an idea for what my TEST avatar should be.

TestPanda.png
 

Printimus

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I'm confused, and panicked.
I haven't played since the early days of 3.4 and didn't follow anything SC related apart from these forums, so now I'm kinda feeling like a fish outta water.

I've tried the 3.5 PTU yesterday, hopped into my 300i, with KB+M controls only, and I was really confused by the new throttle system. After some fumbling around I figured out that if I roll the mouse wheel I can set a top-speed-limiter (da fakk is dat?), and if I keep pushing WASD I can go in a direction at that speed as long as I push the button. If I don't push any buttons I come to a full stop.
WTF????
WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH CGI???
I really have to keep pushin W to "go forward" with my ship??
Seriously this is the new flight mechanic, or I'm just dumb and couldn't find the real "throttle" controls?

More importantly, do I have to keep pushing some button the same way if I'm using a joystick with a throttle slider?
I want to FLY my ships, not "walk" them... Am I screwed for good?
Hit C to set cruise control and then scroll your mouse wheel. Makes for a better cruise...
 

aftershock2100

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Alright, maybe I can help.
So W is "Strafe Forward" by default, and if you watch your thrusters, once you stop hitting W the front thrusters will start trying to decelerate you. Thats why you are stopping.
If you press cruise "C" by default, your ship will maintain its acceleration up to your throttle limit, controlled by mouse wheel. The green bar on the throttle indicates your SCM rated speed, essentially your "Optimum maneuverability" speed, so if you want to dogfight with max maneuvering constantly going forward, just set it to where the green line ends, hit c, and off you go.

If you want to rocket at high speed to joust, or cruise at high speed, then you are looking at that red bar you get when using your mouse wheel to set your speed limit really high. That fires the main thruster at ever higher capacity, overhwelming your maneuvering the higher you go. It means our ships can cruise at really high velocity without needing to constantly hold shift, and it doesnt cut back once we change direction. Overall, we get to move way faster constantly when we want too.

Precision flying: Instead of a precision mode, you just keep cruise control off, set your limit as low as you want, and use the wsad strafe default keybinds for super accurate movements.

Decoupled: this essentially turns off the maneuvering thrusters function of automatically countering your velocity when you stop hitting the button. You can hold your W for "Strafe forward" but when you let it go, you keep flying in that direction, just like old decoupled, full manual 'Newtonian movement.'

Not to say that coupled mode isnt Newtonian. With coupled mode on, when you stop hitting W its your front thrusters trying to slow you down. If they get damaged or are shut off, they will stop slowing you down, and when you release W this time, you dont stop.
 

Lorddarthvik

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Thanks to all for the explanations!
@Deroth
method applied, already soaked

@Bigtimes gfy
I'll read whats in a can of booze before I read a frikkin manual 😂


I'm not against the idea of having the ability to control the ship in a newtonian fassion, but I'd really like if the game stayed more true to the classic "airplane dogfight" style of space flight, especially when it comes to SQ42. That's the promise I was sold on, and was looking forward to ever since.

I know it might came out wrong, but I don't hate the new system at all! I think it can lead to some pretty crazy stunts once mastered.
I just had zero time to look into what was going on with the changes, and the rather huge leap in controls has left me kinda shocked and scared that CiG has done something stupid by dumbing down the controls to be the exact same in flight as in walking around.
After seeing how the system works, now I know they didn't do that, and all is well! It's just a new learning curve I wasn't expecting.


As a side note, back when the first concepts leaked, I was horrified when I saw what they done to my precious little 300i. I didn't much like the screeshots of the finished design either.
Now that I've seen it "in person", and flew it, I gotta say I'm okay with it. It looks fine.
Apart from the fake wood veneer in the cockpit. That's just disgusting lol
I hope there will be an option later to change that to something nicer. Even as a microtransaction a la EliteD. I'd pay an extra 2 bucks to turn it into some brushed aluminium or something lol
 

Bambooza

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Alright, maybe I can help.
So W is "Strafe Forward" by default, and if you watch your thrusters, once you stop hitting W the front thrusters will start trying to decelerate you. Thats why you are stopping.
If you press cruise "C" by default, your ship will maintain its acceleration up to your throttle limit, controlled by mouse wheel. The green bar on the throttle indicates your SCM rated speed, essentially your "Optimum maneuverability" speed, so if you want to dogfight with max maneuvering constantly going forward, just set it to where the green line ends, hit c, and off you go.

If you want to rocket at high speed to joust, or cruise at high speed, then you are looking at that red bar you get when using your mouse wheel to set your speed limit really high. That fires the main thruster at ever higher capacity, overhwelming your maneuvering the higher you go. It means our ships can cruise at really high velocity without needing to constantly hold shift, and it doesnt cut back once we change direction. Overall, we get to move way faster constantly when we want too.

Precision flying: Instead of a precision mode, you just keep cruise control off, set your limit as low as you want, and use the wsad strafe default keybinds for super accurate movements.

Decoupled: this essentially turns off the maneuvering thrusters function of automatically countering your velocity when you stop hitting the button. You can hold your W for "Strafe forward" but when you let it go, you keep flying in that direction, just like old decoupled, full manual 'Newtonian movement.'

Not to say that coupled mode isnt Newtonian. With coupled mode on, when you stop hitting W its your front thrusters trying to slow you down. If they get damaged or are shut off, they will stop slowing you down, and when you release W this time, you dont stop.

This is a great write up.

Decoupled mode is great for dog fighting, especially with dual sticks. Not so great for trying to land or maneuver to line up with a new asteroid to mine. I personally am really liking the new flight model controls. On take off from a planet side hanger i can slowly hover up until i am clear then roll the mouse wheel to max speed hit cruise and star to pull the nose up to create a nice upward arcing flight path.
 

Blind Owl

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Alright, maybe I can help.
So W is "Strafe Forward" by default, and if you watch your thrusters, once you stop hitting W the front thrusters will start trying to decelerate you. Thats why you are stopping.
If you press cruise "C" by default, your ship will maintain its acceleration up to your throttle limit, controlled by mouse wheel. The green bar on the throttle indicates your SCM rated speed, essentially your "Optimum maneuverability" speed, so if you want to dogfight with max maneuvering constantly going forward, just set it to where the green line ends, hit c, and off you go.

If you want to rocket at high speed to joust, or cruise at high speed, then you are looking at that red bar you get when using your mouse wheel to set your speed limit really high. That fires the main thruster at ever higher capacity, overhwelming your maneuvering the higher you go. It means our ships can cruise at really high velocity without needing to constantly hold shift, and it doesnt cut back once we change direction. Overall, we get to move way faster constantly when we want too.

Precision flying: Instead of a precision mode, you just keep cruise control off, set your limit as low as you want, and use the wsad strafe default keybinds for super accurate movements.

Decoupled: this essentially turns off the maneuvering thrusters function of automatically countering your velocity when you stop hitting the button. You can hold your W for "Strafe forward" but when you let it go, you keep flying in that direction, just like old decoupled, full manual 'Newtonian movement.'

Not to say that coupled mode isnt Newtonian. With coupled mode on, when you stop hitting W its your front thrusters trying to slow you down. If they get damaged or are shut off, they will stop slowing you down, and when you release W this time, you dont stop.
Thank you.
:o7::glorious::love:🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻🍻
 
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Bambooza

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but I'd really like if the game stayed more true to the classic "airplane dogfight" style of space flight,
Just hit cruise and not go into decoupled mode and it will feel very much like airplane dog fighting in space. Then just use your mouse wheel or if you have a joystick with throttle to control your forward speed.
 
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