Faster planetary descent ?

[TheTillinghast]

Is there a way to enter a planet atmosphere at higher speeds without bursting the ship ?
i hope there is a mod ora a quick fix

[Vice]

Ironically, just about as many players want larger planets and slower descents That said, you can use a technique to speed up the process:

- Boost power to shields +5, keep your speed around a level that doesn't drain your forward shield and use the augment control to keep it in the green as needed... but to not allow any of the other arrays to turn red either. This will let you enter atmospheres at significantly higher speeds.

[TheTillinghast]

i was hoping for a mod that completely removes the air friction..

[verbosity]

http://starwraith.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4600#p56414

[warsign]

Verb's technique is fast enough? LOL.

[Nigel_Strange]

I've used Verb's technique and it works pretty well for me. I only wish it were possible to jump out of atmo as easily as jumping in, but for some reason, the shield forward key doesn't work when jumping out.

My preferred method is to nose up and fall into atmo, however as soon as you hit atmo, you slow down considerably, and then you lose control of your ship.

I think I would prefer a kind of glide-path, so that as you hit atmo, your downard velocity is transferred to forward velocity by the action of the wings, like when the space shuttle comes down. You can nose up further to slow down more.

It would require larger planets.

However, if that could work in with more realistic aerodynamics (assuming you have the ship with the airfoil that can handle it) it would make the planetfall a lot more interesting.

[Marvin]

Originally posted by Nigel_Strange

However, if that could work in with more realistic aerodynamics (assuming you have the ship with the airfoil that can handle it) it would make the planetfall a lot more interesting.

So would explosion on impact when touching down outside normal landing parameters.

[verbosity]

Originally posted by Nigel_Strange
I've used Verb's technique and it works pretty well for me. I only wish it were possible to jump out of atmo as easily as jumping in,

it is

[berighteous]

Keep the docking tractor beam on when you're docked at a city, boost your shields, and f2 out. I've jumped into space from cities several times.

[Karin]

Isn't there also a way to basically hit the atmosphere like a brick, distributing the friction across almost all four shield arrays by keeping the bottom of your ship angled towards the planet while using a vertical decent profile?

In other words, aim towards the planet, get up to a decent speed (2000+), turn off automatic inertia thrusters then aim towards the planet horizon before you hit the atmosphere. You have to watch your shields closely, and you bleed off a fair bit of speed I think, but iirc you can get down a ways before you have to switch to a better equilibrated technique like the one Vice first mentions.

I could be mistaken in how it works (if it works, even), and I've died a lot trying, hehe.

FWIW, I do enjoy the long descents, seeing canyons below, mountains pass by, etc

EDIT: Yeah, like Nigel_Strange says. I didn't read his post closely enough the first time

[Edited on 8-27-2009 by Karin]

[verbosity]

Originally posted by KarinIn other words, aim towards the planet, get up to a decent speed (2000+), turn off automatic inertia thrusters then aim towards the planet horizon before you hit the atmosphere. You have to watch your shields closely, and you bleed off a fair bit of speed I think, but iirc you can get down a ways before you have to switch to a better equilibrated technique like the one Vice first mentions.

I could be mistaken in how it works (if it works, even), and I've died a lot trying, hehe.

FWIW, I do enjoy the long descents, seeing canyons below, mountains pass by, etc

yup. try to drop 'straight down' to minimise the distance you have to travel, you can try it on inertial and dropping with the bottom of the ship facing the city ( to help spread the damage over the shields), though I prefer facing the city head on with ids, uses more fuel but you have more control.

In either case my usual speed in such a drop is circa 1200, though I'm sure higher speeds are possible.

This is best done in a big ship ( Levi is best ), with max shields, and preference given to the wings over other systems.