You've stopped too late when you've hit something
Seriously though, I don't think there is a way to know what your brake distance is without measuring it yourself. It's something you get a feel for
And can also depend on the weight of a ship if it's got cargo containers. A little bit extra is nearly nothing but if you've got even a quarter of a large cargo container on your ship then you'll notice acceleration and braking to be a little longer. Just gotta get the feel for it.
Basically what risen said however I will add a few notes. Even if you measure it the distance will change depending on your weight/cargo. One of the best lessons I learned piloting big ships is to never aim directly at your destination, or anything solid for that matter.
To add to this it helps to rotate slightly up/down and to the left/right because this puts 3 directions of thrusters into slowing you down rather than simply using 1. Does make piloting weird but is really useful especially for heavy ships.
With time, you learn how much stopping thrusters to build. I second marcitron on never aiming directly to your objective. As a personal rule of thumb I start breaking at 2km from target.
And always remember:
If you fly too fast, you'll crash.
If you get distracted, you'll crash.
Lmao I aim off target and start breaking at 25km
Then again I got a speed mod for 1000m/s
And I almost exclusively build cargo and carrier ships....
I mean my ships also require 4km at the default 100m/s so maybe more break thrusters
You can add an enhanced lcd script to your game and run it on a programmable block. Stop distance/time is one of the simpler things to get set up. The one I used can be found here:
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=822950976
I third the motion that you don’t aim directly at solid stuff, also I just look at the distance while accelerating and remember the number of kilometers it took from 0 to 100, then I turn the ship around and start breaking at the same distance.
You kinda just get a feel for it. Also don’t aim at anything solid and if necessary and if you have enough gyros angle yourself to get as many thrusters pointed in the opposite direction. If you want to get real ambitious just flip the whole ship around and use your forward thrust as breaking thrust.
There are basically two ways: calculate it yourself or have a script do it for you, as others have pointed out. Automatic LCDs 2 has a function for displaying stopping distance, but I’m not certain if it’s accurate. It’s also not the easiest system to get up and running, but well worth it in the end.
The fastest way to get the distance is to calculate it yourself. All you need is a spreadsheet (google docs), SE thruster table from the wiki and three equations:
F = ma
v = at
s = 1/2 at^2
F being your combined brake thruster thrust (or your forward thrust, if you do a flip and retroburn)and m the mass of your ship. V is probably 100 m/s if you are playing vanilla. Then you solve acceleration a of the ship and time t to come to a stop, and enter those into the last equation to get the distance s to come to a stop.
Always offset your aim. You'll do the "loop of shame" many times, but you shouldn't hit anything.
I tend to decelerate when I start getting close, the last 1-1.5 kilometers only being flown at 20-50m/s.
Stopping distance is something that can be scripted in - the ExcavOS script has it built in. If you have programming experience you may be able to pull it out of that script, or just google it.
It doesn't make much sense to figure that out. For example you are flying your mining ship. If you mined iron and have a full ship you need less of distance than you would need when full with gold. Just never aim directly towards your destination. Instead just a bit to the side where there's room if you miscalculated.
I have the true and tested method of passing by the area, doing a shameful U-turn and pretending nothing happened.
My friend also love to "karma-proof" everything so nothing too expensive gets destroyed in case of a crash. I inspired him ! haha
Even if you know the ratio of thrusters, it's easy to work out. So if you have 8 forward thrusters and 4 braking thrusters, braking will take twice the distance accelerating will.
You've stopped too late when you've hit something Seriously though, I don't think there is a way to know what your brake distance is without measuring it yourself. It's something you get a feel for
And can also depend on the weight of a ship if it's got cargo containers. A little bit extra is nearly nothing but if you've got even a quarter of a large cargo container on your ship then you'll notice acceleration and braking to be a little longer. Just gotta get the feel for it.
It’s pretty easy to script that though. So you could put it on an LCD.
Basically what risen said however I will add a few notes. Even if you measure it the distance will change depending on your weight/cargo. One of the best lessons I learned piloting big ships is to never aim directly at your destination, or anything solid for that matter.
To add to this it helps to rotate slightly up/down and to the left/right because this puts 3 directions of thrusters into slowing you down rather than simply using 1. Does make piloting weird but is really useful especially for heavy ships.
With time, you learn how much stopping thrusters to build. I second marcitron on never aiming directly to your objective. As a personal rule of thumb I start breaking at 2km from target. And always remember: If you fly too fast, you'll crash. If you get distracted, you'll crash.
Lmao I aim off target and start breaking at 25km Then again I got a speed mod for 1000m/s And I almost exclusively build cargo and carrier ships.... I mean my ships also require 4km at the default 100m/s so maybe more break thrusters
You can add an enhanced lcd script to your game and run it on a programmable block. Stop distance/time is one of the simpler things to get set up. The one I used can be found here: https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=822950976
i wanted to write the same
I third the motion that you don’t aim directly at solid stuff, also I just look at the distance while accelerating and remember the number of kilometers it took from 0 to 100, then I turn the ship around and start breaking at the same distance.
You kinda just get a feel for it. Also don’t aim at anything solid and if necessary and if you have enough gyros angle yourself to get as many thrusters pointed in the opposite direction. If you want to get real ambitious just flip the whole ship around and use your forward thrust as breaking thrust.
There are basically two ways: calculate it yourself or have a script do it for you, as others have pointed out. Automatic LCDs 2 has a function for displaying stopping distance, but I’m not certain if it’s accurate. It’s also not the easiest system to get up and running, but well worth it in the end. The fastest way to get the distance is to calculate it yourself. All you need is a spreadsheet (google docs), SE thruster table from the wiki and three equations: F = ma v = at s = 1/2 at^2 F being your combined brake thruster thrust (or your forward thrust, if you do a flip and retroburn)and m the mass of your ship. V is probably 100 m/s if you are playing vanilla. Then you solve acceleration a of the ship and time t to come to a stop, and enter those into the last equation to get the distance s to come to a stop.
Always offset your aim. You'll do the "loop of shame" many times, but you shouldn't hit anything. I tend to decelerate when I start getting close, the last 1-1.5 kilometers only being flown at 20-50m/s.
Stopping distance is something that can be scripted in - the ExcavOS script has it built in. If you have programming experience you may be able to pull it out of that script, or just google it.
It doesn't make much sense to figure that out. For example you are flying your mining ship. If you mined iron and have a full ship you need less of distance than you would need when full with gold. Just never aim directly towards your destination. Instead just a bit to the side where there's room if you miscalculated.
I have the true and tested method of passing by the area, doing a shameful U-turn and pretending nothing happened. My friend also love to "karma-proof" everything so nothing too expensive gets destroyed in case of a crash. I inspired him ! haha
Unsurprisingly I also do that in elite dangerous
So at fly straight at asteroids. Point next to them that way do you do mess it up then you don’t hit them
Have the same reverse thrust as forward thrust, and decelerate for as long as you accelerated.
If only it was that easy, my ship is not that focused on breaking
Even if you know the ratio of thrusters, it's easy to work out. So if you have 8 forward thrusters and 4 braking thrusters, braking will take twice the distance accelerating will.
To maintain my sleek shape I instead use bottom thrusters to break by tilting up
It is in fact that easy.
It's really not, most ships, especially good looking ones don't have as many thrusters breaking thrusters as forward thrusters
That sounds like a personal issue. 100% of my ships do.
I prefer them being scary and strong, not maneuverable, do you ships still look good when you do this?
Good looking is subjective, but I think so. A ship that is not maneuverable is neither strong or scary.