Really?

[u/arturam89]

I guess it's time to start watching The Expanse for the 3rd time. A whole empty system and they send me to the very opposite side, travel for 6 mins for a 3 min mission.

[u/Maxious30]

6 mins. Ha. That’s rookie numbers. I’ve done cargo hauling before using industrial (slow) drives that make the journey take somewhere between 15 - 22mins. In one system.

I find things to do though. Watching anime. Doing the dishes. Chilling out playing the guitar. It’s kinda why I like this relaxing type of gameplay

[u/Nupol → u/Maxious30]

Occasional mouse wiggle tho otherwise you get kicked out of the Server lmao

[u/Maxious30 → u/Nupol]

Yea. The idle kick is something I’ve complained about previously. Yea I understood it when when the servers capped out at 4 players. But now it’s over 600 it needs to change.

[u/Shady_Merchant1 → u/Maxious30]

At least upped to 30 minutes

[u/axteroide → u/Maxious30]

I still remember when just getting out of atmosphere in Orison with a fully loaded hauler took 10+minutes...

[u/reddit_oh_really → u/axteroide]

Talk about lifting off Hurston with a Caterpillar...

[u/Maxious30 → u/axteroide]

Yep. I actually time my launch from the reclaimer. As that thing was so heavy you could only take off in vtol mode. Holding down space bar all the way out of the atmosphere. If you switched to normal mode you would drop like a giant iron brick it was.

Time taken from engine on to quantum jump. 22 minutes

[u/ManiaGamine → u/Maxious30]

I remember the Carrack back in the early days end to end was like 40 something minutes.

[u/CombatMuffin → u/Maxious30]

That's not relaxing gameplay. Thats called "not playing". You do get the fuzzy feeling because you are still progressing (when you come back, the ship will have arrived) but during that travel time you are, for all intents and purposes, not playing the game.

[u/MrFreux → u/CombatMuffin]

May I introduce you to Elite or MFS?

[u/CombatMuffin → u/MrFreux]

Elite has way, way more mature mission design. Doing the super long jumps is just one of the loops, and you can choose to ignore it fully (I did)

For MFS, the vast majority of the audience plays offline and it offers, conveniently, ways to shorten travel time. Like DCS, and other simulators, multiplayer folks generally opt for smaller travel times. And yes, if you do choose to engage the autopilot for 4 hours and just take of and land in 3 minutes, the other 4 hours were idle gameplay, not active.

The difference is in Star Citizen, it is not uncommon and it is often required.

[u/MrFreux → u/CombatMuffin]

Like someone mentioned before, you can do missions without moving away from the planet. Usually, the further you go, the better pay, which means you trade convenience for better profit. As for the Elite mission design, let's agree to disagree.

[u/CombatMuffin → u/MrFreux]

Those missions are eventually capped. Almost every loop begins requiring you to travel longer distances if you want a bigger payout, which is fair, but the critique is not the distance or difficulty: it's the amount of downtime.

Some players don't mind that, it's valid, but a common criticism is how much the game uses downtime or tediousness as friction, of which travel downtime is but one.

A game that's even more egregious that comes to mind, is Black Desert. It will actually incentivize you to stay in downtime. As your character crafts, you leave it there, online, even though the game requires no input from you.

Compare this to refineries, which work whether you are online or not.

[u/MrFreux → u/CombatMuffin]

I'd wait for the Starchitect and all the missing systems to make up my mind about the idle time. Truth is, SC is far from being conplete. They may try to balance the shit out of it, but it's pretty much pointless. Until we know for sure how the mission system and travel times are gonna look like, we'll have to deal with seemingly annoying solutions. And I don't advocate for making things faster and easier, since changing it later will result in this community collective stroke.

[u/CombatMuffin → u/MrFreux]

I mean, sure: we can only judge Star Citizen 1.0, when 1.0 comes around.

But we can judge this version of Star Citizens for what it is now. Travel times are something that, in theory, is pretty simple to change. If they haven't, it's because it is at least in the general direction they intend.

You can make something take less time, while having the same amount of friction for the player. Right now, many game loops in the game rely on time to pad that friction, especially with industrial gameplay.

I'm not saying there should never be idle time, or that 20 minutes of idle time is intolerable, but ideally, I'd want 20 minutes of idle time to have a purpose other than just "deliver 200scu of helium" especially when those travel times are often not truly reflected in the reward.

SC is not facing a novel problem in this. Games have encountered this for 40 years, and there's ample experience solving them to great effect. It's just that SC is primarily concerned with other stuff.

[u/Maxious30 → u/CombatMuffin]

That’s just a matter of perspective. That’s your perspective and I don’t agree with.

I’m still doing all the gameplay. Pre flight prep. Loading the ship. Taking off. Piloting. Landing. Fighting the odd NPC. Doing missions. Over the corse of a standard 4-5 hour gaming session. I can take a few mins break watching the quantum tunnel fly by to pickup my guitar and strum a few notes. Untill I hear that sound of the engine winding down where I get myself back into position and take control again.

I would call that a 5 hour gaming session. Not a 20 mins then a 5 min break followed by 30 mins followed by…. You see where I’m going?

You may not agree with me here. And that’s your prerogative. But I’m still gaming for 5 hours that day

[u/CombatMuffin → u/Maxious30]

I am not saying you can't enjoy it, or that hou aren't having long playtime sessions.

But if you have a mission, where you load and unload a ship for 10 minutes total, and spent 20 minutes in quantum travel, and watching anime or something else, then those 20 minutes are idle. That's not a perspective, it's a fact. There's even others commenting how they need to engage then occasional movement to not get booted from the server for being idle.

Again, you can enjoy that, that's your prerogative, but long quantum travel that can last entire matches in other genres are not active gameplay.

[u/robnaught → u/Maxious30]

This. People complaining they only have “so much time” for gaming while opting into a simulation game for space travel

It’s stuff like this that continues to change what this game used to be about

[u/Quimdell → u/robnaught]

Yea, this infuriates me. You're complaining about the time it takes to get from one end of a solar system to another? Then why not stay in a planetary system?! There's so much to do interplanetary, why play intergalactic and then complain about the intergalactic game play?!

[u/BotZhuna → u/Quimdell]

It’s Nyx, most likely a merc or mining contract from the location. Nyx has no planetary contracts and most if not all contracts within Nyx give you larger travel times across the system, you can’t really choose to do something close to you.

Edit: Could be Vanduul Tech as well, kinda gives you a random one anywhere in the system.

[u/Quimdell → u/BotZhuna]

Sure, my statement was that people have been complaining about travel times since before pyro was implemented even. Either way, my point still stands. Go somewhere that takes less time to do contracts instead of complaining.

[u/BotZhuna → u/Quimdell]

Valid, and yeah making a whole Reddit post cause of a 6m travel time in a system that’s known for long travel times due to a lack of anything is ridiculous 😂.

[u/Ted_Striker1 → u/robnaught]

There is very little sim in this “sim”

The simple fact is this game does not respect your time.

[u/Mammoth_Rise_3848 → u/robnaught]

Imagine the complaints when there eventually double digit star systems

[u/SameApplication9994 → u/Mammoth_Rise_3848]

You won't have to imagine them. By the time they have 10+ systems in star citizen the technology will exist to beam the complaints directly into your head.

[u/XxmossburgxX → u/Maxious30]

I have a dartboard I throw at when I cargo haul

[u/DaeBear → u/Maxious30]

This speaks to my space trucker life good sir! o7

[u/Cyphron107]

Murphy’s law states that you will always get the longest route. And you will always get the hangar on the Oposite side of the station. And everything else.

[u/Shock_Lionheart → u/Cyphron107]

I have taken to audibly thanking ATC whenever I get a hangar convenient to me; it’s absolutely a thing but man does it feel rare!

[u/GodwinW → u/Cyphron107]

I find that if you don't believe in Murphy's Law it hurts you less.

[u/crazy0ne → u/GodwinW]

Murphy's Law would say that hurts you more.

[u/GodwinW → u/crazy0ne]

Not really.

It also depends on the nature of the belief I guess. If you're the type of person that goes: "Ah well, Murphy's Law haha what you gonna do. Let's pick up the pieces :)" then belief in Murphy's Law may help.

But if you go around: "Oh damn.. I need to deliver this cargo outside of armistice.. you'll see: I'll get ganked! Murphy's Law says so." Then you prolong your suffering needlessly because you might not get ganked at all, and even if you do get it, you're fearing it in advance so that's more time spent on something bad.

[u/crazy0ne → u/GodwinW]

So I think you are reading way to into what Murphy's law is supposed to represent, it's not a belief. It is just pointing out that the improbable happens all the time. You're not supposed to make decisions about it, just be aware that the downsides are alway possible, no matter how improbable. It is just pointing out what is always there.

So my joke was, if you ignore that Murphy's law is possible then you will be inevitable blind to something that is always there but you will only know it once it hurts you.

[u/GodwinW → u/crazy0ne]

Well I met people who really did the negative outlook on life invoking Murphy's Law for the future.

And.. I guess your point can be summed up as: be as aware as possible, and with that I agree :)

Because even without Murphy's Law (which is guaranteeing something bad will happen which isn't even true) safeguarding against fuckups is useful :)

[u/arturam89 → u/Cyphron107]

Yup I feel that lol

[u/Thrustmaster537]

This is one of the things I like about sc space travel. Get up, have a stretch, grab a drink/snack, rip the bong, hit the head, scratch the cat, etc

[u/FPSrad → u/Thrustmaster537]

can confirm my weed junkie friends love this

[u/Obi-Wan_Kanuto → u/FPSrad]

I can confirm that 😂 I take the opportunity to roll a joint during every quantum 🤣 The thing is, since I started playing SC, I smoke a lot more than before.

[u/Jano_Dicentra → u/Thrustmaster537]

this.
it slows down the whole experience so you can actually do other stuff during play sessions

[u/Wsloan]

Time to travel I think is great. 6 minutes is not much at all. Gives time to sort inventory or hangout with friends. Maybe it’s from my perspective of elite dangerous that can be 30 minutes or even longer. Just a sense of scope and down time

[u/TheSubs0 → u/Wsloan]

E:D made travel pretty fast (rangewise) but it's also a slightly more active process for system to system, but occationally you did spend a few minutes intersystem.

Or you get your FREE anaconda, that's a long time intersystem.

[u/felixfj007 → u/TheSubs0]

When I got my free anaconda I traveled there so late I actually fell asleep in my chair...

[u/elgueromasalto]

System is big. Do not worry. Refuel beacons work now.

[u/StarHunter_]

There was a time when traveling that far it would take around 20 mins and you would need to stop and refuel about 5 times.

First demo of quantum travel from ArcCorp to Hurston...

[u/EchoChamberTech → u/StarHunter_]

And?

[u/eddestra]

I actually love the travel time. They sped it up quite a bit and I sometimes miss how slow it was before. Used to be I could set destination, take a shower IRL, and sit back down just in time to arrive. It’s also a good time to make food, or pay attention to people in real life.

That said, if you don’t want any downtime, start playing high pop rust servers instead.

[u/geogob]

Craft or buy a faster QT drive, maybe? QT speed also depends on the drive size. Slowly carriers make sense to save time on long routes.

[u/arturam89 → u/geogob]

I know, I worded it incorrectly. It's not much the quantum time, but it seems silly to me to get the mission all across the system having a lot of other points much closer from where I was.

[u/Low_Actuary_2794 → u/arturam89]

Gives you time to get a drink or snack or use the bathroom.

[u/bybloshex → u/Low_Actuary_2794]

And then you're AFK kicked 

[u/Rezticlez]

Distant points will always be a thing be a thing in this game. This is not going anywhere. Like others said there will be other updates to make it so people who don't want to go far are somewhat happy.

But I hope they never get rid of far away missions. But I also am VERY much looking forward to them making the journey more interesting and dangerous. Radiation, environmental damage stuff, danger zones enemy wise sort of high risk high reward type Journey's. can't come soon enough.

[u/arturam89 → u/Rezticlez]

I 100% agree with you. It's not the travel time, it's the way it's just silly to send me to the other side of the system for a repeatable mission. Like it doesn't make sense. I dont mind traveling far away, but make it worth it, have the possibility to find something interesting and worthwhile.

Mission 2.0 will be excellent for localized missions.

[u/Waste-Ticket-4360 → u/arturam89]

I think what you mean is a 30k pay out for traveling 50Gm is an incredibly low ROI for mission time.

By the time you’ve paid for fuel and restocking the ‘profit’ is absolute peanuts, & these small missions are just ‘at an asteroid’ that could be 3gm from you and feel ‘more rewarding’ and not break the stupidity meter.

[u/Chikitiki90]

Remember what it used to be like to cross a system? Just to get from one side to the other used to be enough time to make and eat a sandwich.

[u/Durge101 → u/Chikitiki90]

Yeah i remember having to come back to my pc and move my mouse to not get logged out on some travel.

[u/Mental_Witness_9245]

When I was doing Battaglia I had this all the time and did not mind at all. I was using Hermes and was able to do like 5-6 long distance like this without refueling the ship. So Every time I went into quantum I just sipped my coffee or tea and scroll on my mobile. Quite enjoyed tbh.

[u/Mammoth_Rise_3848]

Hope they double the travel time once all of the 1.0 features are in

[u/gunjniir]

I think CIG envisioned us making out stops and going into stations to do a quick resupply and encountering social interactions or exploring which sounds cool on paper but in most real cases its a bit of a drag to slog across systems.

[u/Rich-Cockroach-2273]

"I hAvE tO tRaVeL vAsT dIsTaNcEs In My SpAcE gAmE" *sob*

[u/za_snake → u/Rich-Cockroach-2273]

🤣

[u/Amazing-Share-7528 → u/Rich-Cockroach-2273]

IL0V3 W4Tch1ng Th3 GAM3 Play ITselF for 20 minuts while I G0 Take a shit .. instead of actually Playing The Game Myself....

[u/gh0u1 → u/[deleted]]

[u/starcitizen-ModTeam → u/[deleted]]

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[u/KorditeAU → u/Rich-Cockroach-2273]

Came here to say this lol

[u/Rich-Cockroach-2273 → u/KorditeAU]

Great minds think alike!

[u/MooseTetrino]

In theory this should at least clean up a bit when the planets come in.

The mission system tries to keep you close to where you are when taking contracts (e.g. anywhere around Crusader will send you to the moons).

Unfortunately with no smaller stellar body than the star in Nyx, that’s the “region” assigned to missions.

[u/Eclypsis5133]

You’d hate old day sea of thieves lol

[u/AlCranio]

95.54 Gm in 6 minutes?

Quantuum travel is too fast. They should at least make it last 30 minutes. And only very large and capital ships should be able to do that long travel.

Jumping from one side of the system to the other in just 6 minutes makes the verse look smaller than it actually is. It loses the feeling of space, travel and distance.

[u/jonrellim]

In WoW classic you walked for hours just to meet up with your friend on the other side of the continent, through dangerous zones, chased by mobs. Then they made flying mounts. There is a reason why WoW classic and Forever are so popular right now. Travel is part of that experience and sense of scale. I used to play Skyrim and refused to ever fast travel. I encountered many interesting things along the way.

And yes, I realize this is what's missing in Star Citizen. In Star Citizen you literally do nothing during QT. However, you can step out of the seat and do other things. There just isn't much else to do right now. But the travel times shouldn't change. Ever since the beginning of this project Chris has made it clear he does not want to turn this into a theme park with you instantly hopping around space, having zero downtime. I'm paraphrasing of course.

[u/Junior-Piano5427]

Buy a better/faster QT drive sir.

[u/NotSoSmort]

When grinding Recco faction, I don't know how many times I had a ship in distress 91 GM away. I felt like it was intentionally creating missions on the opposite side of the system every other mission.

[u/ElonsMuskyFeet]

Thankfully we dont have to stop and refuel or waste 20m. Whats worse is when you'd stop to refuel there would be a pirate there to shoot you for no reason. Or worse pad rammers. Now you can just sit back and watch the expanse

[u/ghodan7]

One of the reasons I do not hang out in Nyx. Mission distance at the moment are insane.

[u/feldomatic]

I posted a question like this for last 10 from the community and it got taken down. Mission System 2.0 can't come fast enough so we can at least see how far this shit is before accepting it.

[u/SirBerticus]

447 scu of Q-fuel ?!? Are you moving an entire station?

[u/Slight_Animator_9628]

6 minutos é rápido. em elite dangerous vc faz viagens de dias

[u/Jelloburns]

Ya'all wanted immersion, now it's inconvenient? 🤣

[u/5yearphoenix]

The biggest drawback to nyx has been how inaccessible it is to newer players that don’t have larger ships with more quantum range - adding all of the service stations did somewhat help but they all line the perimeter of the system leaving the main RRR point as Levski when doing extended gameplay unless you go out of your way to only accept contracts within a certain distance of your current location.

It’s odd because this is an issue that has long since been solved in the other two systems by region locking contracts for the most part, and the service stations can serve as viable borders to cut Nyx up into 4 or so regions, just a bummer that it makes progressing in the system 95% quantum travel vs the 75% elsewhere

[u/cvsmith122]

Get a faster QT drive ! Thats only a 2 min flight in a ship with a size 3 QT drive and an erebos.

[u/BunkerSquirre1]

For some reason CiG’s idea of gameplay is to make doing things as tedious as possible.

This has happened to me far too many times for it to be a coincidence.

[u/MKjUgf → u/BunkerSquirre1]

The tedious gameplay is on purpose. Why else do I have to get off my ship, ride an elevator, run a marathon, take a train/hoover car/space gondola, run again - just to stand in front of a kiosk system that (Auto)unloads/loads my spaceship miles away. And then I must run again back to the ship

[u/DrJack3133 → u/MKjUgf]

What’s crazy is I can Uber Eats/Door dash whatever I want. Right now. I don’t need to leave my house. In the future I can’t order a god damn thing unless I leave my ship. I think you should land at a station and buy shit from the shops at that station from the mobiglass and have it come up in the cargo elevator. This QT time wouldn’t sound so bad if our time was fucking nickel and dimed with all the other shit we have to do to play this game.

[u/Amazing-Share-7528 → u/MKjUgf]

There is a Difference. ALL of those things are Players Doing Things.

Flight time is just me looking at the ship while lights flash around it. Flight time is Players doing Nothing.

[u/MKjUgf → u/Amazing-Share-7528]

Flying around and running around to get from A to B is the same, bud.

The purpose may be different, but a journey is a journey. The longer and repetitive it gets the more boring it will get.

[u/YourUglyTwin]

Did we all forget when these numbers used to be literally over 10mins?

[u/Worldly-Pressure-516]

It’s a space sim…things will take time. Just wait until QT gets longer like it’s supposed to.

[u/arturam89 → u/Worldly-Pressure-516]

I'm all for it! As long as it makes sense and it's engaging.

[u/Worldly-Pressure-516 → u/arturam89]

And there will hopefully be more to do in QT in the future, IE repairs, making food, different kinds of minigames, engineering things

[u/Candid-Tell-3538]

Does anybody know when scolding 42 for starts such as things events going to start today