Glide Mechanics

[StaticRadion]

Glide is also affected by the Gravity of the object you are approaching. I did several landings on Achenar 3 (6.9G) and it would toss you out of glide with a more narrow angle window than a 0.02G body.

So its based on Distance, Angle and Gravity metrics.

I plan to head to Achenar 3 tomorrow to see if I can figure out how to land by "the numbers". I know that just like super cruse and the 75% speed button at 6 sec there is going to be a universal distance from surface and entry angle. It probably will not be the fastest way to circle the planet in OC or the quickest approach and or entry angle, but it will work 100% of the time. That is what I am looking for, something I can lock into a type of muscle memory to use 90% of the time.

When I find it just like the 75% speed button I will be sharing it with everyone I talk to and hope the community spreads it along too. =)

[smartroad]

For instance, when I drop out of glide, and I'm heading towards a base to attack, my ship bobs all around, kind of like a sniper scope on a low-level player in many shooter games.

If there were wind, this would almost make sense. On an airless rock, it is kind of stupid.

It isn't wind, it is due to the thruster placements. When you are horizontal (the planet below you, the horizon in front) the thrusters are placed close to the edges/corners of the ship. This gives a vary stable platform with a low center of gravity. As you pitch down, the thrusters effectively get closer together and the ship starts to get a higher center of gravity. This leads to a very unstable load. The wobble is where the ship is trying to maintain height (using the retro thrusters I guess) and pulsing the manoeuvring thrusters to hold position.

Its a bit like taking a ruler, it is much easier to balance it when you lay it flat and your finger in the middle then it is to stand it up on its end. With the latter you have to move your hand much more to keep it upright.

[TorTorden]

I do not think there is a one way that works for all planets.

That would be really silly because of GRAVITY.
Just a minor change in gravity makes a big difference in how you need to approach the surface.
Basically 0.01-0.5G it's something you can almost ignore going up to something you can't stop considering.
Landing on achenar for instance is something you should take you to time with.

Another reason why I go out to almost 1Mm is cruising close is cruising slow.
Why not spend 5 seconds to go higher and travel to destination (like anothere surface Base) 10x faster.

[Nethaufer]

If the glide behaves anything like a proper glide, you have to keep it at a shallow enough angle so you don't stall out, which is the blue area of the indicator. You can angle down and back up, but you're going to lose some of your height and not get it back.

Considering we don't have any atmosphere to contend with it don't see why you would stall out.

It's mostly a game mechanic introduced last minute to bridge orbital cruise and actually being close enough to the planet to do stuff.
Blinking in the last 900Km like when dropping in on stations from cruise became very jarring when we already have a large visible surface to fixate on between cruise and regular flight.

Sure approaching close to surface could work. But I found you had not much room for error.
And that, with how hard it is to see where you are going at cruise speeds when close I just find it easier to go out far and then back in again.

That would normally be the case, but since it pulls you out of glide if your glide slope is too shallow, any altitude lost would be wasted as you can't angle back up again past the blue markers.

[TorTorden]

If the glide behaves anything like a proper glide, you have to keep it at a shallow enough angle so you don't stall out, which is the blue area of the indicator. You can angle down and back up, but you're going to lose some of your height and not get it back.

Considering we don't have any atmosphere to contend with it don't see why you would stall out.

It's mostly a game mechanic introduced last minute to bridge orbital cruise and actually being close enough to the planet to do stuff.
Blinking in the last 900Km like when dropping in on stations from cruise became very jarring when we already have a large visible surface to fixate on between cruise and regular flight.

Sure approaching close to surface could work. But I found you had not much room for error.
And that, with how hard it is to see where you are going at cruise speeds when close I just find it easier to go out far and then back in again.

That would normally be the case, but since it pulls you out of glide if your glide slope is too shallow, any altitude lost would be wasted as you can't angle back up again past the blue markers.

That could easily be considered a safety feature, going to fast to steep and your ship wouldn't be able to slow down before you pancake into it.
And going positive inclination basically say you want to go back up and you need thrusters for that since we have no wings to glide on and no atmosphere if we did.

Over all I throw the whole glide mechanic into the bin with all the other odd and weird mechanics.
Like mmlife in general I don't bother thinking about it too much.