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Major Klutz's Guide to High Gravity Landings
^Very
This is my attempt to consolidate everything I have learned about landing in high gravity, including thruster and flight assist behavior in high gravity.
If you've never tried landing on a high g planet before, or if you have tried but it didn't go well, you may find some useful tips here and some explanations for why the ship behaves the way it does in high g.
Much of this is applicable to any planetary landing regardless of gravity.
Follow Links for video examples and demonstrations time-coded to the subject.
Please leave a comment on the Frontier forum thread if you have any questions, notice any mistakes, or if anything isn't clear enough.
Video #1 https://youtu.be/MIWkU5xQlVc , Video #2 https://youtu.be/0G8Tsg1Lo38
High Gravity Video Play List, https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAiQlEK3JoEt8w2kOzeIxSGrlQRNJnkeB
A couple of Very High Gravity planets for you to practice landing on are ...
HD 148937 3, AKA "Strong G" which is 9.8g and Kyloalks DL-Y g17 4, AKA "The Mighty" which is 9.9g
Phroi Bluae IR-W f1-1530 AB 1, AKA "Newton's Necropolis" at 10.66g
Kyloall CL-Y g1518 D 1 AKA "Lithobreaker" at 11.01g
Update: The new record holder is Hypiae Aurb AA-A g588 A 1 at 11.6g
Thruster acceleration vs gravitational acceleration and thruster overcharging
In order to overcome gravity, the acceleration of your thrusters must be greater than the acceleration of gravity.
Your maneuvering thrusters, left, right, up, down and reverse, don't have the same performance as your main forward thrusters. For example, on an Anaconda with A7 thrusters, in zero G, forward thrusters have an acceleration of ~23m/s2 (~2.3G) but all other maneuvering thrusters have an acceleration of ~11.5m/s2 (~1.2G).
Which means that if the local gravity is greater than ~1.2G, you should be unable to take off or maintain altitude with the vertical thrusters.
To overcome this, the game “cheats” and overcharges the vertical (up) thrusters and the main forward thrusters so that they always have 5m/s2 over whatever the gravity is.
This doesn't apply to other maneuvering thrusters. Your lateral, reverse and down thrusters don't get overcharged, so they cannot hold your ship up in high gravity.
This is why you can always land and take off from any planet, no matter what thrusters you have or how strong the gravity is, but you can't maintain altitude when you roll sideways.
See this forum thread for details.
Flight Assist Behavior in High Gravity
It seems to me that flight assist simply does not alter it's behavior in high gravity and always acts as if it's in zero G.
I've done testing in high G with a few different ships and flight assist will always use reverse thrusters to slow you down, even if gravity is slowing you down faster.
Thrusters take time to ramp up to speed, so there is a lag time for them to ramp back up if they are disengaged for even a split second.
Take a look at these external view videos to better understand how thrusters behave, in a slow Anaconda and a fast courier.
Binary thruster control vs analog control.
If you use the keyboard or a hat switch to control thrusters, they are either on full or completely off. This can cause problems in high G. Flight assist lags ramping up thrusters and by the time they ramp up to overcharge, you're already falling very fast.
If you have a spare analog axis, you can use that to control your vertical thrusters, so you can incrementally adjust the throttle of your up/down thrusters. This allows you to thrust up slowly or gradually reduce upward thrust in order to descend slowly at a steady rate.
See this forum thread for details on mapping an analog control to your vertical thrusters and this video for instructions.
Not everyone has a hotas or controller that is capable of this and it's not necessary in order to land in high gravity but it really helps. With only on/off control, you have to land without using vertical thruster controls at all, which is not as hard as it sounds.
I don't use, and don't recommend using the quick FA off method of landing the last few meters. There is an easier and safer way to do it.
I almost never fly with FA off, so I can't offer any tips for flying in High G without flight assist. If you are the type of pilot who normally flies with FA off, my recommendation is to use FA in high gravity situations. A mistake of even a split second too much or too little thrust can cause you to land hard.
That said, I have done some testing in moderate gravity and can confirm that the overcharging effect still happens with FA off. Landing with FA off has been done if you are inclined to try.
I'll be referring to these display readings throughout this guide. Hopefully you already know what all of the readouts are for, but just in case I use different names for them than you do, here are the key instruments we'll be paying close attention to.
Vertical Speed: This indicates how fast you are descending (or falling). Always keep a close eye on this in high gravity.
The further the graph extends from the middle line, the faster you are moving in that direction
Pitch: This indicates how the ship is tilted with respect to gravity, nose down/up or roll sideways.
Altitude: This tells you how high you are from the ground directly beneath you. This can change as you fly over hills or craters, even if your ship is not descending or climbing.
Gravity: The current gravitational strength. This is affected by altitude and will increase as you descend.
Speed: This tells you your absolute speed in whatever direction you are moving. Reading is in meters per second.
Throttle: Your forward or reverse throttle position.
Coordinates: Your current Latitude and Longitude.
Heading: What direction you are facing.
See Video ... https://youtu.be/MIWkU5xQlVc
1. You can't use binary (on/off) vertical thruster controls in very high gravity or you'll fall out of the sky. For reasons related to flight assist and thruster overcharging which I will demonstrate in this video, a quick tap on down thrusters will result in an uncontrollable drop at high speed and even upward thrust will cause you to lose a lot of altitude when it's disengaged. You can use analog control, but throttle adjustments have to be made very gradually.
2. Keep the ship level. Always use yaw control to turn. You can't roll or bank in very high gravity or you'll fall out of the sky. As mentioned above, thruster overcharging doesn't apply to lateral thrusters, so they can't hold you up. If you turn sideways, you'll lose altitude fast.
3. Always watch your vertical speed. Speed is momentum and it takes a long time to slow down once you start moving.
4. Don't be in a hurry. Go slow and watch your speed.
Approach is no different than any other planet. For new players I recommend approach and orbital cruise at 50% throttle. You can usually approach planets at up to 75% throttle, but when you get to orbital cruise range, 75% can be too fast and can result in an emergency drop and hull damage. It's better to go slow and take your time.
When you reach orbital cruise altitude, your HUD will display your pitch angle. As with all planetary landings, you need to keep your approach angle below 60 degrees or out of the red zone. I recommend from 45 to 55 degrees. Any steeper and you'll force an emergency drop from super cruise which will cause hull damage.
Your pitch angle is shown with respect to the ground directly underneath you, so it can change as you approach, especially on smaller planets, adjust as necessary.
I recommend zeroing your throttle just before or just after you drop.
As you exit glide, pull up your nose to level out. If you are nose down at full throttle when you exit glide, you will continue at that downward speed. If you level out just before you exit glide, your downward momentum will be zeroed.
You may want to divert power to shields at this time to minimize any damage from a hard landing.
Keep your throttle zeroed and pitch your nose down slightly to descend, no more than 10 degrees. You will start to pick up speed quickly and you can end up going faster than is otherwise possible. So keep an eye on your forward and vertical speed. Modulate your speed by leveling out so flight assist can slow you back down.
When you get close to the ground, you'll want to pick a landing zone, or at least narrow it down to a general area. Don't forget to lower your landing gear at round 150m. Be sure your landing area is clear of obstacles. Even a slow descent at 1m/s can take out your shields if you land on a rock.
Descending the last 100 meters or so using analog thruster control is preferred since you can find a good landing spot and then drop straight down over it at a slow controlled rate. Gradually decrease your downward speed by 1m/s for every 10 meters high so that at 10 meters you're descending at 1m/s.
If this is not an option for you, you'll need to continue descending as before by pitching nose down at a shallow angle and modulating your speed by leveling out. Watch your forward and vertical speed. When you get to just a few meters above the ground, level out and slow to a hover. Use your lateral or forward/reverse thrusters to locate a landing spot and map out how much area you have to work with. Then, nose down just a couple of degrees and use a just a little forward throttle to go the last few meters until you touch down.
Now you're on the surface. What now? If you leave in an SRV, keep in mind that the autopilot is terrible at landing in high gravity. I have recalled my ship and watched in terror as it plummeted to a very hard landing. So I recommend leaving your ship on the ground if you can.
That said, my ship did not actually take any damage from that hard landing, so either autopilot is incapable of damaging your ship or my shields held. If you do move out of range and your ship needs to be recalled, it shouldn't take any damage on recall, even if it appears to land hard. YMMV.
Safety rule #1 is amended for takeoff.
The problem with on/off upward thrust is momentum and flight assist trying to slow down your upward movement after you disengage thrusters.
The faster you are moving upward, the more altitude you'll lose when you disengage thrusters.
If you thrust upward in very short bursts so that you don't gain any amount of upward speed, you'll be ok and won't lose altitude when you disengage.
If you have any significant upward vertical speed, it's important that you keep thrusters engaged. Don't let go of the button, key or hat switch even for a split second, until you don't need those thrusters to hold you up, or you can afford to lose a lot of altitude.
Downward thrust is just not an option. Don't ever thrust downward at all.
If you are leaving and just want to engage FSD as soon as possible, see below.
If you just want to lift off to fly to another area without using FSD...
With analog control, you can lift off slowly with just a small amount of upward thrust and if you back that off to neutral slowly, you won't lose any altitude. You can also slightly reduce vertical thrust to descend straight down slowly if you need to land again.
If you don't have analog controls...
Engage vertical thrusters until you've just lifted off the ground and immediately disengage them so you're hovering a few meters off the ground.
Then thrust upward in very short bursts just a few meters at a time. Keep your landing gear down to absorb impact in case you lose some altitude.
Keep your thruster bursts short and allow a second between bursts for the ship to completely stop. If you thrust for too long you'll fall back a bit.
When you're high enough, you can raise the landing gear and proceed to your next destination.
Return to the descent and landing sections to land again.
When flying in high G, you can pitch upward as far as 15 degrees to climb but any steeper and you'll start bleed off speed and eventually fall backwards. If you linger too long at a steep angle, you can start to slide backwards and fall.
If you want to point at the escape vector to leave, make sure you have some altitude to for safety.
Throttle to full and when your speed is at maximum, pull up to 90 degrees as quickly as you can.
With no upward momentum you'll loose speed fast, but since you are standing on your main engines you should maintain altitude and begin to accelerate upward slowly.
If you are leaving the planet and just want to engage FSD asap ...
Engage vertical thrusters or set analog vertical thrust to maximum for liftoff.
At first, it will appear that you aren't able to take off, but give it time. It takes a few seconds for the thrusters to build up the overcharge needed to lift off.
Once you have any upward momentum, you can't let go of your vertical thruster control until you are no longer relying on those thrusters against gravity, so don't let go of the upward thrust control.
Once you have a few meters under you, go ahead and raise the landing gear to improve your speed.
When you are high enough to clear any obstacles in front of you, set forward throttle to maximum.
When your ships forward speed is at maximum, and you are ready, quickly pitch upward until your nose is pointing 90 degrees straight up.
If you pull your nose up too slowly, you will bleed off vertical speed and may even end up falling backwards. The idea is to quickly swap the bottom thrusters for the main engine without losing any momentum.
Once you are pointed straight up, you can disengage your vertical thrusters. The bottom thrusters are now pushing you sideways and your main engine is pushing you up.
Avoid boosting straight up as this can actually slow you down.
You can Engage the FSD as soon as you are out of mass lock and climbing fast enough.
- If you find yourself falling and you think you are going to hit hard, drop your landing gear and do your best to touchdown gear first. Your gear can absorb some of the impact.
- If you bounce off the ground, give your shields time to recover before dropping down again to land. Don't do this.
- Boosting straight up can actually cause you to go slower.
- With Joystick Curves software you can adjust the response curve of your analog throttle input for finer control at the low end.
My Original Dos and Don'ts video on High G Landings.
Landing my new Anaconda on HD 148937 3.
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