I'm one of those corpses that pave the road that Frontier drives. I pick up the game from time to time, get frustrated by how long the most mundane parts can take, and then I leave again. This repeats about a year, and I just so happened to come back right as the SCO was added. From the horses mouth, I'll tell you this: it's bloody brilliant. I wish I could put it into words, but none of them would be better than what you've already said here. The number of little ways it helps really make for a mountainous improvement.
For me, the SCO drive has made a massive impact in Exploration. Not only does it give a (tiny) boost to range in my Phantom, but the ability to get to distant planets faster has been such a game changer.
it also allows for rapid escapes from neutron stars and white dwarfs, reducing the time you're stuck in the cone and if you get into that glitch of being dropped into the cone, you can quickly escape
Been enjoying it. We need a cooldown indicator, and an SCO mass lock indicator - both result in keypresses that do nothing because the HUD doesn't give you the information you need about the state of the SCO.
Does SCO have a different mass lock to normal SC? I haven't noticed any difference between the two, since SCO can be activated at any point that SC is active. I definitely agree with having a visible SCO cooldown timer though.
@@oesiusdeus9157 I hope you got in on gunning down Titan Cocijo 'cause it gives you free double engineered SCO drives from the get go and you can use it for your T9.
I agree that SCO is probably the most important addition to the game with update 18.05. I have found gameplay loops I hesitated to do because of long supercruise times. Now, they are possible and, more importantly, enjoyable. Thanks for the Video and your 2 cents!
@nuggytube ah, that explains things, potentially. So the implication here is people assume that the context for "qol" is "a change with no downsides." That's fairly reasonable actually, and is pretty close! Only part they've missed is the minor nature and ... maybe that some will still dislike it? I'll work on that last inference.
Thanks again for this video! And yes, some of my ships have already been upgraded. As a Fuel Rat it is not uncommon to have to rescue someone many ls into deep space, quite recently someone got stranded 1.5M ls away from the entry point. In situations like this, SCO is no luxury when you want to get to a stranded cmdr fast. And of course there is another side to this, being the unwary cmdr switching on their SCO, and burning their fuel in no time leaving them alone far away with empty tanks, providing new and challenging rescues for us 😉
I think the SCO is huge and my teenage sons and some of their friends have begun to play as well. It does make the WHOLE elite experience better because now everything you do is engaging, even the in-between bits
I have been on and off the game and have missing out on SCO’s, fitted one on my exo DBX last night and as I pressed that sco boost button and my ship AI warned me about the drive exceeding limits, I just imagined everything on my cockpit ducktaped to the wall 😄
It's amazing to see how a single update to one component revolutionizes nearly every career path in the game. Trading, exploring and even combat all benefit from these new drives.
I've noticed SCO drives also have an overall greater base jump range, so I'm using them to retrofit all my old ships regardless of if I intend on using SCO or not. I'm a returning player, haven't played that much since Fleet Carriers were added, so I had absolutely no clue about what an SCO drive was when returning to the game lol
Yup! Jump range is improved across the board. The one exception is the pre-engineered V1 5A FSD, which when compared to a fully-engineered 5A SCO FSD has a jump range of ~0.25 ly more (ymmv depending on your ship and build). However even then I'd say the general utility of SCO is such a great value compared to that little bit that's lost that it's worth taking the SCO anyway.
I feel that the realization that “space is too damn big” is something that draws me to space games to begin with. But I understand not everyone feels that way and just want to fast travel where they’re going and get on with it. That being said, I think having things to do in the ship instead of just being glued to the pilot seat would have been a better solution. Like ship maintenance or what not a la ostranauts.
Dude exactly!! Like even though they said ship interiors, we didn't need the whole ship to be explorable. All we need is to be able to walk around the front of the ship.
Personally I don't think it takes away from that feeling too much. You can only activate it for so long before your ship starts overheating, and when you consider the fact that to cross say 400,000Ls of space in a timely fashion you have to boost to *thousands* of times the speed of light *multiple* times, I think it manages to make the experience less mundane without trivialising the vast scale completely.
While it would be cool to have more stuff done inside, making in-flight chores would do the opposite of SCO by slowing and putting what amount to chores between the player and the activity they’re trying to reach.
X4 handles this by allowing you to manage your fleet in the menu while traveling in the space. It's so immersive to have my pilot fly the ship while I direct the fleet then get off once we land to meet with a faction leader
I wonder if APEX and Frontline will install SCO drives on their ships, they seem able to use thruster boost quite well, hopefully the AI programmers can incorporate SCO to cut down travel times too.
The improved SCO drives now they are in A grade and can be engineered are quickly replacing 98% of my fleet , the only exception is the pre engineered one for the 2 second reboot time on a ship that needs it turned off for combat. The QOL improvement this has brought about is game changing and I am looking forward to the changes with PP v2 . o7
I usually engage supercruise the moment the mass lock drops. I don't wait until I reach the upper levels of orbit. Then, if the jump point is in sight, I'll jump immediately. I'm just glad that those jumps don't damage the planets at close range or a lot of people would be angry with me! I do like how SCO can get me across a system faster. The trick is knowing when to cut it off so you don't do a loop of shame. But there are times I'll just let the ship cruise at "normal" velocities and use that time to get something else done. Like getting a cup of coffee.
Wait , you want to tell me that you can manualy disengage from cruise to 'land' at your destination? if i understand correctly , that loop of shame is overshooting your -landing- spot (be it station , belt , w/e) right? i tried it 3 times and so far , i just let cruise assist to bring me to the spot lol :D (4 hours total in game. bought it as an christmas vacation chill , got pretty hooked but damn those travels can be tedious)
@@winterhear I consider the Loop of Shame to be when you shoot past a planet because you didn't throttle back in time. Cutting the SCO is a very tricky thing in the pre-SCO ship; in my case that's my Asp Explorer. Not that that poor old beast can tolerate SCO drive for more than about 15 or 20 seconds. Dropping out of supercruise at your destination is easy, if you're at the correct velocity. When you're approaching a destination, if the number on your HUD read 07, you're at the correct approach velocity. Then when it says press (whatever your control is) to disengage and you press that control, you'll drop out of supercruise at the station or planet. On normal drives, I have accelerated until I'm approaching the destination with the indicator reading 04, then, just before I shoot past it, I engage Supercruise Assist and it will actually yank me out of supercruise at the destination. It doesn't always work and when it does it sends your kidneys into your abs, but when you're in a hurry!
@@odortona9913 How delightful would it be that that the murder marigolds were a shotgun toting family desperately trying to retrieve a romantic miscreant who evaporated upon hearing a lovestruck princess was keen on marriage. With absolutely no communication, how would we know?
I’d really love VR mode for ground content. Even a lazy one with no body, just a hud with VR view. If they cant be bothered to make it surely they can implement just that. VR isn’t mainstream and I get it. But damn it i love VR and its perfect for a game like this.
Same, I had to retrain myself to use a monitor as up to Odyssey I had NEVR actually played on a monitor, just VR. Seriously this game in VR is simply awesome !! just not everywhere unfortunately as it is not really designed for VR. If VR companies wanted to sell more headsets, all they need to do is to show this game, if they collaborated with Frontier to implement VR in a more efficient manner VR would take off much more than it has...
@@lanceobe6801 I am exactly the same, bought my first headset specifically for Elite... I saw some you tube clips and was hooked instantly. I have been through quite a few headsets so far Oculus, Index, Pimax, Reverb G2 etc..
I had over 5000 hours in this game. Over a thousand before VR became a thing and over 4000 in VR. I paid for the odyssey add-on with high hopes and stopped playing when I found out it doesn’t work in VR. I've never played it since. I've checked it periodically just in case and… nope.
VR sort of works, but only when in ships, doesn't work when on foot... I pretty much don't use VR any more as it is very inconvenient to switch between
Buur, I only just got around to watching this one and your insights into the challenge of getting newer players to those amazing moments and why they give up are so good. I really do hope SCO and other improvements to the game bring in more players that stay.
I’ve liked the SCO for longer jump range on my mining ships, but as someone who started playing the game literally just for mining… I haven’t actually needed the SCO part for the mining part as much? I’m guessing I’m missing something being fairly new or just not imaginative enough, what sort of stuff are you up to using SCO with core mining? I was thinking to use it for cutting down travel time / exploring really far off rings just for the fun of it, but the mining itself would still be just dropping in and filling up to max before going to station / jumping out I think
Loving them and will surely help reduce the tedious climb to Supercruise drop height to re-engage the surface probe scanner needed to locate your next bio type when doing multiple landings when hunting all the different exo-bio types on a body. Such a game changer. O7
I recently came back to the game to find the sco drive existing now, and now _every_ one of my ships has it. it's so good even for just cutting down on flight times to a station slightly, or getting out hundreds of thousands of light seconds, or overdoing it and having to loop around the back side of the planet (that happens more than I'd like, but it's the cool that the sco makes supercruise into a bit of a minigame of boosting juuust enough to not overshoot, and occasionally can lead to some awesome star wars drops)
SC drives. Complete game changer at the most fundamental level. Sleep mode waiting for normal drives to get you to the station with with 100LS remaining as it took for the rest of the time to travel up to that 100LS remaining. SC drives have restored my enjoyment in cruise travel. I warp into system with a fully laden Type 9. Pirate: "Theres that ship with the big haul!" Me: "Hold my beer". Targets station and engages SC drive.
This will be a huge efficiency boost for exploration. Stumbling on a First Discovered system is a great feeling, but that feeling can be quickly undermined when you want to scan everything down to the First Footfall level and have to escape every....single...gravity...well...for...dozens...of...planets.. 😭
I too came back to the game after sco. Once I tried it I spent an evening ferrying ships out for engineering. Like you said sco keeps you involved. I still feel the distance. Well executed.
Agree 100%. Dramatically reduces down the time of doing nothing and improves the overall experience of playing the game without degrading the overall scale. Fantastic, well thought out addition by the developers.
Iam still on Exploration... 2Yrs and on goin - iam near the Center of the Galaxy and still was not in Colonia. :D :D :D This will be my Goal... after exploring the Center of the Galaxy - going "West" towards Colonia and make my very first visit there... missed the whole Stargoid Thing and so on - when my Char will be back in the Bubble there will be many new Things and my DBX will need a whole new Painting and new Cockpit Glasses. :P
Indeed SCO is a great addition,i am in the process of removing old timey drives and replacing though i wish i had some give back in materials when selling old drives.Great Video Buur !! Hope you and fam are well :D
As I’m finally getting back into Elite after leaving a good while ago. I had a moment where I was like “I found this fun?” Just sitting waiting for the number to get smaller and smaller. This video has given me the “Wow” moment that I had long forgotten about. Thank you. o7
I came back to Elite after over a year long hiatus, was following development so I knew about SCO, but I never imagined it would be that good. It is not an overstatement at all that this changes the feel of the entire game.
I took a break from Elite a few months ago, and this is the first I've heard of SCO. WOW... I agree this is a big deal! I have always felt irritation/ disappointment when exploring in the black, finding a juicy-looking system with lots of planets, only to realize that most of those juicy planets are 200K light years away. It looks like SCO will solve that. Thanks for the great video Commander! o7
Where I enjoy the sco the most is breaking out of the gravity wells, then I switch back to standard sc and bs with my buddy and take in the sites. It's great we have the option to kick it down and hit the NOS! Though I hope Sirius will build a micro jump option to there variant, so you can jump between in system stars and brown dwafs. Great video Burr as always!
I finally got around to putting a 6A SCO in my mining Anaconda - and a bunch of heatsinks. My first test was to run it at Supecruise for 90K LS until I ran out of enough fuel to maintain it. I was sure I would end up on a re-buy, but made it back to the station on fumes. This is definitely a gamechanger for my mining runs.
The SCO made exploration much more fun. I had literally stopped mapping or visiting planets because of the time it took to fly to them, unless they were close
I've been away from E:D for a few years, and not sure I'll come back, but I gotta say the way they introduced this tech with the Stargoids is amazing, and an example that other live service games should point towards.
Will be upgrading all transports. Found SCO works extremely well with planet lift-offs (like your video comparison), and looking forward to trying HGOs once I've done the priority upgrades.
I agree, it really speeds up travel times while still making the scale matter; your ship will whip around in SCO and you have to actively control and pulse it. Of course it works remarkably well in the Mk2 iteration of the Python, but I also fit up my old Mk1 BGS workhorse Python with a SCO drive. It has sped up mission times considerably! I'm also eager to see what exploration discoveries CMDRs make in the far reaches of bigger systems (particularly around Guardian space, where I have noted 100,000 Ls+ unscanned things).
I tried SCO, I loved it and I'm using it. I have already changed the ships I use most and I will change all the remaining 27 ships as soon as it is convenient. And I haven't changed yet because I have a secret hope that FDev will change the way engineering works and let me recover part of the materials I spent engineering the old FSDs. Great video, as always. o7 everyone
As I was already out in the (not so) black when the SCO frame shift drives hit the shelves, I still traverse large systems with the 2001c speed limit and lesser acceleration of the old FSD. But I don't mind, yet. Even if I sometimes happen to fall asleep on those long travels.
Totally agree. Able to get to Titan Hadad to complete attack runs without having to constantly evade interdictions on route. Made two attack runs possible this afternoon instead of one. I'm also going to be using it to get the rare commodities from stations that are up to 600,000 ls. For the ones over that I will be using my carrier!
I already were excited about the supercruise assist, making it possible to take the eyes of the screen, when travelling huge distances in supercruise. As soon as I return, I'm definately checking out the overcharge
you know what would make all that waiting around for flying to hutton orbital much more bearable? if we could walk around our ships! just having the ability to walk around your ship while super cruise assist does the work would be phenomenal, though having other stuff to do like calibrating guns and prepping your gear (for maybe meager bonuses) would REALLY take the cake. or maybe we can watch all that cat media or insight entertainment suites we all have stockpiled.
Superb overview. I only have a few ships with sco and I love it. I won’t replace them all (too many ships!). But I find it really useful for bgs; and my python mk2. My bomber has one installed ready for Hadad!
SCO clearly is one of the biggest game changers during all ED history ... allows enjoy play of ED during whole play session, needs some skills for use efficiently and is fun :)
I wasn't aware of what SCO was until I accidentally triggered it close to star and was violently plunged into deep space tossing and turning like crazy. I didn't realize it until after a few more similar accidents, that I was triggering it due to pressing B on my controller, which also closes the menus, but also works as a boost after dropping out of SC. I was out of fuel and super far away and confused, with much of my modules in wreck because I panick dropped out of SC. Well, apparently I could do better.
As a new player, I dont use it very often unless a particular thing is far enough for me to justify using it, not to mention the fuel consumption is a bit scary if you're using it liberally. But it definitely is useful. Third ship I got, I fitted one to it when I had the chance.
Just finished replacing the FSD's on all my ships with SCO drives. Got three of them fully engineered and all but 2 others at least have the Mass Manager effect so the rest can be done later.
Note that POIs and other signals may drop more engineering materials nowadays than before. On SCO drives, testing it on few ships, gathering materials to engineer more of them. Likely keeping many Sirius drives on ships for these are parrly tharg tech.
there should be salvage option in the game where you deliver your unwanted upgraded modules for disassembly and recovery of at least portion of used materials for upgrade. and with ownership of the carrier, limit of available storage for modules should increase to the carrier capacity, or purchase of additional slots in the stations with arx at least.
Totally agree, SCO drives is an absolute game changer, really does make a huge difference with travel time. I’m planning on replacing all of my FSD’s with the new SCO drives . It does mean having to reengineer the drives, but i don’t care it’s worth it.
Completely concur regarding the importance to the game the SCO drive has made. Tested these since the non-engineerable C classes came out initially and saw the potential back then. They are a great addition to the game, especially as they can be engineered and every class is available now - awating the FSD wars and what we get next when Sirius responds :D
I've found myself engaged non-stop with the game after the SCO came out. Before, I always had Reddit or UA-cam open on the other screen, waiting for the supercruise to end. Now I find myself not having time to engage with anything else. I actually often have to slow down if I need anything on Inara or EDSY. There is still downtime - waiting for a jump to charge, the jump itself, slowing down for a station or a planetary landing but it's so much less than before. Lately I've been doing settlement stuff with an Imperial Courier that is very light and can do over 700 m/s sustained (this includes boosting but it never goes below 700 if I don't forget to boost), 800-something in a boost. The speed of my ship combined with the SCO just makes flying between settlements/stations super quick.
SCO drives are truely amazing. I installed and engeneered them in almost all of my ships. Normal FSDs became obsolete the day that A rated SCOs joined the party :)
Individual star systems being made more accessible with SCO is amazing for playability. You don’t loose scale as you still have the whole milky way to explore and that is huge monster what you do, even if you could teleport anywhere at a whim. Old Fdev couldn’t see the forest for the trees…
New player, just bought it last month. At first I had no idea SCO was a thing (still wasn't in tutorial), so I just accepted that I would do other things while waiting for the SCA to get me to my destination (before I discovered interdictions lol). Found the SCO drive by accident, just while I was upgrading my ship. The insane boost terrified me, and I opted not to use it for a time... until I looked up how to properly use it. Now I just blast it out until I'm 12 seconds away from the target, turn it off, and wait till the distance goes under 1kls. Then I turn on SCA, take a walk, then take over once I get to my destination. Currently finishing up raw mat farming. Just traded off to fill out my lower grades, and I'm going back to fill out my Polonium and Yttrium... My next objective is probably to figure out how to get a range that's higher than 18 for my Anaconda without being entirely defenceless... So I can farm eng mats for my Corvette much more efficiently. I wanna see what it feels like to be a monster in HazRES. Definitely still some grind, but I'm not going crazy, at least.
2024 new player here. I'm not very good at the supercriuse assist trick, so I'm doing the extra loop quite often, but even so, the whole journey is faster thanks to SCO. But I feel like the supercruise assis key bind is now way more needed
I have it bound to the same “Boost” button on my HOTAS that I use in normal space (TAB if you use KB/M)… I was skeptical that it was just a gimmick when originally released in range-limited and unengineered C-Rated variants - but now that Long-Range Engineering can be added onto A-rated variants- they give much better jump range than stock FSD - only just falling short of the limited release V1 FSDs released after the Colonia Bridge CG @ 2 years ago… I am fitting these on all new ships - and retrofitting onto as many older ships as possible… (Fighting the other 800# gorilla in the room: 200 stores modules limit…I have actually sold off some fully G5 Long Range FSDs in storage to make room for some new SCO ones 😎)
I might also consider this for exploration! so much of my time is spent in system crawling from planet to planet to map them out. Even more so with multi star systems with lucrative planets at each star.
ED was one of the very few (the only) game where I could set my ship in a direction, leave the keyboard, boil the kettle, make a cuppa and be back in the chair before I needed to take control of the ship again.
Man all these new ships and SCO added while I’m at the centre of the galaxy, will have to jump back to Colonia tomorrow to try out some of these new things
As a small ship pilot, the 3D engineered SCO (deep charge) drive is the new standard. The increase in real space speed (+30m/s) is an easy trade off for an 1.7 extra light years, and it still beats the 'old' A class engineered unit.
Even without using the boost, the new SCO's have a longer jump range. Especially when engineered. There's absolutely no downside to using them and they're better in every way.
I haven't tried SCO yet, but I hope to soon. That said, AFK+tea is kinda my jam, too! Now, if there were only a way to avoid being interdicted while travelling between the stars by mean ol' Thargoids who attack unarmed exploration ships when they're only four jumps away from a return to civilization.
ive got my old FSD drives in storage, just in case sirius corp has a comeback to the SCO drives... maybe we will be able to upgrade the FSD's further... maybe the SCO is for local work, especially PP2.0... and maybe the new FSD drives will be for something like exploration upgrades???
I love the SCO drives, they are a game changer, and I thank FDEV for it. But, I've been playing 6 months and I have engineered all my 20 odd FSDs in that time, so, now I have a load of engineered and pre-engineered FSDs that are obsolete. What a waste of time and materials that was!
[x] SCO by default in my ships. Currently in Python MKII and my brand new DBX; more to follow all through the year at the point when mats farming will be made easier.
thats exact what i love about this new fsd. wisely used it is a real new way of flight, and hell, no pirate ever will get me with this! 😀 I want my Elite V Merchant badge!
I decided to take a trip before I figured out about SCOs. Thankfully it won't be too long before I get back. I'm already running a guardian boosted fsd. I think I'll have to swap it out in that case. As an explorer I've already decided that if there's something that's way out there that's worth going to see I'm going to put the time in for travel. Still, having the option would be nice.
Absolute game changer for Exploration. The (reachable) size of the Galaxy might just have doubled or tripled. Just had several first footfall and first scans in a systems ~400ly from S.D.
Hio, how can I install a SCO? is something I have to engineer? Is sometthing I just buy and put on the ship? I just discovered this thanks to your video.
I've said it before but I REALLY want to see an alternate FSD that can navigate in the regions between stars at roughly 1LY/s You would need to be mindful of the various witchspace hazards that can impede your movement or throw you off course, maybe some beneficial anomalies you can glide along for a boost. Fuel usage would be increased, and if you run out you end up tumbling to the nearest star. I just really hate the chain of loading screens involved in any sort of long trips. I think the closest comparison I can make is hyperspace in Starsector.
Couldn't have FDEV just added an 'overdrive' to standard FSD drives? Seems they've added a complication rather than a quality of life improvement imho.
Even just the higher jump range had me sold. The sco boost itself is just the cherry on top. Makes on-foot missions faster too, when leaving the surface.
I started to play right as the change went in but i missed that it was a thing until recently thinking the more advanced scos had been in the game a while. I did like four trips out to Hutton Orbital for missions by mostly napping or reading before i figured out that the superboost was even on the ship i was using. Lol. I went all the way out to Betelgeuse with a ship that only did like 20ly jumps and now I'm going all the way out to colonial with a ship that only does 30ly jumps,Around 1000 jumps, though I'll probably finish that one off with a few neutron jumps.
I'm back playing ED after not playing for about 6 years and I had every ship, got it on pc now. I was very disappointed with ED, nice to see they are doing better now.
I'm one of those corpses that pave the road that Frontier drives. I pick up the game from time to time, get frustrated by how long the most mundane parts can take, and then I leave again. This repeats about a year, and I just so happened to come back right as the SCO was added. From the horses mouth, I'll tell you this: it's bloody brilliant. I wish I could put it into words, but none of them would be better than what you've already said here. The number of little ways it helps really make for a mountainous improvement.
A thousand times yes
@@miss_bec Its actually fun space racing now
Achilles Corporation: A name you can trust with absolutely no hidden crippling weaknesses of any kind!
bringing " WHOOSH " to an entirely new level
Did someone forget to dip that part of the corporation in the invulnerability R&D gel? Tsk tsk.
For me, the SCO drive has made a massive impact in Exploration. Not only does it give a (tiny) boost to range in my Phantom, but the ability to get to distant planets faster has been such a game changer.
I'm in the back so to get an SCO I have to go back to the bubble in each ship that I want upgraded? What about a shipyard at a carrier?
@@thepathnotfound Nevermind engineering... I probably don't have enough mats to get this to G5 I'll have to look at a grind guide for this
it also allows for rapid escapes from neutron stars and white dwarfs, reducing the time you're stuck in the cone and if you get into that glitch of being dropped into the cone, you can quickly escape
@thepathnotfound and that's why you don't base yourself out of the bubble. Always go back at some point.
Been enjoying it. We need a cooldown indicator, and an SCO mass lock indicator - both result in keypresses that do nothing because the HUD doesn't give you the information you need about the state of the SCO.
I thought that, too.
Agreed
Does SCO have a different mass lock to normal SC? I haven't noticed any difference between the two, since SCO can be activated at any point that SC is active. I definitely agree with having a visible SCO cooldown timer though.
SCO makes T9 cargo hauling vastly different
fr been killin it lol
Should I replace my engineed fsd on my WMM T9?
@@oesiusdeus9157 I hope you got in on gunning down Titan Cocijo 'cause it gives you free double engineered SCO drives from the get go and you can use it for your T9.
Agree! Can we please get some mats back from our old FSDs?!
☝️
And more storage slots as well please.
They should let you upgrade engineer the old ones. I'm a new player owning 2 class 5 FSDs - so it's not a big deal. But upgading a whole fleet?!
Alternatively have SCO fitted to existing drives by purchasing an upgrade at a tech broker?
This. I have 50+ ships in my fleet. Not wasting my time re-farming FSD mats.
I agree that SCO is probably the most important addition to the game with update 18.05. I have found gameplay loops I hesitated to do because of long supercruise times. Now, they are possible and, more importantly, enjoyable. Thanks for the Video and your 2 cents!
very much this.
Thank you, Father Bill :) o7
Should have been in the game from day 1. What a quality of life update! Love it.
An enormous shift in design is the opposite of a quality of life update.
@@HallyVee all I see is positives from this change. What an overall improvement to the game.
@nuggytube ah, that explains things, potentially. So the implication here is people assume that the context for "qol" is "a change with no downsides." That's fairly reasonable actually, and is pretty close! Only part they've missed is the minor nature and ... maybe that some will still dislike it? I'll work on that last inference.
@@HallyVee Someone will dislike something everytime, even if it's saving puppies or helping starving people.
Thanks again for this video! And yes, some of my ships have already been upgraded. As a Fuel Rat it is not uncommon to have to rescue someone many ls into deep space, quite recently someone got stranded 1.5M ls away from the entry point. In situations like this, SCO is no luxury when you want to get to a stranded cmdr fast. And of course there is another side to this, being the unwary cmdr switching on their SCO, and burning their fuel in no time leaving them alone far away with empty tanks, providing new and challenging rescues for us 😉
Hats off to you sir. The fuel rat community is one of my favorite things about Elite Dangerous.
I think the SCO is huge and my teenage sons and some of their friends have begun to play as well. It does make the WHOLE elite experience better because now everything you do is engaging, even the in-between bits
Fitted an SCO to my DBX and spent the next hour chuckling as it screams around stars and roars away from planet surfaces.
With all the alarms blaring simultaneously as you recklessly yeet yourself through space at dangerous speeds 😂
I have been on and off the game and have missing out on SCO’s, fitted one on my exo DBX last night and as I pressed that sco boost button and my ship AI warned me about the drive exceeding limits, I just imagined everything on my cockpit ducktaped to the wall 😄
Indeed. This FSD SCO is a good present! Thanks FD.
It's amazing to see how a single update to one component revolutionizes nearly every career path in the game. Trading, exploring and even combat all benefit from these new drives.
I've noticed SCO drives also have an overall greater base jump range, so I'm using them to retrofit all my old ships regardless of if I intend on using SCO or not. I'm a returning player, haven't played that much since Fleet Carriers were added, so I had absolutely no clue about what an SCO drive was when returning to the game lol
Yup! Jump range is improved across the board. The one exception is the pre-engineered V1 5A FSD, which when compared to a fully-engineered 5A SCO FSD has a jump range of ~0.25 ly more (ymmv depending on your ship and build). However even then I'd say the general utility of SCO is such a great value compared to that little bit that's lost that it's worth taking the SCO anyway.
@@indigotyrianThe SCO is way more useful. Don't even tell people about that prengineered fsd anymore, it's worthless and a waste of time
@@tacticalmattress I mean that's exactly what I said
I feel that the realization that “space is too damn big” is something that draws me to space games to begin with. But I understand not everyone feels that way and just want to fast travel where they’re going and get on with it.
That being said, I think having things to do in the ship instead of just being glued to the pilot seat would have been a better solution. Like ship maintenance or what not a la ostranauts.
Dude exactly!! Like even though they said ship interiors, we didn't need the whole ship to be explorable. All we need is to be able to walk around the front of the ship.
Personally I don't think it takes away from that feeling too much. You can only activate it for so long before your ship starts overheating, and when you consider the fact that to cross say 400,000Ls of space in a timely fashion you have to boost to *thousands* of times the speed of light *multiple* times, I think it manages to make the experience less mundane without trivialising the vast scale completely.
While it would be cool to have more stuff done inside, making in-flight chores would do the opposite of SCO by slowing and putting what amount to chores between the player and the activity they’re trying to reach.
X4 handles this by allowing you to manage your fleet in the menu while traveling in the space. It's so immersive to have my pilot fly the ship while I direct the fleet then get off once we land to meet with a faction leader
I agree. The SCO is the very best thing to happen to Elite imo. Great video, keep it up!
I wonder if APEX and Frontline will install SCO drives on their ships, they seem able to use thruster boost quite well, hopefully the AI programmers can incorporate SCO to cut down travel times too.
The SCO drive is incredibly fun, I really enjoy it. Ludicrous speed!
The improved SCO drives now they are in A grade and can be engineered are quickly replacing 98% of my fleet , the only exception is the pre engineered one for the 2 second reboot time on a ship that needs it turned off for combat. The QOL improvement this has brought about is game changing and I am looking forward to the changes with PP v2 . o7
I usually engage supercruise the moment the mass lock drops. I don't wait until I reach the upper levels of orbit. Then, if the jump point is in sight, I'll jump immediately. I'm just glad that those jumps don't damage the planets at close range or a lot of people would be angry with me! I do like how SCO can get me across a system faster. The trick is knowing when to cut it off so you don't do a loop of shame. But there are times I'll just let the ship cruise at "normal" velocities and use that time to get something else done. Like getting a cup of coffee.
Wait , you want to tell me that you can manualy disengage from cruise to 'land' at your destination? if i understand correctly , that loop of shame is overshooting your -landing- spot (be it station , belt , w/e) right? i tried it 3 times and so far , i just let cruise assist to bring me to the spot lol :D (4 hours total in game. bought it as an christmas vacation chill , got pretty hooked but damn those travels can be tedious)
@@winterhear I consider the Loop of Shame to be when you shoot past a planet because you didn't throttle back in time. Cutting the SCO is a very tricky thing in the pre-SCO ship; in my case that's my Asp Explorer. Not that that poor old beast can tolerate SCO drive for more than about 15 or 20 seconds. Dropping out of supercruise at your destination is easy, if you're at the correct velocity. When you're approaching a destination, if the number on your HUD read 07, you're at the correct approach velocity. Then when it says press (whatever your control is) to disengage and you press that control, you'll drop out of supercruise at the station or planet. On normal drives, I have accelerated until I'm approaching the destination with the indicator reading 04, then, just before I shoot past it, I engage Supercruise Assist and it will actually yank me out of supercruise at the destination. It doesn't always work and when it does it sends your kidneys into your abs, but when you're in a hurry!
hearing that titans might've came from Barnard's loop, gives me chills since i hung out there not too long ago
You didn’t make a pass at one of the locals while you were there by any chance?
@@mikedawe692 i hear it was a bad neighborhood so i avoided :)
@@odortona9913 How delightful would it be that that the murder marigolds were a shotgun toting family desperately trying to retrieve a romantic miscreant who evaporated upon hearing a lovestruck princess was keen on marriage. With absolutely no communication, how would we know?
I’d really love VR mode for ground content. Even a lazy one with no body, just a hud with VR view. If they cant be bothered to make it surely they can implement just that.
VR isn’t mainstream and I get it. But damn it i love VR and its perfect for a game like this.
If you ever make a carrier jump from the bridge of the FC, you will see VR mode while on foot. They can do it....just have not implememted it.
Same, I had to retrain myself to use a monitor as up to Odyssey I had NEVR actually played on a monitor, just VR. Seriously this game in VR is simply awesome !! just not everywhere unfortunately as it is not really designed for VR. If VR companies wanted to sell more headsets, all they need to do is to show this game, if they collaborated with Frontier to implement VR in a more efficient manner VR would take off much more than it has...
@@lanceobe6801 I am exactly the same, bought my first headset specifically for Elite... I saw some you tube clips and was hooked instantly. I have been through quite a few headsets so far Oculus, Index, Pimax, Reverb G2 etc..
I had over 5000 hours in this game. Over a thousand before VR became a thing and over 4000 in VR. I paid for the odyssey add-on with high hopes and stopped playing when I found out it doesn’t work in VR. I've never played it since. I've checked it periodically just in case and… nope.
VR sort of works, but only when in ships, doesn't work when on foot... I pretty much don't use VR any more as it is very inconvenient to switch between
1:55 you missed a fantastic Space Balls reference opportunity. i'm excited about power play
haha, yes, ludicrous speed!
Buur, I only just got around to watching this one and your insights into the challenge of getting newer players to those amazing moments and why they give up are so good. I really do hope SCO and other improvements to the game bring in more players that stay.
It's true, I'm making more builds for more specific station mission types. Before I was going for more lucrative objectives. Immersion ENHANCED
I absolutely love the SCO, it made everything (especially core mining) such a joy to do
I’ve liked the SCO for longer jump range on my mining ships, but as someone who started playing the game literally just for mining… I haven’t actually needed the SCO part for the mining part as much?
I’m guessing I’m missing something being fairly new or just not imaginative enough, what sort of stuff are you up to using SCO with core mining? I was thinking to use it for cutting down travel time / exploring really far off rings just for the fun of it, but the mining itself would still be just dropping in and filling up to max before going to station / jumping out I think
@@guhak It's because I live in Brestla, and the alexandrite hotspot is fairly distant from port, so it takes a little while to get there without SCO
They are GLORIOUS!!!
You had me at treacle... Love the work guys as always!
Loving them and will surely help reduce the tedious climb to Supercruise drop height to re-engage the surface probe scanner needed to locate your next bio type when doing multiple landings when hunting all the different exo-bio types on a body. Such a game changer. O7
I recently came back to the game to find the sco drive existing now, and now _every_ one of my ships has it. it's so good even for just cutting down on flight times to a station slightly, or getting out hundreds of thousands of light seconds, or overdoing it and having to loop around the back side of the planet (that happens more than I'd like, but it's the cool that the sco makes supercruise into a bit of a minigame of boosting juuust enough to not overshoot, and occasionally can lead to some awesome star wars drops)
SC drives. Complete game changer at the most fundamental level. Sleep mode waiting for normal drives to get you to the station with with 100LS remaining as it took for the rest of the time to travel up to that 100LS remaining. SC drives have restored my enjoyment in cruise travel.
I warp into system with a fully laden Type 9.
Pirate: "Theres that ship with the big haul!"
Me: "Hold my beer". Targets station and engages SC drive.
Great content as always. I love the new SCO, I think it's a huge improvement, and it's well implemented.
This will be a huge efficiency boost for exploration. Stumbling on a First Discovered system is a great feeling, but that feeling can be quickly undermined when you want to scan everything down to the First Footfall level and have to escape every....single...gravity...well...for...dozens...of...planets.. 😭
I too came back to the game after sco. Once I tried it I spent an evening ferrying ships out for engineering. Like you said sco keeps you involved. I still feel the distance. Well executed.
Agree 100%. Dramatically reduces down the time of doing nothing and improves the overall experience of playing the game without degrading the overall scale. Fantastic, well thought out addition by the developers.
We'd say change not improve. Remember your preferences are your own.
Smashing video, I'm replacing all of my drives, I used the SCO then a non SCO drive craft and wow, don't want that!
Iam still on Exploration... 2Yrs and on goin - iam near the Center of the Galaxy and still was not in Colonia. :D :D :D
This will be my Goal... after exploring the Center of the Galaxy - going "West" towards Colonia and make my very first visit there... missed the whole Stargoid Thing and so on - when my Char will be back in the Bubble there will be many new Things and my DBX will need a whole new Painting and new Cockpit Glasses. :P
Indeed SCO is a great addition,i am in the process of removing old timey drives and replacing though i wish i had some give back in materials when selling old drives.Great Video Buur !! Hope you and fam are well :D
As I’m finally getting back into Elite after leaving a good while ago. I had a moment where I was like “I found this fun?” Just sitting waiting for the number to get smaller and smaller. This video has given me the “Wow” moment that I had long forgotten about. Thank you. o7
I came back to Elite after over a year long hiatus, was following development so I knew about SCO, but I never imagined it would be that good. It is not an overstatement at all that this changes the feel of the entire game.
I took a break from Elite a few months ago, and this is the first I've heard of SCO. WOW... I agree this is a big deal! I have always felt irritation/ disappointment when exploring in the black, finding a juicy-looking system with lots of planets, only to realize that most of those juicy planets are 200K light years away. It looks like SCO will solve that. Thanks for the great video Commander! o7
Where I enjoy the sco the most is breaking out of the gravity wells, then I switch back to standard sc and bs with my buddy and take in the sites.
It's great we have the option to kick it down and hit the NOS!
Though I hope Sirius will build a micro jump option to there variant, so you can jump between in system stars and brown dwafs.
Great video Burr as always!
The 'micro jump' sound's like a great idea!
I finally got around to putting a 6A SCO in my mining Anaconda - and a bunch of heatsinks. My first test was to run it at Supecruise for 90K LS until I ran out of enough fuel to maintain it. I was sure I would end up on a re-buy, but made it back to the station on fumes. This is definitely a gamechanger for my mining runs.
Haven't tried it yet, but I'm looking forward to it. I think you've hit the nail square on the head in this video.
The SCO made exploration much more fun. I had literally stopped mapping or visiting planets because of the time it took to fly to them, unless they were close
I've been away from E:D for a few years, and not sure I'll come back, but I gotta say the way they introduced this tech with the Stargoids is amazing, and an example that other live service games should point towards.
Will be upgrading all transports.
Found SCO works extremely well with planet lift-offs (like your video comparison), and looking forward to trying HGOs once I've done the priority upgrades.
I agree, it really speeds up travel times while still making the scale matter; your ship will whip around in SCO and you have to actively control and pulse it. Of course it works remarkably well in the Mk2 iteration of the Python, but I also fit up my old Mk1 BGS workhorse Python with a SCO drive. It has sped up mission times considerably! I'm also eager to see what exploration discoveries CMDRs make in the far reaches of bigger systems (particularly around Guardian space, where I have noted 100,000 Ls+ unscanned things).
I tried SCO, I loved it and I'm using it. I have already changed the ships I use most and I will change all the remaining 27 ships as soon as it is convenient.
And I haven't changed yet because I have a secret hope that FDev will change the way engineering works and let me recover part of the materials I spent engineering the old FSDs.
Great video, as always.
o7 everyone
Also great video and side-by-side, but got me confused about which day of the week it was because this didn't come out on a Friday ! 😉
As I was already out in the (not so) black when the SCO frame shift drives hit the shelves, I still traverse large systems with the 2001c speed limit and lesser acceleration of the old FSD. But I don't mind, yet. Even if I sometimes happen to fall asleep on those long travels.
It gets me to my next kill more quickly, I love it ❤️😎👍
I'm a new player and I use the SCO for interdicting mission target for my federal navy grind. 14 ranks in a week with a little amount of playtime
Totally agree. Able to get to Titan Hadad to complete attack runs without having to constantly evade interdictions on route. Made two attack runs possible this afternoon instead of one.
I'm also going to be using it to get the rare commodities from stations that are up to 600,000 ls. For the ones over that I will be using my carrier!
I've upgraded all of my 33 fully engineered ships with the new drives.
My condolences. I did the same thing.
@@raghav1026 Now get back to the material grind you fools! ;D (I am in the same boat my friends - happy grinding)
Man I just got back into the game and started engineering my old fsd to grade 5, thank god I found this when I did
6116 hours space trucking in elite dangerous , and listening to this video . supercruise overcharge might reallly speed up spacetrucking for me.
I already were excited about the supercruise assist, making it possible to take the eyes of the screen, when travelling huge distances in supercruise. As soon as I return, I'm definately checking out the overcharge
Although as I've learned, you can still be interdicted! Apparently they can circle around or go faster or spawn behind you or whatever.
Finally my morning coffee run to Hutton Orbital seems like less of a time waste.
Exploration has never been this much fun. :D
you know what would make all that waiting around for flying to hutton orbital much more bearable? if we could walk around our ships! just having the ability to walk around your ship while super cruise assist does the work would be phenomenal, though having other stuff to do like calibrating guns and prepping your gear (for maybe meager bonuses) would REALLY take the cake. or maybe we can watch all that cat media or insight entertainment suites we all have stockpiled.
Superb overview. I only have a few ships with sco and I love it. I won’t replace them all (too many ships!). But I find it really useful for bgs; and my python mk2. My bomber has one installed ready for Hadad!
OMG I didn't knew this sxisted! I tried on my type-9 with a 8c fuel tank and I can travel 434,000 Ls in a minute and a half. Amazing!
SCO clearly is one of the biggest game changers during all ED history ... allows enjoy play of ED during whole play session, needs some skills for use efficiently and is fun :)
I wasn't aware of what SCO was until I accidentally triggered it close to star and was violently plunged into deep space tossing and turning like crazy. I didn't realize it until after a few more similar accidents, that I was triggering it due to pressing B on my controller, which also closes the menus, but also works as a boost after dropping out of SC. I was out of fuel and super far away and confused, with much of my modules in wreck because I panick dropped out of SC. Well, apparently I could do better.
As a new player, I dont use it very often unless a particular thing is far enough for me to justify using it, not to mention the fuel consumption is a bit scary if you're using it liberally. But it definitely is useful.
Third ship I got, I fitted one to it when I had the chance.
Finally got one for my Keelback mat gathering ship, but haven't had time to play since then to try it out
Just finished replacing the FSD's on all my ships with SCO drives. Got three of them fully engineered and all but 2 others at least have the Mass Manager effect so the rest can be done later.
Note that POIs and other signals may drop more engineering materials nowadays than before. On SCO drives, testing it on few ships, gathering materials to engineer more of them. Likely keeping many Sirius drives on ships for these are parrly tharg tech.
there should be salvage option in the game where you deliver your unwanted upgraded modules for disassembly and recovery of at least portion of used materials for upgrade.
and with ownership of the carrier, limit of available storage for modules should increase to the carrier capacity, or purchase of additional slots in the stations with arx at least.
Totally agree, SCO drives is an absolute game changer, really does make a huge difference with travel time. I’m planning on replacing all of my FSD’s with the new SCO drives . It does mean having to reengineer the drives, but i don’t care it’s worth it.
Completely concur regarding the importance to the game the SCO drive has made. Tested these since the non-engineerable C classes came out initially and saw the potential back then. They are a great addition to the game, especially as they can be engineered and every class is available now - awating the FSD wars and what we get next when Sirius responds :D
I've found myself engaged non-stop with the game after the SCO came out. Before, I always had Reddit or UA-cam open on the other screen, waiting for the supercruise to end. Now I find myself not having time to engage with anything else. I actually often have to slow down if I need anything on Inara or EDSY. There is still downtime - waiting for a jump to charge, the jump itself, slowing down for a station or a planetary landing but it's so much less than before.
Lately I've been doing settlement stuff with an Imperial Courier that is very light and can do over 700 m/s sustained (this includes boosting but it never goes below 700 if I don't forget to boost), 800-something in a boost. The speed of my ship combined with the SCO just makes flying between settlements/stations super quick.
SCO drives are truely amazing. I installed and engeneered them in almost all of my ships. Normal FSDs became obsolete the day that A rated SCOs joined the party :)
Individual star systems being made more accessible with SCO is amazing for playability. You don’t loose scale as you still have the whole milky way to explore and that is huge monster what you do, even if you could teleport anywhere at a whim. Old Fdev couldn’t see the forest for the trees…
New player, just bought it last month. At first I had no idea SCO was a thing (still wasn't in tutorial), so I just accepted that I would do other things while waiting for the SCA to get me to my destination (before I discovered interdictions lol). Found the SCO drive by accident, just while I was upgrading my ship. The insane boost terrified me, and I opted not to use it for a time... until I looked up how to properly use it. Now I just blast it out until I'm 12 seconds away from the target, turn it off, and wait till the distance goes under 1kls. Then I turn on SCA, take a walk, then take over once I get to my destination. Currently finishing up raw mat farming. Just traded off to fill out my lower grades, and I'm going back to fill out my Polonium and Yttrium... My next objective is probably to figure out how to get a range that's higher than 18 for my Anaconda without being entirely defenceless... So I can farm eng mats for my Corvette much more efficiently. I wanna see what it feels like to be a monster in HazRES. Definitely still some grind, but I'm not going crazy, at least.
2024 new player here.
I'm not very good at the supercriuse assist trick, so I'm doing the extra loop quite often, but even so, the whole journey is faster thanks to SCO.
But I feel like the supercruise assis key bind is now way more needed
I think if you turn automatic SCA throttle off you can accelerate above the blue zone then use SCO (I'll have to check - I may just be deluded)
I have it bound to the same “Boost” button on my HOTAS that I use in normal space (TAB if you use KB/M)…
I was skeptical that it was just a gimmick when originally released in range-limited and unengineered C-Rated variants - but now that Long-Range Engineering can be added onto A-rated variants- they give much better jump range than stock FSD - only just falling short of the limited release V1 FSDs released after the Colonia Bridge CG @ 2 years ago…
I am fitting these on all new ships - and retrofitting onto as many older ships as possible…
(Fighting the other 800# gorilla in the room: 200 stores modules limit…I have actually sold off some fully G5 Long Range FSDs in storage to make room for some new SCO ones 😎)
I might also consider this for exploration! so much of my time is spent in system crawling from planet to planet to map them out. Even more so with multi star systems with lucrative planets at each star.
A supercruise boost button?! Count me in! That sounds AMAZING!
SCO brought me back
ED was one of the very few (the only) game where I could set my ship in a direction, leave the keyboard, boil the kettle, make a cuppa and be back in the chair before I needed to take control of the ship again.
Kids won't appreciate that for many, many years.
Man all these new ships and SCO added while I’m at the centre of the galaxy, will have to jump back to Colonia tomorrow to try out some of these new things
As a small ship pilot, the 3D engineered SCO (deep charge) drive is the new standard. The increase in real space speed (+30m/s) is an easy trade off for an 1.7 extra light years, and it still beats the 'old' A class engineered unit.
Even without using the boost, the new SCO's have a longer jump range. Especially when engineered. There's absolutely no downside to using them and they're better in every way.
I haven't tried SCO yet, but I hope to soon.
That said, AFK+tea is kinda my jam, too!
Now, if there were only a way to avoid being interdicted while travelling between the stars by mean ol' Thargoids who attack unarmed exploration ships when they're only four jumps away from a return to civilization.
ive got my old FSD drives in storage, just in case sirius corp has a comeback to the SCO drives... maybe we will be able to upgrade the FSD's further... maybe the SCO is for local work, especially PP2.0... and maybe the new FSD drives will be for something like exploration upgrades???
I love the SCO drives, they are a game changer, and I thank FDEV for it. But, I've been playing 6 months and I have engineered all my 20 odd FSDs in that time, so, now I have a load of engineered and pre-engineered FSDs that are obsolete. What a waste of time and materials that was!
[x] SCO by default in my ships.
Currently in Python MKII and my brand new DBX; more to follow all through the year at the point when mats farming will be made easier.
I tried Sco and it’s fun, but you really need to keep an eye on the fuel, I nearly runned out of fuel in a system and was 69k ls from the FC.
You can always call upon the Fuel Rats 😉
thats exact what i love about this new fsd. wisely used it is a real new way of flight, and hell, no pirate ever will get me with this! 😀 I want my Elite V Merchant badge!
I decided to take a trip before I figured out about SCOs. Thankfully it won't be too long before I get back. I'm already running a guardian boosted fsd. I think I'll have to swap it out in that case.
As an explorer I've already decided that if there's something that's way out there that's worth going to see I'm going to put the time in for travel. Still, having the option would be nice.
Absolute game changer for Exploration. The (reachable) size of the Galaxy might just have doubled or tripled.
Just had several first footfall and first scans in a systems ~400ly from S.D.
Now hutton orbital isn't so far anymore!
I've fitted it to a couple of ships as a trial. But it's not bad, but not a earth shattering improvement though.
Keep flying.. I have a feeling that in the long run, your opinion is going to change. o7
33+% is pretty earth shattering
Hio, how can I install a SCO? is something I have to engineer? Is sometthing I just buy and put on the ship? I just discovered this thanks to your video.
It's a new version of frameshift drive... You just buy it from a starport.
@@TheBuurPit thank you!!!!
I've said it before but I REALLY want to see an alternate FSD that can navigate in the regions between stars at roughly 1LY/s
You would need to be mindful of the various witchspace hazards that can impede your movement or throw you off course, maybe some beneficial anomalies you can glide along for a boost.
Fuel usage would be increased, and if you run out you end up tumbling to the nearest star.
I just really hate the chain of loading screens involved in any sort of long trips.
I think the closest comparison I can make is hyperspace in Starsector.
Couldn't have FDEV just added an 'overdrive' to standard FSD drives? Seems they've added a complication rather than a quality of life improvement imho.
Even just the higher jump range had me sold.
The sco boost itself is just the cherry on top.
Makes on-foot missions faster too, when leaving the surface.
I started to play right as the change went in but i missed that it was a thing until recently thinking the more advanced scos had been in the game a while. I did like four trips out to Hutton Orbital for missions by mostly napping or reading before i figured out that the superboost was even on the ship i was using. Lol.
I went all the way out to Betelgeuse with a ship that only did like 20ly jumps and now I'm going all the way out to colonial with a ship that only does 30ly jumps,Around 1000 jumps, though I'll probably finish that one off with a few neutron jumps.
And I just figured out how to use FSS, months into the game, having manually charted hundreds of systems. Lol.
I'm back playing ED after not playing for about 6 years and I had every ship, got it on pc now.
I was very disappointed with ED, nice to see they are doing better now.