Possibly found a way to determine direction without ISAN

[DemonicSanil]

This needs external confirmation as I haven't tested it thoroughly enough! Also, if this has been found already and is no news, please apologize.

I found that when I spawned a crosshair from my inventory it wouldn't spawn just randomly. Everytime I tested it so far it was aligned with the Y-axis (up and down from origin), no matter my orientation or that of my ship. Right now I'm about 100 km away from the origin stations, further testing my hypothesis. So far it holds true.

This comes as close to a simple gyroscope as it gets right now. If it indeed works it would become much more easy to navigate, as the Y - axis shows you the quickest way to the top and the bottom of the asteroid belt. Once you leave the fog the planet can be used to determine the Z - axis. Also, if this works everywhere, we would have a tool for navigation even outside ISAN range.

Feel free to give it a try. If you do: please tell your results.

EDIT: After a long time of testing I am confident this method works well. More details further below.

 

[Foraven]

Hum... Something to check out.

 

[C8H10N4O2]

I'll try to remember to test this.

 

[DankHoneyOil]

I'll try to remember to test this.

Found a stoner. <3

 

[C8H10N4O2]

Found a stoner. <3

Hah, not that old, or that young.

 

[DemonicSanil]

Update:

The above mentioned method holds true and is consistently working for me. I used it twice to navigate into and out of zone 4 about 900 km away from origin. In one case I went out of ISAN distance and still found my way out of the belt easily.

It seems like all objects spawned from the inventory show this behavior. Every unsymmetrical object can thus be used to determine direction, once you know in which orientation it spawns. The crosshair is my object of choice to navigate into and out of the belt, because it is small, gives (only) information about the Y - axis and is quick and easy to use. Fuel rods can be used as well and are objects that basically everyone has acess to all the time. They're just a little big and less handy.

One object that is unsymmetrical in all directions (and thus gives detailed information about all three axis) is a YOLOL - Chip:
- The display faces the planet (-Z), the back faces the belt (+Z)
- If you face the display the lock points toward -Y (up), the text towards +Y (down)
- The direction of reading is +X (right).

For reference see the two pictures. Sorry for the poor marking in the pictures.

Safe mining and never get lost again.

 

[Daddystu]

Maybe we could pull this location info from devices and use it to form a map. Maybe have a rangefinder pulsing in each of the 3 directions. Only pulsing when the ship is rotated to precisely their direction. Something to think about. Good spot.

 

[Brain]

how do you spawn something at random? When i pull something up in my inventory it spawns where my hands are at.

 

[DemonicSanil]

how do you spawn something at random? When i pull something up in my inventory it spawns where my hands are at.

Exactly. You pull it out of your inventory and it pops into existence close to you in a specific orientation.