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.

@xblackdogrunsx

13 күн бұрын

A thousand times yes

Achilles Corporation: A name you can trust with absolutely no hidden crippling weaknesses of any kind!

@LSCrazyCabCo

27 күн бұрын

bringing " WHOOSH " to an entirely new level

@ambientimpact

10 күн бұрын

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.

@thepathnotfound

26 күн бұрын

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?

@MrWepx-hy6sn

9 күн бұрын

@@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

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!

@marcmacinnis6610

28 күн бұрын

very much this.

@TheBuurPit

27 күн бұрын

Thank you, Father Bill :) o7

Agree! Can we please get some mats back from our old FSDs?!

@TheBuurPit

28 күн бұрын

☝️

@aitoluxd

28 күн бұрын

And more storage slots as well please.

@Seppleberry

27 күн бұрын

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?!

@adrianmaddocks3165

27 күн бұрын

Alternatively have SCO fitted to existing drives by purchasing an upgrade at a tech broker?

@Trooper10231

27 күн бұрын

This. I have 50+ ships in my fleet. Not wasting my time re-farming FSD mats.

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

@Odin314

27 күн бұрын

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.

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.

@alz722

27 күн бұрын

I thought that, too.

@darkseraph2009

27 күн бұрын

Agreed

Should have been in the game from day 1. What a quality of life update! Love it.

@HallyVee

10 күн бұрын

An enormous shift in design is the opposite of a quality of life update.

@nuggytube

10 күн бұрын

@@HallyVee all I see is positives from this change. What an overall improvement to the game.

@HallyVee

10 күн бұрын

@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.

SCO makes T9 cargo hauling vastly different

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’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.

@adamdiebold6412

28 күн бұрын

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.

@lanceobe6801

27 күн бұрын

They definitely need to implement headlook VR with the UI, I rarely exit my ship anymore because of that terrible grey room with the 2d screen....awful

@RusShiro

27 күн бұрын

I agree been hollering that since ground came

@simonwells4820

27 күн бұрын

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

27 күн бұрын

@@simonwells4820 I've always played in VR, infact Elite was the reason I bought a Oculus DK2 back in 2015. It's a shame FDev doesn't see it

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.

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.

I agree. The SCO is the very best thing to happen to Elite imo. Great video, keep it up!

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.

@Hermit2033

21 күн бұрын

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.

Indeed. This FSD SCO is a good present! Thanks FD.

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

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.

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.

6116 hours space trucking in elite dangerous , and listening to this video . supercruise overcharge might reallly speed up spacetrucking for me.

1:55 you missed a fantastic Space Balls reference opportunity. i'm excited about power play

@OivlisLHog

26 күн бұрын

haha, yes, ludicrous speed!

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.

hearing that titans might've came from Barnard's loop, gives me chills since i hung out there not too long ago

@mikedawe692

27 күн бұрын

You didn’t make a pass at one of the locals while you were there by any chance?

@odortona9913

26 күн бұрын

@@mikedawe692 i hear it was a bad neighborhood so i avoided :)

@mikedawe692

26 күн бұрын

@@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?

The SCO drive is incredibly fun, I really enjoy it. Ludicrous speed!

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 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.

They are GLORIOUS!!!

Exploration has never been this much fun. :D

Finally my morning coffee run to Hutton Orbital seems like less of a time waste.

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

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

I've upgraded all of my 33 fully engineered ships with the new drives.

@raghav1026

28 күн бұрын

My condolences. I did the same thing.

@Tepnox

28 күн бұрын

@@raghav1026 Now get back to the material grind you fools! ;D (I am in the same boat my friends - happy grinding)

A supercruise boost button?! Count me in! That sounds AMAZING!

You had me at treacle... Love the work guys as always!

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.

SCO brought me back

the nice part being its struck a good balance, it gives you speed but at a cost, its hard to control, hard to time and consumes fuel and creates heat, you dont get something for nothing.

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 absolutely love the SCO, it made everything (especially core mining) such a joy to do

@guhak

28 күн бұрын

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

@darthhunter69

27 күн бұрын

@@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

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 ! 😉

Great content as always. I love the new SCO, I think it's a huge improvement, and it's well implemented.

It gets me to my next kill more quickly, I love it ❤️😎👍

I've found myself engaged non-stop with the game after the SCO came out. Before, I always had Reddit or KZread 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.

I just hope AI pirates and overall interdiction gets new possibilities, too. As it stands now, SCO is just an "easy mode" button to delete pirate and interdiction threat, which is not all that great.

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.

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).

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.

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.

@HallyVee

10 күн бұрын

Kids won't appreciate that for many, many years.

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.

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

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 :)

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!

nicely done! :)

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

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!

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 :)

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!

@Garryck-1

27 күн бұрын

The 'micro jump' sound's like a great idea!

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.

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!

I agree. FDev added this feature in exactly the right way. I have to commend them. I just wish they would take a look at exploration/science, smuggling, scavenging, piracy and bounty hunting with the same creative eye. So much could be done to lift this game up to the next level. The fact that they have ignored this, is what made me stop playing 4 years ago, or is it 5?

It is been a long time since I’ve had as much fun in elite dangerous as I do when I’m blasting through a solar system at moderate risk to my ship

If players are bored with getting to a place in 8 minutes, they'll get bored with getting to it in 5 minutes. The problem is not the speed of getting to places. The problem is the lack of things to do during the journey. This is why ship interiors are needed - we need minigames - things to manually tweak in the ship, stuff to clean, components to upgrade, gadgets to make from raw materials that can be sold later, or maybe even just something as simple as playing chess against the ship's computer - something that takes time and is interesting, to take up our attention during the voyage.

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.

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

@HallyVee

10 күн бұрын

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 got one for my Keelback mat gathering ship, but haven't had time to play since then to try it out

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

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!

I personally don't care for them, and won't be using them outside some dicking around, because I like the journey. I like staring out into space and relaxing. I don't do PVP either. I guess im completely alone in this opinion though.

Currently im 40kly away from the nearest SCO selling station, but once i get back i will for sure get one for every single one of my 39 Ships and do the G5 grind again. Grind is fun!

I love elite dangerous and have played it for a long time but after watching this, I'm reminded of how many times i would just set my destination and then go make some food or take a shower or do laundry. I think the addition of this new mechanic is great but i would even say that they should make missions available from the engineers that make travel within a system a bit more close to the way that star citizen has it. Or make a way to manage other things while your waiting.

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.

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.

@HallyVee

10 күн бұрын

We'd say change not improve. Remember your preferences are your own.

Just deleted my old save game to start over, running a vulture with SCO FSD.... 17ly jump range ^^ makes Exofarming pretty easy ^^

Burr Pit with some "read between the lines" statements us old folks have known about for quite sometime. o7 Mr Burr. Well played.

Easily one of the coolest additions to Elite. Farming materials at signal sources is going to be way better now.

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.

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 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.

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

Of course installing it is a must, getting to those far stations (like 50.000Ls away and further) is certainly a pain. I even managed to fall asleep on a few of those trips, almost crashing against some planet or being interdicted midway.

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.

@Muirwen

28 күн бұрын

You can always call upon the Fuel Rats 😉

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.

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.

As someone who likes running missions, SCO made the game *so* much more fun. I'm a little disappointed that they already released A-class ones and made them engineerable, though. It was a good opportunity to start to undo some of the excesses that engineering brought to the game. Still, and excellent addition to gameplay!

Well said Burr! I agree 100%

I kinda feel a little bit proud being one of the two or three people in frontier forums brainstorming the features of what would become the sco. And the reason it happened was because I was ranting or joining a rant about supercruise travel being sometimes too long and boring, and we tried to come up with an idea that wouldn't be some kind of teleportation like many games do. Now the next question : should I include this in my set of EDRPG custom rules...? 😂 Now I can't say I'm excited at the prospect of seeing a focus on pvp, just like I was not about the focus on in-game events and storylines. I've always played Elite because it was a sandbox. I don't like online games when they work like television : you're assigned hours at which you must be around if you want to be part of any special events, just like when you had to be in front of your television at a specific time to watch a certain show. I hate that. That's partly why I play offline games or actual sandbox games, in which you're the one triggering events and having the fun you want when you're available for it. I don't need another job and artificial constraints (especially when I'm the one paying for it 😅)

I've fitted it to a couple of ships as a trial. But it's not bad, but not a earth shattering improvement though.

@Garryck-1

27 күн бұрын

Keep flying.. I have a feeling that in the long run, your opinion is going to change. o7

@HallyVee

10 күн бұрын

33+% is pretty earth shattering

Well. I exchanged my 5A FSD (grade 5 engi with mass tweak) on my 72ly explorer to a SCO (grade 4.3 engi with mass tweak) and that alone incrased my jump capability to 78ly, guessing 5 on engi would get it to 80ly. In other words - 8ly extra, just for changing it from old fsd to new. That itself makes it worth the change for my part. And i have changed most my ships to a SCO, and i will gladly do the grind for material to get them all to grade 5 again.

SCO is the new gold-standard for each of my ships. Currently hoarding my old fully engineered regular FSD's. I am hoping for a recycling feature coming in the future when they revisit the Engineering. I am a little upset that also the pre-engineered FSD's became obsolete overnight when the A-Class SCO FSD's were introduced.

@Trooper10231

27 күн бұрын

Power creep go buuurrrrrrrr! 😅

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 noticed u cant undersize FSD with an SCO boosted module. meaning in ships where u are completely maximizing speed and dont need to hyper jump, it is still worth using for example a 2d normal FSD, as opposed to the 4d SCO FSD for a size 4 FSD ship

Honestly, the only reason I ever got deep into ED is down to joining a player wing. Great group of people, lots of support/help with questions and missions to run around the political sim aspects and wars against other factions - all to give strong objectives to keep playing. It's quite sad there's been such a drop off (including me) and this largely seems behind us. Was involved with the mission to escort Salomi's one homie and I'm not sure if there's any glory days left

Should point out a A rated SCO with g5 range + mass manager has a higher range than v1 fsd and comes in all sizes.

Hey Buur, question. I love this game to bits, I really do, and for a long time I thought it would be my 'forever game', but I run out of things to do, to like, to engage in. Do you think ED will ever add more content in the way of things to actively chase or do? New vehicles, quests, missions, storylines...?

I am replacing all my fsd with the new one. I love the fsd and i find it useful when running cargo missions with a pirate hot on my heals.

[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 love the game and have put many thousands of hours into it and was in the top 200 on INARA for awhile. I've probably put in as much money as I have hours. But nowadays I just don't have the time anymore. Anything to give players back some of their time is a huge win imo. Now... about that material grind Frontier.

I can testify. Gathering mats in signal sources is much better.

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.