Putting it bluntly: Styggron, ignore the green one.

ummmm ok

But I don't see why I should ignore the green one, this is what is targetted and where I have to go. ie barnard star orbital station.

With Robn's post my understanding is now

1. White frame of reference is the SYSTEM and in this case Barnards Star

2. Green is the object I have targetted. in reference to where barnards star is so when I enter the system white and green are in different positions

So if I make the SYSTEM frame the same as the object I target then the two markers should be the same which I believe is what Robn means.

Ok I'll see where to change the white one so it matches the green ie they both target an orbital station.

Sorry I might be a bit slow here....I guess I am not the right person to work on a quick start guide if I can't grasp such simple things. 🙁 I'll keep at it though.

When you hook the direction of the velocity vector of the target, the green marker will follow you, that is your sub system and the target sub system has become the same sub system, then when the green speed is 0 (zero) m/s you matched the velocity vector (speed and direction) of the target, but keep in mind the targed (ad you) always has a velocity vector respect to the whole system. So when you enter in a star system the probability your ship has the same speed and direction of the target you want to rich is close to zero, for that reason your green target point to the moon (in a wrong direction).

This is not always intuitive at very long distances and with slow velocity vector changes of the ship. And more, the direction of the green vector should be 'absolutized' when you and the target are in the same sub-system, i.e. if you match the direction of the target but your speed is less than the target speed, you should see the green target behind you, I guess it's always in front of you with a negative speed, I never tested (or not pay much attention, I go instinctive).

No. The white frame of reference is explicitly printed on the ship console. It's "system" only when you're far away from anything big.

All right, here's a simple experiment for you.

[*:ekv3736g]Start a new game in Sol.

[*:ekv3736g]Take off, and target the sun ("Sol").

[*:ekv3736g]Fly around gently. See the white diagonal speed marker? That's your direction of travel relative to Earth. See the green one? It's not moving much. It's your direction of travel relative to the sun, and shows that you, the Earth and everybody on it are moving at nearly 30km/s. That's Earth's orbit.

Same applies at space stations. If you're near one, the white marker shows your direction of travel relative to the space station. If you target the planet, you can see that the green marker is direction of your travel relative to the planet. If you target the space station, the green marker is on top of the white one, until you get far enough from the station that the planet becomes your current frame of reference.

Are you understanding this, or should I just make a video?

Thanks Brianetta. I'll be ok.

The white marker's reference changes as is shown on the console. Eventually the green and white align.

All I am not sure is why have the two moving markers.

1 is the target where you want to head to and how far away it is and the other changes as you have described.

You have two markers so that you can fly manually more effectively. If you take off from a planet's surface to fly to a space station in orbit above, you need to know your direction relative to that space station. There's no point just pointing towards it, because it's moving at a few km/s, and you'll end up flying a wasteful curve as you chase after it. So, by targeting it, the green indicator shows how you're actually moving from the station's point of view, while the white one still shows you your local speed and direction (which is handy, because it's relative to important and potentially dangerous things, like buildings, mountains and even the ground).

This is the thing with frames of reference. There's absolutely no way to say "this is your velocity, no arguments." All velocity (which is speed and direction, combined) is relative to something - or it's utterly meaningless.

More complication: The white one is the one that works with the speed you set in Set Speed mode, unless you selected your target while holding Ctrl down. Then the set speed mode works with the green one.

Another way to easily understand the green marker (when you are in the frame of the target object, i.e. bound to its gravity field) is while running on the horizon of a very massive planet (i.e. big gas giant). The green pointer is locked to your direction, the more you approaching the 'sourface' of the planet the more the gravity pull you down, you see the green marker slowly falling down toward the planet, the ship is falling on it too also if you face the ship far from planet. You can escape if your engines have enough power and accomodating current direction (don't turn back).

Thanks hcarinae and Brianetta,

I understand perfectly you need a frame of reference that part was never a problem.

Thank you both for your help

All I can say is when I fly manually I only use the green marker not the moving white one.

Whether that's a silly idea or not depends greatly on what you have selected as a target. If you start on Sol and target Jupiter, you'll find the green marker to be particularly useless for manual flight unless you're actually planning to head toward Jupiter. The white one is, however, very rarely useless.

Well, in manual flight I target a station I follow the green marker, I target a planet I follow the green marker, this is why I always follow the green marker. For a station it takes me right there, for a planet it takes me there for a base on the planet it takes me there so I only use that.

🙂

I read everything everyone wrote but the changing white marker just does not sit easily with me one day the light bulb moment will be there but for the present, the green seems to do everything I need when I target an object.

You follow the marker? Are you talking about the box-shaped marker, or the cross-shaped one? I only ask because I have not been talking about the box-shaped one at all.

I think the light bulb went on partly for me now.

The box marker is yet another green marker but as you said that is not the green cross hair marker. I am clearly confusing the two by referring them as the greet marker. The one I follow is the target box green marker.

Glad that's straightened out. (-: Yeah, the green box is always directly on top of the target (or, if you have docking clearance at your targeted station, your cleared bay).

Yes when I first target something I get no square if it is too far away so this is when I follow the GREEN target markers, then I get a green target box eventually and I fly toward that.

I have been trying to fly around here and there but found a lack of planetary stations and orbital stations to refuel so I usually get far out from sol then just have to exit the game as I have no hyperspace fuel to continue though.

brianetta, you could do me a favor (or someone else),

it would be nice if it would be possible to export all data of a chosen system (txt / table), because it makes it a lot easier to create "realistic" looking custom systems.

looks like i din't know how to start such a script, any ideas?

if you find a nice one with a new seed, you can use the data to rebuild it as custom system.

of course you can read out all needed data from the game, but thats periculous and boring, imo.

btw, i like the results i get with changing only the seed for a system.

of course i'm aware that the mass of the star wont fit to it's real mass, but it neither does it anyway when generated.

Sorry, Gernot, I don't know how to do that at all.

doesn't matters

this could be quite helpful one could go as far as creating several hundred custom systems