Solar flyby

[NeuralKernel]

So I decided that now that I can more or less reliably scoop most gas giants that I'd see what the Sun looked like up close, not graphically so much as just to play around with a big gravity well and see what I can get away with.I'm still doing fine at the moment, flying above the surface of the sun at a distance (to the center I assume?) of about 700 000 km at over 400 kps and I just wondered what would be involved in making proximity to a star increase hull temp. I'm still dropping gradually, but I'd assume that there's no "atmosphere" on a star and even if there was it might fall victim to the same squashing effect as the Gas Giants have. It's been a long time and I never really played THAT much, but couldn't you scoop stars in the original games?Sure would make long range exploration easier, there isn't always a gas giant but there IS always a star...

[Geraldine]

In the original games, yes you could scoop stars. In the 1st Elite this was the only way of getting fuel besides buying it. In Elite 2 and 3 you could scoop stars as well as gas giants, but in the case of stars you also needed at least 1 shield generator as well as an atmospheric shield. Even so, you also had to keep a close watch on the cabin temperature in all the games. :sungum:

[fluffyfreak]

Yes, star scooping is an essential skill we should add back in. I should start teaching a C/C++ class to get you guys into it