"Lore" and "Canon" would have us believe that the supercruise slow-down close to "things" is about mass. But – I don't think it is. Take a look at the following:
- I am mass-locked by a capital class ship (like my carrier) up to about 7.5km away. Stations, too.
- but planets?! When I shoot up off a planet of any size, I lose the "mass lock" at 2km altitude. (Rings, too).
As if that's not enough… a destroyed ship in space is a small mass distributed over a large area. Usually with a USS associated with it.
- If I approach a USS without targeting it, it has ZERO effect on my SC velocity. NONE.
- Soon as I target it, the "mass effect" takes over and SC velocity gets throttled.
Looks to me like FDev came up with a "Lazy" explanation for why it's all set up the way it is… not even really trying to convince us? If it is the way it is because of mass, the implementation is VERY sloppy.
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/w31zs1/its_not_about_mass_is_it/
