Instrument Approach Procedures (IAP).

These are somewhat primitive since we’re pretty limited in navigation tech in the game right now, but these should be more or less accurate for those who want more of a flight sim experience.

These are called Quantum Beacon Approaches because they rely on having a spooled quantum drive, which allows you to see the waypoints.  There are 3 for New Babbage, Lorville and Orison, and one for Area 18, and are called QBA-X, QBA-Y and QBA-Z.  They’re intended to tie into the arrivals depicted on the Terminal Area Charts for each location.

There is also one for each outpost that has landing pads, all called QBA-A. Additional versions of approaches to each outpost might be added in the future, and existing ones will be revised if and when more navigational capabilities are added to the game.

These are non-precision approaches.  Without getting too technical, that means they’re designed to get you to a point close enough to the spaceport to see it and proceed visually from there.   A precision approach would guide you right to the spaceport, but since the quantum beacon is not at the spaceport there’s no way to be more accurate. These approaches utilize the city’s quantum beacon, OMs, other planetary quantum markers, or combinations thereof to define waypoints while maintaining certain altitudes to avoid hitting obstacles on the ground.

For outposts, the quantum beacon is at the outpost itself.

Do you need these? No.  They’re really just thought experiments at this point, but I wanted to put them together to see what they might look like in the Star Citizen world, and who knows, at some point if and when weather is introduced they might be more practical.

IAP Guide