The Route planner discussion thread

[madmechanic4u]

awesome tool!!! thanks

 

[Naranek]

Hello community, I’ve developed a small application to search the shortest (or the most economic) route between two systems or search if a system exist in the database. This is the first version of the web and deploys part of the back end necessary for other future features (including trading tools, personal in-character data like faction alignment, in game events etc.). Without further delay, you can get it at:

www.elitedangerouscentral.com

amazing, thank you so much!

 

[Matt168]

That looks great. I don't mean to sound cruel here, but I just hope FD make all your hard work redundant in the next couple of weeks by adding something to the game. In the meantime I will definitely try using it to plot some long journeys. Thank you.

 

[bitstorm]

yeah that means you cannot reach it with that range. I'm goign to update it to show a warning in the next hours.

Oh are you saying that then program is saying it is not possible to go from Sol to Lave because one of the jumps required > 10LY?

 

[MolitovMichelle]

Thank you for this. Just what I have been looking for

 

[Hap]

Nice tool, well done!! +Rep

 

[CMDRKNac]

Oh are you saying that then program is saying it is not possible to go from Sol to Lave because one of the jumps required > 10LY?

Yes, correct. But it should give you a warning now saying what's going on instead of a list of one system, just changed it one hour ago

That looks great. I don't mean to sound cruel here, but I just hope FD make all your hard work redundant in the next couple of weeks by adding something to the game. In the meantime I will definitely try using it to plot some long journeys. Thank you.

I don't think the in-game route planer will cover long distances (currently it doesn't! the problem is that it doesn't 'rememeber' the route when you get out of the galaxy map, which sucks), for now. I don't think it will be all worthless because I need it for other parts of the app.

That said, I hope you are right! Something similar should be ingame.

 

[cmdrFox]

When the devs have implemented a route planner perhaps we could have automated mining, exploration, mission running and combat. I say no, no, no to the lets make it easy gang. Work out your own strategy to overcome the difficulties. It's what this game is about.

 

[Soliloquy]

When the devs have implemented a route planner perhaps we could have automated mining, exploration, mission running and combat. I say no, no, no to the lets make it easy gang. Work out your own strategy to overcome the difficulties. It's what this game is about.

Just to be clear, I think what most people are asking for is not automated travel of any form. Just better information handling in-game.

For example:
Go into Galaxy Map → click Create New Route and type in a route name → click a few systems to draw a polyline between them → next time you're in one of those systems and look at the Location list in the Navigation pane, next/previous system in each saved route are marked with route name and left/right arrow.

That's all.

 

[Woodsmoke]

Actually a sensible idea. Basically a GPS system for space that lays out a route from one place to the other, where you can add via destinations or avoid systems. I can't believe that navigation in the future is more simplistic than current navigation in cars...

Even let me create a route! so I can decide I'm heading here and have a list of my jump routes I've decided so once I rock up in a system I can select my next systemm from my pre created list. This system doesn't make the game easier just saves me going into the map system every jump, I can take a bit longer up front and done! and perhaps save my preferred routes!

 

[Hasmodai]

When the devs have implemented a route planner perhaps we could have automated mining, exploration, mission running and combat. I say no, no, no to the lets make it easy gang. Work out your own strategy to overcome the difficulties. It's what this game is about.

Being a old school Frontier player, I think many things are already dumbed down in ED. Flight model in combat and hiperdrive to navigate are easy when it should be tricky. And we should have auto pilot just like in the previous games. Manual navigating with this nanny system it´s boring when you play it for long preriods. So route planning it´s basic for today traveling for ships, trucks and even trains. It´s already stupid easy, just plain boring.

 

[llanelwy]

Okay, so I've seen about 30 or so gameplay videos of Elite Dangerous so far (if not more). Unfortunately I jumped onto the game wagon a day late (literally one day after beta access ceased) so I haven't gotten to enjoy the full game yet (Money issues suck like that).

Anyway...
In the duration of everything I've seen, I have seen numerous people (Scott Manley included) complain, with varying degrees, about the galaxy map in one way or another.

I mean, I get it. The Galaxy map is beautiful, and you want to show it off. That's fine. Go right ahead. Here is all I'm asking for:

I want a route planner. A system created for use in the game in order to plot out exactly which systems you want to visit in which order all at one time so you don't have to constantly open and close the galaxy map between every system. Instead, you select a system, click add to queue, and it's added. It calculates the current distance you are away from that system and how far away it is from the last system in your queue so you still get the necessary information on whether or not you can even reach it. Then, after warping to a new system, the next system in the queue is visible on your left panel to select and lock destination, rather than having to pull up the whole galaxy map after every jump.

I think this would probably solve one of the biggest headaches in the game right now, which is selecting a destination from the galaxy map, hyper spacing in, having to pull up and reorient the galaxy map again, select the next destination, close the galaxy map, and do it all over again for 20+ jumps until you reach your destination for long hauls. You know where you're going at all times. You can dock anywhere you want along the way, and it saves you the mentioned hassle.

This is by no means automation. It's simply ease of access. I would like to know your thoughts on the idea, which I'm sure has been mentioned before.

I really like the idea. (admittedly i have not played yet waiting for 16th. But from the video's i have seen. This would be a very useful feature.

 

[MarkSC]

This has been requested numerous times and is popular with the forum but, so far, the developers have not responded. Same with the captain's log request, which is another missing feature that is crucial in a game like ED.

 

[Mysturji]

I'm sure we'll eventually be able to buy a navigational computer for probably around 1.5 million Cr.

 

[Kovac]

+1 to the route planning idea.

 

[Gorodd]

Try using http://tajti.co/elite/map/ its in early format stages as its been undergoing changes to keep up with development but its the best star chart for plotting courses so far bar none. I find it, as a visual representation of my current location indispensable.

Ab

Wow! that's a blinking handy route planning tool! many thanks for sharing - have some rep!!!

 

[Pennyblack]

Elite has one of the worse navigation interfaces ever. I wish they would give us more tools to help us through the maze of stars. Even the old sub sim games had rulers and course plotting; waypoint management. FD need to add more content to navigation to make it more useable for players. Relying on external apps shows just how bad it actually is.
The black cartographers box is a constant hindrance. There should be a check box we can click to AUTOHIDE this monstrosity. By moving the curser to the left side of the screen it should slide out to reveal itself like windows task bar.
.
Navigation sucks in Elite Dangerous. It takes the enjoyment out of exploration. -1000 rep for the programmers.

 

[Hydrino]

It was on the list a long time ago. It is just up to the Devs to prioritise it. I think based on number of posts and Dev responses that basic things like "Wings" and navigation will be the first enhancements post-release. Sandro Sammarco has confirmed this for "Wings" or co-op play enhancements and missions.

First link for sure. Second also mentions some route-planning automation in Hyperdrive spool-up.
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=6089
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5443
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5143
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4044

You may want to post on the DDA thread on Hyperspace, link above, where this was first discussed and green-lighted as a development goal. Note that the DDA is not a list of "promises" just targets for development. All plans change when the coding starts and all heck breaks loose.

 

[Some Useless Geek]

Of course this is a basic necessity that is missing from this game. Instead, enjoy the fully rendered trip up and down the elevator when the station -- or even wide open platform -- turns you around so you can exit. Instead of having something as simple as a ship master's log to take down notes we have beautiful planets, whose details are apparently loaded when you get close to them, thusly necessitating the stuttering hesitation of your view updates. Don't worry about not being able to record the cost of all the commodities you looked at when you arrived at a station; you can always go back there and look at them again.

This game is so full of game play issues that I'm surprised it has gotten this far. E: D could be a real hit, but if it gets launched like this it'll end up being a horrid flop.

 

[Captain Zoe E Summers]

- Merge Threads

Can you automatically ( or give us a slider on the sidebar at least ) to fade out all the star names to say 60% alpha, so that the star names on the route stand out?

I just had a 20 leg route I had to plot, and it was very confusing which star names were which from a 'route overview' because names over lapped and were the same degree of alpha as the ones I was really interested in.