That surely is a weakness of underdeveloped exploration gameplay though? If the only gameplay in exploration is pointing at a jump vector and pressing J then it deserves to be removed. The interesting stuff in elite happens outside of supercruise/hyperspace (except marginally scoping). I'll take the stick when I'm in a fight, or if I think a fights about to start, to dock/land and so on. But that's the rest of the time I'd much rather be looking out the window (or better still the external camera), reading galnet, querying the local station about rumours and jobs or market trends, actually looking at the solar system screen which I never ever open currently. All sorts of things that are less boring than keeping my ship on course/speed.
Instant ship transfer is ok, but Auto pilot is not.
- Thread starter lysan
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Totally missed the point. I'm not telling anyone they're playing wrong.
I am saying that if the argument is : we need to reduce or eliminate anything that's repetitive and therefore "not fun," traveling in SC for 10 minutes watching the Elite Dangerous screen saver is something I could do without. And with Sandro saying that allowing ships with a 0.37 LY jump range to reach anywhere is desirable because it makes the game more accessible and doesn't delay gameplay, then this is where the game is heading.
If you want to reduce Exploration to one single aspect, we could do that to each aspect of the game. Auto-pilot would ask the ship to avoid the gravity well of a variety of stars, on it's own. Or, to avoid actually dropping in at the intermediate stars on a path. Both reduce the game to queues. No better than pressing "J". My stance is: Fly your ship.
For me there is a distinction between piloting and navigating.
Piloting is what you do when you're landing/taking off, fighting, racing, or generally faffing about with no real destination in mind.
Navigating is taking your ship from A->B for the sole purpose of reaching B.
To me navigating is incredibly boring, especially when your destination is 10's or 100's of thousands of ls away in supercruise. To me, that's not piloting.
If I was king of Elite, the Auto-Navigation Program (ANP) would execute planned A->B journeys in supercruise or system jumping. You still plan the route and waypoints (ie. Fuel Scooping or final approach to a planet/system), but the ANP would execute the plan and alert the pilot if things aren't going as planned (ie. interdictions). The pilot would still be responsible for combat, landing, etc, but the ANP would handle the minutia in between.
I know some disagree and maybe love what I call minutia, so the ANP would be purely optional of course.
Piloting is what you do when you're landing/taking off, fighting, racing, or generally faffing about with no real destination in mind.
Navigating is taking your ship from A->B for the sole purpose of reaching B.
To me navigating is incredibly boring, especially when your destination is 10's or 100's of thousands of ls away in supercruise. To me, that's not piloting.
If I was king of Elite, the Auto-Navigation Program (ANP) would execute planned A->B journeys in supercruise or system jumping. You still plan the route and waypoints (ie. Fuel Scooping or final approach to a planet/system), but the ANP would execute the plan and alert the pilot if things aren't going as planned (ie. interdictions). The pilot would still be responsible for combat, landing, etc, but the ANP would handle the minutia in between.
I know some disagree and maybe love what I call minutia, so the ANP would be purely optional of course.
Sure - FD have just minimized the Space part of this Space Pilot game, why not minimize the Pilot part as well.
Sock Puppet Approved!!
Sock Puppet Approved!!
No, your point wasn't missed. Problem was your point was going to an extreme example to argue against autopilot. Now this response we seem to have shifted subjects to ship transfer....? Are you and I debating the same thing here? Because my initial post was all about autopilot.
No other connection than it is a good time to bring it up again.
Look, Sandro said that they want to make the game more fun, so they introduced the ship transfer thingy. My question is, why can we have that and not the other? as many commanders has explained here, we need to remove the
repetitive gameplay in Elite. However we must do it in a way, so the game is kept intact in the spirit. The AutoPilot are 100% in spirit of the game, it will not make the game easier, just as the Docking computer is just a convenience equipment, not a game changer.
I want to travel a lot more in Elite, I want to be able to just go out there a see what there is, but the gameplay kill my enjoyment after pressing J the 200th time, it just do.
When I fly in FSX and need to cover 2000 miles, I also use an AutoPilot, it give me time to do other things and still enjoy my game session until I reach my destination airport.
I would like that in Elite too, and it would make me play the game even more.
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There are no Piloting in pressing J 200 time mate, sorry but there simply isn't
Who would be responsible to redirect the ship out of the stars gravity well? Some stars have enormous gravity wells. Do you expect the ANP to avoid these? That is and should be part of Piloting your ship.
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Waypoints have been something players have wanted for a long time. Just this simple addition would make the game more engaging because I get to actively plan my travel through the Galaxy instead of the "plot course" feature. Like Mapquest, we should be able to adjust our plotted course to take in certain waypoints as we need or desire.
I am fairly convinced that an external basic supercruise autopilot/auto-steer (maybe auto disengage) tool is possible using the nav compass.
I've done a few early experiments - need more data to train the model but I reckon I can collect that fairly easily (if slowly since I have a job + stuff)
I've done a few early experiments - need more data to train the model but I reckon I can collect that fairly easily (if slowly since I have a job + stuff)
Agree, remove the boring part without removing the essence of the Galaxy = distance and time.
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Yes, if that is the case, you will get a warning and will need to take control.
No other connection than it is a good time to bring it up again.
Look, Sandro said that they want to make the game more fun, so they introduced the ship transfer thingy. My question is, why can we have that and not the other? as many commanders has explained here, we need to remove the
repetitive gameplay in Elite. However we must do it in a way, so the game is kept intact in the spirit. The AutoPilot are 100% in spirit of the game, it will not make the game easier, just as the Docking computer is just a convenience equipment, not a game changer.
I want to travel a lot more in Elite, I want to be able to just go out there a see what there is, but the gameplay kill my enjoyment after pressing J the 200th time, it just do.
When I fly in FSX and need to cover 2000 miles, I also use an AutoPilot, it give me time to do other things and still enjoy my game session until I reach my destination airport.
I would like that in Elite too, and it would make me play the game even more.
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There are no Piloting in pressing J 200 time mate, sorry but there simply isn't
If FD follow through their logic that only twitch gameplay matters then you may be correct.
While I feel ship transfer is good from a QOL point of view, making the game more accessable - I can't see any point in an autopilot, whatsoever.
Buy a racing game, hire a racing driver to drive for you.
Buy an FPS game, set an AI to play for you.
You wouldn't. I'm not "having a go" or anything but it makes me wonder why you would bother playing the game at all?
Buy a racing game, hire a racing driver to drive for you.
Buy an FPS game, set an AI to play for you.
You wouldn't. I'm not "having a go" or anything but it makes me wonder why you would bother playing the game at all?
The dropping in at a target star(s) offers a number of risks to the player. These risks should be the Pilots responsibility, not a computer, nor removed entirely. Because you have become accustomed to drill required at dropping in, you dismiss it. Something like "Familiarity breeds contempt". Pilots should have to fly the ships they are in.
In my opinion, the ANP would be responsible for efficient navigation, to include avoiding gravity wells. Veering slightly off course to avoid gravity wells is below the attention threshold for a pilot in my opinion.
Like I said, I know some truly love the things I find boring, and may Odin bless you for that
I would love the ANP to be very customize-able, so the pilot can choose many attention levels up to a certain point (that I mentioned in my above post) that the ANP would handle automatically.
Well, what would you say to people who love the previous versions of Elite that do have Autopilot?
In my opinion, the ANP would be responsible for efficient navigation, to include avoiding gravity wells. Veering slightly off course to avoid gravity wells is below the attention threshold for a pilot in my opinion.
Like I said, I know some truly love the things I find boring, and may Odin bless you for that
I agree, but if FD would want make so that you will need to manually steer around that will also do for me.
I am all for a more complex ANP / AP.
*rocks back and forth in the chair* This Instant Ship thing has not just unlocked pandora's box, but it's unlocked the can of worms, the garbage pail kids and the bottom of the barrel, and the portal to hell...
As an aside, autopilot should be a ship module, as a flat upgrade (and a moderately expensive one) to Docking computer, it should come in a variety of grades that allow for progressively more options (such as avoid specific systems/being better at dodging interdicting, etc), if you're going to automate flight, fine, but make it cohesive and an ingame thing.
As an aside, autopilot should be a ship module, as a flat upgrade (and a moderately expensive one) to Docking computer, it should come in a variety of grades that allow for progressively more options (such as avoid specific systems/being better at dodging interdicting, etc), if you're going to automate flight, fine, but make it cohesive and an ingame thing.
For the same reason I play flight simulators, because it's what is between all the boring stuff that is fun.
The same as it was a question. I never played the earlier titles so had no idea it was in there or how broadly it did or did not reach.