Quality of Life Improvement: Input LAT/LON Co-ords and have a Surface Waypoint appear, similar to the surface scan mission Waypoint.

[Ralph Vargr]

Now, such functionality is built into every glass-cockpit airplane in the world.

Which means, just about everything other than an ultra-light.

US Vehicles now have backup cameras as standard equipment. The list of existing things that Frontier could easily do goes on, and, on.....

 

[Genar-Hofoen]

Now, such functionality is built into every glass-cockpit airplane in the world.

Which means, just about everything other than an ultra-light.

US Vehicles now have backup cameras as standard equipment. The list of existing things that Frontier could easily do goes on, and, on.....

Indeed.

Asking for a way to mark a waypoint by manually inputting just even one LAT/LON coordinate would be a fine start, and as outlined earlier could very much make use of already-available in-game mechanics.

 

[Spacegamejunkie]

Like, all other Frontier "features"?

Question: Is the definition of "features" equal to the definition of "Grind" ?

 

[Ralph Vargr]

Indeed.

Asking for a way to mark a waypoint by manually inputting just even one LAT/LON coordinate would be a fine start, and as outlined earlier could very much make use of already-available in-game mechanics.

That's why we have MGRS...

I wonder if Frontier could explain a rhumb line?

 

[Genar-Hofoen]

That's why we have MGRS...

I wonder if Frontier could explain a rhumb line?

Well I'm pretty sure they already know of these things, after all, they do plot latitude and longitude lines on the unscanned planet sphere. They already know how to figure out a planet's north & south, and you are supplied with LAT/LON coords whilst in flight and on the ground in a SRV.

They just need to go that one little step further and allow us to type in juuuust one LAT/LON coordinate and mark a waypoint

Bookmarks come later

 

[Ralph Vargr]

Well I'm pretty sure they already know of these things, after all, they do plot latitude and longitude lines on the unscanned planet sphere. They already know how to figure out a planet's north & south, and you are supplied with LAT/LON coords whilst in flight and on the ground in a SRV.

They just need to go that one little step further and allow us to type in juuuust one LAT/LON coordinate and mark a waypoint

Bookmarks come later

Yes, but what about astrolabes, and sextants, and Harrison Chronometers?

The way Frontier handles things, they might think Gnomic Charts were made by gnomes.

Those of us old guys who had to navigate, for real, are not amused by Frontier's reluctance to make life better for everyone. I'll bet there are distortions from those planet maps, since nobody distinguishes between Mercator, Gnomic, equal area representations, conic sections, etc, etc...

Even MGRS has problems with polar regions. They spent too much time at The Dwellers' Black Hide, I think.

 

[Leo Sagan]

The way Frontier handles things, they might think Gnomic Charts were made by gnomes.

Those of us old guys who had to navigate, for real, are not amused by Frontier's reluctance to make life better for everyone. I'll bet there are distortions from those planet maps, since nobody distinguishes between Mercator, Gnomic, equal area representations, conic sections, etc, etc...

When even Ralph complains about something, you know there's a real frakking problem. FD, do we really need to start getting angry before you decide to shake ya booty and start working on some kind of semi-half-decent surface navigation tool ?

Not meaning to be pushy here lads but *seriously* this is becoming increasingly hard to defend you on this one.

I mean, GPS for Christ sake, GPS !!!!

 

[rrobes]

The game already computes current location instantly and can bring your dismissed ship right to you from orbit.

Being unable to set a navigation point on a planet surface is just one of the "hidden" time grinds that need to be eliminated, it is overdue for a change.

 

[Ouberos]

This thread has got quite long hasn't it? There has been official Frontier responses on threads with fewer participants and fewer comments but not many bigger threads go unanswered.

Today is a UK bank holiday so it's unlikely anyone will do so today but I guess if it's still floating corpse like on the surface tomorrow they might do.

It really does need an answer at least

 

[Yure]

Skill? Its a tedious placeholder that I hope will be improved soon TM.

What's even worse is that people think they are more skilled by navigating archaic style. Many of us know how to use the coordinate system, it a just easier to pick a spot and fly to it. It's also easier to pop up ed bearing and put in coordinates and let the page do the guess work.

In other words the game is encouraging third party program use... Which is a slippery slope as it is a vulnerability that could cripple the community.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

Frontier *wants* a third party to do the work for them.

 

[Yure]

Frontier *wants* a third party to do the work for them.

You know if that were true though, they would be all about player submitted ship kits, paint jobs, and outfits. This worked very well for Sony during Planetside 2. Literally players did the work submitted it. If it got approved Sony sold it to other players.

 

[Genar-Hofoen]

Frontier *wants* a third party to do the work for them.

That's not gonna happen easily unless there's some kind of live data stream with LAT/LON coordinates, emanating from the game client.

Someone very clever has managed to write a live updating LAT/LON application, which is awesome, but it's achieved using OCR and reading the numbers from continuous screenshots of the game. Again, very clever, and I was thinking about doing it that way a year ago for my app, but never bothered because this is something the game should naturally provide.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

That's not gonna happen easily unless there's some kind of live data stream with LAT/LON coordinates, emanating from the game client.

Someone very clever has managed to write a live updating LAT/LON application, which is awesome, but it's achieved using OCR and reading the numbers from continuous screenshots of the game. Again, very clever, and I was thinking about doing it that way a year ago for my app, but never bothered because this is something the game should naturally provide.

Ouch. Convoluted. OCR is not 100% reliable.

 

[Genar-Hofoen]

Ouch. Convoluted. OCR is not 100% reliable.

Yes it's convoluted, but currently necessary, because the game doesn't provide a live LAT/LON stream, and the only other way to obtain those numbers would be to read them directly from game memory, which is a gargantuan no-no for Frontier.

So the only legal way to do it currently is constant screenshot + OCR :/

 

[Khelder]

Frontier *wants* a third party to do the work for them.

They weren't too keen on my effort.

 

[East Riding]

........................

 

[Oaktree]

I have a friend who gave up playing Elite because of this. When the first Guardian Ruins were discovered, we both went there to check them out. I gave him the coordinates. I was lucky to get to the right LAT/LON at first time. He wasnt. He was so frustrated and ranted so much, that how could a 34th century ship computer be incapable to pinpoint some coordinates, that he stoped playing a few days later.

Lost him forever in the void...

 

[Tacyon]

A while ago I'd put in a feature request for just this function inside the "navigation" panel on the left. [Check out my previous post]


Basically this -> Surface navigation computer.


Input target LAT/LON info and it generates a heading caret on the compass in ship and SRV. Or if still in orbit/glide, it generates a target circle like we currently have for surfaces bases.
Until then. there's this -> http://edbearingcalc.neocities.org/


The advantage of being "built in" is that your present LAN/LON would already be known to the Surface Nav Comp and you'd simply enter your target (where you want to end up) LAT/LON in two fields and a direction caret would appear on your compass indicator. Your vector would also then be updated live. Logical to include a "Distance to waypoint"

 

[dognosh]

Well FD are going on about a QOL release, surely this qualifies ?