I never knew this (read the mission descripiton...). Thanks man.
Really?! Just now?... I've been flabbergasted by the lack of coherent in-game communiqués since launch.
A Message To Elite Dangerous Developers
- Thread starter Hat Man
- Start date
That's something I forget to talk about in the OP as well. Time limits should only be used on missions that need them.
Actually, no, they should have a condition failure instead. An "if then" statement. If you take so long to complete a mission that the condition that spawned the mission in the first place changes, then that mission should fail. If you don't get the food to the starving colony before they either starve to death or recover, then you fail. If you don't kill that guy before someone else does, then you fail... Etc. These condition changes could take weeks or months to happen... Or hours... Arbitrary time limits however, make no logical sense.
And there are some missions that frankly, DON'T MATTER, as you said... Do you really think the federation cares if Bob the underwater basket weaver sees the core in under a month?.... NO. Nobody cares. It has zero impact on which faction is in charge.
@Vasea Azure
Precisely. You explore to look at planets, not play a minigame that's more annoying than fun. And if you've played for 1000 hours, then as a catpain of presumably, a large multi crew ship, there is no logical reason why you haven't earned the right to delegate that task to a hired subordinate, or a 4 function calculator.
@AlexAndTheDJ
Well, if you'd actually read it, then you'd know that I attempt to make suggestions that would appeal to EVERYBODY. Not just me. Suggestions for OPTIONS. Suggestions for gameplay mechanics that put players in control of how far they want to push themselves, and how much they want to challenge themselves.
... I most certainly do NOT want a game tailored for me. That would be a game with very few fans indeed. And if I did, then I'd go learn programming, I wouldn't demand that Devs of other games bend to my every whim.
Hello commander Ultra,
I do respect explorers, I kind of admire their endurance - scoop, honk, point to next system, press J... repeated thousands and thousands of times...
But this certainly is one of the tedious and boring tasks for me... I would much rather do other things ingame, while autopilot or rather my NPC copilot does this task for me... Read galnet? Plan the route? Study the sysmap if there is anything interesting (during scooping and basic navigation being performed by the NPC copilot / autopilot)? Pick your thing...
I want to be COMMANDER, not just a pilot...
NPCs can be quite capable in combat allready... When you are in a SLF and your NPC crew is at the helm, they are quite good at killing opponents...
If you compare this to the jumping argument against autopilot, why hasnt SLF ruined the gameplay for all combat oriented players?
As many people like to say (and I really do not like this silly argument): if you dont like it, you dont have to use the autopilot function ;-)
Karlos
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Exactly.
Personally, I haven't even touched the docking computer. I like trying to see how fast I can put my ship on the deck without crashing it or damaging it.
... I'm not going to say other people who UNDERSTANDABLY would find a repetitive task like docking to be not worth their time, that they shouldn't be allowed to automate that menial task with a PURELY OPTIONAL docking computer... The docking computer hasn't ruined the game?... Has it? How does another player using a docking computer affect my game-play? Nobody's forcing ME to use the docking computer. If they did, then yeah, I'd be mad, but they're not.
The only arguments I've seen thus far for not having an autopilot is that a.) it wouldn't be an issue if interstellar flight were more interesting... Which I agree with, or b.) I like jumping... K... then don't use it, or c.) I suffer through it, so you have to as well. It's a challenge that... Discourages players from explor- wait WHAT? What the actual hell, this is a game who's biggest advantage IS exploring, why should it be made so unavailable so only those who wouldn't off themselves after pressing J so many times can do it? If you want to make exploration hard, then make it a CHALLENGE... don't make it so repetitive that it bores people out of it. This game needs a learning curve, not a patience curve.
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HEY WHOOA THERE, I don't know about you, but I paid Hard Earned Money for this Game, And the Devs DO OWE ME SOMETHING !!!
They Owe me a Game that I enjoy playing, Just like all others who put their money and faith in them to deliver.
I deserve the same as you or any other player here, and any Publisher or Game company who does not understand that,
will not be around long.
The only reason I am playing this game is because I am Enjoying doing so, When that changes, I will stop.
I am not a Slave and NO ONE will ever make me one.
Surely you can do this already in game. You don't need an autopilot. You can point your ship at the destination and then catch up on galnet anyway, or are you talking about hyperjumping in autopilot? If so does that include fuel scooping as well? If so with the new update to the galaxy map, you can plot your route of 10,000ly keep your computer on while at work, come back and you will be at your destination.
But surely you will want to scan the systems on the way, so does the autopilot do that? If so, what about scanning interesting planets, does it do that too. I mean what exactly is the point of an autopilot except it to be a quick travel/money making system when you are not actually in front of the computer or playing the game.
I am trying to understand what people want here, as to me, it's just no making any sense at the moment.
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...and here it comes: I hope one day, we will be able to disable a ship, board it, kill or capture commander and their crew and sell them on the nearest pirate outpost into slavery, keep or sell their ship.
The commander could then live through this story - wake up in a cell, do some things for his owner, escape, seek revenge
Happy dreaming to all! Karlos
I already adressed most of the questions you pose in the OP, such as what it should be capable of.
Furthermore, no, it's not supposed to turn this game into a farming simulator. I can see arguments for or against having one that does extra stuff, but for myself, ALL I'm interested in is automating hyperjumping, as that is the single most menial part about navigating in this game. Anything else extra is gravy, but not entirely necessary.
No, it shouldn't be something that allows you to walk away for hours or days. Maybe make multitasking easier, like reading, watching videos, or checking the map or galnet, but not REPLACE the player. Furthermore, there should be reasons to not use one, like saving power consumption, mass, and money.
The single biggest balance I could see is that autopilots make the ship susceptible to things like interdictions (or if the interstellar interactivity suggestion I made is implemented, then perhaps it could have a higher chance of failure than a human pilot). Basically, it should be made such that there's always a reason for the player to BE there. If an interdiction happens, for example, then the player can take over and handle it personally. On these long flights, then the pilot should at least have the option of being there more in a monitoring capacity, rather than participating in unending repetitive menial tasks.
Look, how would you feel about yourself if you tried to leave your game running for 8 hours while you went to work, on autopilot, and then came home to a ship that was destroyed because some pirate managed to catch you.
... You'd probably see that, no idiot, the ship still needs a pilot, and you should still be at least present. Otherwise, you lose your ship, and you fail your mission. It's not an "I win" button, lesson learned.
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OK. I will try to be more specific:
I imagine, that I plan the route.
Then I give an order to my NPC pilot - go to the route destination.
NPC pilot is able to perform fuel scooping, turning to the next system and jumping, commander should be able to specify, if he wishes to scoop everytime or only when fuel hits 30% etc...
NPC pilot is able to handle interdiction - fail it 99% of occurences ;-)
In the meantime (my NPC pilot is piloting now) I can read galnet, study the sysmap, study the galmap, do synthesis, manage power priorities, chat with friends, ... I dunno anything else but SCOOP, POINT, PRESS J !!!
<waaay in the future> I walk into the observation deck and enjoy the views, while the NPC pilot is doing his task (piloting the ship to the destination), on the way I inspect the cargo, have a chat with my crew, see if there is everything allright on the passenger deck, pay a visit to the science officer and give him orders to concentrate his research on the third artefact we have picked up a week ago on a strange moon in the Weirdname system...</waaay in the future>
If something special happens (interdiction, no scoopable star on the next jump and fuel on 30% etc...), my NPC pilot tells me what has happened and I take over the controls.
Well something like that...
Karlos
I always thought "Commander" meant you had someone to command, Otherwise your just a Pilot or Grunt.
Whats the point of being a Commander, if you have no one to command ?
Whats the point of being a Commander, if you have no one to command ?
Starmade has this problem a bit. I'm not sure if they added autopilot blocks in the game yet. Last I played, they at least had AI blocks for drones.
That game, unlike this game, does have space legs. You can walk around the pretty ship that you built... Or you can fly it to the destination... But you can't really do both. You can't chill out in the observatory or garden you put effort into making, and watch the stars go by. Instead, you have to micromanage every little thing when frankly, you'd be better off if you could save your concentration for those moments when your presence really is required, like when you get jumped by pirates.
This isn't your fast paced combat shooter like that new Eve game. You're not in the same few cubic kilometers all the time, constantly duking it out with foes... This is a slow paced simulator, and if it's to be one, then it should include at least some tools to streamline your journeys... Otherwise it demands too much attention to too little problems.
And this game does already have content in it you'd be better spending your time on during those moments. I haven't been checking for cool planets, because if I'm just trying to get from point A to point B, then I'd rather honk and scoot... If I had something honking and scooting for me, then I could look at the system map during that time, and cancel the jump if anything piques my interest.
Is this for exploring or when in the bubble. When in the bubble, surely there isn't that much jumping anyway, so I can't really see that as a major issue. If you are exploring, surely you want to scan the system before leaving to see if there is anything you want to do in said system anyway, therefore wouldn't you be needed at the helm at every jump?
I'm pretty sure he wants the NPC to scan the system as well. Maybe the NPC to alert the Cmdr if any earthlikes are present otherwise the NPC will just move on.
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Yes. That's another thing that would require your presence (as in, not walking away from the computer for hours on end).
Yes, you can stop and look, but since you can't look at the map and navigate the ship at the same time, it wastes time. If something were honking and jumping for you, then you could use THAT time to look at the system map... That's probably what I'd most want to do with it.
In the bubble, I probably wouldn't even use autopilot for anything under a few hundred light years, as I'd be less likely to get jumped flying manually.
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If it's a separate module, then I'd like that to be something to "upgrade" to. Basically, it would be an autopilot with extra goodies like notifications of cool planets or points of interest left by previous travellers, but at the expense of increased mass and power consumption, and cost.
Like I said in the OP, a lowly 1E autopilot could handle hyper jumps, while a 1A could handle a lot more. By the time you get to the point where you'd be considering putting something as expensive as a 1A module in your ship, you've probably already got more than enough experience with menial tasks, and have an end game ship that can handle the mass, power, and cost of it, and have probably earned the right to delegate at least some of them to a basic AI.
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I think it would assist me in finding planets that are actually worth stopping for and looking at.
Furthermore, like I said, this game needs a learning curve, or a difficulty curve... not a patience curve. If exploration, in your opinion, becomes nothing without this simple menial task... Then what was it to begin with? If exploration is nothing without this... Then it might as well be nothing. Then it NEEDS something else. Not this, something else, something to make exploration engaging and dangerous.
also, again... IF YOU DON'T LIKE IT, THEN DON'T USE IT. If it turns exploration into nothing for you, THEN DON'T USE IT. It wouldn't turn exploration into nothing for ME, I want to explore to find cool planets to land on or look at, not mash J.
Just by adding another Slot on Ships, for this module, would give those who don't want to use it, an Extra Slot for something else.
A Win Win for everyone for doing this.