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

[Stealthie]

Indeed, although I'd feel a little cheated if they did that. The ships computer can take you 20,000 lrs away, but can't point you in the right direction when on a planet to anywhere other than a mere scattering of location types.

Meh,

That's where I think you do have to start being willing to accept a certain amount of "gamey" mechanics.

Thing is, it's all very well saying "it's built into a modern aircraft" but it's actually not.
The "brains" of the aircraft are all modular, in much the same way a few things in ED are.
Customers can pick and choose what instrument packages they want and the contractor fits them into the airframe to create the required specification.
When you use a flight-sim, what you're seeing is a simulation of an aircraft that's already been specced to include the features that are available.

ED works in a similar way except that it's the player's responsibility to fit the modules they want and, TBH, I'd like it if every ship had half a dozen C1 slots and there were a whole heap of avionics, instrument, science and weapon-control modules that could be fitted to enhance a ship's abilities in a variety of different ways depending on the intended role.
But I digress.

My only real point is that people are, undeniably, asking for a simpler way of doing something and, in almost all games, there's a penalty to be paid for choosing the simpler way of doing something.

 

[Genar-Hofoen]

Meh,

That's where I think you do have to start being willing to accept a certain amount of "gamey" mechanics.

Thing is, it's all very well saying "it's built into a modern aircraft" but it's actually not.
The "brains" of the aircraft are all modular, in much the same way a few things in ED are.
Customers can pick and choose what instrument packages they want and the contractor fits them into the airframe to create the required specification.
When you use a flight-sim, what you're seeing is a simulation of an aircraft that's already been specced to include the features that are available.

ED works in a similar way except that it's the player's responsibility to fit the modules they want and, TBH, I'd like it if every ship had half a dozen C1 slots and there were a whole heap of avionics, instrument, science and weapon-control modules that could be fitted to enhance a ship's abilities in a variety of different ways depending on the intended role.
But I digress.

My only real point is that people are, undeniably, asking for a simpler way of doing something and, in almost all games, there's a penalty to be paid for choosing the simpler way of doing something.

Going by what you've said, you must be absolutely horrified that when someone gets a planet surface scanning mission, a waypoint is created which the player can just fly straight to.

Maybe you could suggest to Frontier that they remove this functionality, and instead supply just a LAT/LON coordinate for the players to find?

 

[Stealthie]

Going by what you've said, you must be absolutely horrified that when someone gets a planet surface scanning mission, a waypoint is created which the player can just fly straight to.

Maybe you could suggest to Frontier that they remove this functionality, and instead supply just a LAT/LON coordinate for the players to find?

No, as I've repeatedly said, I'm almost always willing to accept compromise.

The idea that you'd have to find your way to a POI manually the first time and then, after scanning it, it's entered into your ship's computer so you can navigate straight back to it is another compromise that I've previously suggested in this very thread.

 

[Ouberos]

Just read your update OP, that was something I had been wondering too, thanks.

Also 163 commentators now. 161 of them seem in favour. Seems like a landslide to me.

 

[Genar-Hofoen]

No, as I've repeatedly said, I'm almost always willing to accept compromise.

The idea that you'd have to find your way to a POI manually the first time and then, after scanning it, it's entered into your ship's computer so you can navigate straight back to it is another compromise that I've previously suggested in this very thread.

As opposed to what I'm suggesting - which is to be able to type in a LAT/LON coordinate and have a single waypoint pop up, just exactly like the surface scan mission one does.

Which in my opinion is an idea far superior to yours. The bonus is, you have the choice of not using such if you don't wish to, so your conscience is clear, and those lightweight other CMDR's can use it if they so desire.

What's not to like?

 

[Stealthie]

As opposed to what I'm suggesting - which is to be able to type in a LAT/LON coordinate and have a single waypoint pop up, just exactly like the surface scan mission one does.

Which in my opinion is an idea far superior to yours. The bonus is, you have the choice of not using such if you don't wish to, so your conscience is clear, and those lightweight other CMDR's can use it if they so desire.

What's not to like?

What you're suggesting means that any lightweight can just type in a set of coordinates that they've got off the forum and get to a destination without having to make any effort.

And you're still apparently refusing to accept that there should be advantages to not doing things in the "lightweight" way.

 

[Ralph Vargr]

This kind of thread is the reason polls got eliminated, since Frontier would be crushed by at least 70/30.

There should be a software option in outfitting. Add to the base mass of the ship, for how much larger the ship's computer needs to be for the selected option. There you go. Choice. Performance vs. convenience.

 

[Kaocraft]

What you're suggesting means that any lightweight can just type in a set of coordinates that they've got off the forum and get to a destination without having to make any effort.

And you're still apparently refusing to accept that there should be advantages to not doing things in the "lightweight" way.

Surely the effort should be in discovering the site in the first place, not in the frustration of navigating to a given location with inadequate tools? I mean you can already get coordinates off the forums - does it mean that much to you that everyone knows how to use the infuriating lat/long and heading system?

 

[Zeeman]

This. A thousand times this.

The coordinates system is terrible game design.

Without wanting to sound like a troll... It's not a game design, it's how we navigate on this planet.

Having said that, agreed.A Planet is approached with no clue as to which are it's Northern and Southern poles, nor where the Eastern and Western hemispheres are located. Whilst compass navigation and co-ordinates are fairly easy for me, they are still tedious. It's not like you're going particularly fast in SC anymore

The ability to mark a co-ordinate for landing would be nice...

Z...

 

[Genar-Hofoen]

What you're suggesting means that any lightweight can just type in a set of coordinates that they've got off the forum and get to a destination without having to make any effort.

And you're still apparently refusing to accept that there should be advantages to not doing things in the "lightweight" way.

Once some site is discovered, LAT/LON coordinates are given anyway - exactly in the same way that a surface scan mission gives you those coordinates by giving you the actual waypoint to aim for.

It's not even a case of advantages or disadvantages here - there is absolutely no good reason to deny players a quality of life suggestion of letting them be able to type a set of known coordinates in and having such a waypoint pop up in a ship's HUD.

I'm honestly finding it very odd as to why this very simple thing is being objected to so strenuously!

 

[WR3ND]

I haven't really had much issue using the coordinates on world surfaces. Either way, being able to bookmark custom surface locations would certainly be nice. [up]

 

[Crank Larson]

I'm honestly finding it very odd as to why this very simple thing is being objected to so strenuously!

Only by one person, really. No-one else seems that bothered, or they support it.

 

[Stealthie]

Only by one person, really. No-one else seems that bothered, or they support it.

I'd suggest a more reasonable assumption might be that this is one of those cases where a lot of people feel like there's no point in trying to contradict a number of people who share an opinion.

Least, that's what I conclude from the dozens of rep's my posts in this thread have received.

Bear in mind, I'm not saying we shouldn't have improved surface navigation.
I'm all for surface POIs and guidance systems.
I just think that if we're to be given an assisted way of doing something in addition to an unassisted way of doing the same thing, there should be some penalty for adopting the assisted method.

 

[TinyPwny]

I just think that if we're to be given an assisted way of doing something in addition to an unassisted way of doing the same thing, there should be some penalty for adopting the assisted method.

Because everything that's easy, advanced or makes sense should have a penalty, right? Why not ask for the game to be renamed to Elite: Tedious...

 

[Stealthie]

Because everything that's easy, advanced or makes sense should have a penalty, right? Why not ask for the game to be renamed to Elite: Tedious...

It's probably not a good sign when you have to ignore almost everything that's already IN the game in order to try and justify wanting a particular thing to be the way you want it to be.

 

[Assimilator1]

Dear People Who Decide What Gets Done in Frontier,

Planetary navigation is terrible.

This becomes apparent when trying to reach a set of LAT/LON coordinates on a planet surface, when there is no waypoint (like in a surface recovery mission).

Try reaching a LAT/LON from space, to glide, to the surface. It is nigh on impossible.

Sure, we can get into Orbital Cruise, and we have a display of LAT/LON. But then you're trying to change direction of orbit relative to planet surface and the coords. Trying to get the coords to go up/down/positive/negative at just the correct rate so they will converge at the desired LAT/LON.

Then, even when you're getting close to the target, you have to try and judge the right moment when to come out of orbital cruise to glide down to the surface - you'll probably overshoot badly.

In short, this is a terrible experience.

So for 2.4 - please, please allocate some dev time to marking a surface waypoint we can target, by way of the 3D surface map in the System Map.

Please!?


UPDATE:

Agreed .

For now though I suggest you don't try to home in on both co-ords at the same time, e.g if you want 100 longitude, set your bearing to 90 (or 270) & SC until you get to ~98 long. then drop out of SC, then turn to set bearing for 0 if you want to head to latitude 0.xxx to 90, 180 for -0.xxx to -90, engage SC & go slightly either side of 180/0 to get dead onto the right longitude as you head towards your desired latitude, again drop out of SC ~2 deg before your target co-ords. With small bodies (400-1000 km radius) you'll want min throttle to just above min.

 

[GraXXoR]

So when was the last time that a discussion on the Dangerous discussions forum was replied to by FDEV and implemented in to the game?

 

[Genar-Hofoen]

Agreed .

For now though I suggest you don't try to home in on both co-ords at the same time, e.g if you want 100 longitude, set your bearing to 90 (or 270) & SC until you get to ~98 long. then drop out of SC, then turn to set bearing for 0 if you want to head to latitude 0.xxx to 90, 180 for -0.xxx to -90, engage SC & go slightly either side of 180/0 to get dead onto the right longitude as you head towards your desired latitude, again drop out of SC ~2 deg before your target co-ords. With small bodies (400-1000 km radius) you'll want min throttle to just above min.

Indeed. And had you have read through the thread you will have seen that these tips have already been provided - but that's not what the thread is about, it's about discussion of the addition of a simple input of lat/lon coords and having a waypoint appear in the HUD, in exactly the same way a waypoint appears when you get a surface scanning mission

Regards o7

 

[Genar-Hofoen]

It's probably not a good sign when you have to ignore almost everything that's already IN the game in order to try and justify wanting a particular thing to be the way you want it to be.

It's about adding a quality of life improvement. It's such a simple but awesome improvement as well - it removes nothing from your game, doesn't lessen the game in any way in fact.

It's even the most basic of functionality, available even in today's primitive technology. It's astounding that the small touches like this are never thought of when new features are added to the game.

What's dismaying, though, is the unfathomable resistance to something so blatantly and obviously an improvement to the enjoyment of playing the game, for a majority of players who would welcome such a simple addition to it.

 

[Stealthie]

It's about adding a quality of life improvement. It's such a simple but awesome improvement as well - it removes nothing from your game, doesn't lessen the game in any way in fact.

It's even the most basic of functionality, available even in today's primitive technology. It's astounding that the small touches like this are never thought of when new features are added to the game.

What's dismaying, though, is the unfathomable resistance to something so blatantly and obviously an improvement to the enjoyment of playing the game, for a majority of players who would welcome such a simple addition to it.

Well, yes.

And I've already suggested at least two ways it could be implemented while, at the same time, adhering to FDev's usual metric of forcing players to make choices as to their in-game priorities.

Meanwhile, you're just insisting there should be an easy way to do something and no down-side to it.

Maybe FDev will set aside their usual philosophy and implement this as you wish for but I suspect you'll have more luck framing your idea in a manner that coincides with the way almost everything else in the game works.