QoL that would make some of grindy mechanics go away.

[lysan]

I've written about this many times, and I'm pretty sure everyone got an opinion on the subject, that is why I write it in suggestions because
that is where it belongs.

• A hyperspace journey may comprise of a number of jumps depending on the distance travelled

• When inputting a journey, there may be multiple routes available to choose from

• When the hyperdrive is engaged it begins to draw power from the ship’s power plant until it is fully charged:

The amount of time a hyperdrive takes to fully charge can vary according to power availability and the specification of the drive

• Once the drive is fully charged it activates and the ship enters hyperspace

• After a delay (a few seconds) the ship exits hyperspace at the destination area:

If the journey consists of more than one jump the hyperdrive automatically begins to charge for the next jump
The player can cancel the journey at this point

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4809
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=4809
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php?t=5443

As both FDEV knows and some of us in the community knows some of the mechanics was left out, in my humble opinion some of the best parts of the
hyper jumps was left out, multi sequence programmed jumps or autopilot for star jumps.

ED got a huge game world, 400.000.000.000 stars, that's a lot, and to get around in this huge world we can only use a manual way of travelling around.
i don't know why it is like this, however it really take my joy of playing away. I don't mind the distance, I don't mind the time, however I really feel the grinding
mechanics by doing the same steps over and over until I arrive at my destination.

In other open world games, you do have the possibility to even set a horse on autopilot, follow the road until you get to where you want to be. You can still
be attacked by bandits, still be attacked by wild animals and die if you don't act, however you don't need to micromanage the horse with WASD or Arrow up, down, left, right.

So here is my suggestion:

Helmsman/woman

The helmsman woman is hired just like the fighter pilot, he/she take a part of your salary and will control the ship on a set course, if you're interdicted, he/she will leave the helm and you need to take action.

Warning will be give if you're about to run out of fuel, thus you need to take action.

it could also be a module, that takes up space in your ship just like the DC.

This would make travelling around much more interesting and also make players want to do more than just jumping within 20 jumps.
From a logical POW, in 3304 I'm sure they still have a technology we already invented many years ago, like in the 1940's.

 

[Wyaston Hypatia]

I'd welcome the helmsman crew idea, but not the module. I would like it to be one of many roles you can have NPC crew for. Idealy there should be at least 4 different roles so that you can't have everything
I think it would also be an interesting mechanic if they came in different skill levels - time between jumps, chance of crashing into stars, cooking ship, etc. Do you hire a harmless one and train them up for a lower cost as per the fighter pilots, of go for the best you can afford?

 

[lysan]

I'd welcome the helmsman crew idea, but not the module. I would like it to be one of many roles you can have NPC crew for. Idealy there should be at least 4 different roles so that you can't have everything
I think it would also be an interesting mechanic if they came in different skill levels - time between jumps, chance of crashing into stars, cooking ship, etc. Do you hire a harmless one and train them up for a lower cost as per the fighter pilots, of go for the best you can afford?

I agree with that, however I won't say no to anything as long as we get the desired function, however a crew implementation would be number one.