I would love a NPC Helmsman

[lysan]

If you don't like traveling much then don't. Most of the stuff needed for majority of gameplay can be found within a few jumps of a central location. Find location, stay there. When I watch space sci fi i never get the impression mega long space travel is fun or exciting but long and arduous, punctuated (now and then) with adventure and discovery.

Sadly I just do something else, like playing other games, games that actually challenge my time spent playing them

FSX - Autopilot Check
IL2 - Autopilot Check
ARMA - Autopilot Check
Rise of Flight - AutoPilot Check
Assassins Creed Origins - Auto Camel Check
DCS - Autopilot Check



When that is said and done, i still like ED, however my time spent in game is just less.

 

[777Driver]

Actually that you have to DRIVE a truck is REALISTIC, when trucks will be self-driving simulators will be different. But actually if you play at Flight Simulator you have autopilot and it is an on-board device with its own use that DO NOT BREAKS Flight Simulator because you have to deal with weather, other planes, control towers etc etc.

I have an autopilot on my Piper archer, primarily used in cruise. As far as commercial aircraft go, the point is to reduce workload, nothing to do with weather, you are not expected to handfly in cruise, in fact it is illegal in most place around the globe to hand fly in RVSM airspace (above 29,000ft) Again nothing to do with weather.

CATII & III approaches are flown in poor weather, this can either be flown manually (if equipped with a HUD) or fully automated with restrictions depending on the autopilots capability... Not that any of this has any bearing on pushing J a thousand times or nudging the stick 2 degrees to line up, that has more in common with Tesla Autopilots reducing workload for drivers.

 

[Riverside]

The intent behind current mechanic is to force you to actively fly the ship *all the travel time*.

Here you make a good point. I like driving, I own a car with a manual gearbox & frankly electric windows are a luxury in it. I love driving it on almost any roads in almost any car but if I'm on the motorway I'll use adaptive cruise control if the car has it. I'm still looking for danger, I'm still at the wheel but my leg doesn't get sore from holding it in postion over the throttle and frankly, motorways are the safest & most dull way to travel in a car. If I really want to press on I'll take control.

I'd be happy for a basic, slow & clunky autopilot that doesn't even scoop, where I need to be ready to take back control at any time. In Supercruise travelling to a dock or other destination I don't need an autopilot, I can just point the ship in the right direction & let go of the controls until it's time to slow down.

 

[lysan]

Well, I can't argue with that, you are preaching to the convert here
But I have the impression that FDev tries to make the "game they like". Not the "game that majority of players will like".

And yet they dedicated a whole year to fix stuff people complained about
and I agree it was a wise decision.

 

[Mengy]

Most players agree that currently travel is boring and monotonous. Yet many players agree that neutron jumping is much more fun. The difference is one of interactivity.

So, how to make jumping more fun and interactive? An autopilot simply automates the boring mechanic, what if we could instead make jumping and traveling much more interesting?

What if the tech broker offered a new utility module:

FSD Supercharger – This utility module uncaps the max fuel per jump limit of the FSD and changes how the FSD folds timespace. Instead of jumping the normal distance allowable with 5T of fuel, a ship with an FSD Supercharger installed would now use all of it’s fuel in one jump. It does this by using the FSD to open up a “hyperspace conduit”.

Instead of a normal jump where the player just watches the ship during hyperspace passively, this hyperspace conduit is an interactive version of it where the player must constantly fight the ship to keep the flight vector in the green zone. Very much like an interdiction event in the mechanics of it. The more fuel your ship has, the longer the conduit and the farther the ship can travel in one go. Say a ship can jump 40ly by the normal jump method and has a fuel tank large enough to do this 5 times. Using an FSD Supercharger the ship could make a single 200ly jump via this interactive hyperspace conduit. If the FSD is supercharged by a neutron star then the hyperspace conduit could allow 800ly travel in one go.

The conduit length is determined by how far you are jumping though. For example, a normal jump takes about 15 seconds, so a 200ly conduit for the above ship would mean you’d need to do the “green zone minigame” for over a minute, 75 seconds or 5 times the normal jump timeframe. Now, if you load a ship up with fuel tanks and plan to jump via very long conduits this time could greatly extend, making the green zone minigame quite a challenge to complete. And if you fail to keep the flight vector in the tunnel then the ship is dumped out to the nearest system along the flight path, suffering very extensive damage in the process.

The gist of the idea is to replace a lot of smaller boring monotonous jumps with one longer interactive version instead.

Just one idea to make travel more interesting and engaging.

 

[RidingTheFlow]

And yet they dedicated a whole year to fix stuff people complained about

It does not seem to me that they've fixed it in a fashion majority really wanted though.

Rather, as usual, they've cherry-picked feedback that matched their personal preferences and "fixed" stuff that way.

 

[Leo Sagan]

W3 got auto-follow-roads, Skyrim has auto-walk/run etc. I agree with the OP.

FD should give exploration some other gameplay features both interesting and challenging instead of just scan / jump ad nauseam ....
Yeah Q4, I know, I know ....

 

[wrmiller]

Sadly I just do something else, like playing other games, games that actually challenge my time spent playing them

FSX - Autopilot Check
IL2 - Autopilot Check
ARMA - Autopilot Check
Rise of Flight - AutoPilot Check
Assassins Creed Origins - Auto Camel Check
DCS - Autopilot Check



When that is said and done, i still like ED, however my time spent in game is just less.

Fired up DCS and find myself having to relearn how to fly a P51-D again. Spent too much of the last year with the goofy flight model in this game.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

how would you feel if we could trust an npc helmsperson to pilot for us following a set route .... but there is a chance of them making a mistake. - ie getting too close to a sun.

the reason for this is, a game which can play itself is not good game design imo.. (its a bit like the forza 3 autodrive feature.. total nonsense)

but autopilot with a chance of failure so we need to still be there or there abouts, i could live with, esp if in the future we ever have other stuff to do.....

i dunno. i guess i dont care really its probably not a feature i would use, BUT if it was implemented and IF it was 100% intervention free i kind of think FD may as well just sack up and implement fast travel, at least it will be kinder on the environment not wasting electricity.

 

[steevaavoo]

To be honest, they are not helping keeping they game fun.

I can garatie if this was implemented the majority of players would praise it to the heavens.

I would be among the players guaranteed to praise it to the heavens, Commander. A fine idea. And if I wanted to feel more involved, I would just not use it.

Bit like the Docking Computer. Sometimes I fit one when I'm doing loads of trading and docking over-and-over gets boring. Other times I don't, because I feel like docking.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

I would be among the players guaranteed to praise it to the heavens, Commander. A fine idea. And if I wanted to feel more involved, I would just not use it.

Bit like the Docking Computer. Sometimes I fit one when I'm doing loads of trading and docking over-and-over gets boring. Other times I don't, because I feel like docking.

but with the docking computer, you still have to keep half an eye on it, esp in open because other players can screw it up.

 

[Spook 00]

Here's an idea for you to think about. How about being able to plot routes from normal space through systems but using sling shots around planetary bodies. Too slow you say. well it might work if the time it took included time we are not in game. If you joined the game while on a route you would be a passenger but could choose to stop off at the point you were at.

Maybe this should be a new thread...hmm sorry

 

[lysan]

how would you feel if we could trust an npc helmsperson to pilot for us following a set route .... but there is a chance of them making a mistake. - ie getting too close to a sun.

the reason for this is, a game which can play itself is not good game design imo.. (its a bit like the forza 3 autodrive feature.. total nonsense)

but autopilot with a chance of failure so we need to still be there or there abouts, i could live with, esp if in the future we ever have other stuff to do.....

i dunno. i guess i dont care really its probably not a feature i would use, BUT if it was implemented and IF it was 100% intervention free i kind of think FD may as well just sack up and implement fast travel, at least it will be kinder on the environment not wasting electricity.

You know me, NPC crew was always something I would love to have, even if they make mistakes

 

[lysan]

I would be among the players guaranteed to praise it to the heavens, Commander. A fine idea. And if I wanted to feel more involved, I would just not use it.

Bit like the Docking Computer. Sometimes I fit one when I'm doing loads of trading and docking over-and-over gets boring. Other times I don't, because I feel like docking.

ED is a great game, with a few QoL features it could be the space game that ruled them all!

My list:

Better flight NAV mechanics, including planetary navigation.
NPC Crew, including a helmsman to babysit star jumps.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

You know me, NPC crew was always something I would love to have, even if they make mistakes

and we know FD.... if there are NPC crew they WILL make mistakes (but oh how i pine for them)

 

[Comandante]

I am not sure what you're suggesting they implement instead, but it would be cool if you could select a system at your maximum fuel distance, then enter a kind of mini-game like interdiction, where you 'guide' your ship following a target/cursor for a couple of minutes through hyperspace. So it would turn a 30 minute session to two, three or five minutes, for example.

 

[EUS]

In '14/'15 would have said "no way" to semi-automated travel, but I've done my fair share of exploring/travelling, and have changed my mind.
The current travel method is a simple are_you_awake_test.
There must be someone with creative juices to make this better, and no, I'm not talking about a punitive mechanic that makes your ship blow up, "just because".

 

[mojonaut]

Jumping wouldn't be so mind numbingly boring if every jump wasn't identical, currently the same visuals and audio, swish-woosh-sswish-woosh-der-dum-swish-woosh etc.....

It's an overused phrase but some sort of 'procedurally generated' visuals and sound, seeded from your current position so each jump looked and sounded different.

It would be a start, wouldn't diminish the time taken but you'd still have the sense of achievment when travelling out to the far reaches..

 

[S3B4ST13N]

Jumping wouldn't be so mind numbingly boring if every jump wasn't identical, currently the same visuals and audio, swish-woosh-sswish-woosh-der-dum-swish-woosh etc.....

It's an overused phrase but some sort of 'procedurally generated' visuals and sound, seeded from your current position so each jump looked and sounded different.

It would be a start, wouldn't diminish the time taken but you'd still have the sense of achievment when travelling out to the far reaches..

It would be cool if the game generated a "star scape" / "Witchspace" that took the stars around you into account to make it look like you were travelling at phenomenal speeds.

 

[777Driver]

In '14/'15 would have said "no way" to semi-automated travel, but I've done my fair share of exploring/travelling, and have changed my mind.
The current travel method is a simple are_you_awake_test.
There must be someone with creative juices to make this better, and no, I'm not talking about a punitive mechanic that makes your ship blow up, "just because".

Was always surprised that so many people where against a basic level of automation for long trips. The AFK issue can be easily resolved with a feature that has been around for decades, it is called "Pilot Response" if no input is detected for X minutes, a tone will sound, it will get louder. Any input is required, like checking the fuel page on the EICAS. If you are interacting with the aircraft as required, you'll never hear the tone.

Boeing put this in on long range aircraft where crew fatigue and or boredom lead to unwanted lapses of monitoring/concentration, this can be taken one step further, if a cmdr is AFK the cruise pilot could auto disconnect and drop the ship to normal space.


Edit- I'll just put this out there, a SC cruise mod already exists for ED, for obvious reason the author removed the mod from the forums, I'd say only a few people know where to find it. Doesn't work in VR, it works by reading the screen and looking for your hyperspace target.