I would love a NPC Helmsman
- Thread starter lysan
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How many FD devs went to Beagle Point by make thousands of manual jumps?
Like .. 5?
Not many. But their "likings" its not about how *they* play the game, its about how *their players* play the game.How many FD devs went to Beagle Point by make thousands of manual jumps?
They like that only very
You have to understand that ED is designed largely around "MP ladder" mechanics. They are everywhere, often cleverly disguised.
Devs are perfectly fine if *you* will find some task crazily menial/hard/impossible/not worth your time and won't to it.
They are fine with it as long as *someone* actually does it - so they can actually make them celebrity on social media.
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The aim is to make it fun, if it's not fun at least make it painless.
Let's look aside from exploration for a minute.
NPC Crew, you hire a Helmsman/woman, the job this person need to do is to follow the route you plot in the galaxy map, in the map
you even got refuel points, here the helmsman will inform you and disengage the function.
You will need to refuel and give the order to continue after the ship is refueled.
If ship is attacked, you will be asked to take command of the helm=automation terminates.
The Helmsman need a salary, they need to be skilled, and depending of how deep a gameplay mechanics you want, they can make mistakes based on = time at the helm, skill, ship conditions, module decade and so on.
No one is asking for a easy function, what I'm asking is to remove some of the grind so I can enjoy playing the game doing the things I enjoy doing in the game, jumping manually is not one of these things.
Overall, I like this idea.. The issue with NPC helmsman is we know how bad these can be and the fuel star dropout ideas won't work either as this is already bugged in game. I can hear the wails when someone walks away from their computer on to come back and find the rebuy screen...
I can also hear wails and see the mounds of salt by those who have found pressing the "J" button several thousand times to be challenging and skillful. They'll be extremely jealous of those who come after them who can get to those sweet screen shot places easier and in record time then they did.
Of course, I can also hear the ones who use it to demand a buff to the honking payouts as they skipped over hundreds of systems on there way to Beagle Point... [sour]
There is also a star jump mod, and it works, but FD didn't approve so i don't use it, I want this done the right way.
Jenner
I wish I was English like my hero Tj.
How many FD devs went to Beagle Point by make thousands of manual jumps?
Dev console for everyone!
It's less dull than pressing J a bunch of times and if you don't like it, don't use it. There is no good argument for not having an autopilot especially when we have one for cocking that nobody is complaining about.
Oh noes auto-docking! What next! Why not have the game auto fight and auto mine for you!
These are blatantly absurd counter points because nobody is even talking about that. How anyone thinks that having an autopilot will somehow mean it affects fighting as well just doesn't make sense.
Saying all that, an AP on it's own is still boring - it doesn't fix the issue that travel in ED is mind-numbing and it needs something to spice it up OR distract. Interior ships with walking could help with that. Being able to craft items on your ship to make parts (which could be skill based) so that you can affect repairs on your ship.
Got 30 minutes to get to system x? Why not eva and fix that thruster that makes your cockpit vibrate in such a way the bobble heads headbutt each other
additional: What a typo.... *facepalms*
How about a compromise solution; your first visit to destination X (inside or outside of the bubble) has to be done completely manually (plot route, jump, scoop etc). Your ship can then re-fly that route on autopilot in real-time assuming you have either sufficient fuel or a fuel scoop attached. If interdicted etc, autopilot disconnects.
As you manually fly more and more routes, some will inevitably intersect and form a web; the autopilot can then take you between destinations on your web.
As you manually fly more and more routes, some will inevitably intersect and form a web; the autopilot can then take you between destinations on your web.
I think the idea has merit, as with auto-jump you won't (well, shouldn't) get the opportunity to scan for stellar bodies etc etc. But I take your point, so maybe limit the number of sequential jump based on the skill of your NPC co-pilot - somewhere between 3 and 12 maybe?
Just a thought.
It would be fun to engage "full auto mode" and watch our ships battle each other, compete with each other and see who ends up as Master of the Universe after a week
But back to the OP's point, I suspect it will be inevitable eventually, that some kind of "take me to System ABC" will be introduced. The technology must be pretty much in the game already, with the AI able to go just about anywhere.
The hows can be sorted out, the whys is the point of this thread.
The aim is to remove grind mechanics from the game, (the whys)
How to actually do it (the hows)
I don't believe for one moment FDEV want to make a game that grind the heck out of its players.
Removing the grind mechanics and still keeping the scale of the game world should be the goal.
Even famous youtubers has raised this as an issue, because it is.
Not at all, under that logic you could just plot a route to Beagle Point or many other places of your choice.
Totally agree with that. I hope we're not talking about an auto-pilot that can simply fly the 20kly max route plot distance unattended because yeah, that would completely devalue the amazing sense and appreciation of scale that the ED galaxy gives us. I've been to Sag A* once. It was a hard slog and took 15 hrs of more or less constant jumping. It was a mentally gruelling journey and came with an ever growing sense of isolation and fearful sense of "oh my god ... I've got to do this all the way back again". But that's the point. Sag A (or Colonia or Beagle point or any of those other distant locations) have a strong sense of place for me. Without the arduous journey (i.e. if I could just leave the game running overnight and come back in the morning to find myself there) they'd be worthless.
Now, I also see a lot of people talking about something which checks you're not afk. This seems a bit like cruise control on a car. I hate cruise control! It makes the journey 10 times more boring than if I'm actually having to stear, even if it's just tiny course corrections (like we have now with each new star drop-in). I don't quite get what people want here to be honest. Do you want to read a book or watch a movie? Then why are you playing a video game ... go and read a book or watch a movie!
What I do like is Mengy's suggestion elsewhere of a hyperspace tunnel mini-game which can be played to extend the jump range, in theory almost indefinitely (subject to fuel). By all means add new gameplay elements to make travel more engaging and challenging, but don't for gods sake just make travelling long distances easy ... it's supposed to be a "loong looooong" way. That's the point.
Travel is not exploration. I don't "explore" every time I need to drive to my destination on the motorway.
I have to ask the question, why do you want this feature? The reason why it feels somewhat of an achievement to go to Colonia, Beagle Point etc, is the endurance needed. Auto-pilot trivialises all of this so now there really is no point in getting there, not only that but you essentially "feel" the galaxy as a smaller place.
Right, what's wrong with reductio ad absurdum?
The "advantage to be gained" is that only folks serious enough to spend the time to get to Beagle Point or Colonia actually get to GO to Beagle Point or Colonia. (...and I am NOT one of them). You can't just set your destination before you go to bed and then come back tomorrow (or later) and be at your chosen destination...
If everyone could get to Beagle Point by just asking to go to Beagle Point then it simply would not be any type of accomplishment. Why would you want to go to Beagle Point anyway unless it was some sort of an accomplishment that few have done?
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The absurdum part.