I would love a NPC Helmsman

[Muetdhiver]

I call them netflix runs but i get your meaning. Been there dond that.

I just wish exploration navigation felt more like the Magellan trip and less like an MSC cruise.

 

[Mr Jack Burton]

Why don't extend autopilot to the whole galaxy adding unexpected events (ship damage by usury, aliens, fuel scope planning, gravity fields etc etc) so when you engage the autopilot and leave your ship alone for taking a nap you get the risk of losing ship/data. In other games like X3:TC autopilot was risky and planning automatic trade routes was also complex and risky.

 

[GreyAreaUK]

Why don't extend autopilot to the whole galaxy adding unexpected events (ship damage by usury, aliens, fuel scope planning, gravity fields etc etc) so when you engage the autopilot and leave your ship alone for taking a nap you get the risk of losing ship/data. In other games like X3:TC autopilot was risky and planning automatic trade routes was also complex and risky.

Because that just makes it a roll of the dice when you can't even see the dice.

No thanks.

If you want your ship to fly you around the bubble, cool. If you want to venture out into the Big Bad Black then you're on your own.

 

[xzanfr]

If you're on autopilot jump, what are you going to do in the meantime?
If you're doing something else in the game then I can see a point, so if walking about comes to light then you fix systems etc.

If its watch netflix then you're not really playing the game, so might as well not bother.

 

[Kaltern]

Inventing 'things to do' during what amounts to being a loading screen is a complete waste of time. Jumps don't last long enough to DO anything, I'm reasonably convinced coding interactivity during a jump would be very technically challenging, and adding busywork just to give the illusion of interactivity is just a waste of everyone's time.

Any 'minigames' to improve jump distances should happen BEFORE a jump takes place, not during it.

Honestly, the weak arguments against autojumping are not very well thought out because it keeps coming back to the 'game playing itself'. Having the letter J pressed for you is NOT the game playing itself. Auto-refuelling, auto-Supercruise and Auto-Scanning systems would be examples of that - and none of these are even being considered.

You spend longer in SC than in Witchspace you know. Add interesting and fun things to do during those long treks to Hutton Orbital.

 

[wstephenson]

As a low-hanging fruit, I like Kaltern's idea of an 'Auto-J' solution. You still have to fly the ship, but the hyperdrive to the next routed system is automatically engaged when the nav target is centred and heat is below 60%. If the game detects a dead stick at this point, it drops you to normal space. More risk/reward while scooping would enhance the fly around time. Jumponium bubbles nestled in mass ejections to scoop?

The bigger ideas either have the problem of shrinking the galaxy by allowing instant travel over very large distances. The significance of remote locations is derived from the time taken to get there. Once they are reachable in an hour, that vanishes and the galaxy becomes a theme park, where 99% of it are fly over systems equivalent to those in the bubble but with less gameplay, and you can get the Sag A* and Beagle Point souvenirs in an afternoon.

Alternative ideas for completely autopiloted jumping in real time require replacement gameplay to be developed and that's a tall order to be engaging and varied for multi hour play sessions.

The activity I would start with is to allow us to manually create/edit nav routes, to do this without interruption during jumps, and to allow multicrew to do this. For example, to look for nearby neutron stars and pull the autopilot towards those, or just to detour to interesting looking multiples.

A second activity would be to be able to review and search through your own travel and exploration logs and statistics in more detail. Organise them into voyages, the number of stars scanned of each type, review astrotagged screenshots taken along the route, write log entries for remarkable systems. Features offered by third party sites to some extent. ED is a pretty frontend to a huge database, let's use that data more.

These support the existing gameplay style. Repair minigames may not be everyone's cup of tea. If all else fails, provide a library of in cockpit 2D arcade games within a game, for diversion while flying.

 

[GreyAreaUK]

As a low-hanging fruit, I like Kaltern's idea of an 'Auto-J' solution. You still have to fly the ship, but the hyperdrive to the next routed system is automatically engaged when the nav target is centred and heat is below 60%. If the game detects a dead stick at this point, it drops you to normal space.

You know what? I like that. You still have to be at the controls constantly, you can scoop or not as normal, the only thing you don't have to do is hit the button.

Yep, I'd go for that.

 

[Mr Jack Burton]

Because that just makes it a roll of the dice when you can't even see the dice.

No thanks.

If you want your ship to fly you around the bubble, cool. If you want to venture out into the Big Bad Black then you're on your own.

Simulation to be realistic has to be based on dice rolls you do not see, and exploration is dangerous because of unexpected events, otherwise it would be simpler in real world to take off for a human mission on mars. It would be enough to have Netflix on board.

 

[GreyAreaUK]

Simulation to be realistic has to be based to dice rolls you do not see, and exploration is dangerous because of unexpected events otherwise, it would be simpler in real world to take off for a human mission on mars. It would be enough to have Netflix on board.

Exploration (as it currently stands) is about stick-with-it-ness. Being able to target Beagle Point or Sag A and have the ship take you there by itself removes that entirely.

Someone else made a workable suggestion though: have the jump automatically trigger if you are aligned and your heat is below 60%. That way you still have to be at the controls the whole time, you just don't have to manually jump. Quite a neat solution. I like it.

 

[Mr Jack Burton]

Exploration (as it currently stands) is about stick-with-it-ness. Being able to target Beagle Point or Sag A and have the ship take you there by itself removes that entirely.

Someone else made a workable suggestion though: have the jump automatically trigger if you are aligned and your heat is below 60%. That way you still have to be at the controls the whole time, you just don't have to manually jump. Quite a neat solution. I like it.

This is not realistic, even an airplane from the 70s had an autopilot, even an Audi A8 has automatic drive with pedestrians recognition. For sure you must have hands on cloche/steering wheel beacause of UNEXPECTED events. Otherwise this is pure grind minigame, not a simulation.

 

[GreyAreaUK]

This is not realistic, even an airplane from the 70s had an autopilot, even an Audi A8 has automatic drive with pedestrians recognition. For sure you must have hands on cloche/steering wheel beacause of UNEXPECTED events. Otherwise this is pure grind minigame, not a simulation.

*shrug* Like I say, I have no objection to a pretty much full autopilot within the bubble. But if you want to remove one of the few aspects of exploration that you have to do yourself then I'm going to disagree.

 

[zarrazee]

For me the requirement is simple ..

If I can jump 25 individual systems in 25 minutes with no refuel needed, why can I not just select System 25 and do it in a single jump with no refuel needed in the same time?

I like this! +1 CMDR

I imagine this would be the easiest/quickest solution for FD to implement:

• You buy a "multi-jump" FSD in Outfitting - the bigger the class, the larger the max no. of jumps
• You plot your course, then select any system on that route that you can reach with current fuel reserves.
• Engage multi-jump

Only conditions are that you can only multi-jump to a system with a nav beacon or one that you have personally previously honked.

If you have a big fuel tank and fuel reserves, you get to have more choice of where you jump to...

 

[Red Anders]

Star Trek: Beagle Point.
[Episode 27]
Plot summary: Sulu is still pressing 'j'.
Full plot: Sulu is still pressing 'j'. After 10 minutes he grabs another cup of tea. He proceeds to press 'j'. Cliffhanger: will the 'j' button break?

[Episode 28]
Plot summary: Sulu discovers the autojump button.
Full plot: Sulu presses the autojump button. Entire crew watch Breaking Bad boxset on the scanner monitor.

 

[[VR] Mad Mike]

I like this! +1 CMDR

I imagine this would be the easiest/quickest solution for FD to implement:

• You buy a "multi-jump" FSD in Outfitting - the bigger the class, the larger the max no. of jumps
• You plot your course, then select any system on that route that you can reach with current fuel reserves.
• Engage multi-jump

Only conditions are that you can only multi-jump to a system with a nav beacon or one that you have personally previously honked.

If you have a big fuel tank and fuel reserves, you get to have more choice of where you jump to...

hmmm so you are saying you jump, and then get a 25min hyperspace conduit and when you drop out you have no exploration data, no new systems found or anything?

it is not a feature iwould use personally..... here is the thing tho.... IF FD implemented this, how long before people complained that 15mins in hyperspace was too long (i have seen people saying the exact same thing about flight in star citizen)

 

[nosscar]

First the good stuff, I love the Chieftain, wonderful ship, almost perfect in my opinion.
The Engineers seems to be great too, I only did a few upgrades however the system where you can't go back, is good because you need to grind less. Material broker great = less grinding=more freedom.

And that is what it is about, having fun, less grinding more gameplay. There I was, toddling around in the galaxy, doing stuff, having a good time testing the new features. Then I decided to travel a bit further away from my spawn point, and I remember why I gave ED a pause.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bcYYQDaNgqQ

Turn ship towards star, press (J) to jump repeat and raise 30 time until arriving at destination!
NO WAY MAN, i ain't gonna do that, it's just horrible.

No I don't mind the time to travel, in fact I love the long traveling times, I don't mind the distance in the game, in fact i love the 1:1 galaxy. What I don't like is why I simply can't ask my NPC helmsman to follow my plotted course and tell me when I arrive, and if attacked by pirates tell me, so i can do something, or if we run out of fuel, tell me so i can do something, but for christ sake, don't make me jump manually as it can bring any sane person close to insanity. So I logged out, and played a game where I ride a camel or horse in a huge world to explore, and it got auto camel/horse.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zg0hic8d-HY

I feel your pain, last time I logged, I qúit for exactly the same reason.
Constant jumps ruins the game for me.

Even today, airliners have autopilots. Captains in ships have helmsmen.

And I like some of the ideas in this thread, and to keep exploration gameplay, just as with trade in the beta, you can only make the long single jumps to systems you have already visited, and if you have the fuel.

 

[Loskene]

I'd be all for a skill based hyperjump system that would let you burn through an entire fuel tank's worth of jumps in one go if you can successfully navigate an Andromeda-style (anyone remember that?) witchspace minigame, with the associated risk of getting lost in/thrown out of witchspace if you mess up.

 

[Mr Jack Burton]

I think mantaining an ETA as now is good and I agree that getting to Sag A* must take a long time (even more than now) but more important it must involve a CHALLENGING trip where the challenge isn't "
do not fall asleep". Getting to Sag A* with appropriate challenges do not assume that you can arrive for sure and getting here is a demonstration of ability, not habit to boredom.

 

[stephen_usher]

Needs to have some limits to it or you make a mockery of exploration. Restrict it to systems with nav beacons maybe?

Not really as the autopilot would not be "exploring" for you, merely transiting. Your ship wouldn't be honking even.

However, the issue might be refuelling and your autopilot not being able to do this correctly.

How's about the autopilot being able to do automated jumps until the point where you need to take over and refuel. i.e. where skill and interaction is required. It would take a lot of the drudgery out of the process but still require player interaction where it matters.

Of course, if you don't filter your route correctly you'll need to call the Fuel Rats. ;-)

 

[Jex =TE=]

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.

Then you need to understand that travel is already trivial - how is it not? You press J and that's it. So an AP doesn't make an already trivial thing any more trivial but it cuts down on the pointless J pressing.

The other thing is that going to Colonia is not an acheivement. Nobody can "get a sense of scale" to the galaxy either - it's impossible to conceptualise the size for the human brain. The only Endurance needed is in your head. To basically get to another empty point in space with a slightly different star background isn't a thing. What most people won't do is sit there for hours on end to get to a part of the galaxy which is exactly the same as every other part of the galaxy because RNG ensures you see the same stuff everywhere.

You say an AP makes there "no point in getting there" well no - press J over and over is as pointless. Most other people see that. There is literally no point going anywhere in ED as it's all the same everywhere due to RNG. An AP makes no difference and if the very fact of pressing J is all there is to making journey's, then I don't know what to say about that but it's not fun at all.

There's also another point in that you don't have to use it so why does it concern you? Could you imagine the same argument for the docking computer? It trivialises docking! Yes it does but so what? If anything, there's more of an argument to remove the DC and add AP because at least docking is actually flying the ship.

There's also AP's already out there like this one. Look on youtube for "Elite Dangerous Autopilot" there's a couple I found, one here...

[video=youtube;XcHy6V7qUKo]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcHy6V7qUKo[/video]

 

[777Driver]

There is literally no point going anywhere in ED as it's all the same everywhere due to RNG.



https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcHy6V7qUKo

I'd suggest making a nice drink and watching this..



[video=youtube;Vz3nhCykZNw]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vz3nhCykZNw[/video]