I would love a NPC Helmsman

Yeah, according to the the proposed design. It would also be up to the Player to make sure to plot routes that does not lead to brown dwarfs etc, because when the AP notice fuel is starting to get low, it might park at a brown dwarf... and you have to make that call to Fuel Rats.

You know what? I like that. Set your map filters to KGBFOAM and you should be good.

Yep. That's an AP implementation I can get behind.
 

Jex =TE=

Banned
I have been into many CZs, I've done PvP and I tell you that doesn't matter here in the conversation. If you guys really think exploration should be as active and dangerous as combat then I guess you just bought the wrong game.

Also, the comparison with the FA off and the docking computer is not equal because docking to a station isn't an option, hitting the J key 10000 times is.

How did you confuse my examples of flying with wanting exploration to be combat related - no, I want exploration to be like Star Trek TNG thanks with a little Serenity thrown in and occasionally some Apollo 13 along side some Mission to Mars

Yeah, according to the the proposed design. It would also be up to the Player to make sure to plot routes that does not lead to brown dwarfs etc, because when the AP notice fuel is starting to get low, it might park at a brown dwarf... and you have to make that call to Fuel Rats.


What would happen if the FR's didn't exists? I'm assuming you're stuck? Is there a self destruct for that event?
 
How did you confuse my examples of flying with wanting exploration to be combat related - no, I want exploration to be like Star Trek TNG thanks with a little Serenity thrown in and occasionally some Apollo 13 along side some Mission to Mars




What would happen if the FR's didn't exists? I'm assuming you're stuck? Is there a self destruct for that event?

Yes... Self destruct is under the Functions panel, Right hand side, in-cockpit menu.
 
By design, it would take a bit longer.

1) Fuelscoop... when the ship arrives at the last scoopable star with almost empty fueltank, it will just put the throttle to zero.
2) When in auto mode, it will take a much more safe travel path around a star to line up for the next jump.

You would not use AP if you are in a hurry (just like it is with the DC).

EDIT: This means that your skill in flying close to stars to fuelscoop as much as possible at each star, without losing momentum, will still be a much more efficient way of traveling, timewise.

At first I'm not for auto-pilots, though I understand Lysander lysan's concern. And I must say I'm totally for a hyperjump AP like the one you describe.
 
There isn't any depth to what you do. Like I pointed out, in deep space the only signal sources you're going to find are data or escape pods - big deal. Besides, we're talking about moving from A - B - nobody mentioned stopping to "explore".

There isn’t any depth to how I play the game? I would absolutely love to argue that point against you. Unfortunately I can’t really come up with a compelling counterargument due to how anemic exploration mechanics truly are, lol.

Ah frack it, give me an autopilot too. Then at least I can pay more attention to the Netflix shows I watch while I explore!!!
 
When FDev implements new Exploration features in Q4 then there will be a downside to using auto-jump I bet. Sure while you are auto jumping through systems and the like you might miss some big things. Hell you could jump through a system that has an entire new alien mystery but you wont know that because Auto-Jump.
 
How did you confuse my examples of flying with wanting exploration to be combat related - no, I want exploration to be like Star Trek TNG thanks with a little Serenity thrown in and occasionally some Apollo 13 along side some Mission to Mars.

Exactly, ED doesn't have those Apollo 13 scenarios, that's the issue. Now, ask yourself, will AP solve that?
 
When FDev implements new Exploration features in Q4 then there will be a downside to using auto-jump I bet. Sure while you are auto jumping through systems and the like you might miss some big things. Hell you could jump through a system that has an entire new alien mystery but you wont know that because Auto-Jump.

Could miss it at the moment though, couldn't you? I mean the game doesn't tell you things like "ALIEN SIGNAL DETECTED" on a honk (or does it?). So you'd jump in, honk - 34 NEW PLANETS DISCOVERED - align, and jump out; none the wiser to what hides on a little moon 350,000ls away.. resting in the shadow of it's parent Gas Giant.
 
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Like the Docking Computer, you should have the option to use or not use this. Suffering Purists can suffer long-range travel as they like. Those who prefer not to suffer as much can do so, and everybody is happy.

I like this. Call it a Standard Nav Computer and have it take up a size 1 slot.

"Allows automated frameshift jumps along a plotted course in all systems with a nav beacon. Diverts a large percentage of compute resources, rendering all discovery scanners unusable while active."

There's your downside - honking every 40 seconds can generate some credits on the side. You use this thing and you don't have the ability to do that anymore. Another idea - remove the nav beacon restriction, but greatly increase the time between jumps or the fuel requirement.

"Allows automated frameshift jumps along a plotted course with a 50% penalty to fuel usage and/or jump time"

It always kinda bugged me that in the future of Elite, humanity forgot about course-hold autopilot, the kind of which every plane in the 20th century has.
 
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I've given substance over the last 3 or 4 pages. I marginalise precisely because of your post above - that's not gameplay to many people and as Kaltern pointed out, the AP doesn't even get in the way of that, especially as you can choose not to use the AP)

Lets just say this: FD probably wanted to make a big galaxy and the only way to do that is to design game mechanics which force you to take time. By taking time I mean actually engaging with the game while travelling, which is exactly what AP eliminates, thus, the galaxy is now fairly small which defeats the purpose of my first point.

And for the nth time, exploration needs to change, even explorers get burned after a while but AP isn't a solution. Maybe beyond will bring proper gameplay to exploration.

Could miss it at the moment though, couldn't you? I mean the game doesn't tell you things like "ALIEN SIGNAL DETECTED" on a honk (or does it?). So you'd jump in, honk - 34 NEW PLANETS DISCOVERED - align, and jump out; none the wiser to what hides on a little moon 350,000ls away.. resting in the shadow of it's parent Gas Giant.

After a system scan you get to see the celestial objects in the system map which might be of your interest. Since "interesting" is subjective, I wouldn't expect the computer to tell you that.
 
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.

You don't only click "j" when exploring or travelling, nontheless, it is the demand in time that matters. AP does in fact eliminate this as now I can just leave the computer playing itself while going to school. Essentially, your idea transforms travelling to waiting.

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 way to conceptualize size is by the time it takes you to get somewhere. Obviously ED doesn't inform you how many trillions of Kms you are away from something but it conpensates via the time it takes to travel through it.

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.

Factually wrong, there are in fact places where certain stars are more common.

You say an AP makes there "no point in getting there" well no - press J over and over is as pointless.

Its time, not the J key that matters.

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.

Now, if you think there's nothing special beyond the bubble then why would you even want to exit it?

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.

Not at all, you know why? Because it doesn't take time.

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...

So, then there's no point to continue.

In a manner that is sheer, unadulterated drudgery for zero benefit to the player?

Friend, that isn't gameplay. That's a job. I know of assembly line jobs you can get paid for that are more stimulating.

Is AP gameplay? Is allowing a player to progress by just sitting down and reading a book gameplay?
 
Is AP gameplay? Is allowing a player to progress by just sitting down and reading a book gameplay?

Boredom > Not boredom. If there's all to do when on a long distance haul, let's remove the pretense and stop pretending that humanity forgot about 20th century autopilot.

GjPvjsN.gifv
GjPvjsN.gif


Besides - if you need that constant thwacking of the J key for immersion purposes, turn the autopilot off, plot your path by "economical" and go nuts. You do you.

Essentially, your idea transforms travelling to waiting.


You do realize that it's already literally 90% waiting, yes? Even with fuel scooping and white dwarves, it takes about 40 seconds per jump where your hands are off the controls and you're twiddling your thumbs while the computer does its thing.
 
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Not in the original 1984 game it wasn't.



So essentially to AP would only be for one fuel-tank's worth of flying? At the end of which you'd need to manually refuel and kick it off again?

ED is not build on the original one, but from a sum of all of them plus more of its own.
 
Boredom > Not boredom. If there's all to do when on a long distance haul, let's remove the pretense and stop pretending that humanity forgot about 20th century autopilot.

http://i.imgur.com/GjPvjsN.gifvhttp://i.imgur.com/GjPvjsN.gif

Besides - if you need that constant thwacking of the J key for immersion purposes, turn the autopilot off, plot your path by "economical" and go nuts. You do you.

Well not asking for this buuuut..... :)

[video=youtube;iH6R7QE9_tg]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iH6R7QE9_tg[/video]

So are you ok with the 'one fuel tank range, no auto-scooping' proposal?

I'm fine with;

No auto refueling
No auto exploring
No auto combat
No auto rest stop
No auto are we there yet
No auto [insert something]

As longs as it's auto star jump and line up!
 
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