General Autodock - (should) Now (be) standard

[rojthomp]

Open suggestion:

This may have been brought up before but, I was wondering if any thought has been given to making autodock integrated into these high tech ships rather than a module. The same goes for supercruise assist. I would think in the year 3306 that would be a standard option, or is this a ploy for additional money from ship manufacturers. I once long ago had cruise control as an option on my car, now it's a standard feature. Just a thought.

Thanks for taking the time to read. o7

 

[Taifu]

This needs a pop tune too.



Edit: "Highway to the homogeneous zone" maybe

 

[Danieros]

It has always been quite concerning how amidst all this space travel technology, the computers required for the assists take up the same space as 2 tons of cargo.

 

[Nilt]

What, ships all come standard with manual transmissions, so of course there's no autopilot.

 

[FrogsFriend]

An extra module slot was added to every ship to allow them to equip a docking computer. So if it became an integrated system it would make sense to remove that extra module slot at the same time.

 

[gorankar]

Yep, remove any extra slots given for the purpose of housing a flight assist if they roll them into the ship's main computer.

Though, I am somewhat torn. After this much time, I would much rather they left things as they are. I don't use ADC at all, and I only use SCA on exploration ships, and I like the extra slots. An extra HRP, or collector limpet controller, never hurts, and, well, almost anything else is more useful to me than ADC.

 

[Captain Willard]

But if we made thrusters built in we could use the extra core module slot to add a second set of thrusters.
ZOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM

 

[ohforf3]

As one of the people who don't use the computers on most of my ships I would be against losing a slot I use for other things I do use.

Instead how about a tier 2 slot component that has both computer functions so those who want both can get them while only losing 1 slot.

 

[MickyG1982]

Open suggestion:

This may have been brought up before but, I was wondering if any thought has been given to making autodock integrated into these high tech ships rather than a module. The same goes for supercruise assist. I would think in the year 3306 that would be a standard option, or is this a ploy for additional money from ship manufacturers. I once long ago had cruise control as an option on my car, now it's a standard feature. Just a thought.

Thanks for taking the time to read. o7

You do realise that all ships got at least one extra slot to take account of this.

By all means, make it standard but they should then lose the extra slots that were added to negate the impact of the modules.

 

[Misty_Dark]

Open suggestion:

This may have been brought up before but, I was wondering if any thought has been given to making autodock integrated into these high tech ships rather than a module. The same goes for supercruise assist. I would think in the year 3306 that would be a standard option, or is this a ploy for additional money from ship manufacturers. I once long ago had cruise control as an option on my car, now it's a standard feature. Just a thought.

Thanks for taking the time to read. o7

It is player choice, now you have to make a decision, is a docking computer worth the extra space. or do I have a better use for that slot?

For some players, the docking computer is a very must have module, and for others it is mostly a useless module.

Because if we are going down this route of getting more and more into "pre-configured" ship,s then we are moving away from player choice on how you want to outfit your ship, and instead now you choose to buy a ship pre-configured... Compare to how Ship Launched Fighters are managed, you have to find a location that sells the specific model you are after, and still they might not offer that special configuration that you would like to have. The alternative would have been to give us a proper outfitting for SLF where we can choose weapons, utilities etc,


Many choices in the game does not make sense in a the real world, but they make sense from a GAMEPLAY perspective... So if we go with your cruise controll is now standard, what is next in line to be standard on our cars? Self driving cars. So we should have self flying ships then? Remove a CORE gameplay comppoinent from the game, since why would anybody fly manually, when self flying would be the standard? what would be left of the game if you where unable to fly manually? So be careful when you make real life comparisons.

 

[Tifu]

It has always been quite concerning how amidst all this space travel technology, the computers required for the assists take up the same space as 2 tons of cargo.

 

[dabrett]

I've always thought that the absence of a docking computer in the starting ship created an unnecessarily brutal introduction for new players - just getting out of the starting station can be a challenge, and can create a really bad first impression on new players if they can't manage it. Yes, getting a docking computer was a big deal in the original Elite, but having ships that don't autodock or make you play the "point dot at other dot" game to move from point A to point B (a feature available by default in Elite 2 and FFE or for very little, occupying no space, IIRC) seems an unnecessary imposition in this day and age. I can't see an issue with having these as default options that you can turn off if you want to do more manual flying - the current system is like making new players take their first driving lessons in a F1 racecar before they can progress to a family sedan.

 

[MickyG1982]

I've always thought that the absence of a docking computer in the starting ship created an unnecessarily brutal introduction for new players - just getting out of the starting station can be a challenge, and can create a really bad first impression on new players if they can't manage it. Yes, getting a docking computer was a big deal in the original Elite, but having ships that don't autodock or make you play the "point dot at other dot" game to move from point A to point B (a feature available by default in Elite 2 and FFE or for very little, occupying no space, IIRC) seems an unnecessary imposition in this day and age. I can't see an issue with having these as default options that you can turn off if you want to do more manual flying - the current system is like making new players take their first driving lessons in a F1 racecar before they can progress to a family sedan.

Umm, there is one on the starter ship, in fact it's the advanced docking computer that both takes off and lands for you. Even supercruise assist that does virtually all the flying too...

 

[GloatingSwine]

It has always been quite concerning how amidst all this space travel technology, the computers required for the assists take up the same space as 2 tons of cargo.

Something's clearly up with the state of electronics in the future.

Somehow, for instance, an Anaconda with 160 tons of sensor packages only gets 28% increased performance over a Sidewinder with 1.3 tons.

 

[dabrett]

Umm, there is one on the starter ship, in fact it's the advanced docking computer that both takes off and lands for you. Even supercruise assist that does virtually all the flying too...

Then it's been changed since I started - I remember just about ting myself when I realised on first launch that I was going to have to fly OUT of this thing to even begin to play

 

[VirtueXOI]

YES , JUST DO IT !

100% for theses feature to be serial. Tbh they have to be.

For the ones that say "yeah but they added 1 slot for each ship" gnagnagna. I suppose you did not noticed that when the DSS became really usefull , they did not added new slot .

This result basicly for MANY ship in : super nav or DSS ? , or you just end up putting this SCA in a rank 2/3/4 whatever slot you sacrifice for it.

So i'm totaly for theses to be serial , many people asked for this , the others dont care .

I'm personnaly a great fan of SCA, using it to fastdrop into station , or to explore really far away planet in huge system.

I said it before , but elite travel time is very often between the ' i will read a book' and 'i have to stay focused on the game' resulting in you losing 4 min doing nothing but staring at your destination ( 80% of 5Kls+ travel.).

 

[Mercury7]

Why do you want a docking computer?!

I tried both docking and supercruise for fun the other night and immediately returned them!!

It took all the fun out of it, made me motion sick (someone PLEASE make them fly more smooooothly) and on top of that, I could no longer boost through the mailslot at 500 m/s.

Nothing but downsides IMHO.

Learn to fly!

 

[VirtueXOI]

Why do you want a docking computer?!

I tried both docking and supercruise for fun the other night and immediately returned them!!

It took all the fun out of it, made me motion sick (someone PLEASE make them fly more smooooothly) and on top of that, I could no longer boost through the mailslot at 500 m/s.

Nothing but downsides IMHO.

Learn to fly!

you clearly dont understand the power of supercruise assit =D.

As the docking computer , it's matter of choice i personnaly dont use it , but hey if some like it , why not , it's already in the game after all.

 

[Sensei Jacksama]

I believe they should implement a computer core module system in Odyssey where each ship has a separate set of slots where you can install computer chips that have various functions including flight assists. Every player would use them though as it could have additional features such as an FSD tuner that can fine tune the FSD and override safety protocols to increase jump range or fuel efficiency. Maybe a chip that can decrease your ships reboot time or improve the targeting sensors of hard points or add an additional experimental effect to them. There could be programmers you could visit to improve them as well.

 

[Maolagin]

I believe they should implement a computer core module system in Odyssey where each ship has a separate set of slots where you can install computer chips that have various functions including flight assists. Every player would use them though as it could have additional features such as an FSD tuner that can fine tune the FSD and override safety protocols to increase jump range or fuel efficiency. Maybe a chip that can decrease your ships reboot time or improve the targeting sensors of hard points or add an additional experimental effect to them. There could be programmers you could visit to improve them as well.

I suspect that ship has long since left the starport. But yes, if we could go back and do it again, I think I'd advocate for this approach. Fold all the flight computers and limpet programmers into a system of "computer" slots, either integrated into the ship or present in an optional "supplemental computer" module. Then rebalance optional internals toward (in general) fewer larger slots, to avoid some of the rampant health pool inflation we got with engineers without nerfing cargo capacities too much.