Advanced Planetary Landing Suite

[NAKEDnick]

So the idea of automated planetary landing is nothing new, but I have to say I’m surprised it’s not already a thing based on one small tidbit. The ships already CAN land themselves on planets. You can dismiss and recall your ship at anytime while in an SRV on the surface. Given this, why can we not simply have a mechanism to automate surface landing while in the ship?

As I see it, this could be accomplished a couple of ways. You could either implement co-ordinates to shoot for, or easier, have a “sensor” option that can be bound to a fire-group that lets you paint a point and designate it as your target landing area.

Now how to implement this in game without breaking any current functionality? Introduce a new module called “Advanced Planetary Landing Suite”. This module could replace the current existing planetary landing suite and introduce the new capabilities. You could even add extra capability of having it handle the planetary orbital entry and exit portions.

To again clarify, I’m suggesting this because I want to make my life easier, I’m suggesting it because the ships already can do this and it feels wasted that we can’t leverage this capability. It’s 3307 for crying out loud.

To again clarify, I’m suggesting this because I want to make my life easier, I’m suggesting it because the ships already can do this and it feels wasted that we can’t leverage this capability. It’s 3307 for crying out loud.

Edit:
I meant to say that my suggestion is not ONLY to make my life easier, but to also implement it because the ships can already do this. Of course I want to make my life easier. Who doesn’t?

 

[WeComeInPeace]

I'd rather have globular clusters.

 

[aRJay]

So the idea of automated planetary landing is nothing new, but I have to say I’m surprised it’s not already a thing based on one small tidbit. The ships already CAN land themselves on planets. You can dismiss and recall your ship at anytime while in an SRV on the surface. Given this, why can we not simply have a mechanism to automate surface landing while in the ship?

As I see it, this could be accomplished a couple of ways. You could either implement co-ordinates to shoot for, or easier, have a “sensor” option that can be bound to a fire-group that lets you paint a point and designate it as your target landing area.

Now how to implement this in game without breaking any current functionality? Introduce a new module called “Advanced Planetary Landing Suite”. This module could replace the current existing planetary landing suite and introduce the new capabilities. You could even add extra capability of having it handle the planetary orbital entry and exit portions.

To again clarify, I’m not suggesting this because I want to make my life easier, I’m suggesting it because the ships already can do this and it feels wasted that we can’t leverage this capability. It’s 3307 for crying out loud.

But if you don’t want to make your life in the game even easier why would you want a module to leverage this capability?

 

[NAKEDnick]

But if you don’t want to make your life in the game even easier why would you want a module to leverage this capability?

That is a fair point. I’m going to edit that line because that is absolutely part of the reason for suggesting it.

 

[Spacegamejunkie]

I notice there are a lot of things like this in the game, that seem to be just short of a logical conclusion.
For example, No Ship Auto Pilot, Larger SRV storage, SRV collector limpets, SRV Hovercraft, ect.
Most are just quality of life enhancements, that would get rid of the bottlenecks, that prevent efficiency.
I want to see tools that fit this time in the future, as is, most of the current Manufactures would be out of business.

 

[Azmuth Divarchchron]

I notice there are a lot of things like this in the game, that seem to be just short of a logical conclusion.
For example, No Ship Auto Pilot, Larger SRV storage, SRV collector limpets, SRV Hovercraft, ect.
Most are just quality of life enhancements, that would get rid of the bottlenecks, that prevent efficiency.
I want to see tools that fit this time in the future, as is, most of the current Manufactures would be out of business.

The lack of autopilot is by design unfortunately, to help fight botting

 

[varonica]

I notice there are a lot of things like this in the game, that seem to be just short of a logical conclusion.
For example, No Ship Auto Pilot, Larger SRV storage, SRV collector limpets, SRV Hovercraft, ect.
Most are just quality of life enhancements, that would get rid of the bottlenecks, that prevent efficiency.
I want to see tools that fit this time in the future, as is, most of the current Manufactures would be out of business.

What you would have is basically a game that plays itself while you sit and watch!

While I can see a desire to have more automation, there isn't much in the game that can't be automated, even down to deciding what and how much cargo to buy for a cargo run between known points. You could easily automate landing, purchasing, taking off, flying between the two stations, landing, selling, but just because something can be automated doesn't mean it's a good idea.

There is currently a request for automated planetary landing, in a space ship flying game! This is literally what most of us purchased the game for, to fly our spaceships.

I can't see the automation of more and more things in ED being good for the game, because literally everything can be automated if they wanted to do that!

 

[Captain Willard]

A lame idea that will never work. Fly your ship.
Auto land on a planet. Recipe for disaster.

 

[varonica]

A lame idea that will never work. Fly your ship.
Auto land on a planet. Recipe for disaster.

Yeah, remember that recent thread about the autodock that destroyed that one players ship a couple of years back, I think that threads still going!

 

[Agony_Aunt]

Does that mean we can blame the devs if our ships go boom while automatically landing on high G planets?

 

[aRJay]

Does that mean we can blame the devs if our ships go boom while automatically landing on high G planets?

It depends on who chose to land there.

 

[Spacegamejunkie]

I remember reading about the Horse an Buggy Days, when Automobiles came out,
comments about how nobody would ever want a Car, and besides they were Dangerous,
cause they went to fast.
Well, all I can say is, Let's Go Kicking and Screaming into the Future

 

[Starshot_Jigawatts]

There is currently a request for automated planetary landing, in a space ship flying game! This is literally what most of us purchased the game for, to fly our spaceships.

Then don't equip the module?

I don't feel the need personally for this module. However planetary landings are super annoying because the system is far too picky about what's a suitable landing spot or not. Even if it's a flat barren rock-free plot of land, there's a good chance it will STILL say "unsuitable" and require you to slowly scout around until some RNG indicator says you can land. Seemingly completely independent of the actual topography of what's below your ship.

I believe if the landing systems was loosened up a bit to be made reasonable, especially for larger ships, we wouldn't see suggestions like this.

 

[varonica]

Then don't equip the module?

I don't feel the need personally for this module. However planetary landings are super annoying because the system is far too picky about what's a suitable landing spot or not. Even if it's a flat barren rock-free plot of land, there's a good chance it will STILL say "unsuitable" and require you to slowly scout around until some RNG indicator says you can land. Seemingly completely independent of the actual topography of what's below your ship.

I believe if the landing systems was loosened up a bit to be made reasonable, especially for larger ships, we wouldn't see suggestions like this.

You understand that while I might not care much if people automated their game I do actually care about the game itself, a completely automated game would quickly be a failure. You can easily say, don't use it if you don't want to, but what is essentially a game that plays itself while the player just sits and watches the screen would have a hard time attracting and keeping players. You might say "oh it's just a landing autopilot" but why should a landing autopilot take preference over a hyperspace jump autopilot, or a in-system autopilot or any one of the hundreds of other things that can be made to happen while you just sit back and watch?

 

[Starshot_Jigawatts]

You understand that while I might not care much if people automated their game I do actually care about the game itself, a completely automated game would quickly be a failure. You can easily say, don't use it if you don't want to, but what is essentially a game that plays itself while the player just sits and watches the screen would have a hard time attracting and keeping players. You might say "oh it's just a landing autopilot" but why should a landing autopilot take preference over a hyperspace jump autopilot, or a in-system autopilot or any one of the hundreds of other things that can be made to happen while you just sit back and watch?

Tedium and boredom causes games to fail too. Burnout is a very real thing we should all keep in mind too. Yet every single suggestion that may improve the quality of life in Elite, is met with hostility it seems.

I am not saying you are wrong, or I am right, or that this game needs auto-landing. But this is like saying people would quit the game, and Elite would fail, for putting in an auto-docking module. Just curious but what's the difference?

For my personal opinion, this is a bandaid for the true problem: landing is too random and annoying because the terrain system is far too picky. Especially for bigger ships.

 

[[PS4] Lorenzo Waringos]

It is an excellent point, that you can recall the ship and it lands itself.

I totally agree with @varonica on this and the other issues.

The point about landing on High G planets is also a great one. If you're interested in that sort of thing, it is an incredible bit of skill to aim for, I think, off of the top of my head, the record is an 11G landing? Whatever it is, it would be completely undone my having a module do it for you.

 

[[PS4] Lorenzo Waringos]

For my personal opinion, this is a bandaid for the true problem: landing is too random and annoying because the terrain system is far too picky. Especially for bigger ships.

I know what you mean, it looks like you're going tp land on a snooker table but it tells you that is unstable, I always imagined it meant that the land may be flat but maybe it isn't strong enough to take the weight of your ship. I imagine this will become more of a reality when Odyssey drops and you may well have swampy or marshy land.

 

[Starshot_Jigawatts]

It is an excellent point, that you can recall the ship and it lands itself.

I totally agree with @varonica on this and the other issues.

The point about landing on High G planets is also a great one. If you're interested in that sort of thing, it is an incredible bit of skill to aim for, I think, off of the top of my head, the record is an 11G landing? Whatever it is, it would be completely undone my having a module do it for you.

"Warning: Cannot engage - High Gravity Detected"

Yeah that concern is easily remedied, but I agree with you it's a valid one.

 

[Starshot_Jigawatts]

I know what you mean, it looks like you're going tp land on a snooker table but it tells you that is unstable, I always imagined it meant that the land may be flat but maybe it isn't strong enough to take the weight of your ship. I imagine this will become more of a reality when Odyssey drops and you may well have swampy or marshy land.

Yeah I mean, I don't land a ton on planets anymore except for the odd Biological run. But I don't care how flat and perfect a spot is, it's rejected by the computer lol.

 

[[PS4] Lorenzo Waringos]

Yeah I mean, I don't land a ton on planets anymore except for the odd Biological run. But I don't care how flat and perfect a spot is, it's rejected by the computer lol.

I land on a lot of planets, before now I have found that sometimes just changing the direction (yaw) you're pointing at makes it acceptable. Doesn't always work, just occasionally.