Autopilot

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

What we need is Elite Dangerous: NPC Edition.

Where you "play" as an NPC. Everything is done for you.
Hyperspace travel, supercruise, trading, mining, exploration and combat, all done for you.

So you're free to go off and do something else.

 

[RhymeRhyme]

I would implement an autopilot function with the danger,if you are afk your ship can be wrecked by other player ships (information: ship in autopilot mode), intercepted by npc ships and a 10% the danger of malfunction.


From my point of view in the future spaceships will have auto navigation systems [haha]

It would be cool to get a WhatsApp message - ALERT - We're under fire, Captain!!! Whooood ... Whooood!!! Then you can jump off the sofa, stop the movie and head back to your PC. Hahahaha...

 

[Pumabear8]

...it's possible to write your own auto pilot using pixel hunting if you can code...

Is more fun to write than supercruise.

Yeah, I was thinking this, EDDI can get many statistics from EDDN, EDSM and ship events, used with voiceattack, it might be possible to write a script for autopilot, but it wouldn't be an easy script to write, many variables to take into account.

 

[Stryka Choon]

Doubt FDev wants to risk it. I wouldn't if I was in their shoes. The growth of the community is more important than your ideas. Besides, I am certain this has been brought up before. Its not like autopilot is a completely new concept. Thats the point I was trying to get a cross, but I guess it went right over your head. I think there is a six letter word for that and it starts with an S. I believe someone used it already.

Ah, so it's my stupidity in appreciating why some would call for an optional autopilot? Silly me. Forgive me for wasting your valuable time. Please return to advising FDev on their marketing strategy. I hope you're paid well for it!

 

[S3B4ST13N]

Well, at least we can agree on something, that it's not yours either, but we're all free to make request that enhance our game play, and if it's an optional thing, then it's not a problem for those who don't want to use it, right?

I never had a problem with it in the first place. I don't agree on a complete autopilot system, merely one that will take you from star to planet/station and drop you out of SC when you arrive.

Naturally, you are free to make the request; both sides need to keep away from trying to claim ownership though.

 

[Vasea Azure]

What we need is Elite Dangerous: NPC Edition.

Where you "play" as an NPC. Everything is done for you.
Hyperspace travel, supercruise, trading, mining, exploration and combat, all done for you.

So you're free to go off and do something else.

What a horrible idea

 

[Stryka Choon]

Yet you can't see that others find your want an an autopilot to be selfish? Like I said above, if I've flown 450,000Ls to scan a star then I've done it myself. Me. It's an achievement. In a small way it means something. An autopilot takes all that away, and it doesn't matter that it's optional.

I don't personally particularly want an autopilot, but I can appreciate why some would value it and use it and I can see no downside for anyone else in its availability. It's not up to you or any other player to decide for others what is the appropriate level of hair-shirtness for flying your pixel spaceship around your monitor. Patently, there's little or no technical reason why one couldn't be implemented. It needn't be to the level of sophistication that I use every working day, but just a little bit of help for those whose time is limited and who have to multitask.

 

[Enderby]

If travelling was fun but pressing J and watching the loadscreen ain't travelling. It's loading. Allow people to automate this crud if they choose to. Make it a bit slower or summat maybe.

 

[GreyAreaUK]

I don't personally particularly want an autopilot, but I can appreciate why some would value it and use it and I can see no downside for anyone else in its availability. It's not up to you or any other player to decide for others what is the appropriate level of hair-shirtness for flying your pixel spaceship around your monitor.

I'm not even sure what you're trying to say there, but I'm sticking with my viewpoint here: flying long distances is a type of achievement and it should not be trivialised.

If I see a two stars a hellish long way apart and both are tagged by CMDR TightPants then currently I know that CMDR TightPants exhibited a bloody-minded stick-with-it-ness that I personally find admirable.

If, however, APs exist then I have no idea if CMDR TightPants is a steely-eyed pilot flying on caffeine and nerves or the ED equivalent of a script-kiddy.

- - - Updated - - -

If travelling was fun but pressing J and watching the loadscreen ain't travelling. It's loading. Allow people to automate this crud if they choose to. Make it a bit slower or summat maybe.

I don't think we're talking about about automated hyperspace jumps, we're talking about automatically piloting to an object (planet, station, star, whatever) in system.

 

[CMDR Cosmic Spacehead]

What a horrible idea

No no, it's great.

Implement it immediately, then watch as everyone complains that ED is boring, space travel is boring, it may aswell be made in to instant travel.

Seriously though, if you add an autopilot, people, being people, will feel the need to use it, to maximise their progress.

This will have atleast 2 negative effects.
1) People will generally find ED dull, due to lack of interactivity, demand instant travel or leave.
2) People will die, en mass, from Autopilot failure, blame ED, and demand it's fixed, or leave.

In general, no one will think to simply stop using the Autopilot, and fly the ship they payed to fly, themselves.

 

[GreyAreaUK]

No no, it's great.

Implement it immediately, then watch as everyone complains that ED is boring, space travel is boring, it may aswell be made in to instant travel.

Seriously though, if you add an autopilot, people, being people, will feel the need to use it, to maximise their progress.

This will have atleast 2 negative effects.
1) People will generally find ED dull, due to lack of interactivity, demand instant travel or leave.
2) People will die, en mass, from Autopilot failure, blame ED, and demand it's fixed, or leave.

In general, no one will think to simply stop using the Autopilot, and fly the ship they payed to fly, themselves.

I'm apparently not allowed to rep you again...

 

[John Kolter]

Autopilot will never be a feature in ED. Thats what Braben said earlier. However I would like to have autopilot for distances that plots the journey for like 900 ly minimum to be able to use autopilot.

 

[Stryka Choon]

Ok, well I tried to stand up for people who might have a genuine and legitimate use for an autopilot, but I guess the space Sopwith Camel drivers will hold sway. Up the Twenty Minuters!

 

[GreyAreaUK]

Autopilot will never be a feature in ED. Thats what Braben said earlier. However I would like to have autopilot for distances that plots the journey for like 900 ly minimum to be able to use autopilot.

Respectfully disagree, for my reasons above. Piloting long distances should be something you can be proud of doing (in a small way).

Then again I'm an explorer, so I consider 900LY to be little more than a hop.

 

[Enderby]

I'm not even sure what you're trying to say there, but I'm sticking with my viewpoint here: flying long distances is a type of achievement and it should not be trivialised.

If I see a two stars a hellish long way apart and both are tagged by CMDR TightPants then currently I know that CMDR TightPants exhibited a bloody-minded stick-with-it-ness that I personally find admirable.

If, however, APs exist then I have no idea if CMDR TightPants is a steely-eyed pilot flying on caffeine and nerves or the ED equivalent of a script-kiddy.

- - - Updated - - -



I don't think we're talking about about automated hyperspace jumps, we're talking about automatically piloting to an object (planet, station, star, whatever) in system.

Oh really? [gets slowly and somewhat unsteadily off soapbox]

I thought that was just flying in one direction for however long it takes?

 

[GreyAreaUK]

Ok, well I tried to stand up for people who might have a genuine and legitimate use for an autopilot, but I guess the space Sopwith Camel drivers will hold sway. Up the Twenty Minuters!

I honestly can see your point of view, I just feel that it would ultimately be detrimental to ED's gameplay.

- - - Updated - - -

Oh really? [gets slowly and somewhat unsteadily off soapbox]

I thought that was just flying in one direction for however long it takes?

It is, largely. But you've got to pay attention because if you don't then you find you're a stupidly long distance on the other side of the star, and then it's a Man Sized loop of shame

 

[Bran Tse Mallory]

You will soon be told that implementing such a thing will make the game play itself and there will not be much left of the gaming part. Apparently people around these forums really love the hyperspace load screen...

Which part of this being a game did you misread? May as well go and watch a movie for the day while the ship does everything... In fact you may as well just not even bother loading the game and just imagine your making money... Utterly stupid comment bogdan that add's the total of nothing to the thread.

OP, This has been raised so many times before a simple search would of shown you ALL of the replies you've already seen.

Let's say just for giggles that your system gets implemented - can you now imagine the forums the day after? Every and I mean every thread would be from players moaning that their ship was destroyed while it was in autopilot?

You may well be one of the players who end up coming back to tell us how your entire bank balance was wiped out in one night all because of the autopilot feature. Meanwhile your idea would be a ganker/greifers wet dream come true. All those lovely ships that won't fight back! Finally they would have the easy life they always wanted.

Personally this is something I do not even want to see as an option.

 

[BigBANGtheory [VR]]

Autopilot is frowned on by the forum community of grumpy old gamerz, but co-pilot NPC is apparently acceptable.

I would recommend investing your enthusiasm towards a co-pilot crew member. Personally I think either would work and the counter arguments are somewhere between weak and non-existent relying on ridiculous scenarios (or those that can be easily addressed) in order to hold any kind of substance. There is absolutely no reason why a CMDR having reached Elite status, journeyed countless LY and thousands of jumps can be accused of being demanding or looking for instant gratification. You could even have it so that you are only able to autopilot a route already known to you.... That in one foul swoop address any suggestion that it could be misused to gain anything other than QoL feature for long journeys.

 

[Deedrix]

Which part of this being a game did you misread? May as well go and watch a movie for the day while the ship does everything... In fact you may as well just not even bother loading the game and just imagine your making money... Utterly stupid comment bogdan that add's the total of nothing to the thread.

OP, This has been raised so many times before a simple search would of shown you ALL of the replies you've already seen.

Let's say just for giggles that your system gets implemented - can you now imagine the forums the day after? Every and I mean every thread would be from players moaning that their ship was destroyed while it was in autopilot?

You may well be one of the players who end up coming back to tell us how your entire bank balance was wiped out in one night all because of the autopilot feature. Meanwhile your idea would be a ganker/greifers wet dream come true. All those lovely ships that won't fight back! Finally they would have the easy life they always wanted.

Personally this is something I do not even want to see as an option.

I don't think insulting the guy is a good way to go about making your point. We're mostly adults here and if you want to have your opinion taken seriously cut out the insults.

 

[Stryka Choon]

It is, largely. But you've got to pay attention because if you don't then you find you're a stupidly long distance on the other side of the star, and then it's a Man Sized loop of shame

BTDT! I must say I'm struggling to see the steely-eyed, caffeine fuelled feat of endurance, doggedness and skill involved in, for instance, doing the Hutton Run. For me that's just boring (and I don't find it that 'admirable' to sit in an office chair for an hour and a half in a comfortable, risk-free sitting room) but whatever drives your RP!