FDev, I want Autopilot

[Spook 00]

So Mr Duck, let’s say you get your Supercruise computer. It takes the shortest route perfectly. Frontier now give the NPC pirates A Supercruise computer this now enables them to cruise up and down the shortest routes just so that you get interdicted a lot more than at present. Would you continue to use your computer?
We can all ask for items to be added to the game. I’ve been playing this on PC since the beginning and listened to all these debates before. I’d be amazed if you request was granted as it’s been asked for before a long time ago. But if it was there would have to be a balance.

 

[PS4gamer]

Translated to:- "Dear Devs, please let the game play itself, I don't want to fly in space in a space game, give me fast travel too from mission to mission"

 

[Captain Willard]

Ye kind of a waste of devs time and resources. Oh and it will take another slot to right?

 

[Old Duck]

So Mr Duck, let’s say you get your Supercruise computer. It takes the shortest route perfectly. Frontier now give the NPC pirates A Supercruise computer this now enables them to cruise up and down the shortest routes just so that you get interdicted a lot more than at present. Would you continue to use your computer?
We can all ask for items to be added to the game. I’ve been playing this on PC since the beginning and listened to all these debates before. I’d be amazed if you request was granted as it’s been asked for before a long time ago. But if it was there would have to be a balance.

Ummmm, the NPCs already do have supercruise autopilot, so I really don't understand what you are saying. Let me clarify again, since people are arguing against things I'm not at all proposing. All I'm asking for is an autopilot feature similar to what's found on ships (boats) and planes since the mid-20th Century. Actually, I'm asking for something dumber than that - I'm basically asking for an optional AP just smart enough to keep the destination centered and drops me out of supercruise when the little blue message pops up saying it's safe to exit supercruise. I'm not asking for something that can do gravity slingshots and all the clever tricks we do to speed up supercruise (do people even read threads before they post?) so the AP gives no advantage over manual flying except that it lets me get up and move around IRL, or perhaps watch the pretty planets as I fly by them instead of having to stare at the little blue bar so I can press the triangle button when the computer tells me to. I mean, why do people consider that thrilling gameplay?

I know, my idea will ruin the game for everyone and Frontier will go bankrupt and Billl will choke on his meds and orphans will go hungry all over the world..

 

[Old Duck]

Translated to:- "Dear Devs, please let the game play itself, I don't want to fly in space in a space game, give me fast travel too from mission to mission"

I'm done wasting my time with you people - you are obviously not reading what I'm posting, and now you're just erecting ridiculous strawmen to knock down instead of presenting useful arguments (which some responding to this have actually done).

It's amazing how toxic this forum can be at times...

 

[Cmdr Nemo]

Ye kind of a waste of devs time and resources. Oh and it will take another slot to right?

They are all professionals thus get salery. So, it doesn't cost anymore, and in fact would add to one being employed longer. More things to do, equals more time to do them, equals, a longer duration of paychecks. By submitting ideas, FDev's can maintain longevity at FDev once they convince their boss of it usefulness. So giving idea's along with possible options to employ along with said ideas, is a good thing.
Though I don't think a auto pilot is a great thing, though I'd personally perfer to have a cruise control; Having the option is a great thing.

 

[Spook 00]

Ummmm, the NPCs already do have supercruise autopilot,

I'm shocked to learn that you think the NPCs have a supercruise autopilot. I'm sure they have to fly and push buttons just the same as we have to. So you believe that the NPCs have better ships than we get as cmdrs?

 

[BRINGtheCANNOLI]

I'm shocked to learn that you think the NPCs have a supercruise autopilot. I'm sure they have to fly and push buttons just the same as we have to. So you believe that the NPCs have better ships than we get as cmdrs?

lol - I can't tell if you're being serious or not!? well done.

 

[Rade Konn]

Can't believe players are arguing over something non existent and silly.

 

[CMDR Argo]

I'm done wasting my time with you people - you are obviously not reading what I'm posting, and now you're just erecting ridiculous strawmen to knock down instead of presenting useful arguments (which some responding to this have actually done).

It's amazing how toxic this forum can be at times...

I agree... the forums as of late have gotten very salty..... I believe with the influx of new players and older PC players now coming over when they released the PS4 version it has created a very toxic pool.

Lets structure an Argument..... I am neither For or against (I really don't care)

What are the Pros of Autopilot
Pro's
1) Hands off flying between the sun and a station or planet creating an ease of transport.
2) More time to read GALNET and clean the inside of your cockpit.
3) time to plan the next part of your route.
4) less of a chance to miss your drop off point since this could be automated so no loop of shame
5) Putting more developers to works on implementing this idea (Job creation is always a good thing)

Con's

1) Hands off flying between the sun and a station or planet creating an ease of transport. (This is also a con because it can be seen as an easy mode
2) Would break the trading aspect of the game where this could be exploited by bots on the PC side creating trade loops
3) This gives easy marks for griefers playing in open to kill pilots using this is open that are not paying attention because they walked away thinking they are safe
4) This would take some pretty heavy coding to implement consider not only do they have to take speed mass and gravity into consideration
but small adjustments to moving stations to drop you off at the right spot
5) the coding that would have to be implemented on how to handle interdiction's.

Anybody can add to the pros and cons (Be nice this is a Gentleman's discussion)

CMDR ArgonautIOI <0

 

[zatoichiBSG]

Can't believe players are arguing over something non existent and silly.

Well,you must be the rare soul that hasn't got sucked into the twitterverse then,i envy you.

 

[Racetrack]

I agree... the forums as of late have gotten very salty..... I believe with the influx of new players and older PC players now coming over when they released the PS4 version it has created a very toxic pool.

Lets structure an Argument..... I am neither For or against (I really don't care)

What are the Pros of Autopilot
Pro's
1) Hands off flying between the sun and a station or planet creating an ease of transport.
2) More time to read GALNET and clean the inside of your cockpit.
3) time to plan the next part of your route.
4) less of a chance to miss your drop off point since this could be automated so no loop of shame
5) Putting more developers to works on implementing this idea (Job creation is always a good thing)

Con's

1) Hands off flying between the sun and a station or planet creating an ease of transport. (This is also a con because it can be seen as an easy mode
2) Would break the trading aspect of the game where this could be exploited by bots on the PC side creating trade loops
3) This gives easy marks for griefers playing in open to kill pilots using this is open that are not paying attention because they walked away thinking they are safe
4) This would take some pretty heavy coding to implement consider not only do they have to take speed mass and gravity into consideration
but small adjustments to moving stations to drop you off at the right spot
5) the coding that would have to be implemented on how to handle interdiction's.

Anybody can add to the pros and cons (Be nice this is a Gentleman's discussion)

CMDR ArgonautIOI <0

Thank you for weighing this up in a logical and impartial way. It's good to see you understand both sides of the argument.

 

[Old Duck]

Con's
2) Would break the trading aspect of the game where this could be exploited by bots on the PC side creating trade loops
3) This gives easy marks for griefers playing in open to kill pilots using this is open that are not paying attention because they walked away thinking they are safe
4) This would take some pretty heavy coding to implement consider not only do they have to take speed mass and gravity into consideration but small adjustments to moving stations to drop you off at the right spot
5) the coding that would have to be implemented on how to handle interdiction's.

I don't believe this would require heavy coding. CMDR Spook is either incredibly brilliant and witty, or ridiculous, either way he hits the nail on the head - NPCs need to "push all the same buttons" as we do in supercruise or they would "have better ships" than we do. NPCs are computer code. This means that the code to automatically move ships from point A to point B in SC already exists! [squeeeee] The developers would just have to tie that code into our own ship, which should be relatively easy since our ship already has an "API" for automated flight, thus the existence of the docking computer.

As for bots, I don't understand your argument. The SCAP I'm suggesting would require a human to manually target and line up with the destination after dropping out of hyperspace. This works perfectly with the "lore" / gameplay of ED, because there is a special unidirectional sensor in all of our ships that require us to point our ships at things to scan them (no off-axis scanning). So if a cheater is going to write a bot to select a target, turn to the target, and engage supercruise, they are already half way to writing their own SCAP code, so they could do what you suggest with today's ED.

As for interdictions, I'm personally fine with being interdicted while in SCAP. When I went to Hutton, I didn't even need AP for the first hour, I just pointed ship at dot in sky, tapped the triangle button, and then went and did some chores. That's current ED. There's nothing stopping grievers from setting up ambushes along Hutton "road" today. The only extra coding I would ask for is a loud klaxon (give it an on / off switch in the Functions panel) that will get my attention if interdiction takes place. I'll put down the dish I'm washing, rush over to the controls, and give that pirate what-for (or my cargo, depending on the pirate).

Thank you for giving me a true and proper debate - I do sincerely appreciate it

 

[dukedastardly]

As far as I see it, supercruise is kinda like autopilot anyway, it requires 3 button presses:
1. Throttle up
2. At 6 sec mark, hit 75% throttle shortcut
3. Disengage at correct distance

Anytime you have to travel more than a few thousand LS, you can point at your target then go and do whatever you want until you're getting close (just stay within earshot).
Honestly, how much easier do you want the game to be?

 

[blitzfreigabe]

I would love to see an Autopilot-esque functionality, with some limitations.

1. it would bring you to minimum speed at 150 ls from your target location unless deactivated before that point
2. it would not detect and automatically position you for optimum approach
3. an audible alert for interdiction or for "final approach ready"
4. it would not operate at all inside of 150 ls (you could overshoot your target at that point)

these just take the "fluff" out of cruising between planetary bodies and secondary stars, it would allow us as players to plan future actions, send messages to friends and wing mates to try to get more people together, or as Duck said (Go Potty) or otherwise attend to biological needs.

I may just be a ED rookie plebian, but as an aviation enthusiast there were primitive versions of AP in the mid 20th century, I feel like the 34th century would consider this technology that is just expected.

 

[Old Duck]

As far as I see it, supercruise is kinda like autopilot anyway, it requires 3 button presses:
1. Throttle up
2. At 6 sec mark, hit 75% throttle shortcut
3. Disengage at correct distance

Anytime you have to travel more than a few thousand LS, you can point at your target then go and do whatever you want until you're getting close (just stay within earshot).
Honestly, how much easier do you want the game to be?

Honestly, to answer your question, not much at all However, you and others must have a different version of SC than I do. Mine has a step 1.5 - Constantly adjust for drift. I have never been able to point at a destination, enter SC, and just sit back and watch until the blue "It's safe to exit supercruise" (paraphrase) message appears. I always have to adjust for drift, unless traveling to Hutton, where I can leave it be for the first hour or so. And once inside that 7 seconds mark (but outside the exit supercruise range), it often feels like the station is running away from me! I've even turned on that little center dot so I could perfectly line up the pixels, and yet as I get closer, it drifts, and drifts and drifts.

The AP I'm asking for would compensate for this drift, and it would exit SC for me when in range, that's it. If SC worked like you described, and there was an audible message telling me it's safe to exit SC, then I would have never started this thread to begin with.

BTW, I would not use AP all the time. I would use it for specific repetitive back-and-forth deliveries, etc, where SC becomes "the grind." Once I've stared at the same system for an hour over and over again, it would be nice to set the AP (after I manually line up the destination), get up, stretch, wash a dish or two, and come back over when the ship exits SC to manually dock the ship myself.

 

[HBK]

You may have a bug but there is an audible cue when you're "safe disengage ready". It's not a huge blip but it's pretty audible.

One audio cue that's missing though is an early "overshoot" warning (as in this kind of early warning is missing, period).

Basically when the game tell you "slow down!" it's too late and you're gonna overshoot your destination.

Edit : That being said if you just want it "easy" you stay at 75% throttle (50% for planetary landings) and you'll never overshoot (unless you fall asleep).

 

[Old Duck]

Edit : That being said if you just want it "easy" you stay at 75% throttle (50% for planetary landings) and you'll never overshoot (unless you fall asleep).

Or unless you drift way off target, which always happens to me if I take my hand off the stick.. Am I the only one in the universe that has to manually fly the ship in SC to keep the target centered?

 

[Blackjack14]

Didn't read through but I vote for an autopilot.

Could be Version 2 of the current autopilot. Should have some drawbacks:

A) cool down period. When intercepted, it takes 1,5-2,0 seconds to shut down. Having said this, running auto pilot increased the risk to be intercepted. Run manually if you are scared.
B) Expensive. Hypertravel is complicated, should be for advanced players who already spent some time in the game only. Price similar to the current ship installed in.
C) Travel at 80% of manual max speed. Might be improved with an engineer though to 100%.

Since obviously this were advanced technology, there could be a link to Thargoids from whom it needed to be obtained in some way. Thus making sure, only gamers who made a certain progression within the game are able to obtain it.

 

[HBK]

Or unless you drift way off target, which always happens to me if I take my hand off the stick.. Am I the only one in the universe that has to manually fly the ship in SC to keep the target centered?

It depends of the level of "efficiency" you're looking for.

It also depends on the distance to travel. For anything under 500Ls it's so quick I basically don't really take my hands off the stick.

For not-so-long distances like under 10kLs I usually only make small corrections while messing around or doing small stuff in the house as the travel time is still pretty short, like about a minute or two tops.

For long distances like over 10kLS, especially when you're hitting 50kLs and more (like all those 300kLs sub-systems), I just point at the general direction and make small corrections like once per minute or two, checking on the remaining distance and assessing how much time there is left. Of course I'm not in front of the game and just like make coffee or tidy up stuff in the house or whatever I deem applicable for the time I have until I hit the destination. Like checking on inara/eddb/etc.

Of course no matter how long the "travel", when closing in on the "approach", like when you need to pay attention to the dreaded seven seconds limit, I go back to standard piloting mode "full hands on deck".

Edit: And then I realize that this reads like "the diary of an ordinary Elite traveler" lol