Hi FD / Everyone,
Being in the First Great Expedition group there have been Teamspeak discussions during our explorations about what we would like to see or what would be useful for us long-range explorers. To open this up to a wider public I think the suggestions below are useful not only to that select group but will give us a more functional and easier to use Galaxy Map.
Currently in the Gal.Map Navigation pane we have 2 options:
- Economic Route
- Fastest Route
Both routes are based on a on an expanding sphere of routes (Max 100-130LY) which for a lot of people with slightly older computers can take literally minutes to calculate to its fullest extent. I don't have an issue with this, for me it is just a minor wait. And I have explored at least 4000LY using this.
However it does become tedious after a while of exploring that I cannot ask the Galaxy map for a route to my destination beyond a distance of 140LY. I have to actively search a location in between. So here's a suggestion:
How about a check box for Long Range Route planning? It turns of the active generation of the sphere of routes and awaits your input for a destination. I am sure that when the Gal.Map resources are used for this task alone that a route of quite some distance can be calculated withing reasonable time.
Suggestions that might help here with finding the optimal path:
- when A and B location are fed to the Long Range Route Planner define a cylinder of X ly radius from A to B within the route needs to stay to make sure you're shortest path algorithm doesn't stray away and starts to calculate nonsensical routes. By all means have a slider for the radius so that the user can define it themselves. You can use the PILL shape used in BETA to even show this functionality (if it isn't to buggy to use).
- Keep the options for Economic and Fastest routes functional within the Long Range Route planner. There are legit reasons to want to have both.
Other suggestions:
- Connect the MAP function to the Route Planner / Gal.Map. E.G. if you select only Empire worlds in the MAP the route planner only uses this as it's base to draw the routes.
- Additionally add star types to the MAP function so that you can select a group of star types that you want to see / visit. (This would be very welcome to long range explorers that are relying on their fuel scoops for fuel and need the correct star types to be able to scoop the fuel.
Additional things that are also very good to have when on a longer trip:
- Logbook in which we can see what systems we visited and what we did there or in which we can keep annotations for ourselves.
- Some way to Copy/Paste some of the hilarious names from the Gal.Map to either windows or at least the chat window
- When delivering data I'd like to be able to see WHY a certain system is worth the amount of money it is. I know by now but all that is user generated and done by trial and error. Show the logic behind it.
Owh, and FD: This is not screaming and shouting that the Gal.Map is a lousy piece of software and that I want those suggested functions yesterday. As it stands right now it is at a firm base and I enjoy it every time when I use it. But as Exploration is supposed to be a big thing in the game it should be wider in its functionality.
And, to conclude, I can't thank you enough for this beautiful and awesome game.
Being in the First Great Expedition group there have been Teamspeak discussions during our explorations about what we would like to see or what would be useful for us long-range explorers. To open this up to a wider public I think the suggestions below are useful not only to that select group but will give us a more functional and easier to use Galaxy Map.
Currently in the Gal.Map Navigation pane we have 2 options:
- Economic Route
- Fastest Route
Both routes are based on a on an expanding sphere of routes (Max 100-130LY) which for a lot of people with slightly older computers can take literally minutes to calculate to its fullest extent. I don't have an issue with this, for me it is just a minor wait. And I have explored at least 4000LY using this.
However it does become tedious after a while of exploring that I cannot ask the Galaxy map for a route to my destination beyond a distance of 140LY. I have to actively search a location in between. So here's a suggestion:
How about a check box for Long Range Route planning? It turns of the active generation of the sphere of routes and awaits your input for a destination. I am sure that when the Gal.Map resources are used for this task alone that a route of quite some distance can be calculated withing reasonable time.
Suggestions that might help here with finding the optimal path:
- when A and B location are fed to the Long Range Route Planner define a cylinder of X ly radius from A to B within the route needs to stay to make sure you're shortest path algorithm doesn't stray away and starts to calculate nonsensical routes. By all means have a slider for the radius so that the user can define it themselves. You can use the PILL shape used in BETA to even show this functionality (if it isn't to buggy to use).
- Keep the options for Economic and Fastest routes functional within the Long Range Route planner. There are legit reasons to want to have both.
Other suggestions:
- Connect the MAP function to the Route Planner / Gal.Map. E.G. if you select only Empire worlds in the MAP the route planner only uses this as it's base to draw the routes.
- Additionally add star types to the MAP function so that you can select a group of star types that you want to see / visit. (This would be very welcome to long range explorers that are relying on their fuel scoops for fuel and need the correct star types to be able to scoop the fuel.
Additional things that are also very good to have when on a longer trip:
- Logbook in which we can see what systems we visited and what we did there or in which we can keep annotations for ourselves.
- Some way to Copy/Paste some of the hilarious names from the Gal.Map to either windows or at least the chat window
- When delivering data I'd like to be able to see WHY a certain system is worth the amount of money it is. I know by now but all that is user generated and done by trial and error. Show the logic behind it.
Owh, and FD: This is not screaming and shouting that the Gal.Map is a lousy piece of software and that I want those suggested functions yesterday. As it stands right now it is at a firm base and I enjoy it every time when I use it. But as Exploration is supposed to be a big thing in the game it should be wider in its functionality.
And, to conclude, I can't thank you enough for this beautiful and awesome game.
