Am I the only one who thinks that galactic navigation is very underwhelming? I have some suggestions and would like your opinions.
In the first place, it's terribly slow at distance. Yes, I understand the computational stresses involved in computing every possible trip, and I realize that a minute or two to calculate 100ly of possibilities is a technical limit. However, I almost never want to see every possibility: 99% of the time, I know where I am, and I know where I want to go. Calculating a route between these two places should be easy - and in fact IS easy judging by the several off-line calculators that do just that. But leaving the game to check them breaks immersion in the worst way. FD should implement that point-to-point model as an option, in-game.
Second, we really need to be able to manually enter strings of jumps ourselves. This is such a basic function that I can't understand how it was missed, and I'm half-hoping that I just overlooked the instructions on how to do so. (If so, please clue me in.) Similarly, why can't we select a particular station at the end of a string of jumps if we know the system map when planning?
Third, we should be able to save and re-use jump paths - say for a favorite trade route. Even better if they were savable and could be edited.
My final far-reaching wish would be for the automatic pathing to take more options into account beyond the current "Fastest" or "Most Economical." Options to avoid a particular faction's space would be great, as would options like routing around systems that are un-scoopable for fuel, or even avoiding unknown systems. I'm sure you all can think of other possibilities as well. I imagine that taking these types of conditions into account would only be technically feasible for the A-to-B type pathing I described in my first point, but I don't think that would be a problem.
The Nav system as it exists now is great for exploring the unknown and wandering around. It is less great for simply getting places. As things stand now when you've been playing a while in your little corner of space and get that Sol permit and invitation, you're stuck. Your starter area is likely greater than 100 LY from Sol, so the Nav map is of no help at all in helping you find a path. That leaves two choices: You can either spend a good while spinning, panning, and zooming the nav map, hoping to make a good guess toward something in the right direction to get you below the magical 100 LY barrier so the Nav computer can do its job; or you can Alt-Tab out to the browser and find the answer in seconds.
Navigation needs an overhaul.
In the first place, it's terribly slow at distance. Yes, I understand the computational stresses involved in computing every possible trip, and I realize that a minute or two to calculate 100ly of possibilities is a technical limit. However, I almost never want to see every possibility: 99% of the time, I know where I am, and I know where I want to go. Calculating a route between these two places should be easy - and in fact IS easy judging by the several off-line calculators that do just that. But leaving the game to check them breaks immersion in the worst way. FD should implement that point-to-point model as an option, in-game.
Second, we really need to be able to manually enter strings of jumps ourselves. This is such a basic function that I can't understand how it was missed, and I'm half-hoping that I just overlooked the instructions on how to do so. (If so, please clue me in.) Similarly, why can't we select a particular station at the end of a string of jumps if we know the system map when planning?
Third, we should be able to save and re-use jump paths - say for a favorite trade route. Even better if they were savable and could be edited.
My final far-reaching wish would be for the automatic pathing to take more options into account beyond the current "Fastest" or "Most Economical." Options to avoid a particular faction's space would be great, as would options like routing around systems that are un-scoopable for fuel, or even avoiding unknown systems. I'm sure you all can think of other possibilities as well. I imagine that taking these types of conditions into account would only be technically feasible for the A-to-B type pathing I described in my first point, but I don't think that would be a problem.
The Nav system as it exists now is great for exploring the unknown and wandering around. It is less great for simply getting places. As things stand now when you've been playing a while in your little corner of space and get that Sol permit and invitation, you're stuck. Your starter area is likely greater than 100 LY from Sol, so the Nav map is of no help at all in helping you find a path. That leaves two choices: You can either spend a good while spinning, panning, and zooming the nav map, hoping to make a good guess toward something in the right direction to get you below the magical 100 LY barrier so the Nav computer can do its job; or you can Alt-Tab out to the browser and find the answer in seconds.
Navigation needs an overhaul.
