Navigation is soooo frustrating!

[gammauser]

I have been playing the Gamma version of Elite Dangerous and the Navigation in the game is really spoiling things for me. I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong, but if not I can't believe why more prople aren't complaining about this. Here are some of the issues:
1/ The Galaxy map is so hard to navigate around. Its like navigating a maze - sometimes you follow a route and it ends at a dead end. If you try to get information on the system to see if it has somewhere to dock, when you jump back out of the system view it resets your position and your disorientated as to where you are on the map. Im I missing something fundamental here?
2/ Why oh why can Frontier not implement way points (so you can select a number of jumps in one go and then just automatically go to the next one after each jump) - I've seen loads of people asking for this but there's just no feedback from the developers as to why this isn't being done. Instead, every time you do a jump you have to go back to the galaxy map to remind yourself where you have to go to next.
3/ I'm restricted to flying round one small area because if I try to go any distance I end up running out of fuel because none of the jumps I visit has anywhere to dock to refuel in. So a few times I had to kill myself in space as it would have taken >1 year to reach the nearest star!!!
4/ So, the solution to 3 would be to buy a fuel scoop. But where the heck can you buy one? I can't find one anywhere in the system I'm in so I hop around from station to station never being able to explore any further since going further means I run out of fuel (catch-22)
5/ Sometimes when you come out of the hyperjump your so far away from your destination, it takes about 5-10 minutes to reach the station. Seriously guys, its bad enough wasting time playing this game without having to sit about waiting to get to a station. Some people on the forums say they like this as its more 'realistic'. Seriously???? its just frustrating. and its not as if you can go and get a cup of tea because by the time you get back you've slightly drifted off course and are even further away!!
6/ Oh, just want to mention the HORRIBLE galaxy map again - developers this needs cleaned up in a major way. the menus that pop up when your navigating hide the names. I'm sure this has some very fancy programming behind it but its so annoying that the elegance of your coding skills is lost in the frustration of using it!!!

OK, that's my venting over. Its just a shame Frontier spent so much effort on physics and graphics and 'realism' only to spoil the gameplay utterly by not being able to get anywhere! Now maybe I'm being stupid here and I'm missing some major option that needs to be turned on and if that's the case, please forgive me (and tell me what I'm doing wrong)

 

[Moriendor]

Agree with all of the above (or we are both missing the same forest for the trees ). As for a fuel scoop, you can definitely buy one in the Founder's World. The station is called 'Jameson Memorial'. Other than that, I think you need to look for industrial high population places by using the dreaded galaxy map.

 

[Grinchy]

There is a build for "waypoints" being tested currently, it will be out when its out. I would guess soon.

Dev posted about this somewhere...

 

[Biscuit]

I would think it is probably in the works as it is so obvious but so so annoying is a history of searches in the navigation box. Entering the system name again and again is just a pain.
Especially when it is one of those with dashes spaces etc.

Predictive input would be nice as well.

 

[alenkacz]

well said

I do agree also with the frustrating nav, what good is it to have 400 billion systems when you have absolutely no information if theres even a gas station in the system right next door. For a game due to release in 11 days it is very rough around the edges. As for the devs responding to customer issues and complaints i see no evidence of that at all. Do a search for external views and it is obvious the customer wants this added but for their version of realism they refuse to do so, even though every picture on their own web page is an external screenshot. I hope RSI is watching this games development and responds to the customer demands.

 

[Vasious]

Sandro has said a waypoint system is being tested currently

 

[skadog]

I hope they roll this in before release.

 

[CodeMonkeyX]

I do not agree with most of what you said.

1. I went exploring in a hauler ship early on, and never got close to running out of fuel. You are meant to plan a head, look 2 or 3 jumps a head and make sure there is a station to re-fuel at. Also you should have a ship suited for exploring. A Viper, Eagle or Sidewinder are not great for this. If you get really far out and there are no stations then yes you need a fuel scoop which I see all over the place.

When you first start the game you should feel confined to local systems until you get a better ship, better drives etc. Then you can move further out.

2. Yes there are dead ends. In nature not everything is perfectly mapped out so you can always find a quick route to the place you want to go. If you ship can not jump far enough you will find places you can't reach. When you get a better ship that can jump further you will probably be able to get to the places you want to get to.

3. In system navigation kind of needs to be like this. How will you interact with the game if you just jump right the station you want to get to? There will be no opportunities for pirates to attack you, no opportunities for USS to investigate. You will end up just jumping between two stations and trading. By jumping to the nav beacon in each system then moving out from there it is more realistic, and gives all the opportunities for other game play to happen.

However I do agree the map needs some work. But I don't think it's broken or anything, I can get around it fine.

And as many people have said waypoints are coming.

 

[HellrideSDMF]

I do not agree with most of what you said.

1. I went exploring in a hauler ship early on, and never got close to running out of fuel. You are meant to plan a head, look 2 or 3 jumps a head and make sure there is a station to re-fuel at. Also you should have a ship suited for exploring. A Viper, Eagle or Sidewinder are not great for this. If you get really far out and there are no stations then yes you need a fuel scoop which I see all over the place.

When you first start the game you should feel confined to local systems until you get a better ship, better drives etc. Then you can move further out.

2. Yes there are dead ends. In nature not everything is perfectly mapped out so you can always find a quick route to the place you want to go. If you ship can not jump far enough you will find places you can't reach. When you get a better ship that can jump further you will probably be able to get to the places you want to get to.

3. In system navigation kind of needs to be like this. How will you interact with the game if you just jump right the station you want to get to? There will be no opportunities for pirates to attack you, no opportunities for USS to investigate. You will end up just jumping between two stations and trading. By jumping to the nav beacon in each system then moving out from there it is more realistic, and gives all the opportunities for other game play to happen.

However I do agree the map needs some work. But I don't think it's broken or anything, I can get around it fine.

And as many people have said waypoints are coming.

As a complete noob to this game, I have to agree with Monkey. I'm just getting the hang of all this and the galaxy map did take some time to get used to, but now I find it relatively easy to work with. In fact, may have been a risky noob thing to do but wanted to try to get to Sol from my starter system with my Freagle. I had to turn back once, then just stripped the bloody thing down so I could make a 10Ly+ jump and made it there with no problem. I'm not doing anything too technical like finding highly profitable trade routes, but just exploring was pretty straightforward.

I like the perpetual-ness of this game. Want to stop for a drink? Find a station and get in the hanger or risk flying right by or into a star, planet, station, etc. Monitor everything and plan for the best. It isn't great for the Mrs. - I can't just pause - but I love having to pay attention to it all.

 

[Out2lunch]

Most dead ends are due to your FSD. Once that's maxed there won't be too many dead ends.

I agree the map us annoying but I would imagine the release will launch with better tools.

 

[Krait_79]

I have been playing the Gamma version of Elite Dangerous and the Navigation in the game is really spoiling things for me. I'm not sure if I'm doing something wrong, but if not I can't believe why more prople aren't complaining about this. Here are some of the issues:
1/ The Galaxy map is so hard to navigate around. Its like navigating a maze - sometimes you follow a route and it ends at a dead end. If you try to get information on the system to see if it has somewhere to dock, when you jump back out of the system view it resets your position and your disorientated as to where you are on the map. Im I missing something fundamental here?
2/ Why oh why can Frontier not implement way points (so you can select a number of jumps in one go and then just automatically go to the next one after each jump) - I've seen loads of people asking for this but there's just no feedback from the developers as to why this isn't being done. Instead, every time you do a jump you have to go back to the galaxy map to remind yourself where you have to go to next.
3/ I'm restricted to flying round one small area because if I try to go any distance I end up running out of fuel because none of the jumps I visit has anywhere to dock to refuel in. So a few times I had to kill myself in space as it would have taken >1 year to reach the nearest star!!!
4/ So, the solution to 3 would be to buy a fuel scoop. But where the heck can you buy one? I can't find one anywhere in the system I'm in so I hop around from station to station never being able to explore any further since going further means I run out of fuel (catch-22)
5/ Sometimes when you come out of the hyperjump your so far away from your destination, it takes about 5-10 minutes to reach the station. Seriously guys, its bad enough wasting time playing this game without having to sit about waiting to get to a station. Some people on the forums say they like this as its more 'realistic'. Seriously???? its just frustrating. and its not as if you can go and get a cup of tea because by the time you get back you've slightly drifted off course and are even further away!!
6/ Oh, just want to mention the HORRIBLE galaxy map again - developers this needs cleaned up in a major way. the menus that pop up when your navigating hide the names. I'm sure this has some very fancy programming behind it but its so annoying that the elegance of your coding skills is lost in the frustration of using it!!!

OK, that's my venting over. Its just a shame Frontier spent so much effort on physics and graphics and 'realism' only to spoil the gameplay utterly by not being able to get anywhere! Now maybe I'm being stupid here and I'm missing some major option that needs to be turned on and if that's the case, please forgive me (and tell me what I'm doing wrong)

Waypoints will be implemented at some point. As for the whole oh my geeeeerrrdddd it takes more than 2 nano seconds to reach a station. Deal with it! It's space it's big. If grinding credits to max everything out as fast as possible is the kind of gamer you are then you are really missing the whole essence of Elite.

 

[Thespen Tombs]

OP Fuel Scoops do not come under the menu you expect, it took me a little time to work out why I wasn't seeing them too.
.
With out logging on and checking I can't specific sorry

 

[gammauser]

Waypoints will be implemented at some point. As for the whole oh my geeeeerrrdddd it takes more than 2 nano seconds to reach a station. Deal with it! It's space it's big. If grinding credits to max everything out as fast as possible is the kind of gamer you are then you are really missing the whole essence of Elite.

Emm, there's a world of difference between taking 2nano seconds to reach a station and 10minutes!!! I know you're trying to make a point but please don't mis quote me. If it took an hour or maybe even a couple of days to reach a space station would you still be happy? after all "space is big so deal with it!)

I played the original Elite back in 1986 for months and months and never got bored. But, the same guy who wrote that original masterpiece now writes the update and I'm bored after a couple of hours. Something's clearly gone wrong!!! Maybe he should have been left alone to write what he wanted to do originally rather than pander to all those purists that wanted 'realism'.

At the end of the day this is a game, NOT a real life space simulator! And as a game it needs to be playable. I'm not saying to do away with long travel times if that's what floats your boat but there needs to be an option for those who only have a couple of hours at a time to play and don't want to to spend most of it watching a super cruise distance meter ticking down painfully slowly!!! Allow us to buy things that accelerate the game for those that want to and put those things in more space stations. The fact that it is multiplayer will provide all the variations we need to make the game interesting without having to battle with frustrating gameplay...

 

[Systrom]

use the force , luke
https://cmdr.club/routes/

 

[Krait_79]

Emm, there's a world of difference between taking 2nano seconds to reach a station and 10minutes!!! I know you're trying to make a point but please don't mis quote me. If it took an hour or maybe even a couple of days to reach a space station would you still be happy? after all "space is big so deal with it!)

I played the original Elite back in 1986 for months and months and never got bored. But, the same guy who wrote that original masterpiece now writes the update and I'm bored after a couple of hours. Something's clearly gone wrong!!! Maybe he should have been left alone to write what he wanted to do originally rather than pander to all those purists that wanted 'realism'.

At the end of the day this is a game, NOT a real life space simulator! And as a game it needs to be playable. I'm not saying to do away with long travel times if that's what floats your boat but there needs to be an option for those who only have a couple of hours at a time to play and don't want to to spend most of it watching a super cruise distance meter ticking down painfully slowly!!! Allow us to buy things that accelerate the game for those that want to and put those things in more space stations. The fact that it is multiplayer will provide all the variations we need to make the game interesting without having to battle with frustrating gameplay...

Yes there is an option. Fly to one of the other 400 billion systems that don't have that travel time!

I probably have even less play time than you but the odd ten plus minute journey doesn't bother me. I just keep a watch for USSs and other opportunities. Like i say if you are just in a hurry to stack up the credits then you really aren't going to appreciate the finer points of the game.

 

[ste]

OK, that's my venting over. Its just a shame Frontier spent so much effort on physics and graphics and 'realism' only to spoil the gameplay utterly by not being able to get anywhere! Now maybe I'm being stupid here and I'm missing some major option that needs to be turned on and if that's the case, please forgive me (and tell me what I'm doing wrong)

You are talking like everything is final and set in stone. The game is a work in progress, everything is subject to change. Including this.

 

[777Driver]

Emm, there's a world of difference between taking 2nano seconds to reach a station and 10minutes!!! I know you're trying to make a point but please don't mis quote me. If it took an hour or maybe even a couple of days to reach a space station would you still be happy? after all "space is big so deal with it!)

I played the original Elite back in 1986 for months and months and never got bored. But, the same guy who wrote that original masterpiece now writes the update and I'm bored after a couple of hours. Something's clearly gone wrong!!! Maybe he should have been left alone to write what he wanted to do originally rather than pander to all those purists that wanted 'realism'.

At the end of the day this is a game, NOT a real life space simulator! And as a game it needs to be playable. I'm not saying to do away with long travel times if that's what floats your boat but there needs to be an option for those who only have a couple of hours at a time to play and don't want to to spend most of it watching a super cruise distance meter ticking down painfully slowly!!! Allow us to buy things that accelerate the game for those that want to and put those things in more space stations. The fact that it is multiplayer will provide all the variations we need to make the game interesting without having to battle with frustrating gameplay...

I guess the thought never occurred to you to find a system with short travel times? I trade in Yu Hsien Tu. 4 LS between stations. Not that I have any problem with routes that take 10 minutes or more, it is part of the experience for the majority. I take it you definitely aren't a flightsimmer if you have a problem with flying long distances 10,15,20 minutes is nothing..

 

[Harry Stone]

Emm, there's a world of difference between taking 2nano seconds to reach a station and 10minutes!!! I know you're trying to make a point but please don't mis quote me. If it took an hour or maybe even a couple of days to reach a space station would you still be happy? after all "space is big so deal with it!)

I played the original Elite back in 1986 for months and months and never got bored. But, the same guy who wrote that original masterpiece now writes the update and I'm bored after a couple of hours. Something's clearly gone wrong!!! Maybe he should have been left alone to write what he wanted to do originally rather than pander to all those purists that wanted 'realism'.

At the end of the day this is a game, NOT a real life space simulator! And as a game it needs to be playable. I'm not saying to do away with long travel times if that's what floats your boat but there needs to be an option for those who only have a couple of hours at a time to play and don't want to to spend most of it watching a super cruise distance meter ticking down painfully slowly!!! Allow us to buy things that accelerate the game for those that want to and put those things in more space stations. The fact that it is multiplayer will provide all the variations we need to make the game interesting without having to battle with frustrating gameplay...

It's not anyone's job to make you feel less bored. Being bored is a personal limitation that only you can help yourself with.

 

[gammauser]

It's not anyone's job to make you feel less bored. Being bored is a personal limitation that only you can help yourself with.

Its such a shame it's not possible to express ones opinion on something as trivial as a game without some self righteous person feeling the overwhelming need to attack ones personal character. Your comments are about as useful as a mining laser without a refinery! oh and that's another thing I can't seem to find anywhere in this game ....!

 

[Berty Dastard]

It's frustrating at the beginning, by hey that's gaming. I think the galaxy map is something of an achievement and I congratulate Frontier on having been able to do it. I just wish the nav panel would show ALL possible jumps, and that might be part of the solution for people who think they are stuck