Dear F-Dev,
First of all, let me use this opportunity to thank you for listening to the Community and adding Route Planner functionality to the game. It made life in ED universe much easier!
While the feature itself works pretty much flawlessly, there are few areas that need improvement, regarding how the route is planned, or rather: a path found.
To all short-attentions-spanners, TL;DR at the end. Sorry, you'll have to put some effort to scroll down at least
We all know how path finding works at the moment: you can switch between economic and fast path finding, where the former finds closest systems to plot course through, while the latter tries to find systems close to maximum jump range. This leads to creating "bubble" of systems gradually filled as the path finder function connect to further and further systems.
I would like to suggest change in approach to path finding method. Since its current function serves a purpose, I would not remove the bubble-filling mechanic completely.
I would like to ask/suggest adding another option though: target-oriented route creation/path finding.
How would that work? It can be a simple option, added just next to Economic/Fast route planning, that would completely stop path finding tool from "filling the bubble", allowing you to navigate to your destination system, click on it and request for route to be built leading to that system only.
Why such an option? Because for ships with significantly better jump range, path finding takes forever to connect nearby systems, to the point where the most time-efficient solution is to plot... 2 jumps at a time! I wonder how much time path finding needs on A-class-FSD-d ASP... There's another major reason for this request - when you venture out exploring, heading in the direction of your target, you don't need every system within 100 Ly range connected - you barely need the few that lead directly to your destination, hence mapping all other systems in 360 degrees sphere is unnecessary and waste of CPU's power.
Now, the range of such solution is debatable so I would say: FD will surely come up with balanced solution.
TL;DR: I hereby request for an option to allow plotting course leading in the direction of your destination, without building unnecessary bubble of system connection all around you, wasting time and cpu power on tasks you don't need. It's an additional option, next to Economic and Fast path finding modes.
First of all, let me use this opportunity to thank you for listening to the Community and adding Route Planner functionality to the game. It made life in ED universe much easier!
While the feature itself works pretty much flawlessly, there are few areas that need improvement, regarding how the route is planned, or rather: a path found.
To all short-attentions-spanners, TL;DR at the end. Sorry, you'll have to put some effort to scroll down at least
We all know how path finding works at the moment: you can switch between economic and fast path finding, where the former finds closest systems to plot course through, while the latter tries to find systems close to maximum jump range. This leads to creating "bubble" of systems gradually filled as the path finder function connect to further and further systems.
I would like to suggest change in approach to path finding method. Since its current function serves a purpose, I would not remove the bubble-filling mechanic completely.
I would like to ask/suggest adding another option though: target-oriented route creation/path finding.
How would that work? It can be a simple option, added just next to Economic/Fast route planning, that would completely stop path finding tool from "filling the bubble", allowing you to navigate to your destination system, click on it and request for route to be built leading to that system only.
Why such an option? Because for ships with significantly better jump range, path finding takes forever to connect nearby systems, to the point where the most time-efficient solution is to plot... 2 jumps at a time! I wonder how much time path finding needs on A-class-FSD-d ASP... There's another major reason for this request - when you venture out exploring, heading in the direction of your target, you don't need every system within 100 Ly range connected - you barely need the few that lead directly to your destination, hence mapping all other systems in 360 degrees sphere is unnecessary and waste of CPU's power.
Now, the range of such solution is debatable so I would say: FD will surely come up with balanced solution.
TL;DR: I hereby request for an option to allow plotting course leading in the direction of your destination, without building unnecessary bubble of system connection all around you, wasting time and cpu power on tasks you don't need. It's an additional option, next to Economic and Fast path finding modes.