Plot Route: Only Scoopable Stars

[Quinliven]

Anyone who has a satnav knows that there are usually options you can select to determine the route you plot. eg. you can click an option to avoid toll roads.

Elite already has the option to choose economical or fastest routes, but it would be good to have some additional options to select. The most useful one I can think of would be to plot a route that only contains fuel-scoopable stars. This would make plotting long routes easier for ships with small tanks and poor jump ranges. You don't have to worry about checking your route to make sure you don't have three brown dwarves in a row and end up panicking due to ending up with low fuel.

I think it would be a useful option, anyway.

 

[Tuuhea Takasumu]

While I agree that such feature would help make the game easier I think it is deducting from the "punch you in the face until you learn" gameplay.

I think excessive hand holding is not good for a game such as ED. Instead there should be a feature that lets the player add notes to systems, planets and even players for future reference. That way it is up to the player to ease their own adventures by adding the information they want to the star map and system maps.

 

[Serpentstar]

Well, you could always choose the economical route, take 3 times longer to get there but not have to worry about refueling nearly as often...

 

[Quinliven]

Not that popular an idea then?


I wouldn't be opposed to such a function only working in known systems. I think once you cross the frontier into deep space, it should be a risk every jump you make. However in civilised space, it seems a little daft. My real life satnav manages to tell me when I'm low on fuel, my remaining range and offers to plot a course to the nearest petrol station. Making things dangerous by making the technology stupid shouldn't really be the way forward!


I do like the idea of being able to add your own notes to starsystems, though.

 

[Malactus]

Considering that there is already an indication if you plot a route somewhere (by solid and dashed lines) one can always assume that two stops before the line turns dashed, one should probably already be looking for fuel.

So its more of an experience based thing to know that you should be paying attention to your fuel gauge, and estimated consumption between jumps, especially while exploring.
Otherwise it would be "I want to go there" with barely any -ever- risk of accidentally running out of fuel. Its probably the only thing explorers must remember when out there. Since you -already- have the ability to filter the galaxy map by star type, just remember "OMG-FKBA (or KGB-FOAM)" or any other fun acronym. And in anycase, Running on economical pretty much handles fuel consumption and recovery if you want the easy way around this.

When in Civilized space, Its more likely that the 4th system you visit has a fuel station, so even -that- isnt much of an issue.
And yes, your ship does warn you that you are low in fuel: Just keep an eye on your fuel use before you jump (it does give you an estimate after all) and keep an eye on where your route turns non-solid in the galaxy map...

System notes would definitely be nice to have however.

 

[Serpentstar]

There is always the option, that at half way, if you don't have fuel, look at the galaxy map to see the closest scoopable star then head there. There is an option now to exclude the ability to see ones that won't work for you.

 

[disco]

Elite already has the option to choose economical or fastest routes, but it would be good to have some additional options to select. The most useful one I can think of would be to plot a route that only contains fuel-scoopable stars.

+1
Plotting the course manually in 3301 is highly unlikely. That's what onboard computers are for.

 

[CMDR Hagglebeard]

What's the fun in that?