POLL: Should ED have an Auto Pilot?

[IndigoWyrd]

Well, you probably was sleeping during that time, or was watching NetFlix?

https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/5443-Elite-Dangerous-Hyperspace

https://www.elitedangerous.de/dokumente/ED-The-Beginning-2014.pdf

Check especially page 43

That was Then, This Is Now. Let's take a look at some of these things, up close and in depth:

Hyperspace Rules

Before the player can initiate a hyperspace jump they must set the final destination of the journey:

• The player selects a destination using a galactic map navigation interface
• The destination choice is hard-limited by several factors:
  • The amount of fuel available determines the maximum distance of a trip
    • Ships have an internal fuel capacity – additional fuel can be carried as cargo and transferred to the ship’s tank. it can? How? A second fuel tank is not the same thing.
  • The basic jump range of the ship’s hyperdrive, determines the distance of each step of the trip
    • Different hyperdrives have different capabilities
      • Jump range
      • Fuel efficiency
      • Charge time
    • Hyperdrives can be replaced with better models to increase capabilities
  • Jump locations available to their star map determine the route of the trip
• The player may also have access to additional information that could inform their decisions:
  • Activity heat maps for trade, piracy, conflicts etc.
  • Hyperspace tracking/prediction devices to monitor local ship activity Really? Where is this?
• A hyperspace journey may comprise of a number of jumps depending on the distance travelled
• When inputting a journey, there may be multiple routes available to choose from Sort of - Economical, Fastest, Boost and with Various Cargo Loads.
• Once a destination has been inputted the hyperdrive can be engaged

Once a journey has been set, the player can engage the hyperdrive:

• When the hyperdrive is engaged it begins to draw power from the ship’s power plant until it is fully charged:
  • The hyperdrive cannot be initiated if its power draw would make the total power draw of the ship exceed the ship’s power plant capacity
    • The player can disable power safeguards to enable the plant to run at over 100%, suffering fatigue damage in the process Really? Where? How? This might be cool.
    • The player can turn off other powered systems to free up capacity for the hyperdrive
  • The hyperdrive cannot be initiated when the ship is too close to a celestial body or large man-made structure; the ship must use in-system travel to reach a minimum jump distance
  • To create a safe transit the hyperdrive must perform real-time changes based on ship’s power draw; changes to the ship’s total power draw (up or down) slow the charge rate by a percentage value for a duration
    • The percentage value and duration is based on the quality of the hyperdrive
  • The hyperdrive is sensitive to interference caused by incoming attacks; when an attack impacts on the hull or shields, the hyperdrive’s charge rate is slowed by a percentage value for a duration
    • This effect cannot stack with itself
    • The percentage value and duration is based on the quality of the hyperdrive
  • Special exotic modules can be fitted to ships which when activated interfere with a targeted hyperdrive in range, slowing down charge rates by a percentage value whilst active Other than FSD interdictors, what exists?
    • This effect cannot stack with itself
    • The percentage value and duration is based on the quality of the module versus the quality of the hyperdrive
  • A hyperdrive module that has suffered damage may suffer a malfunction when initiated
    • The charge rate may be impaired
      • The percentage value and duration is based on the severity of the malfunction
    • The hyperdrive may misfire, becoming inoperable for a short duration whilst it runs diagnostics, after which it can be initiated again
    • The charging process may generate extra heat
    • The hyperdrive may misjump Still waiting for this.
  • Whilst charging the hyperdrive generates heat
• Once the hyperdrive is fully charged it activates:
  • The appropriate amount of fuel is removed
  • The drive discharges all power
  • The ship enters hyperspace
  • Time-based effects (charging shields etc.) continue as normal during a hyperspace transition Do they, really? I haven't noticed.
  • A residual opening is left, which dissipates over a duration (up to minutes)
• After a delay (a few seconds) the ship exits hyperspace at the destination area
  • If the journey consists of more than one jump the hyperdrive automatically begins to charge for the next jump I smell something, is there a politician talking?
  • The player can cancel/pause the journey at this point
• Certain types of hyperdrive can use fuel upgrades, and modules are available to allow normal hyperdrives to use them
  • Fuel upgrades are carried as cargo units and can be committed to a hyperdrive jump whilst a route is being plotted Guess they're referring to Synthesis Materials.
  • Fuel upgrades increase the capabilities of the hyperdrive for a single jump
  • Fuel upgrades produce dangerous waste as cargo units They do? Really? Guess they auto-jettison and self-destruct too.

These multiple jumps for a journey can go via dark systems, rogue bodies surrounded by lightless, dust-filled space, which will: Not happen.

• Support all sorts of interesting encounters in their own right Other than "I've come a long way for what's in your cargo hold"? My empty cargo hold you mean?
• Become useful physical star map locations to discover
• Allow multiple routes to a destination
• Allow players to meet each other far from civilization

There are actions that players can take which directly interact with hyperspace jumps:

• Players that have become Allies (an explicit in game selection of a "friends" flag) can slave their ships together and jump as a single entity
  • All ships involved must fully charge their hyperdrive before the jump is initiated
  • If any of the ships suffers a misjump, all ships misjump together Still waiting....
  • Each slave jumping ship must remain within a set range to at least one other slave ship
    • If this distance link is broken, the jump is aborted for all slaved ships
  • For each additional slaved ship the chance of a malfunction causing a misjump is lowered ​Still waiting....
  • Ally groups enable the strongest match-making rules, prioritizing the integrity of the group over match ups with other players if it would result in splitting the allies group
• Using specialized ship modules a residual opening can be analyzed to determine the exit point of the hyperspace jump
  • This analysis takes an amount of time
  • It takes at least as long as the time window for tailgating (so you can’t do both)
  • It must fully complete before the residual opening dissipates to give a result
  • Analysis of a miss jump gives the original target as the result, with a probability of a misjump based on how quickly the analysis was started after the jump occured
• Ships can target a residual opening and attempt to “tailgate” after the ship that jumped
  • The tailgater must be in close proximity to the residual opening and activate the hyperdrive
    • The time window for tailgating is a fraction of residual opening’s total existence time
    • There is a significant reduction in charge time for tailgating
    • Fuel is expended for the jump as normal
      • If the tailgater does not have enough fuel to reach the destination they misjump
    • If the actual jump range is greater than the tailgater’s hyperdrive capability they misjump
    • The closer the residual opening is to dissipating when the tailgate jump is initiated the greater the chance of a misjump
    • The tailgater suffers an amount of hull/module damage during the jump based on how close the residual opening is to dissipating
    • If successful, the tailgater appears very close to arrival point of the tailgated vessel
• Special ship modules exist that when active can give brief forewarning of ships about to arrive nearby at a location Which ones are these?
• Specialised munitions can be obtained which disrupt residual openings, preventing tailgating and analysis. Which Engineer can do this, and how many children must I sacrifice to RNGesus to get this result?

Misjumps have their own set of rules: And that rule is: Misjumps do not happen.

• Misjumps can result from a number of scenarios
  • A hyperdrive malfunction can result in a misjump
  • A galactic map malfunction can result in a misjump
  • Activating the hyperdrive inside certain space phenomena can result in a misjump
  • Attempting to tail-gate another ship’s jump can result in a misjump
• A misjump transports the ship to a new destination
  • This distance between the new destination and the target destination is a random value based on the distance travelled (the longer the jump, the greater the misjump range potential)
  • The misjump destination may be the outer limits of an inhabited system, or a dark system
    • Such systems may not yet be in the player’s galactic map
  • Very rarely, a misjump can result in turning up somewhere else
• After a misjump, the hyperdrive automatically runs a diagnostics test for a duration before it can be charged again
• There is no way to force a misjump other than directly sabotaging the hyperdrive module to guarantee a malfunction

---
So yeah, it appears a lot of What Was Said has not Come to Pass. I place next to no value on any information more than 3 months old, especially anything that starts off with "Hello Backers", as it seems it just does not apply any longer, never was implemented, or has been removed.

I don't put any more faith in Page 43, or anything in that PDF for that matter, simply because these things may or may not ever be implemented. The Sub Title "Early Game Designs" is sort of a big tip-off of that.

For example, from P. 111: "There will be ship-ship docking though too, so it will still bepossible to resupply."

Really? That would be cool too, but the closest thing we have are Fuel Limpets, and that's definitely NOT ship-to-ship docking. It's barely ship-close-to-ship.

Someday, maybe, but definitely not now.

 

[Cageman]

Observation: thus far after 319 voters my prediction's spot on. Watching with interest.

And what about those that are against instant ship transfer but for AP? I am one of those.

 

[Brian of Ardagh]

And what about those that are against instant ship transfer but for AP? I am one of those.

Well, we need a poll for that as well as other combinations and then we can create a Venn diagram.

 

[Crash_Happy]

You do realise that without player input they had no passengers, right? That they simply didn't know where any good palces where so they desperately had to beg the players for input.

Factually incorrect.

 

[srmoure]

I cannot understand why people oppose to having the option to use the automation of repetitive tasks. I stopped playing because I found tedious manually jumping between systems. Having the option will benefit some players without affecting the ones who prefer manually doing the jumps. I guess they think that there should be only ONE way to play the game and those who don't share their vision are wrong. While my vision is more respectful of other where I think is better to have the option and play as you like .

THe discussion should be about how to implement it to improve the game for the ones who want to use it without affecting the ones who prefer doing it manually. Not for YES or NO. Since YES implies no change at all for the ones who voted NO.

 

[lysan]

I cannot understand why people oppose to having the option to use the automation of repetitive tasks. I stopped playing because I found tedious manually jumping between systems. Having the option will benefit some players without affecting the ones who prefer manually doing the jumps. I guess they think that there should be only ONE way to play the game and those who don't share their vision are wrong. While my vision is more respectful of other where I think is better to have the option and play as you like .

THe discussion should be about how to implement it to improve the game for the ones who want to use it without affecting the ones who prefer doing it manually. Not for YES or NO. Since YES implies no change at all for the ones who voted NO.

That is because common sense seldom wins, that is why we got wars in this world. It's ruled by authoritarians who like to shoehorn their lifestyle to fit the narrative.
if it doesn't effect you, why bother?

 

[Mohrgan]

As it turns out there is just a core group of players that think it is important to respect the scale of the game, and the pilots job. All of this trying to paint those with different opinions to yours as unreasonable is just childish moping.

 

[Vasea Azure]

I cannot understand why people oppose to having the option to use the automation of repetitive tasks. I stopped playing because I found tedious manually jumping between systems. Having the option will benefit some players without affecting the ones who prefer manually doing the jumps. I guess they think that there should be only ONE way to play the game and those who don't share their vision are wrong. While my vision is more respectful of other where I think is better to have the option and play as you like .

THe discussion should be about how to implement it to improve the game for the ones who want to use it without affecting the ones who prefer doing it manually. Not for YES or NO. Since YES implies no change at all for the ones who voted NO.

Big +1 and +rep to you Commander.

 

[Lowievisser]

no , altho i like the tears on the forum. ppl kill me while im autopiloting!

 

[Mohrgan]

A question was asked: Should we have an Auto Pilot? That implies a discussion is requested. If people having an opinion different to yours, is so troubling, why bother asking?

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

A question was asked: Should we have an Auto Pilot? That implies a discussion is requested. If people having an opinion different to yours, is so troubling, why bother asking?

Because of the mistaken certainty that a poll would show all those fun-hating, lack of proper argument driven negative nancies how they are a small minority who should shush while the fun-loving, well-spoken and eloquent proponents make the game better for us all.

And then it backfired.

 

[Luniticisi]

Because of the mistaken certainty that a poll would show all those fun-hating, lack of proper argument driven negative nancies how they are a small minority who should shush while the fun-loving, well-spoken and eloquent proponents make the game better for us all.

And then it backfired.

As it often does ...

 

[Kellan Fell]

For those of you who don't want to actually fly... maybe you should reconsider your choice of game?

I don't get wqhich part of just repeatedly pressing the J key is flying? Flying is when you deal with an interdiction, or maneuvering through ice rings or dog fighting at a Nav Beacon. "J, pause, move slightly, J" is not flying...

 

[Cosmo]

Yes, airplanes have autopilots, cars will too soon.

If a pilot puts his craft on auto-pilot there's still danger like interdictions, blackholes, heat from stars etc. So that doesn't make it easier.

 

[lysan]

As it turns out there is just a core group of players that think it is important to respect the scale of the game, and the pilots job. All of this trying to paint those with different opinions to yours as unreasonable is just childish moping.

I respect the scale of the game, I want it to be big! i don't want instant transfer of ships nor commanders.

However there are nothing, and i repeat nothing sane about the navigation from star to star as we have it now that make any sense.
If you plot in a course and the ship AP fly the route, you still preserve the scale of the game, you still need to handle interdiction and what else the game gives you of challenges.

I wanted a much much more challenge AI when it comes to the dog fighting, however a massive group of players wanted a easy NPC. Ok I respect that, I'm not pushing for a more challenging NPC, at least not that much because it will effect all players, and some of our fellow commanders are just not up to the task and I will also like they are having fun playing the game.

Now A auto pilot will not effect other players, it will only effect the user, just as the DC only effect the user. I watched Scott Mandley's video where he was traveling to the center, and it was not all joy and cheering from him, actually he was struggling with his sanity and I understand why!

I'm a pilot in real life, and if I was going to make a 3 hour or even a one hour flight without using my AP I would go nuts! unless I'm just tooling around looking at the scenery.

There are no arguments to not have it, because it simply do not effect other commanders than the ones who are using it. It will not make the scale of the game smaller, nor will it give anyone a head start. We got repair modules why should we have those? no no go to the station and get your ship repaid! fuel scoope! no way only refuel in stations, because scooping fuel brings the scale of the game down /s

Guy's you do not have any reasonable arguments, if you had we would listen but you don't, it's getting silly, don't be silly!

[video=youtube;aSFLbzM1R1M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSFLbzM1R1M[/video]

 

[Ninj]

So now the real life pilot is saying he gets bored of flying? Not only do we have people playing the wrong game, we have someone with the wrong career!

 

[lysan]

So now the real life pilot is saying he gets bored of flying? Not only do we have people playing the wrong game, we have someone with the wrong career!

I love flying, what I don't like are tasks my monkey could do! ask any Pilot there are a few in this community as far as I know.

http://www.digitaltrends.com/cool-t...e-system-lands-planes-if-pilot-incapacitated/

 

[Kayweg]

Can't really make my mind up about this, i feel both "camps" have valid points.
Just this, if there was an autopilot, i wouldn't trust it.

 

[Jabezz]

Can't really make my mind up about this, i feel both "camps" have valid points.

What are the valid points for not having an optional autopilot? Just curious.

 

[Arkadi]

It would be risky to use that autopilot in the bubble, becouse of interdictions. But I still would use it - so I could have my hands free to read a book while the autopilot is doing the jumping and I only would have to watch for alerts.

For exploring it would be good to reach the destination where to explore, without that very very straining task of the very very repetitive task of jumping again and again and again and again and again.