POLL: Should ED have an Auto Pilot?

[Jabezz]

Today while doing some Ceos long haul missions I found myself having to do a 60,000LS super cruise to a station. I know from previous experience this takes about 6 or 7 minutes.

So after giving it the full throttle and checking there were no NPC baddies I put the control pad down, left the cockpit and went and made myself a cup of tea. Came back about 5 minutes later and shortly after that kicked in the docking computer.

Imagine that. I think 70% of the pollsters would find that disgraceful behaviour as I wasn't "flying" the ship myself for every single light second of that super cruise. Maybe I'm playing the wrong game?

 

[SatansMittens]

Today while doing some Ceos long haul missions I found myself having to do a 60,000LS super cruise to a station. I know from previous experience this takes about 6 or 7 minutes.

So after giving it the full throttle and checking there were no NPC baddies I put the control pad down, left the cockpit and went and made myself a cup of tea. Came back about 5 minutes later and shortly after that kicked in the docking computer.

Imagine that. I think 70% of the pollsters would find that disgraceful behaviour as I wasn't "flying" the ship myself for every single light second of that super cruise. Maybe I'm playing the wrong game?

How dare you!!!

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

Best I've seen were the slippery slope argument, once you get autopilot you'll be asking for more. The stop being lazy and "fly" your ship argument. And someone always asks "will it trade for you too?"
Mostly its things along these lines. Others say "but the jumping mechanics are an integral part of the gameplay and you'll be removing that". And the classic do you also want a "win button" argument as well.

I haven't read any decent arguments against the autopilot that made me think of it in a different way.

 

[Sandmann]

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.

Wow... the idea that a real world feature to make things simpler, more automated, and safer would make for a good game feature where you want interaction, danger, and interaction boggles my mind. Sure it'd be more realistic, but if that's the argument then it'd be even more realistic for us to NOT be in spaceships and have them entirely computer controlled. What on earth makes you think that making the game require you to do LESS will mean MORE game?

 

[Jabezz]

I haven't read any decent arguments against the autopilot that made me think of it in a different way.

No neither have I. As you said it usually boils down to the exaggerated extrapolations to the other extreme of everything else being automated, trading, combat, interdictions etc.

 

[Sandmann]

No neither have I. As you said it usually boils down to the exaggerated extrapolations to the other extreme of everything else being automated, trading, combat, interdictions etc.

And I've not read a good argument FOR doing it. *shrug*

 

[Vasea Azure]

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!

Saying that people who want super cruise AP plays the wrong game is so silly - first, its not flying, its move forward press J, repeat... repeat... no, that's not flying.
Secondly - I think there is little more to the game than jumping between systems, so, yeah, please stop that.

 

[Sandmann]

Saying that people who want super cruise AP plays the wrong game is so silly - first, its not flying, its move forward press J, repeat... repeat... no, that's not flying.
Secondly - I think there is little more to the game than jumping between systems, so, yeah, please stop that.

If it's too simplistic the solution is to make it more time consuming, difficult, and involved, not to remove it and have a game you do even less with.

 

[Vasea Azure]

If it's too simplistic the solution is to make it more time consuming, difficult, and involved, not to remove it and have a game you do even less with.

Best solution (and I think we will end up with something like that) is to hire NPC crew member that could do simple piloting from A to B - new crew mechanics, not making anything even less simple

 

[Jabezz]

And I've not read a good argument FOR doing it. *shrug*

The point is you don't have to worry about the argument for including an autopilot if you don't intend to use it as it doesn't affect your game in the slightest way.

If 50% of players were merrily using their autopilot you would be totally oblivious to it.

The nuts and bolts of it are that a certain percentage of the ED population want an autopilot, it doesn't affect anyone else's game so there is no need to even think about why it shouldn't be included. The argument against is moot it is a neutral addition to the game.

 

[askavir]

If it's too simplistic the solution is to make it more time consuming, difficult, and involved, not to remove it and have a game you do even less with.

Precisely.

Creating a "feature" so some people can watch movies or walk the dog while having ED playing itself on background is a completely absurd waste of developer time, with so many great features yet to be implemented.

If long travelling lacks agency and player involvement, and I agree it does, then long travelling must be made more involving and enable more agency, not even less.

On the other hand, adding agency / involvement / any kind of gameplay obstacle which requires any bit of skill / agency / preparation / action from players is usually met with great resistance from players which believe the game must be an always forward red carpet, which unsurprisingly are most of the players which also want the ships to fly themselves from landing pad to landing pad.

 

[Jabezz]

If long travelling lacks agency and player involvement, and I agree it does, then long travelling must be made more involving and enable more agency, not less.

So on real flights for example from Europe to Australia passengers prefer to go to sleep to pass the time. According to your take on it that's a dismal idea. What the airline companies should be doing is making it more exciting for example introducing more white knuckle turbulence or throw in a few cabin depressurisations now and and again to keep people on there toes. WTH?

 

[jasonbarron]

So on real flights for example from Europe to Australia passengers prefer to go to sleep to pass the time. According to your take on it that's a dismal idea. What the airline companies should be doing is making it more exciting for example introducing more white knuckle turbulence or throw in a few cabin depressurisations now and and again to keep people on there toes. WTH?

Quit conflating a necessity of real life inconvenience with a game that is played for fun

 

[askavir]

So on real flights for example from Europe to Australia passengers prefer to go to sleep to pass the time. According to your take on it that's a dismal idea. What the airline companies should be doing is making it more exciting for example introducing more white knuckle turbulence or throw in a few cabin depressurisations now and and again to keep people on there toes. WTH?

Are you perchance a passenger in ED? Also, do the travels in ED take 12 hours of straight line uneventful flight?

You actually believe that instead of enabling more gameplay in the game, the proper solution is making it play itself so people can be AFK?

Also, did you take the time to read what you wrote? If some people want autopilots because they find travel boring, uneventful and lacks agency, (those are the arguments being thrown pro-AP) how can you then be against the idea of travel being made more eventful, needing more agency and thus less boring? You just end up confirming my suspicion that most people pro-autopilot just want the game to play itself on background while watching movies and the actual mechanics (of lack of them) of travelling being boring is just being used as smoke and mirrors.

 

[Jabezz]

You actually believe that instead of enabling more gameplay in the game, the proper solution is making it play itself so people can be AFK?

Errr for straightforward multi hop rinse repeat jumping yes. It's not gameplay.

But you yourself don't have to use it, you can hit the J key until your finger bleeds. That's the pure genius of it being optional.

 

[Sandmann]

Best solution (and I think we will end up with something like that) is to hire NPC crew member that could do simple piloting from A to B - new crew mechanics, not making anything even less simple

That'd work for me. Putting in MORE game is always going to be better than removing game. Personally I'd love to see us have to plot courses, navigate gravity fields and solar winds, etc but I understand that'd be too complex for people who want a simple "mario kart" experience, so FDev have done their best to balance those two positions.

The point is you don't have to worry about the argument for including an autopilot if you don't intend to use it as it doesn't affect your game in the slightest way.

Oh I wish people would stop trying this one on, it's a false argument and noone's buying it. If you put in a simpler method people will disadvantage themselves by not using it and it will become the "default meta" for it. Games are about making you do stuff, not giving you reasons to NOT do stuff.

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On the other hand, adding agency / involvement / any kind of gameplay obstacle which requires any bit of skill / agency / preparation / action from players is usually met with great resistance from players which believe the game must be an always forward red carpet, which unsurprisingly are most of the players which also want the ships to fly themselves from landing pad to landing pad.

Fortunately these mario kart type players seem to be reliably in the 30% range, and FDev seem to not be in that group.

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So on real flights for example from Europe to Australia passengers prefer to go to sleep to pass the time. According to your take on it that's a dismal idea. What the airline companies should be doing is making it more exciting for example introducing more white knuckle turbulence or throw in a few cabin depressurisations now and and again to keep people on there toes. WTH?

At what point did you decide that real world features for simplicity, automation, and safety made a good feature for a game thats about risk taking and interaction?

 

[fademist]

That'd work for me. Putting in MORE game is always going to be better than removing game. Personally I'd love to see us have to plot courses, navigate gravity fields and solar winds, etc but I understand that'd be too complex for people who want a simple "mario kart" experience, so FDev have done their best to balance those two positions.



Oh I wish people would stop trying this one on, it's a false argument and noone's buying it. If you put in a simpler method people will disadvantage themselves by not using it and it will become the "default meta" for it. Games are about making you do stuff, not giving you reasons to NOT do stuff.

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Fortunately these mario kart type players seem to be reliably in the 30% range, and FDev seem to not be in that group.

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At what point did you decide that real world features for simplicity, automation, and safety made a good feature for a game thats about risk taking and interaction?

all that goes down that autopilot and battle computer was on the lore

 

[Werewolf13]

63% no and 37% yes at the time of this reply.

So 63% of users are anti-freedom of choice and feel like they know better what's best for everyone than each individuals do and that gives them the right to choose for the rest.

Implement auto-pilot.

No one is holding a gun to the heads of those that don't want it and forcing them to use it if it was available. Yet they have no problem taking away choice from everyone else. Then again most of them are probably afraid if one was implemented they'd give in to temptation and use it themselves.

ROFLMAO!

 

[Kayweg]

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

Well, let me quote another post from this thread, one i agree with, though perhaps minus the red carpet conclusion at the end of it:

Precisely.

Creating a "feature" so some people can watch movies or walk the dog while having ED playing itself on background is a completely absurd waste of developer time, with so many great features yet to be implemented.

If long travelling lacks agency and player involvement, and I agree it does, then long travelling must be made more involving and enable more agency, not even less.

On the other hand, adding agency / involvement / any kind of gameplay obstacle which requires any bit of skill / agency / preparation / action from players is usually met with great resistance from players which believe the game must be an always forward red carpet, which unsurprisingly are most of the players which also want the ships to fly themselves from landing pad to landing pad.

My argument is, in a way an autopilot feature would be a "get out of jail card" for Frontier.
What incentive would there be left for them to find ways to make long distance travelling less of a drag, and to make it more interesting and appealing ?`
Don't get me wrong, i fully understand why the topic keeps coming up. I have done quite a bit of exploration myself.
And you won't see me grab my pitchfork if an autopilot feature gets introduced at some point.
I'd just like to see a better solution.

 

[Jabezz]

Oh I wish people would stop trying this one on, it's a false argument and noone's buying it. If you put in a simpler method people will disadvantage themselves by not using it and it will become the "default meta" for it. Games are about making you do stuff, not giving you reasons to NOT do stuff.

Are you telling me that all those folk who are adamant that they do not want an autopilot in the game because it would spoil their immersion would actually succumb and start using it if it was added? That's got to be one of the funniest points ever made in this whole farcical argument. Superb.

Incidentally nobody would be disadvantaged by not using an autopilot, if you're going to add points of argument please make them actually valid and relevant.

 

[lysan]

Quit conflating a necessity of real life inconvenience with a game that is played for fun

Pressing J X amount of times are FUN :S ???? SYNTAX ERROR