Quality of Life Improvement: Input LAT/LON Co-ords and have a Surface Waypoint appear, similar to the surface scan mission Waypoint.

[4gui4]

I get angry to think about the hours that I've lost because of this crap.

[alien]

 

[Jaffz]

Honestly, it's not hard at all to fly to any given set of coordinates.

0, 90, 180, 270 is all you really need to know.

If you are at 100,-80 and need to get to -50, 20, you can do it "the hard way", and align yourself with 0, 90, 180 or 270 on the bearing indicator and fly in that direction and watch what your lat and log numbers do - either increase or decrease, until you reach your destination, or you can use something like: https://edbearingcalc.neocities.org/ and it will tell you to align to a course of 146 degrees and fly that way until you reach your destination.

That's it. That's all there is to it.

Yeah, it might be nice to include this kind of functionality, but.. the math involved in calculating a heading is somewhat complex - here's an example:

"Bearing from point A to B, can be calculated as,β = atan2(X,Y),
where, X and Y are two quantities and can be calculated as:
X = cos θb * sin ∆L
Y = cos θa * sin θb – sin θa * cos θb * cos ∆L
Lets us take an example to calculate bearing between the two different points with the formula:

• Kansas City: 39.099912, -94.581213
• St Louis: 38.627089, -90.200203

So X and Y can be calculated as,
X = cos(38.627089) * sin(4.38101)
X = 0.05967668696
And
Y = cos(39.099912) * sin(38.627089) – sin(39.099912) * cos(38.627089) * cos(4.38101)
Y = 0.77604737571 * 0.62424902378 – 0.6306746155 * 0.78122541965 * 0.99707812506
Y = -0.00681261948
So as, β = atan2(X,Y) = atan2(0.05967668696, -0.00681261948)
β = 96.51°
This means, from Kansas City if we move in 96.51° bearing direction, we will reach St Louis." (source: http://www.igismap.com/formula-to-f...-angle-between-two-points-latitude-longitude/)

Yeah so here's another endorsement for planetary bookmarks

 

[Khelder]

While you are at it FDEV (because this would be wonderful), please make the system have multi-waypoints for ship/SRV races (mayby a mini-map of the planet that can be opend up/in the top right corner?) and can be shared between commanders. Ive seen someone create a program once that hacked the ram and could already sort out these kind of things (can anyone remember the name of that program? It had speed indicators and RPM as well... Seems he didnt really like anyone to have it...), so it couldnt be to hard to create. You would do us a HUGE favour with this ei not having the need for human markers all the time...

Sneak Peek - Surface Navigation

It was called Catalyst. It's dead. What Genar-Hofoen is asking for is a lot simpler.

 

[MrFailfactory]

It would be a shame to see one of the few (pilot) skill checks in the game go away, but to be perfectly honest, I can't think of any compelling reason why we can't open a small interface that allows us to input coordinates, and generate a waypoint. I'm not a programmer, but I would think that the coordinates on the planets are fairly static for each planet (ruins, crash sites, Dynasty bases don't creep across the ground), and as such, this should be a simple thing to implement. Open a panel with the planet targeted and type, or use the System Map and the cursor, either way would work just fine.

Riôt

 

[Hiten Bongz]

We need this, also an overlay of the planet with a lat/long grid would be the bees knees...

 

[Red Anders]

+ several million

 

[Red Anders]

Honestly, it's not hard at all to fly to any given set of coordinates.

0, 90, 180, 270 is all you really need to know.

If you are at 100,-80 and need to get to -50, 20, you can do it "the hard way", and align yourself with 0, 90, 180 or 270 on the bearing indicator and fly in that direction and watch what your lat and log numbers do - either increase or decrease, until you reach your destination, or you can use something like: https://edbearingcalc.neocities.org/ and it will tell you to align to a course of 146 degrees and fly that way until you reach your destination.

That's it. That's all there is to it.

Yeah, it might be nice to include this kind of functionality, but.. the math involved in calculating a heading is somewhat complex - here's an example:

"Bearing from point A to B, can be calculated as,β = atan2(X,Y),
where, X and Y are two quantities and can be calculated as:
X = cos θb * sin ∆L
Y = cos θa * sin θb – sin θa * cos θb * cos ∆L
Lets us take an example to calculate bearing between the two different points with the formula:

• Kansas City: 39.099912, -94.581213
• St Louis: 38.627089, -90.200203

So X and Y can be calculated as,
X = cos(38.627089) * sin(4.38101)
X = 0.05967668696
And
Y = cos(39.099912) * sin(38.627089) – sin(39.099912) * cos(38.627089) * cos(4.38101)
Y = 0.77604737571 * 0.62424902378 – 0.6306746155 * 0.78122541965 * 0.99707812506
Y = -0.00681261948
So as, β = atan2(X,Y) = atan2(0.05967668696, -0.00681261948)
β = 96.51°
This means, from Kansas City if we move in 96.51° bearing direction, we will reach St Louis." (source: http://www.igismap.com/formula-to-f...-angle-between-two-points-latitude-longitude/)

The game as it stands today shows markers on the surface (starports for example) that allow us to fly from 50,000 LS out directly to them. The complexity therefore starts and ends with allowing the player to create a temporary object in their instance, positioned at the surface location they wish to fly to, which has the same targetable properties. Everything else is already in the game.

As for being 'easy' to fly to a given area, yes I can work out which way to fly along lat and long lines in order to reach a given location. However the combination of extreme speed relative to ground position when flying in orbital cruise and need to judge the distance at which to start a descent mean it's still an order of magnitude more of a pain than it ever needs to be.

Just compare the experience of flying to a starport and flying to a relic site before they were identified in the navigation menu and you just had the coordinates written on a piece of paper. It's not about it being 'complex', being able to mentally segment a sphere into quadrants, read a display and understand the concept of 90 degree turns is hardly taxing for a lot of us I'm sure. It's about unnecessary farting around and the misconception that said farting around is actually some kind of skill gate.

 

[Franc Kaos]

Clickable link for me in Galnet please, locks in the course ala Satnav and off I go

Oh, and for everyone saying how easy it is (and I've done it - not fun), for numerically dyslexic types it's a magnitude of orders harder to remember what the numbers are saying, you know but your brain forgets the meaning, the bottom numbers are going up but the top numbers are going down and the logic circuits inside your brain start to fizzle and it feels like deciphering hieroglyphics.

 

[zorbaq]

Dear People Who Decide What Gets Done in Frontier,

Planetary navigation is terrible.

This becomes apparent when trying to reach a set of LAT/LON coordinates on a planet surface, when there is no waypoint (like in a surface recovery mission).

Try reaching a LAT/LON from space, to glide, to the surface. It is nigh on impossible.

Sure, we can get into Orbital Cruise, and we have a display of LAT/LON. But then you're trying to change direction of orbit relative to planet surface and the coords. Trying to get the coords to go up/down/positive/negative at just the correct rate so they will converge at the desired LAT/LON.

Then, even when you're getting close to the target, you have to try and judge the right moment when to come out of orbital cruise to glide down to the surface - you'll probably overshoot badly.

In short, this is a terrible experience.

So for 2.4 - please, please allocate some dev time to marking a surface waypoint we can target, by way of the 3D surface map in the System Map.

Please!?

Yes, please!

 

[Qohen Leth]

Nothing new here : https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/332221-Advanced-navigation-and-exploration-HUD

 

[Genar-Hofoen]

Nothing new here : https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/332221-Advanced-navigation-and-exploration-HUD

Hi Qohen! o7

Yeah nothing new - but asking just for 1 small thing - being able to enter a bloody Lat and Lon coord and having that as a marker to aim at. I figured it would be more likely to be considered as a single, simple issue, rather than bombard Frontier with all sorts of awesome ideas at once. And this one single issue would be a massive and instant QoL improvement in itself

Regards

 

[Qohen Leth]

Hi Qohen! o7

Yeah nothing new - but asking just for 1 small thing - being able to enter a bloody Lat and Lon coord and having that as a marker to aim at. I figured it would be more likely to be considered as a single, simple issue, rather than bombard Frontier with all sorts of awesome ideas at once. And this one single issue would be a massive and instant QoL improvement in itself

Regards

I know, I know... But even the smallest thing... *sigh*

Take care o7

 

[avow555]

Dear People Who Decide What Gets Done in Frontier,

Planetary navigation is terrible.

This becomes apparent when trying to reach a set of LAT/LON coordinates on a planet surface, when there is no waypoint (like in a surface recovery mission).

Try reaching a LAT/LON from space, to glide, to the surface. It is nigh on impossible.

Sure, we can get into Orbital Cruise, and we have a display of LAT/LON. But then you're trying to change direction of orbit relative to planet surface and the coords. Trying to get the coords to go up/down/positive/negative at just the correct rate so they will converge at the desired LAT/LON.

Then, even when you're getting close to the target, you have to try and judge the right moment when to come out of orbital cruise to glide down to the surface - you'll probably overshoot badly.

In short, this is a terrible experience.

So for 2.4 - please, please allocate some dev time to marking a surface waypoint we can target, by way of the 3D surface map in the System Map.

Please!?

Yeh fdev, get this sorted as the current situation is amateur hour.

 

[dognosh]

To those who keep mentioning bearing tools or how to find a location : Thanks, I know how ,that isn't the point. I still want an in game tool,an optional one not everyone is forced to use

 

[crushdepth]

Honestly, it's not hard at all to fly to any given set of coordinates.

0, 90, 180, 270 is all you really need to know.

If you are at 100,-80 and need to get to -50, 20, you can do it "the hard way", and align yourself with 0, 90, 180 or 270 on the bearing indicator and fly in that direction and watch what your lat and log numbers do - either increase or decrease, until you reach your destination, or you can use something like: https://edbearingcalc.neocities.org/ and it will tell you to align to a course of 146 degrees and fly that way until you reach your destination.

That's it. That's all there is to it.

Yeah, it might be nice to include this kind of functionality, but.. the math involved in calculating a heading is somewhat complex - here's an example:

"Bearing from point A to B, can be calculated as,β = atan2(X,Y),
where, X and Y are two quantities and can be calculated as:
X = cos θb * sin ∆L
Y = cos θa * sin θb – sin θa * cos θb * cos ∆L
Lets us take an example to calculate bearing between the two different points with the formula:

• Kansas City: 39.099912, -94.581213
• St Louis: 38.627089, -90.200203

So X and Y can be calculated as,
X = cos(38.627089) * sin(4.38101)
X = 0.05967668696
And
Y = cos(39.099912) * sin(38.627089) – sin(39.099912) * cos(38.627089) * cos(4.38101)
Y = 0.77604737571 * 0.62424902378 – 0.6306746155 * 0.78122541965 * 0.99707812506
Y = -0.00681261948
So as, β = atan2(X,Y) = atan2(0.05967668696, -0.00681261948)
β = 96.51°
This means, from Kansas City if we move in 96.51° bearing direction, we will reach St Louis." (source: http://www.igismap.com/formula-to-f...-angle-between-two-points-latitude-longitude/)

We KNOW how to do it. We do not LIKE doing it because it is PAINFUL and unweildy to be squinting at little numbers in the corner of the screen when you could be flying towards a virtual waypoint towering into the sky and appreciating the view.

If Elite were a biplane simulator I'd understand but THIS IS THE FUTURE PEOPLE.

PS: PlanetSide 2 is waypoints done right, as far as the visuals go.

 

[Jonas Treesong]

Very much +1

 

[yolomcbobbinz]

Too lazy to scroll through all of these posts do maby this has been suggested but, why not add the option to input coordinates into the ship to auto pilot it's self much like the docking computer?

No new equipment needed just make it a part of the planetary approach suite

 

[Genar-Hofoen]

Too lazy to scroll through all of these posts do maby this has been suggested but, why not add the option to input coordinates into the ship to auto pilot it's self much like the docking computer?

No new equipment needed just make it a part of the planetary approach suite

No that's a heck of a lot more complex than you'd imagine.

Besides, you should read the thread before contributing. Declaring you're too lazy to read the thread tends to lead to being ignored

 

[Luniticisi]

I'll add a healthy "Yes, please" too.

 

[Lucius-Darcia]

Bump!

It is really time that we are able to insert LAT/LON coordinates to create our own waypoints this way!