Rest stops in Exploration

[Mooncusser]

I'm not a member of the beta, so don't know how logging out works, but it came to me as I was reading about the Exploration concept that some of these Exploration trips could take a long time.

There will initially be a few unexplored areas near to inhabited space - but eventually many of the nearby systems will be explored moderately thoroughly, and pilots will begin going further and further out into the void to find unexplored systems.

One of the problems with this is that many of these systems will be a looooong way from inhabited space, and hence space stations - resulting in a pattern of H-Jump, H-Jump, H-Jump, Fuel Scoop, H-Jump, etc.

This will take a long time in real time to accomplish if the targeted exploration zone is a long way away.

Assuming a player doesn't have 36 (maybe 128?) straight hours to commit to flying to the other side of the galaxy and back, how does the game handle logging out in the middle of a session if you aren't at space station or otherwise docked? Will it restart you where you left off, or is there something else that happens that will allow you to pick up where you were?

 

[Commander Mad Mags]

When you log out in space you log in pretty much where you were (give or take a few kms) in space.

 

[Mooncusser]

Thanks.

For some reason I had the impression that your status got saved upon docking, but it appears that there is some sort of auto-save or status recording that is active at all times.

I figured there had to be, but hadn't seen it referred to yet, and thought it could be an issue if you were away from standard docking locations for an extended period.

 

[Steve 67]

For some reason I had the impression that your status got saved upon docking, but it appears that there is some sort of auto-save or status recording that is active at all times.

Your not alone friend, but nope you can pause, save and restart from roughly your last location (in-space or at a station).

I usually save in-dock myself, it just feels more solid

 

[Tinman]

Your not alone friend, but nope you can pause, save and restart from roughly your last location (in-space or at a station).

I usually save in-dock myself, it just feels more solid

Save and restart, yes.

Pause, no. Since it being multiplayer.

When we eventually get the OFFLINE version of single player you will most likely be able to pause, but that's not in the current build yet (disregarding the single player missions)...

 

[Zenicetus]

Your not alone friend, but nope you can pause, save and restart from roughly your last location (in-space or at a station).

I usually save in-dock myself, it just feels more solid

The first few times I quit the game for the night by logging out in space, I was really nervous. Not so much now. If I don't need fuel, or I want to stay near a Fed distress beacon or something to pick up again the next day, I feel pretty comfortable logging out in empty space somewhere.

As far as I can tell, if you drop out of Supercruise at some random point in space, and there are no yellow dots (ships) in the sensor, you're probably safe to leave your ship there and log back in later. I suppose there's a finite chance that your Island bubble would overlap with another player's when you log back in, and that player could be hostile. But space is big, so the odds must be pretty low. I wouldn't expect the game to just randomly generate pirates or other traffic far away from the stations in empty space. And even if it did, I'd have enough time to deal with it, unless they were right on top of me.