Supercruise Assist and Advanced Docking Computer - my pov

[Atreyeu]

The one downside I see to some peoples desire of having an auto-pilot is the impact on discoveries and exploration.
I can imagine someone would set a destination across the galaxy, set to auto-pilot and then leave the game to it's process. As the ship jumps through undiscovered systems, would this tag their name to any bodies it might discover along the way despite the player taking no active part in doing so?
Also, is the auto-pilot going to know how to fuel scoop?

 

[B1rdy]

Just referring back to my own earlier post here. You can restore some of the credibility you lost with two snarky-lols, at least in my eyes, by telling me you do indeed fly permanent FA-Off. Otherwise, I'd be interested to know why not.

I think he does have a point. To be most efficient in ED, having FA-On at times is really helpful and it doesn' remove the necessity to actually steer the ship. An autopilot however does just that. And you have to wonder, when you design a game about flying spaceships and players actually ask to automate that part of the game, what is wrong with your design.

 

[BDelacroix]

Was it Independence War (2) that had software slots in the ships? That worked out fairly well actually.

 

[Deleted member 38366]

Several years ago, I suggested to introduce Software Upgrades.

Not only would this counter the dreaded "Module Inflation" but also leave the critical Modules vs. Internals untouched.

IMHO :
- any FCS, Sensor or Computer function should be Software in nature and not require any slot

So without any Module/weight/Internals balancing requirement, you can get

• Docking Computer
• Adv. Docking Computer
• SuperCruise Assist
• Planetary auto-landing (incl. selectable "hot pickups", where the Ship automatically retrieves the SRV)
• in-System navigation (full Autopilot, incl. Planetary waypointing & navigation)
• Hyperjump/Route management, offering Deep Space and detailed Route Filters
• Adv. Trade computer (in-System and Galaxy Map plotting by Economic priorities instead of classic Nav)
• "Codex/Lore", instead of unsorted Codex tables this connects the dots and incorporates any new Data gained from any Source, visually representing timelines or connected events in the Galaxy Map. Also assists any Code breaking or Puzzle solving.
• Exploration Computer (vastly improved Galaxy Map & Route filters, incl. all Codex Data, all personally discovered items, Routing Simulator, highly optimized Neutron plotting, Waypointing, Stellarium, Visual ID & Nav based on visual marking of observed Objects in the Galaxy backdrop)
• Adv. Mining Package (flight path and already mined locations marked in Navigation, allowing for a more structured approach to mining; local yield assessment and statistics about the quality of visited & sampled Mining locations, tracking of discovered Hotspots)

Very broad spectrum, all Optional, maximum flexibility and all possible flavors served. None being the wiser. Don't like it? Don't buy it - or disable it in the right Panel when equipped.

Otherwise, in a few years I sense a stock Sidewinder might have more Internal Slots available than an original Type-9 used to have at Release lol
(just yesterday I hopped into my Sidewinder and put the 2 new Slots to use.... and thought "damn, this tiny Ship is now offering a huge amount of Internals. Where does all this tonnage even fit inside it ?!")

PS.
I fully realize our Ships are (in mechanical essence) just glorified Vanity Cams surrounded by Cockpits and UI & Audio, with all Ship stats just being entirely arbitrary numbers chosen for balancing.
That balancing though is what gives them credibility and immersion, so seeing Ships grow upto 256tons (Type-9 buff) or a tiny Sidey suddenly take "Singularity Cargo racks - needs no physical space" feels wrong, even if the Ships benefit or deserved a buff.

 

[Junky Juke]

Elite, Frontier and First Encounters had a full working autopilot.
Is there any official motivation by Frontier to why they won't reintroduce the full autopilot in ED?
My guess is that it could slam your ship into a station or into a star, like it used to do in the previous three titles if something went wrong with the game code (path finding issues, bugs). In those days the game was single player and we had savegames (lots of them, just in case). So you could swear, blame the game and load a previous savegame. But today Elite is a MMO and if your autopilot computer pops your ship, you irremediably lose your ship and your money. Such incidents could bring to a cosmic cataclysm across the community with extreme conseguences for Fdevs health and safety.