The Route planner discussion thread

[Gomisan]

Wel put.

feedback is important, as is sensible discussion of this stuff.

A good user interface will do a lot for the longevity of the game and the ease which players can get into it. It doesnt have to 'automate' anything, just give us the tools, in game, to do what we need to do.

* record/plan routes
* set waypoints
* view locations visited/routes taken
* record trade data

that sort of thing.

In my mind soem form of ships log would be an excellent compliment to an improved galactic map. A map that allowed us to plot a sequence of jumps, even if it didnt actually make those jumps for us.

 

[MrReynolds]

ooooh!
Wouldn't it be great if the nav computer recorded EVERY jump you made?

a) it would be good to retrace your steps, and
b) in a couple of years time you could "fast forward" through your travels through space on the map screen.

 

[Tiamat]

You mean like this one.

http://www.elitetradingtool.co.uk/

It is complied by other players knowledge of the prices when they last visited a station, and if the data is a bit old items can either not be there at all or it can be out of date on prices. I like this approach as it can be a little hit and miss and doesn't scrape the games data.

I am hoping someone somewhere is working on a route planner although it too will need players to contribute as many new discovered astronomical bodies will be named as they are investigated and will need to be incorporated.

I use this one too. I liken it to traders sharing data with each other via comms and as the data is usually a day or so out of date it is not guaranteed profit as the station could have been cleared out since then. It did have a route planner and jump distance calculator before beta 2 and he says he is working on updating it.

 

[tagos]

Trading and plotting routes needs a ridiculous improvement. It's the year 3000 and we can't plot a route on a map or check other stations commodities and prices? And yet we have a galactic internet system?

i hope they fix that at Beta 3...because it's driving me nuts.

we dont have a galactic internet. superluminal information flow is supposed to be very restricted in capacity. which is why couriers are a thing still and why there cannot be real time trade information.

 

[Wavey]

Why?

Why does everything need to be made easier?

I can buy and sell good just fine using the trade map and my brain. And the same combination allows me to back track a route from my proposed destination if there is one.

I see the lack of 'play the game for you' facilities as a feature not a fault.

The Galaxy/trade map is full of errors and useless at the moment for trading .1 example of many - system Tun Agricultural exports grain/meat/fish nope all it sells are Advanced Catalysers .When its fixed I hope it will be a useful tool but it is not in its present state

 

[Koinski]

At this point i would be happy with having access to the galaxy map from the Station Services and not only from my ship.

Imagine you buying your commodities in the station market and asking the shop keeper: "wait a minute, ia have to go back to my ship to see if there is a station within my range that wants to buy this stuff. Be right back!"

 

[Morlock5K]

+1. That's exactly what I'm looking for. It's frustrating that we are supposedly in the year 3300 and yet our ship computers make us manually plot multi jump routes.

Thank you. I was quite impressed with myself for that description!

 

[tagos]

The Galaxy/trade map is full of errors and useless at the moment for trading .1 example of many - system Tun Agricultural exports grain/meat/fish nope all it sells are Advanced Catalysers .When its fixed I hope it will be a useful tool but it is not in its present state

Fixing the tools is fine. It's beta. Asking for them to either be replaced or supplanted by things that take the effort out of using them is another.

At the moment the good traders will be the people who understand how to use the trade tool and make the effort to use it effectively. The good traders will be those who develop a memory for what things were like where they been or make an effort to record it.

Providing perfect market information removes that aspect of game-play - it removes a skill from game-play.

The galaxy isn't a high-tech super-highway. Han Solo didn't just punch up his computer to spot the same trade deals everyone else was seeing. He went out and looked for them. Trading should be about hunches and gambles. It should be about sometimes getting it wrong and having to hunt around for a buyer.

We're freelance adventurers scraping a living, it's meant to be risky.

That's why I don't want a bunch of slick supporting tools.

Just like I don't want a HUD that would not look out of place in an F22.

I want a low tech, frontier feel. Leave it to SC to do the high-tech stuff.

Besides. if you want to record market conditions at a station and have a record kept there is already a system for doing that. The f10 key.

 

[tagos]

At this point i would be happy with having access to the galaxy map from the Station Services and not only from my ship.

Imagine you buying your commodities in the station market and asking the shop keeper: "wait a minute, ia have to go back to my ship to see if there is a station within my range that wants to buy this stuff. Be right back!"

It's these sort of refinements that would be good.

 

[Antmax]

BTW if you haven't checked control settings lately.

There IS now an unset Galaxy Map keybinding. So you can access the galaxy map without sifting through all the menu's. You do need to be in cockpit view, but that is all.

 

[Bevz]

Ticket

I've raised a ticket to request the route planner... I'll post back if they reply with any comments!

 

[BillD]

BTW if you haven't checked control settings lately.

There IS now an unset Galaxy Map keybinding. So you can access the galaxy map without sifting through all the menu's. You do need to be in cockpit view, but that is all.

I have set the binding. Set it 5 mins after starting Beta 2. So I am on the commodities screen look at some commodities, press the hot key and nothing. Backtrack out of commodities, backtrack out of station interface. Hit hot key look at the trading map for the commodity. Realise I cant make it to any of the locations that buy the item. Go back to station services, go back to commodities list check other items. and back all the way out again out again to look at the map.

Yes I could have written down all of the commodities they sell and do it once. But that requires me taking off the oculus

BTW I know how to trade... I managed to make 20million or so playing with the tools that are there. Sorry for offending those that don't want the product to improve. Simple tools do not ruin a game there have been plenty of improvements otherwise Alpha would be released as the full game.

 

[ShadowGar]

Obviously people cant read or care to comprehend.

OP didn't ask how you feel about trade tools nor care about your opinions on what you consider a good trader to be. Nor does anyone else care how you enjoy the game. You don't like using tools, keep it to yourself.

Is moderators doing their jobs? People posting their opinions about tools ethics are not on topic with OP's questions. They need removed.


OP Yes, there are really good tools out right now. Nothing automated yet. Many devs are working on that. I wont advertise any tools though. It seems every time we bring up tools, negative non-topic posters come in droves and Mods do nothing about it. Search around the forums a bit. If you still cant find any, Pm me.

 

[Gomisan]

At this point i would be happy with having access to the galaxy map from the Station Services and not only from my ship.

Imagine you buying your commodities in the station market and asking the shop keeper: "wait a minute, ia have to go back to my ship to see if there is a station within my range that wants to buy this stuff. Be right back!"

Indeed! A major oversight and one thats been bugging me a lot in the mission/bulletin boardinterface.

 

[tagos]

Obviously people cant read or care to comprehend.

OP didn't ask how you feel about trade tools nor care about your opinions on what you consider a good trader to be. Nor does anyone else care how you enjoy the game. You don't like using tools, keep it to yourself.

Is moderators doing their jobs? People posting their opinions about tools ethics are not on topic with OP's questions. They need removed.

OP's are starting points for discussions and you are not a mod.

 

[ShadowGar]

OP's are starting points for discussions and you are not a mod.

Your correct, if I was a mod, many posts breaking the forum rules would be gone.

And the OP was asking for tools, not if he should use them.

 

[Ethaor]

I'm not sure what kind of experience Frontier is shooting for in terms of information management and accessibility but if there's one thing Eve does extremely well, it's certainly their in game tools, be it the market, the fitting screen or the galaxy map.

 

[anikaiful]

Your correct, if I was a mod, many posts breaking the forum rules would be gone.

And the OP was asking for tools, not if he should use them.

And you're derailing off-topic... delete your own commentary

 

[ShadowGar]

And you're derailing off-topic... delete your own commentary

No, as you didn't see, I was still commenting on the OP wanting to know about tools. Its not off topic.

"And the OP was asking for tools, not if he should use them."

Commenting that the op is wanting to know about tools to someone that wasn't answering his question in a "Wanting to know about tools" thread isn't off topic.

 

[anikaiful]

No, as you didn't see, I was still commenting on the OP wanting to know about tools. Its not off topic.

"And the OP was asking for tools, not if he should use them."

Commenting that the op is wanting to know about tools to someone that wasn't answering his question in a "Wanting to know about tools" thread isn't off topic.

Apparently you can't read past your nose...