What incentive do new players have to stop using supercruise assist?

Walking around your ship all but requires this feature anyway. The advantage of not using these auto modules is you can do it faster manually. Heck, the docking/departing module sticks to the speed limit and actully queues...
 
What's the betting that the new module in the next release after 3.4 will automate orbit -> planetary base, the only part you still have to do for yourself?

Which will be fine, as they'll give us another size 1 slot for free - woohoo :)

Ill take that bet, what do I get if that module wont be added then? Or was that just a lazy slippery slope argument? :p
 
the only incentive to stop using may not apply to the experienced players but for the new cmdrs... beware the current DC can't dock cutters or belugas
and using the dc on planet bases is always entertaining.......
I would not expect the new version to be any smarter, just now capable of launch too, and likely to be a very interesting experience for many.
I would place a large bet on the SCC to be just as clever.
When arriving in my Cutter, I get somewhere on the correct side of the station and then engage the DC. If looking up something on EDDB I do listen out for crashing noises, but no other attention is needed. The DC hasn't done anything bad for months. The only times I've had to take over is when there are too many other ships to give it a clear run and it goes slow and timid. I think its algorithm now is pretty impressive.

I'll be fitting an advanced one in the Cutter as soon as it's available.
 
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Well, its pretty clear now frontier don't like supercruise and are building into the game ways out of it.

Was just thinking for the new supercruise assist function, say a new player follows along and gets used to playing elite in the new world. I suspect its going to be common that because there's actually no or very minimal incentive in turning off supercruise assist... people will get used to having it on permanently. If you "grew up" with it, then compared it to turning it off, why would you?

Apart from in combat ships, its already far too easy to fit a docking computer in all but the combat focused ships (that mainstream dont use because of jump range), and we just got another slot for it...

The only speculation is wouldn't that leave supercruise itself in an odd place over time? I'm one of the oddballs that's loves supercruise, but have to admit, that headlook is the primary gameplay there, and you can still do that with the assist on... Taking away the only subtle science gameplay part of it via a module won't leave much there for the non headlookers.

It was also really spooky when during the livestream they said as a feature you're freed up to do other things (and stopped from saying tabbing out from the game). Adam woods using the words 'none of the playing the game dev magic' in a livestream about a video game was also top stuff.
It's faster piloting yourself and it frees up a slot for other things.
 
I can see a use for the Supercruise 'auto-pilot' even for experienced players - just perfect for those times when a 500KLs jaunt to a secondary/tertiary star to scan a body or two of interest, at least in the middle of nowhere, in a PG, the transit time can be 'wasted' doing something interesting...
In the bubble, outside of the new beginners system, I'm not so sure of its use if in open - apart from a quick introduction to the rebuy screen if the pilot is browsing something else rather than practising 'spatial awareness' :)
 
When arriving in my Cutter, I get somewhere on the correct side of the station and then engage the DC. If looking up something on EDDB I do listen out for crashing noises, but no other attention is needed. The DC hasn't done anything bad for months. The only times I've had to take over is when there are too many other ships to give it a clear run and it goes slow and timid. I think its algorithm now is pretty impressive.

I'll be fitting an advanced one in the Cutter as soon as it's available.

It's your game, you play how you want.

But you do realize that it's the same docking AI that always does this right?

 
I've never seen it do that. I guess that the ship in that picture was positioned by the player like that on purpose.

Nah,,, that happens almost all the time for me at space outposts too, if a ship's leaving the medium dock. I have to nudge them out of the way (preferably, without killing them), otherwise I need to wait 20m before I can request docking (they're not obscuring the landing pad, but they aren't clear of the pad either, so considers them "still departing")
 
I've seen worse ones than that..
only way I found to make it work right on planet bases is to drop landing gear first to prevent the dumbass AI from boosting, then engage the idiot DC, then it actually works
for small ships like courier or eagles and similar size, I don't use dc's, zero reason and In the past in using and still nowadays occasionally testing it, its not safe, too many times it slams the tiny ships onto the pad knocking out shields and damaging the ship
I've had ships boosted into the tower and resulting damage
At orbital stations, its already been said, its faster and safer to do it manually, nothing more fun than trying to get a cutter or a beluga unstuck from inside the toaster or under it.
Its also just a lousy AI, it can't seem to keep the speed right outside the stations, so you can easily get rammed or just hit and fined, I fly very fast in and out of stations anyway, but I don't boost into ships or parts of stations, the AI has, does, and will again....
From what I've seen, its not an AI unit, its a remote control and when you engage it, some npc still in diapers takes control
I wish that at planetary bases the game would revert back to a bug we once had, where as long as you engage your DC, the skimmers would all boost up high and rain down on us....more than enough incentive to bloody learn how to dock your expensive ship at our expensive station
 
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Incentive? Automation during trading runs so I can have dinner, clean up, etc. Real-life efficiency. My ships are tough enough to withstand a minute or so of NPC fire and in our timezone, player killers are extremely rare.

However for anything that's my usual game play, I'll still fly manually just to get things done faster.
 
Well, I don't have a Beluga but I often fly Cutter or Corvette. I dock about half a dozen times a day, always use the DC, don't take any care to line up first, and it never goes wrong.
 
Honestly I'm probably going to be using it just out of pure laziness.
Also this is most likely a bait topic (where's the TC?)
 
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I see two answers here, both, however, mostly answering a question with a question:

1) What incentive is there to fly a Keelback, an Asp Scout or a <insert ship here>? What incentive is there to trade when you can mine, or to mine when you can trade? Etc.. Because you want to try it.

2) What if there isn't one? What if players never fly without Supercruise Assist again? So what?

You make my point exactly. Depending on what era you played elite during.. for the lower mid range ships that you played because you:

  • Didn't have the credits for anything else vs
  • Came back in hindsight because you missed out on it..
How many of those ships did you actually use vs try for a weekend, park, then eventually delete?

It doesn't bother me at all, its optional and people can do what they want, but given the 'dont actually want to play the game' demographic that frontier is catering for, it wouldn't surprise me if autopilot became how people primarily played. Just think about elite over the years.. its bad enough as it is without making it easier. You hear people talking about watching tv while playing elite like its a feature and something awesome....
 
Unless the slots are locked to this by default- then more slots trumps all - I'm really looking forward to having an extra one on my Cobra mk4 in particular.
No ship has enough slots to be able to afford the luxury of docking computers or automated cruise control - always better used for shield boosters , hull boosters, fuel scoops, repair modules, limpets etc etc.
 
Walking around your ship all but requires this feature anyway. The advantage of not using these auto modules is you can do it faster manually. Heck, the docking/departing module sticks to the speed limit and actully queues...

That's a really good theory. Getting people used to not flying supercruise.. to walk around instead.. thats a great other way to look at it.

Also you've been missed in the fss discussions. Its come back a number of times :)
 
Question - how much of a time penalty is there for being in the blue zone the entire trip vs full-throttle until 6 seconds? Let's use an extreme example like Hutton Orbital. If we're only talking a few minutes for a long trip like this, then I have use for SC Assist. If we're talking a serious time differential, then I might throw it onto my exploration ship (I've got the spare slots) but not use it much at all.
 
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