So this is the one, big thing that drove me away from Elite at the end of 2016...the interstellar space travel mechanic! I have searched the forums with a bunch of terms to find the myriad of threads i thought must be here by now concerning the space travel grind, but i did not find a lot to be honest. There are a few suggestings here and there of how to improve it, but the majority of users don't seem to be too vocal about it. Quite contrary to the 'engineer' grind or the money grind and such.
So, i do get that the feeling of the vastness of space is desirable and that instant traveling would in all likely be detrimental to this. Thus it seems imperative that space travel takes time, a significant time when travesing the universe. But i don't feel in the slightest way that this means i should waste hours and hours of lifetime doing a repetitive minigame and looking at a loading screen. Not a new complaint, i know.
So why does my 34th centuray spacecraft have no autopilot where i punch in the star system i want to go to and then the entire jump, fuel scoop mini-game is repeated hundreds of times automatically? In real life, no way in hell we'd be doing this ourselves. We'd be watching movies in the ships launch, playing games, sleeping, cooking food, whatever. But the actual driving would be done by the computer. It'll be way more save anyway!
The system i would like to see would (optionally) automate the entire hyperspace travel mechanic with the player being able to logoff and quit Elite. The travel would still take 10, 15, 30 hours like now if you force yourself to bruteforce your way to the galagtic core or even further.
I, for instance, would love to go out to the Formidine Rift and experience the little audio stories at those abandoned settlements. But i cannot justify to myself sitting 3,5,8 hours infront of the screen playing this mini game over and over again. You, Mr. Braben, are responsible for probably millions of hours of precious game time that got wasted on a very poor game design choice! Even worse, most of the content that is in the game is dependent on people using the game mechanic, hence it is kinda locked away behind that grindy mechanic.
Anyway, what are your thoughts in this topic? Do you actually feel enjoyment when doing dozens or hundreds of jumps in one session, and doing it sometimes multiple days in a row?
Do you feel the hurt of it is necessary to have this 'space is vast and empty' feeling? Would this get lost if the process was automated and happing while we are not playing Elite? The mechanic exists for ship and module transfer already, why not for traveling also?
I know this is a pretty negative OP but it comes from frustration of having to make a very tough choice....let Elite rest or waste tons of hours on a very bad game design decision.
So, i do get that the feeling of the vastness of space is desirable and that instant traveling would in all likely be detrimental to this. Thus it seems imperative that space travel takes time, a significant time when travesing the universe. But i don't feel in the slightest way that this means i should waste hours and hours of lifetime doing a repetitive minigame and looking at a loading screen. Not a new complaint, i know.
So why does my 34th centuray spacecraft have no autopilot where i punch in the star system i want to go to and then the entire jump, fuel scoop mini-game is repeated hundreds of times automatically? In real life, no way in hell we'd be doing this ourselves. We'd be watching movies in the ships launch, playing games, sleeping, cooking food, whatever. But the actual driving would be done by the computer. It'll be way more save anyway!
The system i would like to see would (optionally) automate the entire hyperspace travel mechanic with the player being able to logoff and quit Elite. The travel would still take 10, 15, 30 hours like now if you force yourself to bruteforce your way to the galagtic core or even further.
I, for instance, would love to go out to the Formidine Rift and experience the little audio stories at those abandoned settlements. But i cannot justify to myself sitting 3,5,8 hours infront of the screen playing this mini game over and over again. You, Mr. Braben, are responsible for probably millions of hours of precious game time that got wasted on a very poor game design choice! Even worse, most of the content that is in the game is dependent on people using the game mechanic, hence it is kinda locked away behind that grindy mechanic.
Anyway, what are your thoughts in this topic? Do you actually feel enjoyment when doing dozens or hundreds of jumps in one session, and doing it sometimes multiple days in a row?
Do you feel the hurt of it is necessary to have this 'space is vast and empty' feeling? Would this get lost if the process was automated and happing while we are not playing Elite? The mechanic exists for ship and module transfer already, why not for traveling also?
I know this is a pretty negative OP but it comes from frustration of having to make a very tough choice....let Elite rest or waste tons of hours on a very bad game design decision.
![[Diplomacy] Carnegie](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/123/123809.jpg?1553527149){kind=avatar}
