Why does my 34th century spaceship have no autopilot OR how do you accept the hyperjump grind?

Strange, I always thought that for explorers, especially the long distance ones, the journey there was just as important as the destination.
 
I'm annoyed that i'm buying for a crew member who seemingly hides in the cargo buy and pops up only to occasionally fly the remote controlled fighters. He doesn't help with flying my ship or even make an appearance on the deck. He could take his turn of flying but no, he's having some 'me' time. Bone idle is what he is.

That is why I got rid of all of mine, slackers taking a percentage of my earnings even when they are sitting there with their feet up drinking in the crew lounge on some station.
 
One thing to keep in mind, perhaps since details are missing, is the upcoming mining/exploration mechanics.

I see people claiming they want to go to Colonia for once. And I can tell them, there's nothing special about Colonia except for one aspect. It's just a mini bubble, but smaller. But since you can't tell when you're in a system whether the systems around you are occupied you might as well be in the bubble. It's not as if you're visiting a small town where you can see the woodlands in the distance. Colonia had the potential to be something special, but the lesser lights at Frontier decided: lets make a bubble 2.0 and create PMFs close to each other to see whether they'll bash each other's brain in, hyuk, hyuk. The only aspect of Colonia which is special is the aspect that is complained about. It's remote. And some players like the distance from the bubble.

Now the upcoming mining/exploration mechanics might induce a lot of short range exploration. Looking for rich roids a couple of 100s of LY or less outside of the bubble. Too much distance means too much travel which will eat into your profits. So the aim will be to find as rich a field, as close to the bubble as you can. Right now, about the only measurable objective is weeing your name on a planet, and much of them close to the bubble are widdled upon. So you almost need to travel quite some distance before you can mark some for yourself.
 

sollisb

Banned
One thing to keep in mind, perhaps since details are missing, is the upcoming mining/exploration mechanics.

I see people claiming they want to go to Colonia for once. And I can tell them, there's nothing special about Colonia except for one aspect. It's just a mini bubble, but smaller. But since you can't tell when you're in a system whether the systems around you are occupied you might as well be in the bubble. It's not as if you're visiting a small town where you can see the woodlands in the distance. Colonia had the potential to be something special, but the lesser lights at Frontier decided: lets make a bubble 2.0 and create PMFs close to each other to see whether they'll bash each other's brain in, hyuk, hyuk. The only aspect of Colonia which is special is the aspect that is complained about. It's remote. And some players like the distance from the bubble.

Now the upcoming mining/exploration mechanics might induce a lot of short range exploration. Looking for rich roids a couple of 100s of LY or less outside of the bubble. Too much distance means too much travel which will eat into your profits. So the aim will be to find as rich a field, as close to the bubble as you can. Right now, about the only measurable objective is weeing your name on a planet, and much of them close to the bubble are widdled upon. So you almost need to travel quite some distance before you can mark some for yourself.

Aren't here stations now like 1000ly apart on the road to Colonia? Peeps could just base on them for their mining? I don't know, the furthest I've been is 5k, and mining to me is as interesting as gardening.
 
Aren't here stations now like 1000ly apart on the road to Colonia? Peeps could just base on them for their mining? I don't know, the furthest I've been is 5k, and mining to me is as interesting as gardening.
Don't forget there are also new mechanics coming for mining with regard to prospecting and extraction.

I'm juz saying there will be more options, this time closer to home to get payback as result of exploration.
 

sollisb

Banned
Don't forget there are also new mechanics coming for mining with regard to prospecting and extraction.

I'm juz saying there will be more options, this time closer to home to get payback as result of exploration.


Oh yeh I know that.. was more along I thought the trip to Colonia wasn't so difficult now with there being intermediary stations every few klicks.
 
Suppose I want to go to Colonia. Why would you be so incredibly opposed to people doing just that without pressing the 'J' but an ungodly number of times? You can keep doing whatever you like as it is now, if you prefer.

Because with the suggested autopilot you would be able todo that with any ship, so we would see alot more other ships i Colonia that we would not have seen otherwise, as most people realises that it would take to much time to get there in those, instead they opt to go there in ships that have longer longer jump range.



And the second thing, if you want to go to Colonia, and want to cheat the current system, what would that achieve? What would the reason to go to Colonia be in the first place? If do do not care to undertake the travel, what would you think you would find Colonia an interesting place then?


What else should we add autopiloting for?
Fighting?
Trading?
SRV driving collecting material?

etc etc etc?

Why even have game then? or should we just cherry pick what parts we should remove? and if everyone had their will on parts to automate, then we would no longer have a game....
 
Because with the suggested autopilot you would be able todo that with any ship, so we would see alot more other ships i Colonia that we would not have seen otherwise, as most people realises that it would take to much time to get there in those, instead they opt to go there in ships that have longer longer jump range.



And the second thing, if you want to go to Colonia, and want to cheat the current system, what would that achieve? What would the reason to go to Colonia be in the first place? If do do not care to undertake the travel, what would you think you would find Colonia an interesting place then?


What else should we add autopiloting for?
Fighting?
Trading?
SRV driving collecting material?

etc etc etc?

Why even have game then? or should we just cherry pick what parts we should remove? and if everyone had their will on parts to automate, then we would no longer have a game....

Well said, repped!

I don't think people are wanting an 'I Win' button, more of a 'I Want it easy and right now' button. What I suspect though, is they haven't thought through any repercussions of their proposed changes.

Ultra long jump distances: that would kill the exploration in the game, what have any rank or sense of achievement if it becomes so easy and common place. If everyone can jump to Sag A from the bubble in a hour or so, it isn't special anymore, there is no sense of accomplishment. There would be no different between doing the Sag A run or a trip to Colonia as it is jumping to a neighbouring system now.

Some have even called for inter-system jumps cos you know, SC is so boring. But have they thought what would be lost if that was possible. Hmm only about half the limited gameplay we have now! No more interdictions, so PvP is basically dead and buried. No more USS searching, because no one is going to bother going in SC now. So the USS mechanism will have to be totally redone, and we all know how good FD is are re-inventing the wheel don't we. All the work FD has done to get rid of the beigification of the planets, now null and void because no body will see them in SC. And lets not forget the main boogie man/sentient being of the game, the Thargoids, they might as well be deleted from the game if SC was made optional, because nobody would ever see the NHUSS.
 
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(Incidentally, for those who love the game as-is: what do you do for a living? Is your day to day life so boring and monotonous that the games you are drawn to also feature monotony as their “challenge”?)
I'll tell you buddy. My life is too hectic to bother with games that jump through hoops to keep me entertained and throw stuff at me at every turn in fear that I might loose interest. I like to take it easy while playing. Preferably in long sessions.
Incidentally, I work as a freelance artist and have a family. I make up my own work hours and usually play at night in peace and comfort.
Frankly I'm insulted by your idea of what draws a player to ED's mechanics. My gaming is not in a hurry to get anywhere. Especially in a freeform game as this which is free of any silly ending or banal story.
Sure it can get monotonous but that goes for any game. Either that or the game ends. If I get bored I'm for the moment free of Elite's spell and can look into my extensive backlog for a day or two.
I'd be more inclined to think someone who doesn't have the patience for slow gaming is the one that leads a boring life and seeks stimulation and faster progress in their games. But that would be silly to think as a generalisation.
Patience and stamina will get you through life.
I play ED for the long haul. It's my chillout zone.
 
Stopped playing because of this stupid "feature" having to press "j" a hundred time... So fun...Exploration in ED is a joke.
 
Stopped playing because of this stupid "feature" having to press "j" a hundred time... So fun...Exploration in ED is a joke.

Yet you are still here, sorry to see you go, the Community is poorer for your absence from the game …..
 
Strange, I always thought that for explorers, especially the long distance ones, the journey there was just as important as the destination.

I must be a strange explorer then. For me the destination was always more important than the J pressing phase.
The only place where navigation becomes interesting is : outer rim, formindine and high up/deep below the galactic plane.
Other than that... the galaxy has no terrain and piloting is zero skill. (scoop / aim / press J). A sad state of affair.

So opt out of exploration, plenty of other stuff to do.

Indeed. A nice way to say that the gameplay tied with 99.99% of the gameworld is boring and barebone XD
 
I see people claiming they want to go to Colonia for once. And I can tell them, there's nothing special about Colonia except for one aspect. [...] It's remote. And some players like the distance from the bubble.
That's certainly a necessary aspect of Colonia, but there are a lot of other differences - mostly requiring that distance to work - which are more interesting.

  • Much higher density of interesting stuff - installations, megaships, surface sites, ring stations, etc. - than the Sol bubble. They added a lot more of this in 3.1 and I'm pretty sure we haven't found all the new surface sites yet.
  • Combination of local outfitting and no engineers makes ship builds a more interesting problem than A/D+G5.
  • Small radius of inhabited region means that the 40 LY limit on certain galmap filters is not usually a problem, and travel time between systems is short even with unengineered FSDs.
  • Various (small) in-game advantages for miners and most mission runners compared with the Sol bubble.
  • Smaller and self-contained economy, with different focus to Sol bubble, for interesting differences to trading - especially at CG time.
  • Small size means it's possible for individual stations to matter in a way they rarely do (recent Lave Lockdown aside) in the Sol bubble.
  • No superpowers, powerplay or aliens - and therefore a mostly separate storyline.
 
That's certainly a necessary aspect of Colonia, but there are a lot of other differences - mostly requiring that distance to work - which are more interesting.

  • Much higher density of interesting stuff - installations, megaships, surface sites, ring stations, etc. - than the Sol bubble. They added a lot more of this in 3.1 and I'm pretty sure we haven't found all the new surface sites yet.
  • Combination of local outfitting and no engineers makes ship builds a more interesting problem than A/D+G5.
  • Small radius of inhabited region means that the 40 LY limit on certain galmap filters is not usually a problem, and travel time between systems is short even with unengineered FSDs.
  • Various (small) in-game advantages for miners and most mission runners compared with the Sol bubble.
  • Smaller and self-contained economy, with different focus to Sol bubble, for interesting differences to trading - especially at CG time.
  • Small size means it's possible for individual stations to matter in a way they rarely do (recent Lave Lockdown aside) in the Sol bubble.
  • No superpowers, powerplay or aliens - and therefore a mostly separate storyline.

Thanks Ian, I hadn't previously given Colonia much thought but you have perked my interest. Might have to see what the DBX is like on a long run soon.

Much appreciated.
 
That's certainly a necessary aspect of Colonia, but there are a lot of other differences - mostly requiring that distance to work - which are more interesting.

  • Much higher density of interesting stuff - installations, megaships, surface sites, ring stations, etc. - than the Sol bubble. They added a lot more of this in 3.1 and I'm pretty sure we haven't found all the new surface sites yet.
  • Combination of local outfitting and no engineers makes ship builds a more interesting problem than A/D+G5.
  • Small radius of inhabited region means that the 40 LY limit on certain galmap filters is not usually a problem, and travel time between systems is short even with unengineered FSDs.
  • Various (small) in-game advantages for miners and most mission runners compared with the Sol bubble.
  • Smaller and self-contained economy, with different focus to Sol bubble, for interesting differences to trading - especially at CG time.
  • Small size means it's possible for individual stations to matter in a way they rarely do (recent Lave Lockdown aside) in the Sol bubble.
  • No superpowers, powerplay or aliens - and therefore a mostly separate storyline.
Thanks for elaborating :)

Which adds to my point, Colonia is interesting as a place to settle down and get to grips with that situation, but not as interesting as a 'tourist location' to see what it's like.
 
While I don't oppose to some kind of travel automation, I certainly wouldn't like to see the galaxy and concepts as "exploration expedition", "being far away", "being alone" or "deep space" trivialized into a pointless gimmick by suggestions like "warping thousands of years across the galaxy in one jump", effectively making the whole galaxy "right next door", just so a few people could see Sag A or Colonia once and never care again.
Might as well remove all the galaxy except the bubble then. Fortunately, I think the galaxy being a big place is kind of the point why FD went the extra mile to make such a big playground so I doubt this will ever change.

If someone doesn't like it, that's ok and understandable, there's stuff I don't like as well, but seeing that exploration expeditions are, by a considerable margin, the most popular (and populated) emergent community events, and judging by the huge amount of exploration videos on YT, websites and game tools made by explorers, I believe there are many thousands who do like it like it is, and are somehow able to understand that exploration is not just "pressing J a thousand times".
 
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