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

[VR StarLightPL]

And again, people still confuse "exploration" and "travel".

Exploration isn't boring, you hunt for ELWs, you prospect for jumponium, you need to repair SRV, you take in the sights. You have something to do. Still, a very very limited set of activities with ultimately nothing to actually discover besides Stellar Forge glitches. I really hope they do inprove upon this, because the current implementation isn't even MVP, unless you're astrophysics major and take interest in these things written in galmap description. Sorry, I'm more fond of Christopher Columbus or Vasco da Gamma style of exploration. Making all planets landable would add to this a lot, even if they would be funky NMS style. But I digress.

Long distance travel IS boring and IS a waste of my time as a human being. The answer "then don't" is frankly childish. Automating jumping is not taking away anything. And I already said I think you should be able to go to sleep IRL and wake up 2000 jumps later while my ship stays in the game still. But that would require persistence servers, and probably a subscription to keep them up. Which I wouldn't mind, but currently Frontier has to re-earn my trust in order for me to spend a penny on them. Nevermind the fact that the screams and pitchfork clank on this forum would even be audible in space, despite physical impossibility

Good point on space legs, without an NPC crew or an AP, we would still be chained to our chair unless we stop (and in SC you can't "stop" completely so you need to low wake). And I would pretty much like for example to examine galmap while this soul-crushing, mid-bogglingly stupid mechanics takes place. Hunting for next neutron star along the road, perhaps? Instead of turning to third party website? Maybe looking through my modules, planning next upgrade? Examining which blueprints require which materials and what do I need to gather on those rocky airless worlds next time? Other activities not in game yet, perhaps? Space legs example is a good one, too. I could for example go repair something on the ship, or just enjoy the sights from another vantage point in ships (Conda exploration deck anyone?). Also, and now I'm letting my imagination run wild, we could for example get notifications on smartphone while "offline", that another ship has been detected in the system when out in the black, and could select an action to take or run to computer to log in... or maybe chat with the other ship through EDClient app . Or an encountered danger... Btw. smartphones have advanced dramatically, you can run really intensive games on them nowadays, so maybe we could even remotely pilot the starship via a simplified controls interface... Dare to dream?

Answering how AP would be better than a human macro - it wouldn't. It would be a Quality of Life update, not a miracle cure to stale, less than Minimal Viable Product gameplay aspect. Because of current barebones gameplay implementation it would only make boredom less atrocious, while the ship flies itself and I only operate discovery scanner/galmap... or read a book or watch netflix, like many long distance travellers. Why some people cling to "press J till you hurl" idea like dear life is beyond me. Sense of pride and achievement? EA's Battlefront is that way...

DrewCarnegie: I've given plenty of examples of what "piloting a spaceship" means to me... I have no idea from where you interpolated your "reductio at absurdum" argument from.

 

[Shinji Ikari]

And again, people still confuse "exploration" and "travel".

Exploration isn't boring, you hunt for ELWs, you prospect for jumponium, you need to repair SRV, you take in the sights. You have something to do. Still, a very very limited set of activities with ultimately nothing to actually discover besides Stellar Forge glitches. I really hope they do inprove upon this, because the current implementation isn't even MVP, unless you're astrophysics major and take interest in these things written in galmap description. Sorry, I'm more fond of Christopher Columbus or Vasco da Gamma style of exploration. Making all planets landable would add to this a lot, even if they would be funky NMS style. But I digress.

Long distance travel IS boring and IS a waste of my time as a human being. The answer "then don't" is frankly childish. Automating jumping is not taking away anything. And I already said I think you should be able to go to sleep IRL and wake up 2000 jumps later while my ship stays in the game still. But that would require persistence servers, and probably a subscription to keep them up. Which I wouldn't mind, but currently Frontier has to re-earn my trust in order for me to spend a penny on them. Nevermind the fact that the screams and pitchfork clank on this forum would even be audible in space, despite physical impossibility

Good point on space legs, without an NPC crew or an AP, we would still be chained to our chair unless we stop (and in SC you can't "stop" completely so you need to low wake). And I would pretty much like for example to examine galmap while this soul-crushing, mid-bogglingly stupid mechanics takes place. Hunting for next neutron star along the road, perhaps? Instead of turning to third party website? Maybe looking through my modules, planning next upgrade? Examining which blueprints require which materials and what do I need to gather on those rocky airless worlds next time? Other activities not in game yet, perhaps? Space legs example is a good one, too. I could for example go repair something on the ship, or just enjoy the sights from another vantage point in ships (Conda exploration deck anyone?). Also, and now I'm letting my imagination run wild, we could for example get notifications on smartphone while "offline", that another ship has been detected in the system when out in the black, and could select an action to take or run to computer to log in... or maybe chat with the other ship through EDClient app . Or an encountered danger... Btw. smartphones have advanced dramatically, you can run really intensive games on them nowadays, so maybe we could even remotely pilot the starship via a simplified controls interface... Dare to dream?

Answering how AP would be better than a human macro - it wouldn't. It would be a Quality of Life update, not a miracle cure to stale, less than Minimal Viable Product gameplay aspect. Because of current barebones gameplay implementation it would only make boredom less atrocious, while the ship flies itself and I only operate discovery scanner/galmap... or read a book or watch netflix, like many long distance travellers. Why some people cling to "press J till you hurl" idea like dear life is beyond me. Sense of pride and achievement? EA's Battlefront is that way...

DrewCarnegie: I've given plenty of examples of what "piloting a spaceship" means to me... I have no idea from where you interpolated your "reductio at absurdum" argument from.

[video=youtube;rAlTOfl9F2w]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rAlTOfl9F2w[/video]

 

[EdzUp]

I wouldn't trust an autopilot to fuel scoop without burning me to a crisp. And definitely trust it to fly around the star and not through it. Or evade that cheeky interdiction one second before engaging jump.

P.S. Automating grind does not make the grind go away, it only removes you from the picture.

but sending a ship to colonia from the bubble is the same thing?

 

[Ziggy Stardust]

Long distance travel IS boring and IS a waste of my time as a human being. The answer "then don't" is frankly childish.

Is it now?

Ok. Then do.

 

[WR3ND]

Can't people jump like 300 Ly now? It might seem like a huge waste of space to me, but if you're wanting to race off somewhere for the sake of wanting to race off somewhere, I'm not really seeing the issue here.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Can't people jump like 300 Ly now? It might seem like a huge waste of space to me, but if you're wanting to race off somewhere for the sake of wanting to race off somewhere, I'm not really seeing the issue here.

Sure, the hamsterwheelers can maybe. The rest flies Asp X with around 30?

 

[[Diplomacy] Carnegie]

DrewCarnegie: I've given plenty of examples of what "piloting a spaceship" means to me... I have no idea from where you interpolated your "reductio at absurdum" argument from.

I constructed it from reading these very forums.

Every single example of 'boring' gameplay in my list has been the subject of posts demanding that the feature be removed.

 

[Shinji Ikari]

Sure, the hamsterwheelers can maybe. The rest flies Asp X with around 30?

C'mon, even an unengineered Anaconda gets 40 Ly, with neutron stars you can get 160 Lys which are very abundant on the way to Colonia for example.

 

[WR3ND]

Sure, the hamsterwheelers can maybe. The rest flies Asp X with around 30?

For better or worse, I think the hamserwheelers are more of a given status quo at this point... [sulk]

Someone let me know when I can get an Engineers/Guardians meta grind autopilot.

...

Asp E is probably usually pushing closer to 35 or 36 for most non-Engineered/Guardian exploration type builds, I would assume.

 

[Cageman]

I really hope FD introduces Wormhole traveling, at some point. No need for an AP then.

 

[Qualityoflife]

Get ready for the exploration white knights to attack you. There's a slightly deranged segment of the community who take great pride in pressing J for hours and actually believe the manual jumping system adds prestige to exploration. You have touched on a taboo subject. You will in all likelihood get a large number of snide replies from very dense "explorers". Its how they convince themselves they didn't waste hours of their life watching the same repetitive loading screen, regardless of the fact you don't actually discover anything until you start scanning planets in SC.

AMEN!

The same mechanic used to intertdict should also (with a slight twist) be used to consecutively link jumps to save redundancy and add some much needed sprinkles of interplay to this spreadsheet click menus for effect instead of what's on offer.

Seems the dev philosophy is to remove anything close to cohesive gameplay?

 

[CMDR Ginge]

It took me literally 3 seconds to figure out an alternative. All with using existing tech. Here we go:

You set a target on a Galmap, it appears on your HUD. Max range for that option is limited to 2k LYs. You can set ANY location as destination, provided it's within 2k LYs radius. Then you engage hyperdrive and jump.

Now - interdiction-type minigame starts. As we know, star's gravity field makes you drop into real space. So while in hyperspace you need to avoid gravity fields. Your nav comp will help you with that task providing safe "route vector". Your job is to actively keep that vector point in front of your ship. The longer you stay on target, the farther you will jump.

Failing on staying on target results in drop into real space. Either premature drop or you get to your destination, game during exit part would calculate where you dropped.

Then you would determine where you are, what star type it is, what's in the system and what's nearby. And you could see how much off the course you are. For refuelling purpose single and direct jump would work as current jump. Target nearest OBAFGKM star, align and jump there (single jump within your FSD range). Anything further than that - hyperspace minigame.

This way we could be actually surprised by the system we exit and people would share epic stories about new record of single jump distance. For jumping whole 2k LYs would be really hard. The longer you are in the minigame, the more difficult it is to stay on course and chances of premature drop are ever rising.

Pro-active, entertaining and fun.


___________________________

You want to explore traditional way - use single jump feature and crawl through space as we do currently.
You want to get to the other side of the galaxy in a few hours instead of days? Use FarJump.

Its been touched on a few times in this topic looks like nobody wants to talk about it.

You just broke passenger missions, trade, any effort people put into their drives and rares.

Edit : and selling exploration data, you broke that as well.

A prolonged mini game like being interdicted along your entire route with its own hazards along the way would be really cool its currently mind numbingly boring if i want to go really far out. Even across the bubble.

Id make the mini games length of time the same as it would jump by jump though so trading is all good and so would passenger missions. Would need to also exit mini game to refuel same as before. Explorers (or ludites) can still do it a system at a time.

Id find that approach more engaging and would still have a feeling of achievement at the end.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

C'mon, even an unengineered Anaconda gets 40 Ly, with neutron stars you can get 160 Lys which are very abundant on the way to Colonia for example.

I don't have no Conda.

For better or worse, I think the hamserwheelers are more of a given status quo at this point... [sulk]

Someone let me know when I can get an Engineers/Guardians meta grind autopilot.

...

Asp E is probably usually pushing closer to 35 or 36 for most non-Engineered/Guardian exploration type builds, I would assume.

Depends a bit on the region you're in.

 

[CMDR Pugwash]

Well, they haven't made it challenging or interesting yet, so other suggestions follow. We'll see what happens Q4, but I doubt the idea of mindlessly jumping to destination is going to change no matter what we ask for. More interesting engagements during exploration will certainly help the journey though.

And this is why there is no autopilot. If there were risk and navigational challenges then maybe. When I engage my autopilot on my boat I still have to watch out for traffic and hazards.

And another thing.. You could argue there's already an auto pilot performing what must be very complicated navigational calculations when you jump to another system.

 

[777Driver]

And this why there is no autopilot. If there were risk and navigational challenges then maybe.

Well I certainly hope all these Q4 Space Anomalies are not just pretty graphics.

 

[Shinji Ikari]

I don't have no Conda.

That's your problem, if you really dislike the length of the trip then prepare appropiately.

 

[V'larr]

I really hope FD introduces Wormhole traveling, at some point. No need for an AP then.

I'd be hestitantly willing to try out wormhole and/or stargate stuff. Possibly my Master of Orion 2 influence talking there.

 

[CMDR Pugwash]

Well I certainly hope all these Q4 Space Anomalies are not just pretty graphics.

I hope so too. I am actually getting a bit excited about it. A bit of wee escapes when I think about it.

 

[DaveB]

(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 know it was snark, but I'll bite on it anyway...

When my day job gets "boring" it's because I've done it right. Everything is working, anything that goes wrong is handled smoothly enough that an "event" never becomes an "incident" and I've got the time to sit back, relax with my coffee and spend my hours thinking about not the next few hours or days but longer-term slow stuff, the groundwork for keeping things that way far into the future.

Which is a good thing because in several of the various positions I've held in my career if I was running around peeing on brushfires I'd have been potentially costing my employer hundreds of thousands in business losses or causing folks I'd never meet to potentially lose their livelihoods or in some of those jobs their lives. Twitch-based gameplay is all very well when all that's at stake is pixels but in the real world you deal with real consequences and in most cases if you're twitching you're not just reacting wrong, you're showing that you failed to plan adequately beforehand. When others are "reacting" a professional is "implementing a contingency plan"

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

That's your problem, if you really dislike the length of the trip then prepare appropiately.

Who said something about problems with the length of the trip? I bet many would spend just as long a time for a journey if it wasn't for the 1000 loading screens standing in between.