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

[shroom2021]

I scanned this thread and saw a couple of points I'd like to respond to.

1. Autopilot wouldn't be a choice, with it there you would feel the need to use it all the time (paraphrased)
- I completely agree with this. In games where fast travel is there like Skyrim, there are reasons why some mods remove it from the game. The temptation to use it is just too much for most people. Where I disagree is that this is a bad thing.

2. I like piloting my own spaceship, don't you? (paraphrased again)
- I do as well, but I don't consider watching a countdown followed by an animation piloting my spaceship. The amount of time I spend realigning for my next jump is negligible and I wouldn't miss it at all. Autopilot would save my time for more interesting things, like piloting around a system to explore the individual planets and other points of interest.

3. You don't need autopilot.
- We don't need FA-Off either, and yet here we are.


Personally I find the concept of autopilot to be about the same as fast travel with more animation. It makes sense to me to be able to set a location within my fuel range and have my ship go there. I couldn't just walk away as I would still be able to be interdicted by the inevitable NPC as I traveled. I see this as a QoL improvement that isn't necessary, but would be nice.

Something I would like to see more than autopilot? A more direct method of jumping between systems. Instead of making a bunch of hops to get to a system 100 lys away, I would like to be able to just jump directly there. This could be offset by expending additional fuel and being much less efficient. It would also eliminate the "need" to take every ship I buy over to get the FSD engineered.

I feel like the longer jumps option would be much more lore friendly and fit better into the overall gameplay that frontier has been fostering. In regards to the nav computer, the hops could simply become each longest jump to the next refuel star.

 

[M00ka]

Image if FD listen to this community and next patch we all found we could jump the maximum of our fuel range. The community rejoices, balloons are released, white doves flutter in the eaves - but all is not right in the galaxy ….

Immediately, some who had grinded for days to get access to either Felicity or Elvira so get that G5 Long Range mod on their FSD, then tinkered for days adjusting the mass of their ship, sacrificing modules just so they can get that extra .1 LY range on their maximum jump (and then jump on the forums to brag about it) feel quite rightly cheated out of their time. And dagnammit, they now want their time back and FD better do something about it or there will be 'trouble'.

Next, those solitary figures, the Explorers are rioting in the black, all that they have done, all that they have achieved has just been made null and void. That poor guy who spent months circumventing the galaxy in an Eagle, his achievement is gone, all that hard work, the effort, the lonely hours wiped away and made meaningless. In fact the entire exploration fraternity just gives up, as there is no sense of achievement anymore, no reward whether it be tangible or not, for making the effort to go where few have gone before.

Then the penny drops, all those whose incomes derive from flying passengers enormous distances suddenly find that the payouts have been decimated, the rewards for taking a ship load of tourists is not the same whether you jump 10ly or 2,000ly, because the time it takes is all the same.

But there is light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, finally the excuses some have of not leaving their stater system and venturing outside of the bubble no longer exists. A whole cadre of tentative Commanders cautiously venture further than 200LY for the first time - but then immediately turn around and head back cos it might be a little scary out there!

Look, to a degree, this has already happened. Pre-Engineer, you were lucky if you could get what a 25LY jump range, now 50-60 is the norm, that is a 200+% increase. As for the auto-pilot, I do find it funny that those who proudly state they have never used a DC now want an auto-pilot to navigate stars, fuel scoop and safely get them to their destination 1,000's of LY distance.

 

[Screemonster]

I remember the autopilot in FE2. Even that didn't plot routes for you across the star map (there was no route plotter). It made the game dull as hell, especially trading.

God forbid you used it in Riedquat and expected to be able to just go AFK though, hoo boy. I can forsee a similar thing happening here. Imagine the salt when someone sets their autopilot and tabs out, only to come back to the rebuy screen telling them their ship was destroyed by Grzegorz Brzęczyszczykiewicz...

 

[NW3]

So this is the one, big thing that drove me away from Elite at the end of 2016...the interstellar space travel mechanic! … Anyway, what are your thoughts in this topic? Do you actually feel enjoyment when doing dozens or hundreds of jumps in one session...

Do you feel the hurt of it is necessary to have this 'space is vast and empty' feeling?... 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.

The thing is, hyperspace travel as it is currently implemented is a key "feature" of the game. This really only affects travel, not exploration. When I'm off exploring, depending on the circumstances, I'll visit 1 to 15 systems per hour and I'll play for 1-3 hours per session. Pressing J every once in a while isn't a big issue. My time is mostly spent scanning and in supercruise to visit interesting planets, although I'll sometimes land and ride around in my SRV and maybe even blast some rocks.

I understand how boring long distance travel can be. I've been to Beagle Point and back. I spend months on end traveling and exploring. The problem with changing the current travel mechanics is that it "cheapens" the achievement of traveling to Sag A*, Colonia, Beagle Point, etc. As much as you hate the travel mechanic, others enjoy it (or at least tolerate it).

I'm not sure how FD could change this without upsetting a significant number of players.

Personally, I could accept certain changes to travel: In particular, I've suggested chain-jumping as a way of making travel more interesting (it becomes a mini-game instead of a loading screen). Another reasonable option is to add a new "arcade" game type, with instant travel, free ship replacement, instant and free ship transfer, etc. The arcade version would be separate from the regular game (and BGS) and would encourage PvP.

 

[Stealthie]

I understand how boring long distance travel can be. I've been to Beagle Point and back. I spend months on end traveling and exploring. The problem with changing the current travel mechanics is that it "cheapens" the achievement of traveling to Sag A*, Colonia, Beagle Point, etc. As much as you hate the travel mechanic, others enjoy it (or at least tolerate it).

Indeed.

Maybe it's petty but I think there should be stuff in a game that rewards, or at least recognises, perseverance.

Sorry, but if you just want to explore you can do that in any system. You don't need to go to Beagle Point, Sag A or Colonia.
If you want to visit Beagle Point and be showered with the praise and adulation that brings, man-up and get used to pressing that "jump" button.

 

[Oziki]

Elite is what it is, a "flight sim" in "space" made for us to enjoy today, with today's level of tech.
I personally don't mind the flying around & I accept that space is big & lonely. It "is" the kind of game I like to play. Could it be better? I'm sure it could, could also be a lot worse.

I can certainly think of one game that everyone has been all excited about recently & truth be told, I think it is far & beyond a much more grindy, repetitive & boring game than Elite.
Pretty planets to run around don't make up for the terrible scanning & refueling everything game loop. Is it possible that the simple act of having to click on something over & over is entertaining because you are "doing stuff"?
then again opinions are like elbows, most of us have more than one, experience may vary.

 

[TigerTen]

No HEAD ether ???

 

[House0fDerp]

Image if FD listen to this community and next patch we all found we could jump the maximum of our fuel range. The community rejoices, balloons are released, white doves flutter in the eaves - but all is not right in the galaxy ….

Immediately, some who had grinded for days to get access to either Felicity or Elvira so get that G5 Long Range mod on their FSD, then tinkered for days adjusting the mass of their ship, sacrificing modules just so they can get that extra .1 LY range on their maximum jump (and then jump on the forums to brag about it) feel quite rightly cheated out of their time. And dagnammit, they now want their time back and FD better do something about it or there will be 'trouble'...

Maybe my understanding of FSD mechanics is off but wouldn't all of the aspects involving engineering and loadouts just translate over rather than being invalidated?

 

[obliterator]

Short answer: It's a game about flying around in space. If you can set the autopilot, walk away from the computer (or log out) and end up where you are going...

Right now it's a game about getting from A to point B, while it should be about doing whatever the hell you want in your spaceship.

I'm not sure how FD could change this without upsetting a significant number of players.

By allowing faster travel between the places you have already explored, or by limiting the fast travel options to a limited number of systems.

But seriously there's literally no achievement whatsoever in being able to press a button every 20 seconds for hours.

 

[DeathStroke]

There's no realistic alternative to loading the next system in a hyperjump.

Just because you can't think of one, doesn't mean they don't exist.

It wouldn't be that hard to re-purpose the ship transfer screen to do this. Select destination, display travel time and cost, accept or reject. The catch is, FD doesn't have good enough programmers to pull the ship out somewhere if you decide to abort autopilot, you'd be stuck with a log-on timer. I.E. 29 hours, 12 minutes, and 56 seconds before ship available.

 

[lysan]

Just because you can't think of one, doesn't mean they don't exist.

It wouldn't be that hard to re-purpose the ship transfer screen to do this. Select destination, display travel time and cost, accept or reject. The catch is, FD doesn't have good enough programmers to pull the ship out somewhere if you decide to abort autopilot, you'd be stuck with a log-on timer. I.E. 29 hours, 12 minutes, and 56 seconds before ship available.

however you can make the ship jump every single jump automatically, that means if you set a course of, lets say 100 jumps, the ship will jump all those jumps for you until you A) run out of fuel, B) get pulled out of hyper space by a pirate/thargoid.

Time to travel will be the same, fuel consumption would be the same, AFK not possible as you need to be monitoring however not micro managing the jump sequence. Now I'm not going to link to what some players made, but at least two I know off made a very functional AP that was able to do just that.

 

[Aaron T]

I wish we could jump the whole distance in one long jump.

I cannot concentrate long, and 2500 jumps would drive me to kill someone, so I will never see very much outside of the bubble, save for Barnard's loop when it opens back up a bit, 40-30 jumps is fine.

The farthest I have gone at once was 103 jumps and I wanted to smash a face in, I went another 200 Ly's discovered some planets and once I turned that in and got the credits I left the station and self destructed, I was not jumping another 3 hours, no way.

But, I admire those with the patience, iron will, perseverance, and desire to do so, good exploring to you all, 07.

 

[Stigbob]

Just because you can't think of one, doesn't mean they don't exist.

It wouldn't be that hard to re-purpose the ship transfer screen to do this. Select destination, display travel time and cost, accept or reject. The catch is, FD doesn't have good enough programmers to pull the ship out somewhere if you decide to abort autopilot, you'd be stuck with a log-on timer. I.E. 29 hours, 12 minutes, and 56 seconds before ship available.

Sounds very dull and overcomplicated and boring, right now I can just select a system and jump.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

Image if FD listen to this community and next patch we all found we could jump the maximum of our fuel range. The community rejoices, balloons are released, white doves flutter in the eaves - but all is not right in the galaxy ….

Immediately, some who had grinded for days to get access to either Felicity or Elvira so get that G5 Long Range mod on their FSD, then tinkered for days adjusting the mass of their ship, sacrificing modules just so they can get that extra .1 LY range on their maximum jump (and then jump on the forums to brag about it) feel quite rightly cheated out of their time. And dagnammit, they now want their time back and FD better do something about it or there will be 'trouble'.

Next, those solitary figures, the Explorers are rioting in the black, all that they have done, all that they have achieved has just been made null and void. That poor guy who spent months circumventing the galaxy in an Eagle, his achievement is gone, all that hard work, the effort, the lonely hours wiped away and made meaningless. In fact the entire exploration fraternity just gives up, as there is no sense of achievement anymore, no reward whether it be tangible or not, for making the effort to go where few have gone before.

Then the penny drops, all those whose incomes derive from flying passengers enormous distances suddenly find that the payouts have been decimated, the rewards for taking a ship load of tourists is not the same whether you jump 10ly or 2,000ly, because the time it takes is all the same.

But there is light at the end of the proverbial tunnel, finally the excuses some have of not leaving their stater system and venturing outside of the bubble no longer exists. A whole cadre of tentative Commanders cautiously venture further than 200LY for the first time - but then immediately turn around and head back cos it might be a little scary out there!

Look, to a degree, this has already happened. Pre-Engineer, you were lucky if you could get what a 25LY jump range, now 50-60 is the norm, that is a 200+% increase. As for the auto-pilot, I do find it funny that those who proudly state they have never used a DC now want an auto-pilot to navigate stars, fuel scoop and safely get them to their destination 1,000's of LY distance.

That's because you don't put enough imagination into how it could be done in a different way with keeping the systems meaningful. But it fits the black and white painting so it's good enough to throw out. Can't have entitled lazy gamers threaten the beloved "j" pressing, right?

 

[Stealthie]

Just to pick up on the whole "We should be able to just fly through hyperspace until our fuel tank is empty" thing...

As most of us are probably aware, fuel usage operates on a "logarithmic" scale, both in lore and to create in-game choices such as whether we use economical or fast routes when jumping.

The result of this would be that using a whole tank of fuel would only take you double, or possibly triple, the maximum distance you can currently jump in a given ship.
And then you'd have to spend however long it takes to completely refill your fuel-tank scooping before you could continue your journey.
Assuming you ended-up in a system with a scoopable star which, if you didn't, would mean you're instantly boned.

In practice, you'd have to open the galmap, choose to do a "super-jump", verify that you'd end-up at a scoopable star, twiddle the destination to ensure you did end-up at a scoopable star, make the jump and then, on arrival, spend a couple of minutes refilling your tank before repeating the process.

Doesn't really seem like something anybody would choose to do, or something that'd save time.

 

[M00ka]

That's because you don't put enough imagination into how it could be done in a different way with keeping the systems meaningful. But it fits the black and white painting so it's good enough to throw out. Can't have entitled lazy gamers threaten the beloved "j" pressing, right?

What the hell would you know, you haven't played the game since 2.1 dropped, you are totally irrelevant to any discussions on the current status of the game

 

[tafkabb]

I'm almost home from a 52,000 LY round trip east. I'm, 116 jumps from home, so close I can almost smell the coffee.

 

[Parmo]

Why does my 34th century spaceship need a pilot?

 

[tafkabb]

Because otherwise the game would play itself out on servers with no human input :O

 

[VR StarLightPL]

The farthest I have gone at once was 103 jumps and I wanted to smash a face in, I went another 200 Ly's discovered some planets and once I turned that in and got the credits I left the station and self destructed, I was not jumping another 3 hours, no way.

Something is off here... If you would self-destruct, wouldn't you just spawn back on the station you handed the data over?

And on top of that, people still confuse the simple terms "travelling" and "exploring".

The ideal situation would be if after logout, ship continued to be present in the game world available for griefers (or Thargoids in solo) or whatever danger they can think of in space, to pounce on AI controlled ship. Alas, for that we would need persistence servers, and most of all - monthly subscription. Also that would put an end to combat logging, not that I care 2p about it tho.

I also wonder how many of these puritanist zealots were reading books or watching Netflix during their "journeys".