I would cautiously agree with AP under those conditions. I say cautiously because once you let it in people will be campaigning for it to be changed. As I have said in many previous discussions I am not 100% against all forms of faster travel, what I am against all forms of faster travel that allow for carefree movement between two places, and I really am not that worried about how easy it is to get hold of, but any attempt to travel to distant places that have never been visited, even if it is between two known places but passes through unexplored systems, should almost be on the level of intentional suicide.
It is possible that there will be players that will want some changes but that is what ED has been doing since release. I have to say that it has improved a lot but it still lacks a lot as well. I believe that AP should be only available after a set amount of hours of play which is regulated by rank to gain access to the technology. Although I think that the AP should really strictly only be available to have only visited star systems in the route to be able to let it plot the route because it would keep in with what game devs want to achieve, which is to keep a player playing the game. As much as I would love to AP everywhere regardless of whether I have been through the star system or not, I feel that this caveat will make it quite fair on ED's main game play activity, which is a space piloting. I just would like to see some rationality in regards to the game devs respecting some of the gamer's time in RL and allowing the game to be more enjoyable by decreasing/subtracting some of the boredom of transit in ED and also in some way, reward the gamer because they have manually piloted the route and by planning it or by luck.
The problem of money is always going to exist though and the increased ability to earn money would have to be offset. A smart trader using his wits and skills should always be able to make a profit above a AP run that requires no personal interaction, and I am not sure the game in it's current state will support that. However the current demand for AP is simply to remove any necessary interaction or danger from say a run to Colonia, and that I am against. People basically want to start an AP run to Colonia, go to bed and wake up next day in Colonia, thus removing all sense of adventure and distance from the equation.
Yeah, not keen on AP abuse either. I do agree with other anti-AP players that point out such issues. In regards to long distance treks, I personally, am not that interested in doing a week of hyperspace jumps unless there is some real juicy reward or reason for it. At least the return trip to the bubble would be less crazy using the AP rules as suggested and it would only decrease the amount of time by a smaller amount, due to automation. Somewhat, it will still make the gamer respect the time sink. As a bonus a gamer could actually get things done around the house and still be playing the game without getting nagged by the missus. Well until the ship gets interdicted anyway and gets disengaged from AP. [smile]