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

[Shinji Ikari]

If you want to be pedantic, it is the Dangerous Discussions Sub-Forum of the Elite Dangerous Sub-Forum of the Frontier Network forum network

Which still doesn't mean I was wrong, there's no ED forum, there's an ED sub-forum and that's where we are speaking right now.

 

[DaveB]

You know that what he proposes could be implemented without AP right?

To have the depth of gameplay around it that 777 and others are talking about (and, I believe, that many of us would appreciate) it would almost be mandatory for all those "things that need taking care of" to exist whether an autopilot was operating or not. Frankly, if FD are going to make an autopilot for our ships I'd want it to be the that complex, complex enough that using the autopilot would be default mode of operation much like FA-on is. If we have an autopilot, hand-flying your ship through an entire multi-jump sequence should be the province of racers, raiders and smugglers and they'd still have to deal with all the things that others do with the time "freed up" by their autopilot.

Having said that, though, I honestly think it isn't going to happen. It would require such a radical redesign of the "travel model" (as distinct from the "flight model") that FD would be looking at ripping out and rewriting a huge chunk of their existing code. If an autopilot is introduced it won't be like that at all. More than anything else that's why I would rather FD didn't. A half-baked attempt would be worse than what we have now and doing it "right" just doesn't seem to be on the cards.

 

[rp198419]

This is a game where you are supposed to fly your spaceship manually. Which I really appreciate.

Fine. Some of us however would appreciate an autopilot just as much.

You, on the other hand, do not have to use it.

I cannot believe i ACTUALLY HAVE INVESTED 1100 HOURS IN A SILLY GAME.

Only 1100 hours...is that all?

 

[rp198419]

You got to go to Colonia?

"Don't like the autopilot, don't use it"
Don't like so many jumps to go to Colonia? Don't go to Colonia.

It's a boring place anyway.

I guess some of us just like autopilots instead of smashing the J button over and over and over and over again...even if Colonia is boring, as you state correctly.

 

[rp198419]

I completely agree. It's poor game design. I'm sorry but I feel like FDev have no clue about good game design.

They did have a clue, once...a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away.

Nowadays though, you're correct.

 

[Brian of Ardagh]

Which still doesn't mean I was wrong, there's no ED forum, there's an ED sub-forum and that's where we are speaking right now.

--Actually-- The common parlance is that these are the Frontier Forum(s) and each major section is a forum onto itself, therefore it would be the Elite Dangerous forum, not sub-forum. Dangerous Discussion would be a sub-forum

 

[Aussiedroid]

I hope this does not change.

To me it is the same scenario as I found in World of Warcraft. They had a huge world that once upon a time you used to have to travel 'the long way' to move around the maps. It was an adventure, it encouraged exploration, required to you navigate yourself and also added more weight to your decisions. Players complained, and over time things were made more and more simplified. Portals were added all over the place to streamline travel, then flying mounts, then group finder/insta travel dungeons. It cheapened the entire experience & marked the decline in the game in my view.

ED does not need to be casualised or made any easier.

 

[Shinji Ikari]

--Actually-- The common parlance is that these are the Frontier Forum(s) and each major section is a forum onto itself, therefore it would be the Elite Dangerous forum, not sub-forum. Dangerous Discussion would be a sub-forum

I have never heard anybody refer to it as forum before.

 

[Sysmon]

I hope this does not change.

To me it is the same scenario as I found in World of Warcraft. They had a huge world that once upon a time you used to have to travel 'the long way' to move around the maps. It was an adventure, it encouraged exploration, required to you navigate yourself and also added more weight to your decisions. Players complained, and over time things were made more and more simplified. Portals were added all over the place to streamline travel, then flying mounts, then group finder/insta travel dungeons. It cheapened the entire experience & marked the decline in the game in my view.

ED does not need to be casualised or made any easier.

I have to agree! WoW was great when you had to travel everywhere on foot or ground mount. Now the only way to get a sense of scale is to fly. This is largely due to the ground being made into an amusement park, really, that like some sort of IKEA store throws all kinds of obstacles in your way to keep you from moving easily across the terrain.

While understandable for a lowest-common-denominator MORPG like WoW, one can only hope ED will keep its sense of scale by not making travelling any easier. I am not against an autopilot, but it needs to be a non-gamey version.

S

 

[mikelowndes]

Lore answer: Years (200-300 if I recall correctly, I really need to look that up) ago computer AIs automated many of the function of human life. Then they tried to take over. The loss of life was staggering. Now, computers are limited to the most basic of functions.

To your point, Yes, I think it would absolutely ruin the sense of the vastness of space if you could set a destination, walk away (or log off) and end up all the way across the galaxy.

Ah the Butlerian Jihad, or is that a different universe? 8^)

I love exploring but also find the Jonk frustrating. I do think there needs to be a mode for 'A to B' travel which is different from exploring itself. You can actually semi automate that with Voiceattack scripts. However the key challenge is when the destination star is obscured. There can be no 'autopilot' in the 'driving sense'. While orienting the ship could be automated, maneuvering round the local star is (and likely to remain) a human task.

Far more interesting for me would be the ability to manually plot routes. Its the 'autorouting' I actually dislike because I can't choose 'interesting' looking stars to visit.