Nifty device would calculate the (more or less) nearest exit vector, and would show it on your radar and screen. Thoughts?

does it not do this already?

To exit what?

Exit to 3,000 meters.

Ahh, that'd be cool.

nice !

NOt a bad idea, though convoys do that for you already, you just have to remember or note it down.

Actually it seems to me that convoys are less than efficient at it, since I can usually beat them out of a sector while flying a loaded moth. If you participate in CtC, you'll also notice the stupidity of the transports in getting out to 3000m at times.

Best way: just eyeball it. Clear your forward radar of any objects near the center, and turbo.

Auto-calculated exit vectors would only take all the fun out of trading/pirating/racing/etc.

Convoys are also restricted to 140m/s with thrusting spurts. (May be 160m/s. But I'm pretty sure mom said 140)

Yes, convoys go slow; and here I mean trading convoys, which are controlled by Deliverator, while the CTC convoys, being older, have their own, dumber, control scheme.

Well, you can still assume that any convoy you see is taking the fastest available path to the 3000 m jump range, assuming that they are headed to the next WH from the current WH.

This would help, it would make the Deneb Run easier, and it seems like something that 44th century science could do.

However, it would also make pirating easier. Pirates could follow the vector as well and sit near the end of the vector "in wait."

Hey actually that's a good thing. So if you are a trader instead of using that vector you would go a bit "south" so as not to run into camping pirates!... though the 5000m radar range kinda makes that useless...

You know what, diffrent ships should have diffrent radar ranges, yay! lets give the moth a 1500m range... in and out of storm. While dedicated combat ships will have 5km radar ranges...

Deliverator convoys move at 120m/s top speed.

They also supposedly get their exit paths from observing players and doing what they do.

No, they get their maps of the sector used for avoiding objects by watching what players do. They don't actually calculate the nearest exit vector, they find the nearest of a set of precomputed points which are guaranteed to be clear of objects for 3000m, which aren't necessarily optimal.

Still, back to the original topic, I've always thought it would be useful to have such a feature. Waylon and John have always been against it (at least on the default HUD) on the grounds that it leads new players to think they _have_ to go to that particular point in space to jump out, rather than just anywhere clear of objects. If it were an add-on then I suppose it would avoid this concern.

Soooo...

If we all choose a sector, say, Sedina L-2, and the players repeatedly crash into the asteroids, will we have an impact on the bots' AI? Will they become "More Dumb?" (Because they observe our paths as repeatedly running into the asteroids?)

Hehe. That would be funny.

I agree with a1k0n on the whole "n00bs might think they HAVE to go that way" thing. Perhaps make it a S-port addon?

Gizmo port.

yah or that. The "G-Port"? Sounds vaguely... sexual.

Yes! Lewd talk on VO!
Late Night Show holodiscs! New widget, yeah.

No port requirements, this would be software on the ship, not hardware. It should be standard, and you should be able to disable it. To avoid newbies caught thinking they have to go that way, put a step in the tutorial where the player must make a jump with it turned off. Also, for long races it could be disabled as a mission feature (only enforceable if the race is a mission). It would only help pirates if you're dumb enough to use it when it is better to not be predictable, and it will hurt pirates who depend on it. This is definately technology that would be standard in every ship in the 44th or whateverth century.