Would there be a way to have a key you can press, that would orient your ship to the best path away from large mass objects? I've seen a number of times where I'm trying to leave an area, and I get 2000k away, only to have the distance start counting back down.

I'm sure there's a nice path out of there, but I have a tough time finding it.

Thanks in advance, tons of fun and glad the game is cross platform.

That's a damn good suggestion, and has been brought up before. I'll leave this here, because for now it's on-topic and I don't see anything else on the page that asks for the same thing.

Finding the Best Path is non-trivial. We could find "A path" pretty easily, but it wouldn't necessarily be the best. We've talked about features like this before, and debated some pros and cons, and left it as-is for the moment. This is definitely something we can add though, if there's demand.

'A path' is probably even better than 'best path' since it leaves a skill element that can be exploited by someone who actually takes time to find the best course out of a given system..

(And yeah, it'd kill one of the tedious things. Leave the ship on auto while plotting the course or reading the news it downloaded off the last station..?)

Really, that's part of the sector-navigating skill you eventually get the feel for. So you try to find a direction that has no far-away roids. If you have to go past some nearer roids, it's better than going 2k just to have to go 3k more. If you can picture the surrounding roids, it's not too hard to imagine a 3km sphere around each.

The shortest direction is where a point on the 3km sphere of the closest large object is >3km away from other large objects. Why should the game compute it for you when it's easy enough to approximate? The problem is the smaller roids that are easy to miss, but still count. Just learn to watch out for those.

You could mark lanes through busy sectors with little arrows (like the station docks) leading to a close jump point or worm hole. It may not be the fastest way out to 3km, but it would be the easiest to see.

Hmmm sounds a bit like marking a trail for a csross country runner. It has potential but would require handmarking 500+ sectors
But doesn't it also scream "camp here for fresh meat". An inexperienced pilot would opt for the shipping lanes and would be easy pickings for a pirate.

NOOOO.. LET THE DAMN PLAYER PLAY THE GAME. DO NOT IMPLEMENT AUTO ANYTHING. Damnit.. this is what ruins other games. The idea is that if you need to get anywhere quickly you can just warp there right, so long as you got 3k meters from a large object. Well whats so damned wrong with that. Whats wrong with learning to pilot your ship and actually playing the game. The idea is mastery.. the idea is skill. Thats what makes twitch games awesome. Dont make this another drudge along, macro everything, auto-everything button, RPG. Seriously.. theres a little meter on the bottom of your screen that tells you how close you are to large objects. If thats not enough then perhaps i have a game for you.. its called TV. TV is automated.. go play it.

eDfGr33n
"Tired of games being ruined on the account of stupid."

True dat "edfgreen"

I don't think we need any sort of autopilot other than the one we have now that navigates a course across multiple systems. It would remove an aspect of skill, and excitement if you are being chased by a pie-rat, all you would have to do is hit a button ahd turbo.

Well this kinda links it to the equipment slot thread but how about an autonav computer than can be purchased from certain stations. lazy players will find the easy way out and us old timers who have a feel for the universe already can fill our equip slot (if one should ever come into existence mind you) with the C=64 fighter entertainment system :)

Re: "NOOOO.. LET THE DAMN PLAYER PLAY THE GAME. DO NOT IMPLEMENT AUTO ANYTHING."
*shrugs* there's arcade mode and auto aim - arguably, these have a greater impact on the game than an autopilot in the sense of 'get me away from this station' and actually, in my opinion, add to it. Manual alternatives (phys mode, no auto aim) are always better if you can handle them, this could be applicable to an autopilot as well and, again imo, adds to the skill element.

Re: "But doesn't it also scream "camp here for fresh meat". An inexperienced pilot would opt for the shipping lanes and would be easy pickings for a pirate."
If you're in an empty sector, you're 3K away from anything by default. If you're at a station, you're protected nonetheless and just want to get out. If you're in an asteroid field with a less than perfect AP being chased by pirates, you'll want to pedal it manually anyway. So it could pan out *knock on wood*

While I agree it's mainly "pick a direction, add thrust, wait" as it stands, if the tedious parts of the game (getting away from a station/large objects in safe space) can be cut down - even slightly - it's not a bad thing.

I must also say Im NOT FOR DOING THIS AUTO STUFF! let players play and let them find out and LEARN and get BETTER at stuff... soon everyone does everything auto and no one plays anything..
If you add this path thing you can do away with the asteroids really... silly thought.

I guess I'm just looking for a way to cut out the parts of the game that aren't fun per se. The 3000k distance limit is fine, it would be nice if there were a way to cut down on how much time you spend trying to leave stations and the like. (Since you do it often, and it's really just dead time since there's nothing dangerous outside them)

Maybe it could just be a station only option, where when you leave the station you leave pointed in the right direction. That would cut down on the number of systems that have to be mapped, and sectors within them.

Well, a temporary fix:

(taken from the Custom Binds sticky)
Eldrad's
alias mt "+turbo 0"
alias -t "mt"
alias +t "+turbo; alias -t mt"
alias acti "Activate"
alias ttog "ttog1"
alias ttog2 "+turbo 0; alias ttog ttog1; alias acti Activate; alias -t mt; alias mt '+turbo 0'; echo 'Turbo OFF'"
alias ttog1 "+turbo; alias ttog ttog2; alias acti 'Activate; ttog2'; alias -t ' '; alias mt ttog2; echo 'Turbo ON'"

Or roguelazer's
alias turbokey "+Turbo"
bind m turbokey

Wither of which you paste into your wgaf.cfg file. I personally use roguelazer's bound to v instead of m, but Eldrad says his is better. I've never tried it personally, but I'm recommending it anyway. At the very least, you don't need to hold on to the tab button. The only thing about roguelazer's is that to deactivate your turbo, you have to hit your normal turbo button. If your turbo deactivates due to lack of power, or jumping, you have to hit turbo first before using the turbo lock again. Just point yourself at empty space (or where you think empty space will be), and hit your turbo lock.

How about just a local direction, eg that way *should* take you away from all massive objects. But as you approach some other objects the direction would move. It doesn't even need to be a pointer / arrow (as this might lead to camping of exits) just a +/- value for the direction you are facing. get a value from +10 to -10 based on how much mass is infront / behind / beside you.