This has probably all been posted before in some form, but considering these next updates are focussing on the smaller balance and gameplay issues, I thought it might be time to re-suggest polishing up the navigation screen a bit more:

- Shift-clicking or right-clicking on a sector designates it as a waypoint.

- Shift-clicking or right clicking on a wormhole marks it as a waypoint and switches the screen to the next system.

- Shift clicking on a previously set waypoint clears all waypoints back to that sector.

This would provide a simple, intuitive way to set paths through multiple systems.

This is one of the few things from the EV series that will easily work well in VO. While the idea has been mentioned much, I haven't actually seen many threads about it.

/set thumbup 1

clean and simple, I like it =)

This should be especially easy to implement since some form of waypoint setting already exists. This would be especially for plotting around known ion storms.

I'd personally prefer that you can only choose the systems which you want to travel through and not the individual sectors. I feel that it makes evading pirates (and consequently, CtC participants) WAY too easy.

Say I'm a trader. I spot a known pirate way off, so I immediately plot six jumps through empty sectors. If I can't destroy the pirate, I run, and hit activate. As soon as the next sector loads, I hit activate, and until I've gone through my 6 jumps and am now at a wormhole, and can probably head off to safety. The pirate can't follow me nearly as quickly because they have to read where you jumped to, plot that jump, and try to follow before you disappear again. As it is, it's damn hard to follow someone who doesn't want to be followed.

I sympathize with people who want to avoid ion storms, I find them to be annoying too, but seriously, by the time you get to a medium battery, ion storms are generally nothing more than an annoyance and not an actual danger.

With just system selections, your route is chosen for you through the systems (simply wormhole to wormhole) but you don't need to rely on the computer's sometimes odd method of choosing how you get from point A to point B.

then the pirate needs to have some sense and park his arse at that wormhole. a wormhole is a choke point. you HAVE to go there eventually.

Oh joy. A waypoint thread. Again.

I think waypoints are for losers! Weee!

the only loser is you Genka!

well in the 'read this first' thread, it says 'marking buoys / waypoints'...

buoys are for within a sector.

this thread is more about navigatoin across systems.

you should put another line in the 'read this first' post about 'navmap waypoints'.

CP i sympathize. Waypoints could be very useful to eliminate some tedium. As such I think exploring options to preserve involuntary player interaction while using waypoints is called for.

Here are my contributions:
-requirement to be 2000m from the nearest player to initiate a waypoint jump.
-Display next wormhole or station the waypointed sequence will intersect to all players close enough to the jump point.
-EMP weapon that clears the nav computer of any ship within 1000m.
-"Yarrrr" in sector chat causes a "typo in waypoint entry into the nav computer clearing all but the first jump coordiantes". ;)

In response to CrippledPidgeon, I don't think adding waypoints would terribly unbalance pirating (especially once engines are rebalanced). Basically as it is, a person can very quickly jump into an empty sector select another random empty sector and jump as many times as needed to evade a pirate.

I think Spellcast is correct in saying that the pirate should be able to predict where the trader is heading (usually a single wormhole as an option) and will often be able to head off the trader. This is especially true if the pirate knows there are no ion storms on the way to the wormhole.

I agree with flea and Spell. I think the advantage of being able to set waypoints, far outweighs the frustration of trying to catch someone in an empty. And depending on the situation, it gives the prey some good chances to get away, based on the intuition of the pirate.

I think this is a trivial modification which wouldn't increase the ammount of gameplay in the game.

Dispite that, it's a good idea. I just can't see making it a priority. Waypoints between sectors are easy, but they aren't nearly as useful as waypoints _in_ sectors.

CP, I believe the decision to implement this or a similar feature is somewhat a separate problem to the current unbalanced nature of pirating. While I understand the current difficulty in pursuing a player (and it is true, the ability to set multiple waypoints quickly wihle being chased would not help this), I dont think the design of a new feature should be restricted or defined by the negative aspects of another issue which is currently being worked on. I hope engine balance and other ideas will go someway to solving these problems.

Celebrim, im not sure what you mean by "wouldn't increase the amount of gameplay in the game.". Are you simply trying to point out the obvious, that this isn't a new 'big feature'? The devs have stated that the next updates will be focused on balance and refinement, so I believe this is an appropriate time to suggest these ideas. But it is true, I dont mean this to become a huge thread. I just wanted to make my views on this small issue known. Please clarify this if I have misinterpreted you...

As for being a priority or not, I believe it is up to the devs to balance their opinions on its potential gameplay benefits with their qualified views on how many hours work it would take -- relative to other things they may be working on these next few weeks.

good job folks! i really like the new system.

A waypoint system! Beautiful! That almost makes having to download the 68MB update on a modem connection worthwhile... :|

One other hand, the current system only has one of my 3 ideas implemented, and is therefore only useful for local, sector-to-sector trips. I still believe the ability to switch through system screens when designating a wormhole as a waypoint, and to clear waypoints would go a long way to a more intuitive and useful system. Also are you planning to include multi-button functionality to the interface? Currently everything is administered with a left click, however the nav map is one example where a right-click functionality (rather than holding down shift or... space? what?) could work really well...

Keep up the good work!

you can plot waypoints through multiple systems with the shift+click

at present unfortunately you cant remove a waypoint once you add it.

Just thought I should revisit this as it is currently an obvious flaw that is very very annoying to deal with, mainly because it could be fixed very easily!

When setting waypoints between multiple systems: you have to set a waypoints to the wh, switch to system view using z, select the next system, select sector view using z, then continue mapping your waypoints from the next wormhole.

Please make it so that upon designating a wh as a waypoint, the screen is automatically switched to the next system. This would make the process of setting waypoints much cleaner.

I once suggested double-clicking on WH sectors switches to the other side of the WH. Personally I'd prefer that, because there could be situations where I'd like to set a waypoint in a WH sector, and another waypoint in the same system (say I'm carrying cargo, and want to check if the WH is clear, and if not have a run-away jump point already set).

Another note, is that you don't actually need to set the waypoint in the WH sector, you can just zoom out to universe, zoom in to the other system, and set a waypoint, it will automatically go through the WH.