Newbies are often exhorted to “never use the autopilot!”. However I’ve realized it’s not as cut and dried as that. Previously posted on the old forums is some counter advice at the bottom of this post.
Is their any additional advice on techniques for using the autopilot that veterans out there can provide?
Ralph King-Griffin said:
"Auto pilot is extremely useful as is.
Case use 1) managing and marking a route.
Case use 2) instant station docking.
Say you’re flying a blockade runner into a trade hub in prime time (basically marking yourself for death)
What you do is use the Auto pilot to plot the route there, avoiding unessiccarily risky choke points,
Manually fly the route showing in the Auto pilot.
Then, once you’re in the hub, with the Auto pilot set to the target station ,
you warp to a bookmark within that stations docking ring,
Whilst in warp activate the autopilot.
What this does is cue the docking request for the same server tic you egress warp.
It’s actually quite useful for a whole lot of things that aren’t derping about with a massive “antimatter goes here” sticker on your arse."
Reaver Glitterstim said:
“I like to think autopilot is one of those parts of EVE that reminds a player that the advice they receive from other players is not only valuable but fallible. Take, for example, the part where most of us are told at least once to never use autopilot. It doesn’t take a genius to figure out how to autopilot safely, but it does take a veteran.”
That is good advice, as you have probably realised by now. Eve is not cut and dry, the general rule ‘Autopilot is bad’ is usually referring to the practice of turning on autopilot and using that to fly from point A to point B.
This is of course dangerous as ships will warp to their next waypoint at a range of 15km and then need to fly there at sub warp speeds. This leaves ships venerable to attack. Now some of the bigger ships in Eve may not be at such a risk but it really depends on too many circumstances and can change so I won’t give any examples .
That being said another method for docking at a station is to select it on your overview while you’re in warp to the 0 Dock bookmark and start clicking the dock button as quickly as possible on the top panel of your overview until you here ‘Docking Request Accepted’.
I’ve had a play around with the map and have come up with the following method of getting myself from my present home base to the Sisters of Eve home (20 jumps) to start an Epic Arc.
I’d appreciate any critique of the proposed method.
(Do this for Highsec and Lowsec only to avoid Nullsec bubbles.)
Display the Agent list and select Sister Alitura’s home system as your destination.
Display the system map (which will show a 3D graphic of the route.
Right click on the destination system and select ‘Iinformation’.
On the now displayed information panel, select the Route tab.
A tabular view of the route is now displayed.
Pin the route table.
Undock and find the first Stargate required on your Overview and Warp to within 0.
Spam the ‘D’ key on arrival to jump the Stargate.
Immediately upon arrival Select the next Stargate on the route from the Overview and
Warp to within 0.
Repeat steps 7 and 8 until the destination is reached.
Setting route isnt really as difficult as you make it be, just hit the “Set Destination” on where ever you want to go. Then on mainscreen topleft you see your route, if its not visible theres dropdown buttons to make it visible. And then have your overview arranged by the “type” its the leftmost column usually there the gates on your route will be always on top and marked yellow. Just select those and hit Jump, no need to play with autopilot on / off or spam buttons when close.
Each system just select the gate, and hit jump, repeat until you are where you want to be.
With stations you can just do same thing and select Dock instead, i know sometimes it dont instadock so if you moving expensive stuff you want to have those instadock bookmarks (especially Jita44 and during wartime) where you warp and then hit dock after exiting the warp.
I assume from what you’re saying that by selecting the gate and hitting jump, that when landing at the gate I’m jumping through, it will be equivalent to “warp within 0”? i.e. I won’t land 15km from the gate and then approach it before jumping?
Correct, the ‘Jump’ option on the right click menu will warp you to 0km, and then immediately attempt to jump your ship into the next system.
The only time the above behaviour should be different (That I can think of) is if your warp stops off the edge of the gates jump range due to an interdiction bubble.
Brilliant and thank you. I believe the interdiction bubbles are only found in Null Sec correct?
I’ve read that when travelling in Null Sec, gates should be approached and jumped via a celestial at an angle as bubbles are most often located in line with the gates.
Thanks again. A lot of the advice in guides will often say things like don’t do x but then often don’t give the newbie much on what should be done. You’ve been most helpful.
Never be afraid to ask – Eve isn’t usually straight forward and things are often very situational. But there will always be people willing to pass on their knowledge.
For me, the “bad” autopilot I never use is the little “A”-Button on the bottom, left to the scanner button. It’s an invitation for Newbies to afk-travelling and even suggested in the tutorial, but quite dangerous and awfully slow. But the navigation part of the AP is a central part of planning and executing my voyages through EvE-Space. Just follow the “yellow brick road”
You missed a point: If your are Warping to a station with a lot of stuff around it (example:Jita 4-4) you might have several seconds lagging at the last few seconds warping onto the grid. It should be safer to warp to somewhere near it on the grid (example:the Caldari Business Tribunal Station near the Jita station) and then warp to the destination station.
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