If you are travelling so slowly that you are in danger, then you are giving yourself too much risk. Get a Blockade Runner, problem solved.
I guess 10 km of slowboating would do the trick too. Still plenty of time to lock and attack, but would make the autopilot a bit more useful.
Or how about a “advanced auto pilot”: Warps to zero BUT flags you as a suspect and doubles/tripples your align time?
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That sounds like another overcomplicated pain in the neck compared to what we have now.
As far as I can tell Auto-Pilot is WAI. Like some others in the thread, I use it when it seems appropriate, and don’t use it if I see anything that says “Danger” along my route.
It would be simply too convenient to make it a ‘jump to 0’ auto-pilot. I could see adding a skill to Navigation, something like “Auto-pilot Tuning”, 5 levels, each one reduces the Auto-pilot default distance by 1.5km. So all 5 levels would land you at ~8km out from the gate rather than ~15 km.
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Autopilot to 0 would not break EVE. One time years ago I carried a worthwhile cargo in a T1 industrial, and manually warped to every gate at zero, “just like you’re supposed to” and 6 or 10 jumps out of Jita, got blapped by tornadoes while beginning to warp to the next gate. At least it took two of them, because I had some shield extenders on it.
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Yeah those “features” have really done a lot for this game. Fostering a quality people environment in every facet of eve space
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I disagree. Making suicide ganking a play style was one of the dumbest decisions ccp ever made. What is so terrible if freghters can move stuff around hs without tedium? We say eve is supposed to be harsh and dangerous but it is not true for suicide gankers and the ineqity and tedium of travel makes people wonder why they put up with this ■■■■. I stopped hauling myself ever since i heard about the empty freighter ganks.
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OH brother…this again. The only reason gankers have low to no risk is because players like you do not try to impose it on them. Go figure out how to shoot them. Gankers do get shot you know.
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Ganking has been her since day 1.
Weren’t you just bitching and whining about rewards with no risk?
EVE is not harsh because of the NPC/PVE environment but because of what other players do. Get out there and figure out how to shoot gankers.
Which makes you exceptionally risk averse and means you are taking zero risks…well, guess the Devs will have to figure out to have the game impose more risk on you. /sarcasm
Guaranteed you’ll make a nonsensical post signalling that you just don’t get the concept of risk in this game.
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There are whole organisations which specialise in hauling stuff around and charge ISK for it. If hauling was completely risk free in Highsec no one would use this services, because why not just AP everything with my own triple cargo expanded Freighter, no matter how much ISK it is worth.
The same goes for mining. If there was no risk left then everyone would just mine with yield maxed Hulk fleets, all the other options would become completely meaningless, why would you fit a ship the other way if there is not even the possibility of risk.
Today a miner and a hauler has options and it is part of the game to manage the risk with those options. You can go all paranoid if you are so afraid of gankers and mine in a 1.0 with a brick tanked Skiff, which will need a Fleet of 40-50 t2 fitted Catalysts to take out one single Skiff. That costs them way way more than your ship is worth and it will never ever happen, except you piss someone off in such a way that he goes trough all the trouble to assemble such a fleet and kill you.
You can also use a Procurer, which will still need around 40 to gank in a 1.0 and will probably cost you ~5mil after insurance, while the ganker pays ~400mil ISK. And that’s just if they use Cats, which is the cheap option if they manage to assemble 40 people to kill a target which will get you a 20mil ISK killmain. If they have to use something else, because no one cares to help with that gank, the costs just explode further.
The same goes for hauling. There are options including cloaky industrials which when used right can not be catched in Highsec or Lowsec. It is up to the player to estimate the risk and take precautions or just offload the risk by using a hauling service, where players which specialise in such things will move your stuff for a fee.
To get back on the topic, AP serves as an additional option which increases the risk by providing convenient automatic travel where the vessel has a bigger vulnerability window. If AP was removed you could automatically travel around in a shuttle without any risk, because they are uncatchable. There would be no point in piloting a hauler or in fact any ship manually if you want to travel long distances in Highsec, AFK would be the default, the regions would become meaningless.
Again, there are people who specialise in moving around stuff between regions. The apparent distance and the inconvenience of travelling around is what gives rise to the smaller trade-hubs. So you don’t actually have to travel around. You can just shop where you are, maybe it’s a bit more expensive, but it is more convenient and the ISK you pay more is the ISK the trader earns who moves the stuff back and forth between Jita and the local trade-hub. It is the ISK you “grind” when clicking 30 jumps manually and it is the reward for the risk you take when using AP.
Removing AP would make that all meaningless and destroy this aspect of the game.
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Completely agree with Ima_Wreckyou here.
Not to mention that its a game and CCP want you to be at the computer playing the came.
"But flying a long way is boring"
Well that’s how a game like Eve makes its size felt. If we could switch on AP and cross the universe in absolute safety while watching Netflix in another room, Eve wouldn’t really feel very big would it. You have to put the effort in, or pay someone to put the effort in for you.
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The reason it’s 10km is because it serves to keep yourself from being unable to stop yourself if you decide not to jump, gives you that bit extra time.
Furthermore, especially if flying a slow AU ship, you barely get anything out of Autopilot.
Its a couple clicks every so often.
You can alt-tab/biobreak etc your heart out.
You even get the 30s cloak upon arrival in the next system.
because your speed helps still having to do 60+ jumps or what ever right?
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Yes it does.
The less time you are in space, the less time that cargo is at risk.
Cloak -> Allowing for more reliable travel through dangerous systems = Shoter route
Warp Speed = less time in system
Speed + Manueverability = faster gate transistions
Turn a 2hr trip into a 30 min one and you reduce the chance of losing said cargo substantially.
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Playing since 215 and used the AP exactly 2 times since then. The second was to make sure, the first warp attempt did not miss the gate by chance. Never ever turned it on a 3rd time.
I agree in so far, as general game mechanics made a conceptual good idea almost worthless. Very similar to the bounty system. Except, maybe, this thingy with cyno-auto-docking.
As I have no constructive idea how to make the AP better than it is now, all left to do is waiting for some genius passing by with a truly helpful idea about how to improve the automatic pilot.
Until then, simply don’t use it.
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This.
Exposure=risk.
Not only does autopilot expose you to risk during the 10km slow boat, it greatly increases your overall time of exposure transiting from A to B, allowing potential hostiles to not only identify you as afk, but also bring to bear sufficient force/means to intercept/blow you up.
As I pointed out, especially in a slow AU ship you have ample time to do other things before initiating the next gate jump command manually.
Autopilot cannot be made “useful”, except as the current excuse for laziness.
Its useful if you cba to issue manual commands. Thats it.
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I think a compromise that preserves risk, but reduces tedious travel times could be made: make the distance from the landing gate a function of ship speed and agility.
Swift nimble ships like shuttles and ceptors land 20 km from the gate, approach quickly, and align quickly after their jump. These can be caught on approach.
Fat tubs land on or close to the gate, but then align slowly after jumping. These can then be bumped, scanned, cargo manifest appraised and the decision to press the red button made by potential gankers on the exit gate.
Finally, remove the Fromage Factor: no warping to zero on a dockable structure and instadocking, or instadocking a cyno ship. Docking must always be manual.
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must be nice having short trips, ive spent upwards of 7-8 hours in 1 session doing nothing but jump gates and not even in a freighter.
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Why? Oo.