Ok … you just made me realize something.
I think the real reason why the current system is problematic for some is following:
The flight assist is not good enough! (maybe)
It does not use the full potential of thes ship. Or at least appears that way.
If you set a target speep it takes a certain time for the ship to decelerate. But if you set the target speed below the speed you want to reach the ship decelates faster. I think … not sure really.
Interesting. I hadn’t noticed that. That needs testing.
Even if that is the case, I think the main issue is that the player controls the target % of max speed which varies with situation.
Just throwing this in out of curiosity, but how about adding (as in: not replacing) a type of “planned warp”, where you select your target destination, set a distance to said object where to drop out of warp, hit a key and watch how the game handles the warp acceleration/deceleration for you? It could be used by groups of people to make a more coordinated “first contact” on enemies, and could be made less efficient than manual warping to give people a reason to learn proper manual usage of it anyway.
I think something like that could have a place in the game, but I don’t think the necessity or usefulness of such a feature can be assessed until the manual warp system has been decided on.
Makes sense, was just a random idea I had when skimming through this thread,
“Planned Warp” is already to much.
A simple “go to” function that starts an autopilot which auto-decides if the ship should simply fly there or if it engages warp for it.
The Game Freelancer has this and whenever I showed the game to a new player this function was the easiest way to get them into the game.
You need an easy way for new players to get them where the action is.
Once they are hooked with the game the will learn the tactics and mechanics on how to best approach a target for them selves.
PS: There should also be a “get in Formation” Autopilot
Technically there is. Press ‘b’ to cycle through the formation modes. It cycles through align velocity, intercept, orbit, and free-flight.
Unfortunately it only works against your current target. It’s not fool proof either, but for the most part it works rather well.
I strongly disagree on any dump flying aid.
To steer your ship is what this game is about and if this is implemented well all player should have to learn it.
And if you dont want to or it is to much work for you, then you should definitly play something else.
That attitude will let you end up playing the game alone.
As I said: I showed that game to many noobs, some of them turned themselves into very good fighters.
And those autopilot function are not about steering the ship.
They are about helping them navigate in a game world they don’t know - yet.
To be frank, I think your “simple go to” command would actually be more complex to implement than a “planned warp”, mainly because you would implement 95% of planned warp into the go to command anyway, and then add non-warp-auto-flight and a system that decides which to use on top of it.
FPSs don’t have an auto pilot to run from spawn to objective. They tell you the movement controls and leave you to play the game. IMO Battlescape should be no different.
If an FPS had an awkward movement system and new players found it difficult, people wouldn’t say “make an auto pilot”, they’d say “fix the movement mechanic”.
Just tested this and it doesn’t appear to be true.