Player Features and Ideas Discussion

While writing on another discussion topic (decoys), an idea flashed on my mind:

Skill:Autopiloting (Rank 17) (pre-req: core navigation elite skills, cpu management V)
Explanation: Better management of autopiloting systems. Reduces the gap between warp target and warped area by %10 per skill level.

Edit (from one of my later posts in this thread):

Neither the proposed idea in this thread removes the danger, nor it negates the "time penalty" for the autopilot. The time penalty and the danger of autopiloting will still exists, and no new player would be able to achieve rank V of the proposed skill in small timeframe or even inject it at first place.

I personally look for the guy who warped closer than 10km away from the gate instead of the guy warped at 10km. They would really stick out of the crowd. As a result, those, who trained this skill, will attract more attention from gate/suicide campers naturally, while removing reducing their autopiloting time penalty with investing A LOT OF days/months in training.

The counter-implementation of this skill which is created naturally by itself is attention. It works for everybody.

Edit 2: The cheapest of the rank 16 skills is Outpost Construction, which is 100 mil. Others, being titan skillbooks are priced around 55 bil. So this skillbook would cost between 200 mil and 100 bil ;)

Why do you want to enhance idle/AFK gameplay?

If you are not AFK then you can warp to 0, so why do you need a skill to reduce the distance from 0 to 0?

But if you are talking about AFK auto-piloting then I could support the skill if the default auto pilot range is increased to 30km.

Autopilot for hisec travel is a convenient and nice tool to have. It doesn't come without cost, its not always appropriate to use, but when it is, its very nice to be able to hit autopilot and attend to stuff in RL or an alt or whatever. IMO a good feature. This does not necessarily mean its appropriate or good (or bad) to introduce a skill to reduce autopilot time, since there would still a cost or risk to autopiloting. However, introducing a skill (preferably high rank) relating to autopiloting does present an interesting training choice. Some people would never bother training it while otherers would max it quickly, depending on what their needs and how they play the game. So I say, why the hell not?



No, because this would unnecessarily penalize newer players for whom SP are at a premium, and have both more reason to autopilot and less to risk by doing so (no expensive implants or 2bn+isk pimpmobiles).

I'm not talking about active gameplay. In case you start to reduce 10km towards 6km (very select ppl will train it to lvl V, I guess). People will find themselves in their target location faster. Where they'll start becoming busy with what they want to do. Also, reducing autopiloting time means increased number of people autopiloting, which will increase ganking and more juice for some playerbase.

nope. use search function bro

travelling while afk should be significantly less efficient and more dangerous than travelling while at ur keyboard. it penalizes afk players and rewards active players. ur idea reduces the difference in speed and risk between afk travel and active travel.

if ccp wanted you to warp to 0 with AP, then it would be a standard part of the game.

I think that was his point. Only somebody with alot of skills is going to train this, hence it is something older players will benefit from more.

If you're a pirate actively looking for afk freighters, there would be no difference between a player warping to 10km or 6km (5 at best). They still have to crawl towards gate. This suggestion will increase the number of afk freighters (especially experienced ones), which should increase the chance you find something valuable.

I'm cool with the idea of a skill that reduces autopilot's deviation penalty. Autopilot has a purpose, and with its use it carries with it its own set of (pretty significant) penalties and risks. If there was a skill to reduce the distance to a gate, that would require a significant SP investment--another penalty for extensive use of autopilot. I would personally have it be a rank 10 skill.

Actually, it almost sounds like some of you are advocating that autopilot be removed entirely from the game. It's hated that much.

In many instances, being forced to warp at 0 at EVERY SINGLE GATE is not necessary. It's absolutely mind-numbing, especially on trips in excess of 20 jumps. The penalty to autopilot is so huge, that anyone semi-conscious at their computer would rather waste their time babysitting their spaceship's jumps because it's almost impossible to get across the galaxy before the next downtime hits. It makes something boring and mundane something that you're almost forced to do, because the alternative (autopilot) is so useless because of its many penalties.

Seriously... Autopilot is the difference between a 15 minutes journey (manually jumping) and an hour (autopilot). There's no in-between. Not everyone likes to hold to the seat of their pants, catching every gate, when they're just trying to get from point A to point B in highsec? It's borderline absurd.