Auto-pilot epically failed!

[Gregorovitch]

LOL.

Well, it did but I'll come to that, however the dear old auto-pillock has definitely learned some pretty amazing new tricks as far as high speed cruising is concerned. Some of my faves so far:

1. Positioned near the end of an asteroid field, the auto-pillock selected a curved path around the end of it to get to the required gate. Colour me amazed.

2. It's ability to select a precise parabolic flight path at 3200m/s to hit a gate 150km distant spot on is impressive. I can't even begin to match it.

3. Shooting out of one gate at 3200m/s and being required to hit the next about 30km away with probably 120deg turn, it set about executing the turn full speed such that is was obvious to anyone it was going to fail epically to hit the target gate. Except it didn't - it slowed itself to about 1750m/s about 2/3 the way round the turn so it could tighten it and made the edge of the gate (and had me on the edge of my seat incidentally) with what looked like millimeters to spare.

4. It's ability to join a highway as 3200m/s from a near right angled approach is nothing short of astonishing. I wouldn't even bother to try.

5. But it's best trick of all was shooting out of a gate at full speed aiming to go through another 20km away positioned at right angles. To my amazement it didn't slow down or futz about with this, it just headed straight for this gate side on at full speed. "Pillock by name, pillock by nature" I opined as I waited for the inevitable epic fail. Er, no. It flicked itself slightly away from the front of the gate and just as it started flashing across the face of the thing it flicked the ship back towards it and thus actually entering the gate successfully. I nearly fell off my chair. I'd say this one falls under the category "Don't try this at home"

Anyway after witnessing some of these tricks I thought OK, clever clogs, let's see how you deal with an asteroid field at 3200m/s, Huh? Well it seemed to take what might be described as a reasonable trajectory but of course inevitably there was this one annoying asteroid right bang slap in the way - and of course the dear old auto-pillock duly obliged and ran smack into it. The resultant message "Auto-pilot epically failed!" was worth the price of the game on it's own, I say.

Nevertheless, it seems to me that someone at Ego has been teaching the dear old auto-pillock some pretty fancy pants maths by my reckoning.

[Vandragorax]

My only question is.... why are you travelling everywhere at 3200m/s? You know you can upgrade to MK3 travel engines and go 4500-5500m/s depending on which ship type you have right?

[Socratatus]

I think we all know that autopilot isn`t meant to be relied on anything that a Human can do.

However, if you get stuck and can`t free yourself, activate it and it will magically get out.

[nemhook]

My only question is.... why are you travelling everywhere at 3200m/s? You know you can upgrade to MK3 travel engines and go 4500-5500m/s depending on which ship type you have right?

My Nemesis doesn't even go that fast.

[radcapricorn]

The first time I heard that message back in Rebirth I laughed for a full minute.

[Goliathmk2]

the Pegasus can go 8800 with argon travel engines

[Ezarkal]

So have I. I couldn't believe Betty had just said that.

Back to the first post, I've always figured that in both XR and X4 the autopilot could do stuff you simply can't on conventional driving (... or flying, whatever).
Try to do these sharp turns at the same speed and your ship simply won't respond. Especially with the ship's nose pointed opposite from where it's turning to.

Still, it's a good tool to have, and as you said, the pathing do get better.


A half-related question:
-With NPC flying our ships, we often have a case of ships ending up encased within station geometry, and then you can't get out because collision detection is only activated when you're oos. (It's been a pretty big complain on the forums.)
-We had a similar problem in XR, where boosting could lead to similar results with stations, ships, asteroids. One common fix was to use the autopilot to get us out, since the collision detection would turn off after a few collisions in a short time.
-Back to X4, the one time I got stuck on station geometry, I tried to ask my NPC pilot to get me out of the mess he's put me in, but as an NPC he couldn't get me out of that storage module. I didn't think to try getting out with the autopilot, though, as I would have in XR. Has anyone tried that?

If not, I think I still have a save. If I do, I'll give it a shot tonight and let you know if it works.

[Socratatus]

I didn't think to try getting out with the autopilot, though, as I would have in XR. Has anyone tried that?

I got stuck in geometry,tried for ages to get out. Couldn`t. Then I hit autopilot and it slowly phased itself through and out.

[Ezarkal]

Thank you!

[OneOfMany]

Stuck in geometry?

Can't Escape?

You have researched the teleport option?

Last time my ship glitched into a roid I called another ship and teleported to it, left the sector and had my stuck ship join my squad.

Thinking outside the sand box is always my go to option.

[Grifiths]

You can use auto-pilot to escape the interior of objects. My ships like to take the direct route to docks whether or not the station is in the way.

People may be travelling at around 3500 m/s because they have combat engines. I've started using those over travels for any M or S ships. Travel speed is nice but once you've tried a nemesis moving at 611 m/s without boost, it just changes how you look at flying.