Suggested fix for Multiple Scout Pathfinding
Posted: Mon Apr 04, 2022 4:22 pm
ISSUE:
II tend to send a bunch of 5 scouts to a single system to map it quickly, but this turns into a massive time-sink of manual control.
PROBLEMS with EXPLORE XXX SYSTEM command
1) Scouts so ordered will go to star and scan it regardless of whether it has already been scanned and then,
2) All go to scan the same planet/moon/rock IN THE SAME ORDER. The first one there will scan it, and the rest will queue up behind it and wait for the scan to complete. This means that the process of mapping the system is not sped up by tasking multiple ships to it.
3) This necessitates continual manual intervention, especially with asteroid fields and belts.
Using AUTO-EXPLORE to avoid above problems:
4) Multiple Scouts will explore different objects and not get in each others way, which is good,
5) However they will not stay in one system to fully map it.
6) This quickly leads to 5 Scouts in 5 different systems, (none of which have sufficient fuel to get back to base, but that is its own issue).
Suggested SOLUTION:
1. Make the "Explore This System" order use the path-finding from "Auto-Explore" but limited to just that star.
2. Adding "Explore this Planet+moons/asteroids" or "Explore this Asteroid Field" command would also help.
3. Having an option to tell ships to return to a refueling base when reaching BINGO fuel (just enough to return to a friendly base) would also be nice
I've only played a little so far, so this might be an early game only problem if better scanners speed up system exploration so that a single scout per system is viable. It is however highly frustrating at the moment. Otherwise enjoying the game immensely.
Thanks
II tend to send a bunch of 5 scouts to a single system to map it quickly, but this turns into a massive time-sink of manual control.
PROBLEMS with EXPLORE XXX SYSTEM command
1) Scouts so ordered will go to star and scan it regardless of whether it has already been scanned and then,
2) All go to scan the same planet/moon/rock IN THE SAME ORDER. The first one there will scan it, and the rest will queue up behind it and wait for the scan to complete. This means that the process of mapping the system is not sped up by tasking multiple ships to it.
3) This necessitates continual manual intervention, especially with asteroid fields and belts.
Using AUTO-EXPLORE to avoid above problems:
4) Multiple Scouts will explore different objects and not get in each others way, which is good,
5) However they will not stay in one system to fully map it.
6) This quickly leads to 5 Scouts in 5 different systems, (none of which have sufficient fuel to get back to base, but that is its own issue).
Suggested SOLUTION:
1. Make the "Explore This System" order use the path-finding from "Auto-Explore" but limited to just that star.
2. Adding "Explore this Planet+moons/asteroids" or "Explore this Asteroid Field" command would also help.
3. Having an option to tell ships to return to a refueling base when reaching BINGO fuel (just enough to return to a friendly base) would also be nice
I've only played a little so far, so this might be an early game only problem if better scanners speed up system exploration so that a single scout per system is viable. It is however highly frustrating at the moment. Otherwise enjoying the game immensely.
Thanks