The auto pilot????

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[davolson]

Although i haven't tried the autopilot,
I would agree that it WOULD in fact be far more useful if it worked beyond, just setting waypoints on the map. It would be nice to go roam around the boat, take time exploring other views, as well as make sure the vessel isn't now doing circles around you, when you switch to another craft. It would appear there isn't truly a functional autopilot yet, but is  more just a means of "slewing" the boat.

[mvsmith]

Hi davolson,

It was never intended to be an autopilot for general use in missions, or in free roaming. Why would you want one? It defeats the purpose of having the simulator in the first place.
If you want to simply be a passenger on a ship, the mission editor will allow you to do that. It is possible to hitch a ride on an AI ship and wander around while it goes its way on autopilot.
The purpose of the ship simulator is navigation and ship handling despite the arguments that it should be a knob twiddler’s paradise, or an amusement park ride.

Regards,
Marty

[davolson]

as i said...

>>far more useful if it worked beyond, just setting waypoints on the map. It would be nice to go roam around the boat, take time exploring other views, as well as make sure the vessel isn't now doing circles around you, when you are required to switch to and pilot another craft simultaneously.

The idea of switching back and forth between vessels trying to keep each on course and on mission... seems the greater of needless "knob fiddling" to me.

Having the boat remain on course while performing other "duties".. is generally an important part of navigation and general seamanship imho.

[Captain Cadet]

Hi warrior2000,
It is certainly not something that you would use on Multiplayer.
I’ll move this to technical support, and then explain.
Marty

In a mission or free roam, to get to the autopilot you first go to the full-screen chart by clicking the right-most button above the chart.
In the bottom right corner of the full-screen chart are four buttons and a slider.
You need to place at least one waypoint for the autopilot to steer toward.
Click the leftmost button and drag the green circle to where you want the first waypoint.
Left-click to anchor it.
You can continue to place waypoints; click the leftmost button when you are done.
Click the third button to engage the autopilot. There will be a red x on the button when the autopilot is engaged. Click it again to disengage the autopilot.
You can speed up the game engine by moving the slider to the right.
The autopilot will disengage when you return to the small chart by clicking the rightmost  button above the chart, but your ship may still be moving.
Just play with it to see how it behaves and learn when not to try to use it.

ahhh
so that how u do it

[Ballast]

Having the boat remain on course while performing other "duties".. is generally an important part of navigation and general seamanship imho.

I'm not sure what you mean with other duties, but sailing on auto pilot doesn't mean you don't have to maintain a proper lookout anymore. Sailing on auto pilot so you could do other things (chart corrections, administration) is NOT good seamanship 

[davolson]

nor is leaving the helm of your vessel to jump aboard another and pilot it...  (i.e. duties).

[mvsmith]

This is no longer a technical support topic; it has become just an argument.

[Tinchu]

I think too the autopilot is not the most interesting facility for this simulator. The simulator would be addressed to the docking and undocking  maneuvers. In those situations the captain and officers are totally concerned and they don`t need autopilot. Even more, it would be really dangerous to play with those "toys" near the stones.

But, radio communications with port`s pilot would be really nice. The possibility to introduce the radio frequency to receive the clearance to enter, for instead. The port's pilot could answer you in affirmative way, or negatively. "Hold the position. In this moment is going to come that ghost ship that always appears and run over you".

It's a joke.

[mvsmith]

Yes, the SSE autopilot will not engage if you are too close to shore, or in a confined space.
It is to be used to cover distances in open water. The autopilot for the AI ships is pretty good at finding its way around shorelines, but it is not perfect. You can see that it has trouble entering or leaving Padstow harbor.

When the ME is released, you can make missions where you run on autopilot for part of the mission and roam about the boat. If you read the Mission Editor Notes, you will find an exercise where you can do just that.
The released missions have quite a few instances where the player ship is running on autopilot while the player is doing something else.

[mvsmith]

as i said...

>>far more useful if it worked beyond, just setting waypoints on the map. It would be nice to go roam around the boat, take time exploring other views, as well as make sure the vessel isn't now doing circles around you, when you are required to switch to and pilot another craft simultaneously.

Hi davolson,
If you would like to roam about the boat while it is on autopilot, here is an example of the autopilot’s capabilities and limitations when you use the mission editor.
Extract the two files to [your documents] > ShipSimExtremes Userdata > Missions
The mission name is: Autopilot Demo
The running time is about 30 minutes. It was built in 1.3, but has been tested in 1.2.2.
Regards,
Marty

[mvsmith]

The reason that you cannot board a ship that is on autopilot is simply that it is not a player ship. It is an AI ship, and therefore does not have an icon on the left side of the screen. You must board the ship while it is a player ship before it becomes an AI ship.
 
In SSE there is no real difference between Autopilot and AI: All AI ships are running on autopilot. All “player” ships that are running on autopilot are AI ships.

In the demo, you can leave the Cutter in the RIB, but cannot return.
However, in the ME it is possible to make the Cutter a player ship when the RIB is deployed, thus allowing you to retrieve the RIB. But, you would need to do something to keep the Player Cutter from getting into trouble with no one at the helm. You would need to bring it to a complete stop before switching it from AI. That would only work if Cutter was stopped when she became AI because when an AI ship goes back to being a player ship, she resumes the speed that she had as a player.  
Or, you could leave Cutter as AI until the RIB returned within a certain distance. Lots of fun.

[Azipod]

I tried the auto-pilot for the first time today.

I noticed that when I'm on the auto-pilot (map view) screen, that I cannot keep the auto-pilot on once I switch back to the ship view.   In other words, as soon as I close out the map-view the auto pilot disengages.

Is there any way to "road the ship" while its set on auto-pilot ?

[mvsmith]

Is there any way to "road the ship" while its set on auto-pilot ?

Not by using the large map, because the ship is not a Player ship when on autopilot, but see here:

http://80.95.161.114/shipsim/forum/index.php/topic,22659.msg302054.html#msg302054 (http://80.95.161.114/shipsim/forum/index.php/topic,22659.msg302054.html#msg302054)