Autopilot?

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[Cpt Morgan]

I'm wondering why none of the vessels have an autopilot? It certainly is reality to have an autopilot on board.  The reason we have autopilots is so that we can tend to other things.

Were autopilots never installed for a reason?

[Kapn Jonah]

this is just another pointless feature, that is why u can walk around and let the vessel sail on its own and every now and then check in by going back to the bridge by selecting the helm veiw.

[Minime]

I don't think it's pointless, and it would make the sim more realistic

[Kapn Jonah]

it would, but it would just take a lot more time for the Developers, i mean they are working on ss2010 as we speak....
sorry to say ot was pointless, it would be kinda good to have.

[Minime]

Well maybe the envirements are to little for them anyway, but in some missions it would be nice to have that feature, even though in real life you wouldn't use a autopilot in port

[mvsmith]

Again, this is a subject that has been dealt with many times. It is raised mostly by people who think the whole world should be like FS.

Often it is a combined request to be able to cross the Atlantic in real time, but with autopilot and time acceleration so that they don’t have to actually do it.
The object of Ship Simulator is the operation of vessels. Turning that over to the program would defeat the purpose.
Perhaps the developers will revisit that after they have dealt with a much more immediate departure from realism: The absence of operating heads on any of the ships.

[svein76@online.no]

I'm wondering why none of the vessels have an autopilot? It certainly is reality to have an autopilot on board.  The reason we have autopilots is so that we can tend to other things.

Were autopilots never installed for a reason?

Tend to other things? If auto pilots were installed for a reason, this was certainly not it. Having the vessel on auto pilot doesn't mean you can ease your focus, rather the contrary.

[Blow]

Autopilot would be great. As well as being able to plot a course for the ship to follow during autopilot.

[Kapn Jonah]

Well if you use the auto pilot in a mission, it will obviously just follow along the route that the waypoints make, and you would have to go back to do all of the speed decreasing, mooring and anchoring.

[mvsmith]

Hi Jonah,
I don’t understand why anyone would use an autopilot in SS. It would be simpler not to start SS in the first place.
I hope you had a good Christmas, and that 2009 is a good to you.
Regards,
Marty

[Minime]

Maby to learn how to use autopilot?

[mvsmith]

Perhaps someone would explain, in detail, how they would expect an autopilot to work, and be used.
Also explain whether it would override the ship’s dynamics.

[TerryRussell]

I suppose it might teach people how to program waypoints into an autopilot, so that they didn't try to ram the buoys or take shortcuts over land.

We had a real-life example of where that would have been useful a few years back.

A medium sized cargo vessel tried to sail up Selsey High Street in order to reach the top of Southampton Water, having come down past the Dover Straights.

Fortunately, the shingle banks stopped the vessel, rather than any of the rocks. It was floated off at a Spring high tide about a week later, the weather having been kind.

The sniggering local fishermen were perhaps not so kind.

[mvsmith]

Perhaps VSTEP could simply provide walkabout on AI ships.

[Blow]

Walkabouts on AI ships wouldn't be that fun considering there routes are limited. I've seen in another post something was mentioned about being able to board other players ships during online play to simulate the pliot and helmsman during transit.