A few quick questions.

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[Captain Canuck]

Ahoy all, 

A couple of quick questions:

• How do you take "photos"?  I've seen referneces to taking photots in game in the documentation and here on the forums, but I haven't been able find HOW to take a photo.
• In the full-screen chart view there is an icon on the far right that looks (somewhat) like a fish hook. What does this do?
• When I set the autopilot and return to the bridge view does the autopilot remain engaged? I know the game speed returns to normal, but what about the autopilot itself?
• Is it possible to climb the ladders that are present on some ships? If so, how?
• What are the rank iconss shown in the forum for some users and how come I don't have any?

Thanks in advance.

[Shipaddict]

Hi

I can't answer all of your questions but I can answer a few:

1. I believe you can only take photos inside the ship, for that you should press "f" or the camera icon from the toolbar bottom right of the screen.

2. I don't have experience with this I'm afraid so hopefully someone else can help.

3. As far as I know, the autopilot switches off once you are there.

4. Not all of them, but if it is, line up with it and face it as if you are going to walk into the wall. If it works you will go straight up, if not you'll almost bounce off of the wall.

5. These are the rankings for mission from Ship Simulator 2008, the previous simulator.

Hope this helps!

Mike

[mvsmith]

Hi Captain Canuck,

To expand on what Mike said: You start the picture taking by either pressing the F key or clicking the bottom button on the camera stack in the bottom right. That will put you in camera #3—the walkabout camera—so you can move to where you get a view of the subject. You will have a fuzzy black border on your view.
To snap the photo after you have centered the subject, click the left button in the bottom right corner of the screen. The right button gets you out of picture mode, but still in camera #3.

When you are asked to take a photo in a mission, there is an invisible PointEntity embedded in the center of the correct view. You must have that point in your photo to complete the objective.

Regards,
Marty

[Captain Canuck]

Thanks guys, that helps a lot! 

Now just to find out what that last icon on the chart view does.

[vin_sun]

Thanks guys, that helps a lot!  

Now just to find out what that last icon on the chart view does.

Hi Capt....

Your curiosity about that "fish hook" icon invoked the same in me. I experimented a bit and figured it's nothing but an "undo" button.

If you click on the first icon - add waypoint - it presents you with a grey circle with a green border. Apparently it can be positioned only in the white area of the chart which represents water. When you click in the "water" a digit (1) is placed inside the circle. [I assume this is Waypoint 1]. Clicking elsewhere again creates another similar waypoint with the digit 2 inside. Clicking on the "fish hook" deletes these waypoints.

Please refer to the attached screenshot which depicts waypoints created in this manner.

I suppose we both can now in tandem ask "How can we use these waypoints ?"

[Traddles]

To answer your question vin_sun. If after placing your waypoints as shown in your picture you then click on the steering wheel icon (a red cross will appear on the icon) your player ship will steam off to each waypoint in turn on auto pilot. If you then slide the little "gizmo" to the right along its slider your ship will traverse the waypoints at a faster and faster rate the further you slide it. You are quite right in your comment about the far right icon. If you decide you have placed your waypoints incorrectly you can remove them all with this, and then replace them in a better position. BTW you can place a waypoint anywhere there is water, white blue or green but not on land which is grey. You must be careful though that you do not place waypoints which will cause your ship to run aground.

[vin_sun]

Dear Capt. Traddles ..... thanks a lot sir ......for elaborating on the use of player created waypoints. That was indeed an eye opener.

[Traddles]

Thank you vin_sun, we aim to help, and if we can it is a pleasure.

[Captain Canuck]

Thanks again. I wish I would have known this is Bora Bora where I ended up with a waypoint that I couldn't zoom out far enough to see on the chart and therefore unable (I thought) to delete!  Every time I tried to engage the autopilot it insisted on trying to sail off to this waypoint I coudn't see. 

You must be careful though that you do not place waypoints which will cause your ship to run aground.

That is something else I was going to ask about.  I haven't used the autopilot alot, but to me it seems more like the AI steering the ship rather than a autopilot that blindly sails to the next waypoint.  That is, I've seen the autopilot sail around shallows and shoals on the way to the next waypoint. Although I've never set a waypoint directly over a shoal; I'll have to try that and see what happens.

[mvsmith]

Indeed, your ship is probably an AI ship while on autopilot.

In SSE ships can be changed to any other type: Player, AI, or Static. Of course it makes no sense to make a ship with no bridge a Player ship.

In a mission where you suddenly find yourself in a “cut scene” or aboard another ship leaving your former ship headed at full speed toward shore, no worries. Your old ship has been converted to an AI ship with a, hopefully, safe destination. In some cases, as after a cut scene, she will be handed back as a player ship.

[Captain Spencer]

I witnessed this last night actually. Was cruising along with the Agile Solution, then I was switched to the Pillot boat.

Having raced towards the Agile I wondered if I would crash or run aground, but alas, the ship was heading safely out to sea.

To be quite honest, I was quite impressed with that, as it certainly gave added realism.

[mvsmith]

There is much to be impressed by the new mission system, scary as it might seem for players not accustomed to it.

The traveling weather system, which few have seemed to notice, is an impressive achievement, as is the versatility and control over AI.

From a troubleshooting standpoint, the ability to substitute player ships without the need to re-make every waypoint is nice. And one can easily short-out large parts of the logic to start far into the mission.

[saltydog]

In reference to the picture taking, if you want to take "outside" pics, you can use a program called FRAPS.
It also has a free version, but then only saves pics as BMP.  In order to post them here you must resize them to JPG..

http://www.fraps.com/

[Captain Spencer]

Hi Marty,

I had noticed the weather actually, very impressive

[Captain Canuck]

Just to be clear, I am not talking about a cut scene, or being transfered to another ship due to a trigger or reaching a certain point in the mission. I'm talking about setting a waypoint and the autopilot not sailing directly to that waypoint, but steering around shoals and other obstacles.

I noticed this in Bora Bora. At the end of the mission you are instructed to sail off to the Antarctic but I couldn't zoom out far enough on the chart to see where the mission waypoint (starburst) was on the chart. Silly me assumed that I had to sail out of the lagoon before I could head to the Antarctic and I had steamed out of the lagoon and most of the way around the atoll when I noticed that the starburst was INSIDE the lagoon

So I had to turn around and head back the way I came.  At this point I set a waypoint at the mouth of the entrance to the lagoon (I thought it was a straight shot), but the AI altered course to sail around a shallow area. Once inside the lagoon I tried setting a waypoint on the "starburst", but due to my earlier fumbling about there was a waypoint outside the lagoon that I couldn't delete (see above) and when I activated the autopilot it didn't aim the ship directly at the waypoint, but for the entrance to the lagoon. Granted, I didn't leave the autopilot on for long once I noticed what it was doing, but it certainly wasn't doing what I would expect an autopilot to do.

From a troubleshooting standpoint, the ability to substitute player ships without the need to re-make every waypoint is nice. And one can easily short-out large parts of the logic to start far into the mission.

As a complete newbie to the series that made no sense to me at all...

I am not accustomed to any previous versions so all the game play seems perfectly normal to me

[mvsmith]

Hi Captain Canuck,
In order to get help on a specific mission you should ask on the SSE > Missions board. Please read the bold blue topics on that board for guidance in finding, or asking for, information on specific missions.

In general, when you cannot zoom out far enough on the chart to find a waypoint marker, you can be guided by the CTW below the conning circle, and if you activate the middle button, the small open circle on the conning ring. Although the CTW is the direct bearing to the waypoint, it should allow you to proceed until the marker is visible on the chart.

Use of the autopilot in missions should be restricted to covering long distances in fairly open areas, and only when you know where the next mission waypoint is. Otherwise, the autopilot might conflict with the operation of the state machine that controls the mission.

Specifically you should never set an autopilot waypoint over, or even close to, a mission waypoint. The trigger to advance the mission state may take place hundreds of meters in advance of the center of the waypoint.
Also, there may be triggers that are not visible on the chart, such as those that affect the weather or sea state.  You could miss them or trigger them in the wrong sequence.


Regards,
Marty

[Captain Canuck]

Ahoy Marty,

Thanks for the clarification on the autopilot use. My next question is, is your advice based on the fact that no real ship's captain would use the autopilot that way, or because using the autopilot like that in SSE causes known problems with the game engine? I know that no ship's captain would use the autopilot in close quarters, but it also seems the more I use the autopilot (and I seldom do) the buggier things get.

I also just did a test with the "autopilot" in a free roam mission, and it is an "AI Pilot" not an autopilot. I started a free roam mission in Bora Bora (default everything) and set a single waypoint outside the lagoon. When I engaged the "autopilot" it faithfully sailed around shoals, obstacles, out the mouth of the lagoon and then to my waypoint... Maybe the merchant marine has more advanced autopilots than I am used to, but an autopilot should steer directly to the next waypoint and not be an "AI".

[mvsmith]

Call it autopilot or AI, whichever you like. They are the same in SSE. AI ships do not follow paths as they do in SS08; they travel to a designated destination in autopilot mode, planning their course to avoid obstacles. It is just a matter of what VSTEP chose to call it. It probably seemed easier to call it autopilot on the large chart rather than explain how a player ship can suddenly become an AI ship.
Also my advice on the use of autopilot is based both on real-world practice and on the necessities of the game. I explained how the autopilot can conflict with the mission logic.