Or if you want it your way, we can say that any manual maneuver will earn you AI research points where you can use to spend on upgrading AI modules in your spaceship that are used to automate commands.

So basically we have a game where a lot of manual stuff is involved that can make the game tedious, and instead of having a player use an external macro program to automate the more monotonous moves they don't enjoy doing, the game itself can implement an ingame macro program (or AI in this case) that you can use to automate the manual parts that you don't like.

Some might like planet landing, some might like battles, some might enjoy resource gathering, then again you could find a lot of people who don't like the very same features.

So make an in-game macro program that can be used so that a player can customize the gameplay into the style they like to play.

The way to upgrade the various AI is to perform the actions manually which will grant AI research points than be used to upgrade the AI modules.

So now we don't call it XP we will call them AI research points!!!

Let's hope they'll reveal more in this month's update.

@Vaelzad

@Frogboy

Is anyone more sold on this "feature" after seeing the most recent video? I still don't get it, really. Why steer your ship to a certain location on the planet, when you can quite literally just move your ship for 3 seconds to get to the spot you wanted? Makes no sense to me, except maybe if there are certain worlds covered with lava and you fall in if you don't steer?

But for 99% of the planets, this feature still seems iffy.

When you put the September stills together with Vaelzad's comments earlier in the thread, it makes sense. Land in the wrong spot initially and you may not have the option to move your ship afterwards...conversely, there may be something interesting to land on where you only have one opportunity to do so.

I obviously haven't tried it out, but I like the feature as presented. As long as it's brief, provides some benefit/non-benefit and furthers the experience/immersion then I'm fine with it.

Perhaps if an autolanding system took up valuable space on your landing vehicle... or took up more fuel units... or both. Or it could reduce available crew spots, making it more difficult to survive.

^ In this case you will be sacrificing part of a good/fun game mechanic (ship upgrades) to avoid a shitty game mechanic (landing sequence). In essence, you're avoiding one shitty game mechanic by shitty'ing up a good/fun game mechanic. Basically moving dog shit from one room in your house to another, instead of getting rid of it. 

Does anyone remember Ports of Call and the new Version Transocean.They had the option to navigate your ship in manually into Ports saving money and time though there was risk to damage that would cause time delays and repair costs or you could pick a tug to tow you in and moor you safely.But it cost more.Then the dev's took out the manually docking system in Transocean 2 and you know what.The players weren't happy about it being more streamlined.

The Entry minigame needs to have both options.

In Ports of Call they also varied the manual navigation mini games by traversing reefs or Iceburg sections.Again do I take a shortcut with risk to save time but possible damage or do I go the longer safer route losing time.They didn't include this in Transocean.I thought it was to their loss gameplay wise.

 So as you can see you guys are divided about having this landing minigame.Why not have both options but with risk and reward in both types of landing.

The other thing is the landing sequence can't be boring and  repititous.Events may need to occur in both types of landing choices. eg Before setting off scans mention a building electrical storm on the planets surface.entering an electrical storm automatically could suddenly short circuit the Auto guidance system and repairs will be the consequence.Where as manually guiding the ship may prevent this guidance issue but might cause something else or another event example might be manually having to steer through a space junkyard as found around SOL and the consequence maybe a tear in the ships hull but while manually using the approach/landing sequence through the junk yard you find resources floating by that can be used to modify a module on your ship.Picking the Auto route the floating resource piece isn't seen but you avoid the risk of a collision.

You have to create a temptation for the reward.Risk vs Reward.Hence warranting a landing mini game.

So far they haven't revealed if there's even a reward for successful landing. Everyone is under assumption that there isn't and you only do it to not lose crew when landing.

Does anyone remember Lunar Lander?

If you didn't land that one perfectly, everyone died!

Then how are you posting here?

There's always a reward of satisfaction and happiness.

Sorry I'm late to the party, just discovered this Forum

One of the things that I disliked most about SC3 was that some of the things that were skills that you took time to develop in sc2 were essentially removed.  So all those times I had to avoid the Ur-Quan/Slylandro in hyperspace by flying around in circles no longer mattered because I just pointed and clicked and there I was.  

IN SC2; The Planetary Exploration piece I always loved because it was like I was treasure hunting, and you had to learn which planets were worth your time, where to drop on the planet, how to plan your route so that you could get the most loot per trip, and always keep your finger on the nope! button at all times to get outta there.  If I were to think back to things that I always wanted to see in SC2 for the Exploration phase specifically, it would be different weapon types on the lander to potentially nab those huskier lifeforms more quickly (not just increased firing rate).  When discovering ruins or some other type of architecture or artifact... potentially going into some sort of brief cut-scene of the encounter, and not just getting a text description of what is happening on the planet's surface.  Potentially adding the ability to excavate as part of the landers upgradeable capabilities to even uncover "buried" treasure I think would be awesome, especially on "Treasure Worlds".  Also, adding actual storage capacity to the landers themselves would be useful.  I remember just purchasing one lander and simply saving my game before every attempt on a world with excessive tectonics or temperature.  However, later in the game when I was loaded up with Shiva Furnaces to the max, I scrapped my Storage Pods... but I had several landers and I would have still enjoyed collecting minerals as well as bio...but obviously couldn't store anything because no storage pods.

When talking about adding a new difficulty of a landing dynamic, I think that would add to the "skill ceiling" of the game and make the satisfaction level greater when the new difficulty is mastered; however, that "Whoosh" and I'm there within a second does make it less tedious overall... I would tend to believe there is a correct balance.  Maybe, having some sort of upgrade later in the game that speeds up the landing process as like a "Hazard Avoidance" system may be an option.

Excited about what's next!

-Chuck

I just think it's hilarious that people (mostly one person) are arguing about how good a feature is that they haven't even seen or playtested yet.

Like, chill out, if someone from SD who has been doing it all the time for 8 months isn;t sick of it yet, then it's probably fine. It's still a game, if you're going to taker out every little thing that might require some skill (even if it's just for the sake of it) then why make a game at all? Then you may as well make SCO a movie instead.

I'm prepared to give the benefit of the doubt, assume SD knows what they're doing, and wait to see and play the thing before I make judgements on the merits of individual parts of the gameplay.

Having said all that, if it was a matter of one or more systems having to be dropped because the game was taking too long to develop, the landing sequence is probably one that wouldn't matter too much if it slipped.