User:Qwer Stoneghost/Old user page
The Route Planner
While the Route Planner is not physically attached to the map, the route you produce when you use it does show up on your map. The Route Planner controls any trips that you make using the Autopilot. However, any of these routes can also be executed manually, one at a time. Thus, you can use the route planner to think through and plot out a trip ahead of time.
Opening the Route Planner
To see the Route Planner, first be sure that you are displaying your route information. This will appear in the upper left hand corner of your screen. (It cannot be moved.) If you do not see the word "Route" in big, white letters, then click on the "Star Trek" (it looks like a spaceship, or letter A) icon at the top left of your screen. This toggles the Route display on and off. (Note that these icons are nearly transparent, and kind of hard to see.)
If the route display is visible, you can click on the route icon (to the left of the word "Route") bring up the planner menu.
The Route Planner Menu Window
At the top of the planner you will find a standard search box. The results of your search appear in a separate box, and clicking on a search result opens its "Show Info" window.
Next is a check box which will activate or deactivate your autopilot. This has the same function as the Autopilot button on your ship control panel.
And next is a check box that will show or hide your route path in space. Turning this on lights up a set of thin, green lines that let you see your trip path from your ship. It's not clear that these actually do anything.
The next three radio buttons are mutually exclusive; they control what happens when you select "Set Destination" or "Set Waypoint" anywhere in the game. These tell the Route Planner to include or ignore certain systems based on their security status.
- Prefer Shorter - Ignore Security Status
- Prefer Safer - Stay in 0.5 to 1.0 Where Possible
- Prefer Less Secure - Stay in 0.0 to 0.4 Where Possible
Below the radio buttons is a "Security Penalty" slider. It has a range of 1 to 100, and it modifies the "Prefer" route selection. If you have "Prefer Safer" selected, then at 1, the slider will produce the same route as "Prefer Shorter" - in other words, it will generate the shortest route, even if it takes you through nullsec systems. As you move the slider up towards 100, the planner will eliminate the less secure systems - generally making your route longer. If you have "Prefer Less Secure" selected, 1 will give you the shortest route, and 100 will give you a longer, but less secure, route.
Next are three option checkboxes:
- Avoid Systems Where Pod Killing Has Recently Occurred
- Avoid Systems on Your Avoidance List
- Disable Autopilot at Each Waypoint
It's not clear exactly how "recent" a pod kill has to be to invoke the avoidance. You can see pod kills on the Map Beta by choosing that as a color option. Your avoidance list contains all of the systems that you have marked "avoid" at one time or another. You can manage that list - see the next section for more details.
And finally three action buttons:
- Clear All Waypoints - clears your route entirely
- Optimize Route - organizes your route to take the shortest path consistent with your security selections
- Manage Route - opens the Manage Autopilot Route window.
The Manage Route window contains two tabs. One lets you edit your route's waypoints, and the other lets you edit your avoidance list. The Avoidance System is quite sophisticated. You can avoid systems, constellations and/or regions.
Map, Route and Market
If you are buying or selling in the Regional Market, you can set filters to remove systems on your avoidance list from the market display.
