Autopilot, tow home and Photo mode

Two releases, v0.10.351 and v0.10.352, add three things for the long haul and the quiet moments: an autopilot that flies a course gate to gate, a tow that takes you home for a fee, and a Photo mode that stops the world so you can frame a picture. Photo mode began as a suggestion from a tester.

Autopilot

Set a course on the star map, then press Autopilot. You will find it in the Flagship's top bar, or press F6 to open Travel. On a phone it sits under More. While it flies, the button glows gold.

Autopilot flies the course the way you would: it targets the next gate, pulses to it, flies through the ring and does it again. It uses the same drives and the same speeds, about 28 seconds a jump. It is never faster than flying by hand, so it saves your fingers, not your time.

The Travel panel offers:

• Engage on your course, which flies the course you set.
• Autopilot home, which is free.
• Set a course, to pick a destination first.
• Tow home and Tow to your course's port, covered below.

If something cannot be done, Travel says why in plain words.

Safety stops

Autopilot hands the ship back to you, with a sound and a line from the Ship AI, when:

• it arrives;
• hostiles come within 12 km or lock on to you;
• your hull or shield takes any damage;
• customs hails you or hunters are warned to be inbound;
• a gate will not fire, there is no next gate or the ship gets stuck.

Touch any flight control and you have the helm back at once. Autopilot never fires, mines, loots or earns. A first visit flown on autopilot pays no Captain XP or Command, so fly there yourself later and it pays as usual. Keep the game on screen: a hidden tab pauses the flight, and the autopilot with it.

Tow home

Sometimes you simply do not want the trip. Pay a tug and your Flagship is taken home, or to a friendly port, with no jumps flown. Book it from Travel, from the Colony card away from home, or with Tow here on the star map. The card shows the fee, the wait and the jumps skipped before you pay.

The tow is an expensive convenience, on purpose. The fee is 400 Galactic Credits plus 60 for every jump skipped, never less than 600, and up to half as much again for a full hold. A tow across 20 jumps with an empty hold costs 1,600 GC. The wait is about a minute plus a few seconds a jump, and never more than 30 minutes. Autopilot flies the same course for free, so the tow is for when time matters more than credits. Like every Galactic Credits sink, the fee leaves the game, and it is not refunded once the tug has you.

A few rules keep it fair. You cannot book a tow in a fight, with hostiles near, with a pirate wave on you, after recent damage, during a mission or mid-jump. While you are in tow the Flagship cannot be flown, docked or traded, so you can leave flight and play on. She is waiting when you come back.

Galactic Credits are in-game only. They are never bought, never sold for money and never cashed out.

Photo mode

Press F7, or choose Photo mode under More. On a controller, hold Back and click the left stick. The flight pauses exactly as it does with P, and every panel, marker, label and message disappears. Messages that arrive meanwhile wait for you.

Then the camera is yours:

• Orbit the Flagship by dragging, with the arrow keys or the right stick.
• Move with a right-drag or A D Q E, and dolly with W S or the wheel.
• Zoom the lens with + and -, and set the exposure with [ and ].
• Press H to hide the ship. The game remembers your choice.
• Press F to roam free within 60 km of where you stopped.

On a touch screen, drag to orbit, pinch to zoom and use two fingers to move. Save picture downloads exactly what the camera sees, with no interface, as a PNG. Esc, F7, Done or the controller's B button leaves the mode and puts the flight, the helm and the mouse back as they were.

Photo mode is not available during the opening, cutscenes, jumps, landing, the defeat scene or while docked. The sim, the AI and every timer stop while it is on, so nothing can hurt you and nothing is earned.

Smarter Auto graphics

One more change rides along. The Auto graphics setting now starts from what your graphics card can do and steps down more slowly, only after nine seconds of low frame rate. It leaves quality alone during jumps, cutscenes and photo mode. Settings, Flight says which tier you are on and why.

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