"Driving assist" should not auto-brake

[✪✪ Sgt Rakov ✪✪]

Currently, drive assist does two things: apply counter-strafe to keep you going strictly forward, and apply small amount of reverse to make you slow down. There is no way to use one without other, and there is no way to apply strafe manually instead of assist doing it for you. So unless you want to go in perfectly straight line, you are required to keep assist on, wasting fuel on pointless auto-deceleration. Even if you have cruise control on, it actually accelerates and decelerates at the same time.
Imagine you bought a car, and it has two modes. In one your brakes are stuck, and you must always overpower them with acceleration, in another the steering wheel is locked and you can't turn.
What I suggest: either let us strafe manually so we never need drive assist, OR disable auto-braking so it doesn't use fuel to keep going unless you start turning.

[LeoSolis]

Yeah i agree, assist should be just for correcting the truck to not drift. If there should be a penalty make auto strafe use more fuel instead of constantly slowing down the truck.

[PFC A. Pickle [3rd ID]]

This would easily be handled by having two buttons for assist instead of one. Or, one button with 3 modes so the dev doesn't need to rework the assets.

Assist: Auto braking
Assist: Cruise control
Assist: Newtonian (off)

Auto braking slows you to zero if you're not thrusting, useful for parking.
Cruise control maintains set speed, which only burns thrusters if you change course otherwise just drifts straight ahead.
Newtonian is "no assist" and you can fly sideways if you want.

If auto-braking is off, and cruise control is shut off when I'm going 100, I'll not slow down. Then I can speed up/down and turn cruise back on. That way you can adjust your cruise setting without having to fight "simulated resistance".

There DOES need to be a "thrusters" modifier button that switches your stick input to lateral thrusters, so WASD inputs strafe up/down, left/right. Then you could line up docking without having to steer forward/reverse. Then again, maybe the dev's intent is to force IRL truck parking - but in that case then jack knifing the trailer and breaking the mag-lock should be a concern, tho people wouldn't like that much.

[justfaded]

It's a tool, just wait until people get better at the game and post videos if you don't want to fiddle with it yourself.

I currently use it like I would in elite, it's the same concept. It's obviously more limited because no dedicated strafe but I can totally see some Asian kids mastering it and wowing everyone.

Good rule of thumb for any new game is to wait for the asian kids to show everybody else what the game is capable of.

[Aesyle]

Originally posted by ✪✪ Sgt Rakov ✪✪:

So unless you want to go in perfectly straight line, you are required to keep assist on

No.

Take your heading, let the truck drive straight and disable auto-assist. You'll then coast at whatever speed and direction you had, without using fuel.

Originally posted by ✪✪ Sgt Rakov ✪✪:

there is no way to apply strafe manually instead of assist doing it for you

If you disable auto-assist then truck behaves realistically, as any space craft in space behaves. Meaning that when you have heading, you can use side thrusters to turn your craft any way you want while still going in same direction (e.g turn sideways and you'll continue going forward sideways) But to start moving in another direction, you have to use main thrusters to change momentum and direction.

This is called Newtonian-physics. Good example would be Rings of Saturn game, that has the same, realistic control method.

Just try it out. Without trailer (easier this way), disable auto-assist, fire thrusters for some speed and once you're moving, turn sideways. You'll be drifting like no other. And then try to change direction (remember, each turn would need counter thrust to keep going more-or-less in required direction).

All-in-all, fuel is dirt cheap and you can buy fuel canisters as well, if you aren't bothered to fill up at every gas station.

[justfaded]

Originally posted by Aesyle:

Originally posted by ✪✪ Sgt Rakov ✪✪:

So unless you want to go in perfectly straight line, you are required to keep assist on

No.

Take your heading, let the truck drive straight and disable auto-assist. You'll then coast at whatever speed and direction you had, without using fuel.

Originally posted by ✪✪ Sgt Rakov ✪✪:

there is no way to apply strafe manually instead of assist doing it for you

If you disable auto-assist then truck behaves realistically, as any space craft in space behaves. Meaning that when you have heading, you can use side thrusters to turn your craft any way you want while still going in same direction (e.g turn sideways and you'll continue going forward sideways) But to start moving in another direction, you have to use main thrusters to change momentum and direction.

This is called Newtonian-physics. Good example would be Rings of Saturn game, that has the same, realistic control method.

Just try it out. Without trailer (easier this way), disable auto-assist, fire thrusters for some speed and once you're moving, turn sideways. You'll be drifting like no other. And then try to change direction (remember, each turn would need counter thrust to keep going more-or-less in required direction).

All-in-all, fuel is dirt cheap and you can buy fuel canisters as well, if you aren't bothered to fill up at every gas station.

The hard part is that while DA off let's you strafe, it's really hard to counteract the strafe using the same method with which you started the strafe. So you most likely have to turn DA back on instead of trying to manually counteract. But that's less than optimal.

But I'm sure people will all get better at it.

[OneManStanding]

Auto-break should be disableable, separate from the stabilisation system. That was how I expected cruise control to work, it would simply stop automatically slowing you down. You'd want it on for tight spots, naturally, but for long distances you'd want it off. But the stabilisation system (countering turns, rolls, and drifts) would still be working.

I'm got well versed at skimming through debris from gate-to-gate with the drive assist off, but you ended up spending lots of time waiting to complete Just In Time Jobs. Currently I'm at a point I'm happily using the cruise control and spending more time on the roads and just refuelling when I need to. I can afford the fuel no worries.

[✪✪ Sgt Rakov ✪✪]

Originally posted by AlienPickle:

This would easily be handled by having two buttons for assist instead of one.

Why bother if there's already cruise control button, just make cruise control keep all engines off instead of accelerating and decelerating at the same time