Lieutenant Podium & Autopilot Tutorial

[DMShag]

I think it’s past time for the devs or someone in the community with more time than me to produce a detailed tutorial on the use of the Lieutenant Podium and the Autopilot feature.

Not everyone who plays or wants to play Atlas will have access to a slew of other people who are willing to while away the hours sailing from island to island, treasure hunting or fighting ghost ships. Some people are going to want or sometimes be forced to play the game solo. While the Autopilot and Lieutenant Podium are features designed to help make this possible, their implementation hasn’t been very smooth.

For instance, on a schooner with a full A.I. crew, including a helmsman, how can you control the direction of the ship while also controlling the cannons from the Lieutenant Podium? Can you use the Autopilot features without being in the helmsmans Radial Menu? If so, I haven’t discovered how. And it’s not as easy as unseating the helmsman and taking command of the wheel, as then your view is blocked. You first have to have the helmsman follow you away from the wheel. It’s tedious and can get you sunk in an engagement.

[Tantalus]

All I can tell you for sure is that you can't steer the ship from the podium, even if you have an AI helmsman. I tried. As such, the podium seems to be useless to the solo player, which is a shame. I'd love for it to be able to do everything the wheel can if you have an AI helmsman (mainly just so I can build historically accurate ships with the wheel on the main deck and still be able to get third person view using a podium on the poop deck).

As for the autopilot, I'd like to know much the same as you. I only briefly fiddled with it, but I wasn't willing to risk sinking my ship with it. Mainly, I'd really like to know if it can avoid obstacles. Like, if I tell it to sail, say, east, and an island comes up in our path, will my helmsman automatically navigate around the island? If not, then there's no point in having an AI helmsman at all.

As for quickly getting the helmsman out of your way, just tell him to go stand somewhere else. You don't have to make him follow you somewhere. Hit T (by default) while you're looking at him to make him follow you, then point the center of your screen where you want him to stand and hit comma to tell him to stand there.

[Tantalus]

Had to wipe my server, so played around with autopilot some more. I discovered that, as I suspected, autopilot will not navigate around obstacles, nor can it react to combat (i.e. you can't instruct it to try to align broadsides with a target ship), making it pretty much worthless (at least, as it is now). Hopefully, the devs plan to improve its functionality over time. If not, then I'm not even sure why they wasted time creating it.

One tiny silver lining to it, though: you do not need to be close to the wheel to bring up the autopilot radial menu once it's running: you can bring up the radial menu on any ship structure (ship structure meaning deck, plank, or ceiling tile, not furniture like the podium). So, yes, you still have to deal with the radial menu to control it, but your character doesn't need to be physically close to the wheel to bring up the radial menu.

[MaxDredd]

I know this is Necro, but you have 3 whistles. To give you full sail, close sail and sail in faceing direction. From lt podium or any were else on ship. It would be tricky but you can almost control what you need from the podium... No anchor control except to jump off.

[Troa Barton]

Going to necro this for a few reasons.
1. I have no idea what the lieutenant podium does aside from giving someone crew commands? If that is all why would I want one?
2. The autopilot my idea when I heard of it was that I could set waypoints on the map and they would follow them. From what I understand it is a radial command to "go that way". Is that all there is to AI command? Just seems like you could leave the helm and do the same thing..

[orhaf]

just look at the deck of the boat and select either a cardinal direction, or go this way, or go with the wind. The lieutenant podium lets you fire cannons? sort of like a second drivers seat, but not for steering the boat. You could potentially do both with only the podium if you left the podium seat and activated the autopilot options when looking at the deck. It requires co ordination! Otherwise if you're single player or in solo group you don't need a lieutenant podium it just lets a second player issue commands like NPC's switch cannon sides (not sure anyone does this vs filling out on NPC's though), and it can maybe fire cannons but i've never used it ever ever ever i just stood on someone elses boat and shot rifles and did lol fail glider stuff when i played official.

[Troa Barton]

Originally posted by Banjo Mods:

just look at the deck of the boat and select either a cardinal direction, or go this way, or go with the wind. The lieutenant podium lets you fire cannons? sort of like a second drivers seat, but not for steering the boat. You could potentially do both with only the podium if you left the podium seat and activated the autopilot options when looking at the deck. It requires co ordination! Otherwise if you're single player or in solo group you don't need a lieutenant podium it just lets a second player issue commands like NPC's switch cannon sides (not sure anyone does this vs filling out on NPC's though), and it can maybe fire cannons but i've never used it ever ever ever i just stood on someone elses boat and shot rifles and did lol fail glider stuff when i played official.

I appreciate the reply, good to know im not missing out on anything but sad to hear it has almost no point being on my ship. : /

[krezivan]

Originally posted by Troa Barton:

Going to necro this for a few reasons.
1. I have no idea what the lieutenant podium does aside from giving someone crew commands? If that is all why would I want one?
2. The autopilot my idea when I heard of it was that I could set waypoints on the map and they would follow them. From what I understand it is a radial command to "go that way". Is that all there is to AI command? Just seems like you could leave the helm and do the same thing..

To add a bit more information: Unless alot has changed since I last played, the lieutenenant podium allows you to open and close gunports (which affects speed through weight, a bit riduculous but it is what it is.), select cannon groups and to lower and raise the sails.

Once you master combining the lieutenant podium with the radial menu autopilot orders, you can even fight Galleons of the damned solo with a galleon without taking the steering wheel yourself. Radial menu steering also allows you to run around the ship and repair if needed. Don't take too many risks though, watch the wind and don't get surrounded. Practice against weaker ships first.

Like, if I tell it to sail, say, east, and an island comes up in our path, will my helmsman automatically navigate around the island? If not, then there's no point in having an AI helmsman at all.

The AI just keep sailing in whatever direction you ordered it to sail, and this is not useless at all, and rather historically accurate as well: the helmsman only changes direction when the captain (or another superior who relays the order) tells him to do so. If the ship then runs aground, that's the captain's responsibility.

So I disagree a bit with the others and would say the lieutenant platform is very useful solo.
I actually perform a lot better using this combo than while being on the steering wheel. This is because the AI helmsman doesn't have to switch between turning the ship/rudder and turning the masts/sails, meaning autopilot can turn alot faster and smoother than you can. being able to run around and repair is just an added bonus.

Also using this combination is the coolest thing in Altas and the closest to feeling like an actual age of sail captain: giving orders instead of taking the wheel. Only thing that would beat it would be voice commands :) (or having a full player crew)

And while we're at it: (off-topic) being able to order crew to repair midfight and fight/board actual npc crewed ships equal to your own instead of the ships of the damned or the pseudo pirateships. This game could have been so cool with different design choices and if it were historically accurate instead of this fantasy nonsense.(/off-topic)