Alternative uses for transporter

[Sparky Sparkycorp]

VR is not a great solution. Not only is the player not really "there", and therefore not taking real risks in combat, but there is also the issue of what happens if the ship or station their actual body is aboard is attacked. The remote control feature in XR suffered from the same problems, and the methods we had to use to mitigate them were never entirely satisfactory.

It felt to me that you nailed it pretty well for the Nova Torpedoes. The player could control them, and if under combat pressure (e.g. drones from the target reaching me if i was out of range of turrets) or wishing to do something else, they behaved autonomously in a predictable way.

There may be other problems with them from your perspective but at least in the VR sense they seemed well done!

[CBJ]

The experience of using them wasn't the issue. The issue was what happened to the player ship while you were doing so.

[Sparky Sparkycorp]

I can appreciate that dilemma.

Perhaps theoretically the player could one day access VR whilst the NPC retains control of the ship. Although if the concept of 'ship' is intimately linked to what the player is controlling, then I could see why that might not be practical.