AutoPilot+

Full flight automation for Dyson Sphere Program, built as an extension of CruiseAssist+. Pick a target in CruiseAssist+ and AutoPilot+ flies you there: it takes off, boosts the sail, engages warp, crosses interstellar space, and (new) settles onto the destination planet.

Fresh rebuild of the original AutoPilot (tanu, continued by appuns) for current DSP (0.10.34+, Unity 2022.3). Requires CruiseAssistPlus.

How it works

• Select a destination in the CruiseAssist+ star list. With Auto-arm on, AutoPilot+ engages.
• Take-off: climbs Walk->Fly->Sail off the surface (optionally zeroing gravity) and steers straight out of the gravity well without boosting, so the mecha reaches space with a full core instead of burning it fighting gravity. It arcs toward the target as it climbs.
• Sail: once above SpaceAltitude, holds the boost key up to MaxSpeed. If the core drains below MinEnergyPer it stops boosting and waits until it recharges to ResumeEnergyPer before resuming — this avoids a stall/boost loop that would leave you frozen and drifting. (If the core never recovers, the mecha is out of fuel.)
• Warp: engages when far enough (WarpMinRangeAU), fast enough (SpeedToWarp), you have a Space Warper, and the core has enough energy — mirroring the game's own warp rule.
• Approach / Auto-land: near the destination it caps speed, climbs clear if the target is behind the planet, then bleeds speed as it descends and hands control back to the game to land.

Improvements over the original

• Rebuilt against DSP 0.10.34 / Unity 2022.3 (the old mod loaded but did nothing).
• No dependency on a drifting extension API — CruiseAssist+ and AutoPilot+ share one stable, versioned interface.
• Auto-land on arrival (the original only pointed at the planet).
• Every tuning constant is config-exposed: approach speed cap, min clearance, slerp constants, units-per-AU, warper item id, plus all the flight thresholds.
• Verbose debug logging that states exactly why warp did or didn't fire.

Controls

The AutoPilot+ window shows state, energy, speed, warper and the last warp decision, with On/Off, Arm/Disarm and quick toggles. A Config button opens the full settings window (automation, warp, flight energy/speed, space altitude, UI and debug). Movement state, altitude and horizontal speed are shown in the CruiseAssist+ debug overlay.

Bugs, feature requests & discussion

Please report bugs, request features, or start a discussion on GitHub: https://github.com/Living-Instinkt/DSP-AutoPilotPlus

• Bugs / feature requests — open an issue.
• Questions & general discussion — use the Discussions tab.

Credits

AutoPilot+ is a fresh reimplementation of the original AutoPilot. Full credit and thanks to the developers whose work it builds on:

• Tanu — original author of AutoPilot.
• appuns — continued the mod as DSPAutoPilot.

This rebuild is an independent clean-room reimplementation against the current game API, not a copy of the original DLL.

Changelog

0.2.9

• Fixed crashing into the destination instead of settling into orbit. The approach now brakes on the way in: within ApproachBrakeRange of the destination surface it stops boosting and bleeds speed proportional to the remaining distance, so the mecha arrives slow in a high orbit instead of coasting in at cruise speed and slamming into the ground. Heading stays CruiseAssist's job, so manual steering still works on approach.
• New: launch to orbit. Selecting the planet you're currently standing on now climbs straight out to OrbitAltitude and holds there, instead of instantly counting as "already arrived" and doing nothing.
• New tuning: ApproachBrakeRange (default 6000 m) and OrbitAltitude (default 1500 m).
• Requires CruiseAssistPlus 0.2.3 (adds the SuppressAutoArrival hand-off used by launch-to-orbit).

0.2.8

• Restored manual steering during interplanetary/interstellar cruise. AutoPilot now owns only boost, warp and forward speed — it no longer rotates the velocity vector itself while cruising in open space. Heading is handed back to CruiseAssist, so you can steer left/right mid-flight and releasing re-aligns with the target (the classic behaviour), governed by CruiseAssist › RespectManualInput. Previously AutoPilot overwrote the velocity every tick and returned "handled", bypassing CruiseAssist's manual-input guard, so any manual course change was undone on the next tick. Ground-launch climb-out and near-planet approach/auto-land are unchanged (CruiseAssist has released its target by the time you land).

0.2.7

• Ground-launch now climbs out of the gravity well as fast as possible without boost. The old code nudged the velocity with a soft slerp, but the game holds unboosted sail speed near zero so it only crept up at ~7 m/s. It now drives the climb velocity directly and ramps up to the new LaunchClimbSpeed cap (default 250, configurable). Still no boost or warp until clear of the well.

0.2.6

• Fixed a CruiseAssist/AutoPilot conflict that stalled the launch at ~52-62 m and made sailing feel like "nothing is holding W". DSP ticks all four PlayerMove_X.GameTick every frame (each early-returns unless it's the active state) and our Harmony prefixes ran before that guard — so while sailing, OperateFly fired every frame and its ResetSailState() wiped the velocity the climb-out/cruise had just set. Each Operate* hook now gates on the real movementState, so it only acts in its own state. (Explains why it travelled fine with AutoPilot toggled off.)

0.2.5

• Launch climb-out no longer boosts. Climbing out of the gravity well is driven purely by steering the velocity vector (free), so the mecha reaches space with a full core instead of burning it fighting gravity. Boost is used only once above SpaceAltitude.
• Requires CruiseAssistPlus 0.2.2.

0.2.4

• Fixed freeze-and-drift in space caused by a stall/boost loop: once the core drained below MinEnergyPer boost restarted the instant energy ticked past it and immediately drained back to empty without building speed. Boost now waits until the core recharges to the new ResumeEnergyPer (default 50%) before resuming. Panel shows a low energy — recharging status. If the core never recovers, the mecha is out of fuel and needs refuelling.

0.2.3

• Fixed launch stalling at ~14 m and circling the planet. The game only runs its climb-to-50-and-promote branch when targetAltitude >= 50; a 0.2.2 cleanup dropped the line that raises it, so the mecha hovered at the default ~15 m. Restored and re-asserted each Fly tick.

0.2.2

• Rewrote ground-launch. The game's own navigation (turned on when a target is selected) was zeroing our climb and steering inputs during the Fly phase, so the mecha never built the horizontal speed the game needs to promote Fly->Sail. We now suppress navigation.navigating during the launch climb and hand-promote Fly->Sail via the game's full transition sequence.
• New ClimbToSpace phase steers out of the gravity well and arcs progressively toward the target so the ship is already heading at the destination by the time it reaches space.
• Added an AutoPilot+ Config window (opened from a Config button on the panel) exposing every setting.
• Debug overlay now includes altitude, movement state and horizontal speed.
• Requires CruiseAssistPlus 0.2.2.

0.2.1

• Fixed ground-launch never firing — it was gated on the Sail-only resolved target, which is empty on the ground; it now uses the live selection. Launch triggers on Enabled + Auto-launch + a target selected (auto-arms) and no longer needs the separate Arm toggle. (Reaching space needs Thruster ≥ 2.)
• When armed, AutoPilot now steers the heading itself (unconditional guidance + boost) instead of coasting at constant speed and tail-chasing an orbiting planet.
• Added a launch phase flag so the climb no longer fights the game's landing descent.
• More diagnostic logging (ground launch -> armed, Walk -> SwitchToFly, launch climb …, throttled sail inSpace=… boost=… energy=… speed=…).
• Requires CruiseAssistPlus 0.2.1.

0.2.0

• New: auto-launch from the ground — with a target selected and autopilot armed while standing on a planet, the mecha climbs Walk->Fly->Sail into orbit and cruises to the target. Needs Thruster tech.
• Fixed energy drain: boost/thrust is now only used once actually in space (above SpaceAltitude), so you no longer burn the core dry climbing out of orbit and crawl through space.
• Window can be collapsed, closed (✕), and auto-hidden when not in space; reopen it from the CruiseAssist+ HUD.
• Requires CruiseAssistPlus 0.2.0.

0.1.0

• Initial release. Clean rebuild of AutoPilot for DSP 0.10.34+ / Unity 2022.3, as a CruiseAssistPlus extension.
• Automated take-off, sail boost, warp engagement and planetary approach.
• New: auto-land on arrival at the destination planet.
• All flight thresholds and tuning constants exposed in config.
• Verbose debug logging (states the reason warp did/didn't fire).