So when I read about how carriers were persistent across all game platforms, it gave me an idea I couldn't wait to try.
A couple of good friends have ED on Xbox, while I'm on PC. I contacted them, and they were eager to help test my theory.
As it happened, they had been wanting to unlock Professor Palin and Chloe Sedesi, but were not relishing the 10,000+ LY round trip they'd have to make, to do so.
I'd spent the previous day loading my Nautilus class carrier, Black Adder (so named in honour of the launch-day debacle), up to the gills with 19,000 tons of tritium, so I told them I was ready to help.
My theory was, if persistence worked the way it sounded, it should be possible for a console player to dock with a PC carrier, and travel aboard it to wherever the carrier went. Sure, we wouldn't be able to see each other's player ships, but we could both see and access the same carrier at least. We couldn't play together, but we should at least be able to fly together.
So I parked the good ship Black Adder at Borann, where my friends had been milking the compromised nav beacon for combat rank, and told them to come aboard. After ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the size of the carrier, and admiring the "McDonalds themed" colour scheme I'd chosen for it ("nah guys, I picked it because it reminded me of my favourite ship colour option in Homeworld"), they docked and again went all gooey over the user interfaces.
The plan was to head some 5,500 LY in the rough direction of Sagittarius A*, so as to ensure they'd be more than 5,000 LY from whatever system their careers had begun in. I set a course and we jumped. And IT WORKED! Nobody exploded, or got left behind, and both told me they'd just received an achievement for hitching a ride on a carrier. So we proceeded to make another 10 jumps towards the center of the galaxy. They both piled out and went off to each find an undiscovered, unmapped system that they could fully explore and thus stamp their own "Kilroy was here" permanent mark on the galaxy.
It was pointed out to me that the Cat's Paw nebula was a mere 500 LY away, and could we please, please go over there to get some pretty screenshots? Sure.. why not? We had plenty of fuel, and we could be there in 15 minutes. So we did that, and a good time was had by all.. it really is spectacular when you're right up close!
So then we began the (roughly) 4 hour trip back to the bubble, where I dropped them off at Col 285 Sector CC-K a38-2, as they wanted to check out the newly discovered LTD triple hotspot. And I went on to begin the logistics planning for my intended trip to Colonia, since I could take all the ships I wanted to engineer with me at once, instead of having to make the round trip a bunch of times over.
So now it's finally possible for PC and console players to have at least some in-game interaction. It helps to have voice chat set up via the Xbox app on the PC or your phone, since the in-game comms won't work across platforms. Not to mention that, thanks to the infinite wisdom of the FDevs, a carrier owner has no way of knowing if, what, or who, is docked or not docked on their own carrier. Good comms ensures nobody gets accidentally left behind. If you try this out yourselves, have fun!
Dizzy
A couple of good friends have ED on Xbox, while I'm on PC. I contacted them, and they were eager to help test my theory.
As it happened, they had been wanting to unlock Professor Palin and Chloe Sedesi, but were not relishing the 10,000+ LY round trip they'd have to make, to do so.
I'd spent the previous day loading my Nautilus class carrier, Black Adder (so named in honour of the launch-day debacle), up to the gills with 19,000 tons of tritium, so I told them I was ready to help.
My theory was, if persistence worked the way it sounded, it should be possible for a console player to dock with a PC carrier, and travel aboard it to wherever the carrier went. Sure, we wouldn't be able to see each other's player ships, but we could both see and access the same carrier at least. We couldn't play together, but we should at least be able to fly together.
So I parked the good ship Black Adder at Borann, where my friends had been milking the compromised nav beacon for combat rank, and told them to come aboard. After ooh-ing and ahh-ing over the size of the carrier, and admiring the "McDonalds themed" colour scheme I'd chosen for it ("nah guys, I picked it because it reminded me of my favourite ship colour option in Homeworld"), they docked and again went all gooey over the user interfaces.
The plan was to head some 5,500 LY in the rough direction of Sagittarius A*, so as to ensure they'd be more than 5,000 LY from whatever system their careers had begun in. I set a course and we jumped. And IT WORKED! Nobody exploded, or got left behind, and both told me they'd just received an achievement for hitching a ride on a carrier. So we proceeded to make another 10 jumps towards the center of the galaxy. They both piled out and went off to each find an undiscovered, unmapped system that they could fully explore and thus stamp their own "Kilroy was here" permanent mark on the galaxy.
It was pointed out to me that the Cat's Paw nebula was a mere 500 LY away, and could we please, please go over there to get some pretty screenshots? Sure.. why not? We had plenty of fuel, and we could be there in 15 minutes. So we did that, and a good time was had by all.. it really is spectacular when you're right up close!
So then we began the (roughly) 4 hour trip back to the bubble, where I dropped them off at Col 285 Sector CC-K a38-2, as they wanted to check out the newly discovered LTD triple hotspot. And I went on to begin the logistics planning for my intended trip to Colonia, since I could take all the ships I wanted to engineer with me at once, instead of having to make the round trip a bunch of times over.
So now it's finally possible for PC and console players to have at least some in-game interaction. It helps to have voice chat set up via the Xbox app on the PC or your phone, since the in-game comms won't work across platforms. Not to mention that, thanks to the infinite wisdom of the FDevs, a carrier owner has no way of knowing if, what, or who, is docked or not docked on their own carrier. Good comms ensures nobody gets accidentally left behind. If you try this out yourselves, have fun!
Dizzy
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