Unless they need a ship to do whatever they're travelling for in the first place. Otherwise they'd have to request ship transfer (assuming a shipyard is available) and wait even more than if they flew the ship in the first place.
Is Apex quick-travel?
- Thread starter scadh
- Start date
Unless they need a ship to do whatever they're travelling for in the first place. Otherwise they'd have to request ship transfer (assuming a shipyard is available) and wait even more than if they flew the ship in the first place.
How would you mine, bounty hunt, trade, do (space) missions, visit signal sources, etc without a ship, using just Apex?
Apex will not replace ships, it only provides an alternative with the sole purpose of travelling from A to B.
Viajero
Volunteer Moderator
Doesn't matter which way FD do it, people will complain. Quite often it would be the same people complaining.
Grrr, those darn Fleet Carrier maintenance costs complainers!
The only scenario I'll complain about is if the game locks you out and you don't get to play at all while on an Apex trip.
I will, however, give constructive criticism no matter what they do!
Also, they should allow other player to take those missions as well as NPCs.
I will, however, give constructive criticism no matter what they do!
Also, they should allow other player to take those missions as well as NPCs.
I must admit I thought that this was a thing. You imply that it is not.
The sole purpose of allowing players never to need to buy a ship and play entirely as grounder pounders.
Most likely you'll just appear as a multicrew member on an NPC ship. I'm pretty sure Apex will only be used to travel to neighbouring systems, so travel times would not be too long and the range would be enough to bring players to mission objectives and back to the mission givers but still remain limited to encourage players to get their own ship if they want more flexibility.
The alternative to taking approximately the same time to go between two places using Apex is that it will take players without Odyssey longer to make the same trip.FD has already said using Apex for travel won't be instantaneous, but surely it will be much faster than current supercruise. Not even FD would so blatantly shoot their own foot off with a shotgun by having players, both old but especially new, sit idle waiting with their thumbs up the arx for 7 minutes at a time while the ship flies itself through supercruise just to proceed with some mission... The reviews would be... interesting to read
I doubt that that would be all that well received either.
I think they confirmed it would be small ships that you could sit in the seat like multicrew. I think there's going to be some element of being able to sit as a passenger if you want, or a shortened journey?
We will see.
Could be!
My guess is that Frontline will be a means of multiplayer "quick play" (as quick as the drop ship gets you there) allowing you to select different types of ground battle and jump straight in as a mercenary with your identity obscured so you don't rack up bounties, reputation damage, etc. and with a lower death cost and no need to go hunting for a fight, but at the cost of lower rewards than direct missions (middleman takes a cut), and no boosts to reputation, influence, etc. for positive actions.
Maybe a sort of CQC-ish thing (but not exactly) for on-foot activities?
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They would take exactly the same time as someone with odyssey travelling with their own ship, so I don't see any issue. Those using Apex will only be able to engage with Odyssey content anyway, unless they order a ship transfer at the destination which then takes much longer than taking their own ship in the first place.
Now seriously try to imagine someone starting to play the game. Spawns in some station without a ship. Walks around, talks to some NPC and gets a mission to go to some settlement. Goes to Apex, then the game requires the player to sit in 100% spectator mode for something like 5, 7 or 15 minutes (or even more depending on the mission destination) without any possible action or input, until he arrives at the destination. Then again to return to get payment. That player would never, ever touch ED again, guaranteed.
We have people here pre-complaining about ship interiors possibly forcing them to go through the horrors of taking 15 seconds to leave their ships, now try to imagine asking people to stare at the screen for 5 to 15 minutes on average between each dozen minutes of actual active gameplay. It would be a complete, absolute disaster. No game designer expecting to keep his job would ever suggest such a thing.
Travel time will probably be based upon current tech - the hyperspace jump is the game loading a new system (and maybe Glide is the same for planetary surfaces?), so maybe 30-45 secs to travel to a mission settlement to do a mission via Apex Travel 
(I.e. not instant, but not stupid-long). I could see them doing that -and allow you to set your gun / suit choices while you travel maybe so it's not completely uninteractive.
Missions tend to be within 20 Ly at the moment - so Apex won't be faster than taking a ship.
And if they limit Apex trips between stations to, say, 20 Ly then you can use it for jumping across the bubble, but it won't be faster than taking a ship (as each jump will be around the same time the system takes at the moment to load a new system (i.e. hyperspace jump time).
We'll see soon enough - they've certainly put more thought into it than forum randos. (Though they'll have missed something obvious - because they usually do - which is why we get an Alpha / Beta )
(I.e. not instant, but not stupid-long). I could see them doing that -and allow you to set your gun / suit choices while you travel maybe so it's not completely uninteractive.Missions tend to be within 20 Ly at the moment - so Apex won't be faster than taking a ship.
And if they limit Apex trips between stations to, say, 20 Ly then you can use it for jumping across the bubble, but it won't be faster than taking a ship (as each jump will be around the same time the system takes at the moment to load a new system (i.e. hyperspace jump time).
We'll see soon enough - they've certainly put more thought into it than forum randos. (Though they'll have missed something obvious - because they usually do - which is why we get an Alpha / Beta
)The only scenario I'll complain about is if the game locks you out and you don't get to play at all while on an Apex trip.
I will, however, give constructive criticism no matter what they do!
Also, they should allow other player to take those missions as well as NPCs.
Is Apex travel happening even when logged off?
If so, I could see some use in it besides sightseeing passively and going to planets for FPS, as one could make longer transitions when offline / away from computer (just to arrive in time when back at computer or so).
But at the same time I fear modern "everything-to-me-right-now!" generation might be way too impatient for a passive space travel longer than few minutes (as pointed out above before me also), so I kinda also hope FD will put some kind of range cap for Apex-travel (though it would hurt the purpose of travelling offline or afk)....
Torn apart here.
I also think it will most likely be exactly like this.
Even if I was dreaming about that they were going to use only certain ships like Dolphin and then designing at least a part of a ship interior that is then used as a passenger area where you can maybe do some things during the flight time like checking markets or accepting additional on foot missions from in-system-faction. Of course this was only a dream
I am curious of the travel time as well. But if it is any faster than someone who buys a Sidey as their first ship I would expect alot of complaints.
So maybe 5mins to go from Dromi-Aitkins Hub to Hollatja-Popper Keep (5.92ly), go to Apex, buy ticket, go to terminal for ride, board ship, watch NPC pilot take off, leave station, get into orbit, jump to new system, SC to planet, descend and dock. That will take a bit of time, probably enough so that after a few days to a week, new players will want to buy their own Sidey with an SRV bay and an SRV and not just use Apex.
So maybe 5mins to go from Dromi-Aitkins Hub to Hollatja-Popper Keep (5.92ly), go to Apex, buy ticket, go to terminal for ride, board ship, watch NPC pilot take off, leave station, get into orbit, jump to new system, SC to planet, descend and dock. That will take a bit of time, probably enough so that after a few days to a week, new players will want to buy their own Sidey with an SRV bay and an SRV and not just use Apex.
I also think it will most likely be exactly like this.
Even if I was dreaming about that they were going to use only certain ships like Dolphin and then designing at least a part of a ship interior that is then used as a passenger area where you can maybe do some things during the flight time like checking markets or accepting additional on foot missions from in-system-faction. Of course this was only a dream
I would settle for playing during travel older Elite games as a mini-game, as an option of sightseeing, looking at Galnet etc. or possible extra missions.
Would give something to do during the trip.
I´m strongly in opinion that any new player should still start in a Sidewinter, and Apex should only be later game option as it would be as expensive as say, ship transfer (depending on a ship and speed of trip you choose, f.ex. Sidey-npc or Jumpaconda-npc?).