Is Apex quick-travel?
- Thread starter scadh
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As far as I know it's more like multi crew but you occupy a crew seat whilst a npc flies the ship.
I'd expect the timeframes to be similar to that of ship transfers. They might limit how far you can travel, idk. I don't want it being buy a ticket to colonia or anything like that, more just for hopping to systems close by and short journey inside the bubble.
They've said it won't be instant, but not more than that ... and also that it will be range-limited so you won't be able to use it to cross the bubble in a single hop, or go to Colonia, etc.
There are good arguments both for and against making it take roughly the same time it would take to fly a ship to the same destination, but no sign yet as to which way Frontier are going to go on that.
There are good arguments both for and against making it take roughly the same time it would take to fly a ship to the same destination, but no sign yet as to which way Frontier are going to go on that.
This is my understanding of it. Maybe useful for people trying to play only the Odyssey portion of the game, but obviously the optimal way to play is with your own ship (but the option is always there).
It also makes sense because of what I've heard about physical multicrew, and being able for players to transport each other in the same way, just with an NPC working for Apex instead.
I've also been wondering about this "Frontline Solutions" service. There are already mission boards, and NPCs that will offer you missions, so is Frontline just a way to cash in bounties & bonds? Or do they also offer a direct route to conflict and your mission target? Think about it, Frontier have said that you can play Odyssey without ever flying your ship, so how else would you get to a settlement or other mission area? Maybe Apex offers that service too. We know NPCs can be dropped off at settlements, so I'm feeling optimistic about that service being available to players, too.
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 
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If they make it faster to use Apex than fly there themselves, fewer would fly there themselves. I suspect making Apex any significant amount faster would cause near as many, if not more, hurt bottoms than making it take the same amount of time as flying there would.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
Gonna be interesting to see either way.
Imagine if dirtlegs w/o ships will be able to travel faster than CMDRs
If they don't make it faster, they should save their precious development time, since nobody will ever use it.
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
Doesn't matter which way FD do it, people will complain. Quite often it would be the same people complaining.
Except the peeps that don't own ships.
It's a brand new space trolley system utilizing all the asp explorers headed towards the landfill.
Lakons last ditch effort to get some recoupment out that terribly designed fleet just sitting there.
They over built them by 3306 million. Which was later found out that executive plants engineered this to happen knowing it would eventually impact lakons future....all to eventually siege all technologies for completion of the panther clipper!
Lakons last ditch effort to get some recoupment out that terribly designed fleet just sitting there.
They over built them by 3306 million. Which was later found out that executive plants engineered this to happen knowing it would eventually impact lakons future....all to eventually siege all technologies for completion of the panther clipper!
Apex travel speed looks like a no win to me. I don't think there is a way to do it without a lot of rage from one group or another.
Make Apex faster, and people will not use their own ships and will complain they are at a disadvantage if they do.
Make Apex the same speed or slower, and people will not use it and will complain that they are at a disadvantage if they don't use their own ship.
The other two semi comparable games have it the same speed. A ride to planet X, takes Y amount of time, in N ship whether you are hitching a ride or flying it yourself.
Which is why I've always advocated accurate simulation of the travel time...instead of this arbitrary time thing we have atm. Would also love to see these ships actually moving around in the game. And megaships moving ships around in hubs before being offloaded to indy pilots that move them the rest of the way. Anything to make this horribly artificial galaxy seem more real.
No, Apex travel is extremely limited in range according to the devs, I suspect it won't get you out of the system you are in, it will likely take the exact same amount of time to travel between planets as it does to SC because SC speeds aren't easily adjustable. Apex is essentially aimed at new players who don't have or don't want space ships, so most of them will have no idea how fast or slow it takes to get around in SC, it's not instant and I suspect it's not really aimed at experienced pilots with thier own ships.
Is it possible Apex is going to be more of a risk reduction method? Like dismissing your ship when you are in a SRV. You can play legs in open, but leave your ship safe at a station in the same system and hitch a ride to the legs fight sort of thing perhaps? I suppose we will know in the next few months.
I feel like if it's using the physical multicrew method, it will probably be in it's own instance for supercruise at least. Otherwise...
It's possible Apex travel will be the method of choice in getting to areas where leg combat is taking place, but I am sure FDEV will release more info soon....real soon!
I don’t believe so. The actual name of the company is “Apex interstellar” after all and I remember seeing screenshots of the travel desk that heavily imply you can actually travel between systems. There is a billboard showing known populated star systems with a line drawn linking them all, like a modern subway map, and it actually says “destinations” beside them.
As I recall the devs did mention it was limited yes, but far beyond just the current system.
The change to actual ship supercruise time that I mentioned was all just wild thinking though.
Polygon article