Generally I find myself strangely loving the shuttle service. Its a bit of laid back fun and has some really nice touches of flair. Some suggested polish…
- I preferred the previous iteration of the Apex shuttles that I think I saw some time ago that showed the them as a brighter yellow colour – more real-world immediately recognisable and visible (to anyone anywhere who has watched a Hollywood movie/show with a NY city taxi in it). No offence to London taxi cabs but you're too dark for space.
- The kiosks and Apex (as well as Frontline) elevators should also retain the brighter matching yellow colour schemes and floor markings, again to make knowing where to go way easier… took a while to realise which elevators were for what…
- … and even on other station layout types/colour schemes, the Apex elevator, counter and floor marking colour scheme should always be maintained (as should the Frontline stuff) – the company would require their brand be strictly maintained — just like Starbucks and McDs everywhere in the universe
- The elevators should take a little longer, just a few seconds more or so. Currently they feel like you haven't gone anywhere. And maybe a little inertia bump affecting your character when the elevator stops.
- After booking the messaging is incorrect too, The confirmation message says 'Ship Departure in 2 minutes'… it should say 'Board your shuttle WITHIN 2 Minutes'.
- The waiting time for the shuttles should be a little longer say 5 minutes — because who doesn't like strolling around the ship exterior for screenshots and to kick the tyres so to speak – this does NOT mean you have to wait to depart. It will still depart as soon as you board.
- Move the Inventory Management to onboard the shuttle for an activity to do during transit- not before boarding (also because it is unnecessarily limited by the countdown timer), it should appear as a menu on the bottom panel
- Additional onboard activity on the bottom panel idea, a simple overview schematic of the landing location to get familiar with the layout before commencing mission, but gives no indication of where specific things are… this would also not be available on players ships, giving the Apex shuttles an additional benefit
- Lighting onboard the shuttle should be brighter… it's too dark.
- Enable Apex service to drop off at bodies without settlements… if I wanted to be a tourist just hopping around on the surface for a while by a massive crater or mountain and then book another from the surface before my power runs out I ought to be able to. I should just be able to click and hold anywhere on a body and select that as my destination… or make these types of locations as tourist or science "missions"
- The Apex landable location icon shown in system map is both too obtrusive and is same colour as the current location pin, making that also hard to see. The apex compatible logo should be small, yellow (for colour theme everything for Apex) and not overlaid but to the side of the body instead similar to the settlement icon
- The Apex counter assistants voice feedback is a little too quiet (maybe make an additional voice volume option specific to on foot npcs?), and probably needs an extra .5 second delay after exiting menu screen for confirmations
- When approaching the destination, the landing authorisation confirmed message from the base/settlement appears a few seconds before the pilot does his voice request for landing
- As someone else suggested, make the ship descend nose first far longer, and the final approach a little slower, to give the passenger another opportunity to get situational awareness and layout familiarisation
- Landing back at the return station, the pilot gives the "thanks" voice message before the ship has descended to the hanger… it should always happen just before the disembark button is made available.
PS. I am glad Fdev are not looking to make the shuttles magically faster than other in-game ships equiped with supercruise assist or automatic docking. It's just a case of needing more activities onboard as suggested. 🙂