Since we have revealed that the Apollo is coming next month, how are drones such as repair and medical coming along?
TL;DRThe Apollo launches next month without drone gameplay, since drones are tied to base building and no longer fit medical gameplay, but all six medical bay modules will be included free on every Apollo.
So drones are being developed as part of base building. Obviously, the Apollo is coming next month. Drones will not be releasing as part of the Apollo launch. I will rip that bandaid off now. When we were developing the ship, obviously the Apollo, I want to say, was 2017 originally concepted? 17 or 18. The idea of medical gameplay then is very different to the idea of medical gameplay now. And we have people working on updates to the medical gameplay system right now, beyond what we talked about, the medical beacon. And when we were looking at the ship, the drones were this sort of gray area. They said they would do one thing in the concept that doesn't really apply in the game loop we have now for medical. They predated tractor beams and the whole respawn mechanics we have now. So we have left space for the drone bay in the ship. We've not got rid of it. The space is there if we find a valid use case for them to exist when drones as a feature exist. But the Apollo will launch next month without drone gameplay.
Now, I do want to add that because the Apollo is launching next month without the drone gameplay, we are going to do something else. We mentioned those modular bays that the Apollo has: the left and right tier one bed, the left and right double tier two beds, the left and right three tier three beds. In the past, when we've added modules to ships like the Retaliator, we have sold those modules individually. We are not going to do that with the Apollo. So I'm here to tell you now, we are going to include all six modules for free on every Apollo SKU. So if you already own the Apollo, we are going to retroactively inject those into all of your existing items in the My Hangar app on the website. So if you have the Apollo now, you're going to get all six. If you purchase the Apollo when it comes out in September, or at any point from now on, it's not a limited-time thing, it will come with all six bays. For all the reasons John said, absolutely completely valid, about not including the drones at this time, we still felt there was something more we could do to ease that switch-over. So this is what we're going to do. John, did I forget anything?
No, I don't think so. Like I said, we're aware that there are some issues with medical gameplay at the moment, beyond just the beacons not being there, and we're wanting to try and fix some of those things and improve the whole, not just fix things, add gameplay to the medical stuff. Hopefully we'll get that for September, if not soon after.
And there will be some more changes to med beds and how they work. They're getting some additional functionality, but you'll learn more about that when that promotion gets closer to the event.