The Humble Argo

[Shadow Reaper]

. . .has a medium Q Drive available.

What?

Yeah. Only reason I can think a small ship would have a M drive is it can tractor ships through jumps, which means it could possibly retrieve. . .well. . .certain items, shall we say?

 

[Montoya]

Interesting!

Makes sense that it needs to tow stranded ships.

 

[Lorddarthvik]

What? It Can do quantum jumps now?
So it's an actually usable ship? I gotta get one!
Finally, I can carry shit off-planet in a ship appropriate for the job!
New gameplay goal: get enough money to buy an Argo ASAP!

 

[Shadow Reaper]

It's suddenly, fantastically useful. To be able to tractor a derelict ship through a jump means a single player with almost no money can make a huge living off retrievals.

I think I saw one with LTI for $65. But the page says "available", meaning you need to add a medium class jump drive.

Medium jump makes it as fast between systems as a Vanguard if that's what you want. Looks like it has no afterburner though, so cruise is all you got.

No date I can find for release, but SQ 42 starts with you being delivered by one, so needs to be out by game time.

 

[Tealwraith]

Are we talking about the Argo MPUV or the Argo SRV? I'm confused. Also, are we talking about just QT or an actual star jump, you know, a "nicked" drive? Pretty sure the Argo SRV already had a QT drive and was able to tow ships through quantum travel.

 

[Shadow Reaper]

Both the MPUV and SRV are listed online for $65 with LTI. The ships page isn't loading for me right now, but I think they both listed with Medium Q Drives available. Available means you can put it in. They do not come with the ship.

So far as I'm aware, jumping and quantum have the same ship requirements. You can't jump without quantum, and you can jump with. Jump just needs a gate, IIUC. Snubs do not have a Q drive and cannot have them added--Merlin, Archimedes, etc.

The point is, if you could not quantum with a ship in tow, there would be no reason to have a medium class drive in such a small ship. So looks like you can tow with it.

 

[SoloFlyer]

I have the argo utility pack with the 2 MPUV versions and the SRV. The only one that I see in the ship matrix that lists a medium quantum drive and medium jump drive being available is the SRV. Is there new info somewhere else? The MPUV ones seem like they're more designed for short range, ship to surface or similar type things. Still nice that the SRV will have the medium drives available though

 

[ShakyWater]

MPUV page does not show quantum drive.

This thread seems to be addressing the SRV only.

 

[Mich Angel]

In SQ42 video slice, when he get delivered as we been shown, he's being delivered in a MPUV personnel and that is already flyable.
There is also the MPUV cargo which is exact same ship but different module attached in the cradle.
MPUV does not have a QD or JD, it is a orbit to surface or ship to ship transport and that is it's only function.
I hope we see more use for the cradle on the MPUV to be able to lift like container crates or sick, injured person transport module.

Only SRV have QD/JD so you can transport what ever you are hulling with the tractor beam and I think it come with a small set of most components.
But there look like there is a option to upgrade most stuff in it from small to medium as it listed as available M.
Or that is just a temp fill in the stat page and it's not complete, but it does come with both drives Small or Medium.
Guess we have to wait to know which it is delivered with.

CHEERS!

 

[SoloFlyer]

That's what I thought. If someone had to abandon ship out in no man's land and was willing to spin up one of their fighters as an escort I could see myself going out there in my SRV to help tow it back to civilized space, as long as I could avoid combat that would be fine by me. Or helping some other SRVs and an escort tow back a wreck from the wilds to be salvaged somewhere relatively safe would be cool too

 

[stockish]

I wonder how many SRVs it will take to move a wrecked Bengal once found, and how group QT will work like that.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

I think the end intention for the SRV is to be able to tow through jump points.

This tow ship soves one of the issues for the Endeavor, which was if the drive lost the cab it could not be flown, but if the cab lost the drive it could not jump through jump points. Close one plothole.

 

[Printimus]

Argo Cargo and personnel MPUV ships will not have Quantum drives as they are too small. The SRV however, will be able to do jumps via quantum.

 

[Lorddarthvik]

Argo Cargo and personnel MPUV ships will not have Quantum drives as they are too small. The SRV however, will be able to do jumps via quantum.

Oh, so it's not available on the ships in-game currently. That clears it up, thanks!

Now I'm gonna go look into what the heck an SRV is, cos I thought it was just the name of the cargo variant.

 

[stockish]

Oh, so it's not available on the ships in-game currently. That clears it up, thanks!

Now I'm gonna go look into what the heck an SRV is, cos I thought it was just the name of the cargo variant.

The SRV is a tugboat

 

[Lorddarthvik]

The SRV is a tugboat

Yeah, it is, i see now, thanks!

I was hoping the mpuv received at least an in-system q drive, so it would be viable as a small taxi or cargo ship. It would be a good business now that the ships persist at locations to ferry players between port o and wherever so they can grab their ship without having to claim it, maybe do some rescues when someone got dropped out of a ship in the middle of nowhere... maybe just use it as an on-planet taxi.
But as things are currently, it's absolutely useless. You can do everything better and much faster with a q drive equipped ship, so basically any other ship. As stands now, you can cram a small raiding party of 3-4 even into a base aurora, boost out of atmo, and qt to where you wanna go on the same planet in minute. Makes the mpuv redundant.
Anyways, the SRV looks like a fun ship, I'll surely buy one in-game one day.

 

[Printimus]

Oh, so it's not available on the ships in-game currently. That clears it up, thanks!

Now I'm gonna go look into what the heck an SRV is, cos I thought it was just the name of the cargo variant.

The SRV is the tow-truck of space ships with its tractor beam technology.
The MPUV are the 2 tiny vessels that can transport small containers or personnel between capital ships.

 

[Mich Angel]

 

[Shadow Reaper]

The SRV is the tow-truck of space ships with its tractor beam technology.
The MPUV are the 2 tiny vessels that can transport small containers or personnel between capital ships.

I still can't open the ships page as my data has been throttled. Seems I am forsaken for the next couple weeks. I think the MPUV and SRV are the same size. Someone could check the ships page. The difference is one has modules for cargo and passengers, and the other has a class 3 tractor. The tractors on the Cutty black are supposed to be class 1 (when they come out) so one supposes class 3 is pretty tough. Certainly they're intended to be tough, and you can use more than one to haul bigger ships. BTW, I heard someone in a vid recently state definitevely that each step size in components is 3X the output, so if that's true; a single class 3 tractor does the work of 9 class 1's.

Online, both the MPUV and SRV are $65 and the SRV comes with the medium drive "available", meaning you need to add it. No telling what that will cost. Last I heard there are no medium class ships' components available for sale in game yet.

The surprise to me was towing anything through quantum. I thought they were both local snubs with no Q drive. That means players with almost no finances can earn a living retrieving bits of broken ships from all over, as well as anything small and intact. So suddenly one wants to know when you splash that pirate Bucky, what bits are left over? Can you grab a chunk of leftovers and salvage an S4 weapon? I think salvage services are avaialble at all ports, so really all you'd have to do once salvage is enabled (coming soon I think?) is drag the bits home.

 

[NaffNaffBobFace]

MPUV, the original Argo:

SRV - the tugboat: