Cutlass Red or Apollo Triage?

Chip Hazzard

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Hi guys, I currently have both a Cutlass Red and Apollo Triage for Search & Rescue ops, but was wondering if I should just have one or the other?
Below is my quick take on main differences for the 2 ships (as of the ship matrix), I like the fact that the Apollo has a some living space for long searches, but lacks in the gun department (though could blade the turrets).

Cutlass Red
  • Cheaper to run (being Drake)
  • More firepower (4x S3s available)
Apollo Triage
  • More/better medical facilities
  • Drones to pick up injured people
Here are the main component differences.

Cutlass RedApollo Triage
RadarML
ComputerM 2x M
Fuel intakeM2x M
Fuel tankM2x M
Power plantML
Cooler2x M2x L
Cargo capacity1628

What are your thoughts on them? Or should I just drink beer and see which one is there in the morning? :like:
 

Radegast74

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Chip Hazzard

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Why not both?

The Cutlass Red is more of an ambulance...go to a single point and pick up a single person, to transport to a higher level of care.

With the Apollo, you have the flexibility of the different bed tiers, and you can not only pick up but eventually cure...

See this link:
I think with all the ships on sale at the moment, my brain is going mental at whether I need to upgrade ships while I can (until next year that is!). I wish they had a bit more of a crew quarters area in the Cutlass range.
Good points on the differences tho :like:
 

BUTUZ

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TBH if you're going for Med gameplay then it's gotta be the Apollo for full med gameplay?

I mean worrying about guns on a med ship - you can't have both!

I like guns more, so I will forget both the above and just shove the broken bleeding bodies in the back of my Freelancer MIS and get to the nearest Endeavour before too many of them succumb to their injuries.
 

stockish

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You can always upgrade the Triage to a Medivac for more armor and some missiles. But the Cutlass and Apollo, while both medical ships, still seem to fill some slightly different roles. The Red is more of a get in, grab the injured and get back out in a hurry, where as the Apollo can handle being on station near a FOB for a longer time and provide better care.
 

Chip Hazzard

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TBH if you're going for Med gameplay then it's gotta be the Apollo for full med gameplay?

I mean worrying about guns on a med ship - you can't have both!

I like guns more, so I will forget both the above and just shove the broken bleeding bodies in the back of my Freelancer MIS and get to the nearest Endeavour before too many of them succumb to their injuries.
Hahaha, just stab them with with multiple medpens and speed like hell to the Endeavour! I like it!

TBH, I am hopefully going to be running as a bounty hunter for most of the time, and doing some Merc and S&R work on the side. I ended up with more store credit that I thought (being slightly drunk while concept ships were going was a bad move :drunk: ) , so got both.

You can always upgrade the Triage to a Medivac for more armor and some missiles. But the Cutlass and Apollo, while both medical ships, still seem to fill some slightly different roles. The Red is more of a get in, grab the injured and get back out in a hurry, where as the Apollo can handle being on station near a FOB for a longer time and provide better care.
Yeah, totally agree. I think I am going to keep both and maybe use one as an upgrade base if something more awesome (in my eyes that is) comes out :like:
 

Phil

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Apollo imo but again it comes down to what your looking for, every ship here is kind of like can I do this solo or do I need a crew, to me this is the biggest question when it comes to most ships. Really you could prolly solo a Red or maybe 1 other person, the Apollo will prolly require a few more crew and yes I know AI is an option but their still crew so I will regard this in the same manner, crew is crew AI or not and most professions combined with ship size will largely come down to how competent is the crew and we already know AI wont be as good as human.
 

GarikDuvall

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Yay Med talk.. this is my type of convo!

As mentioned, the Cutlass Red is an Ambulance. SAR (Search & Rescue) is it's primary purpose. It can stabilize patients to get them to other medical facilities.

When describing the Apollo, it's somewhere between "Advanced Life Support Medic Unit" at low end, to "Urgent Care Clinic" or even small rural hospital ER (with the top tier bed installed) at high end.

It really comes down HOW you wish to play the medical/SAR side:
  1. Do you want to play more SAR (collecting ejected pilots, doing EVA to get trapped occupants out of a damaged ship, doing rescue in more dangerous zones, or straight up 'Combat SAR'), then Cutlass Red may be better suited.
  2. Do you want to play more medical (be a doctor, focus on others bringing patients to you for healing, potentially being a mobile spawn point, and still have ability to rescue pilots but best suited for more lawful space or with escorts) then Apollo Triage is way to go.

The Apollo Medivac is sort of the compromise, as it has better armor and adds missiles to make combat rescue easier. But I think I'd rather go for the Cutlass Red with its larger assortment of weaponry and better maneuverability if I'm doing combat rescues. But that's personal opinion.

Lastly two things to consider that are uniquely different:
The Cutlass description says it has the "Nav-E7 Echo Transponder" which allegedly is a long range scanner (utility item not a part of the radar). No further info has been given on this.
The Apollo has the med bed sled thing, a recovery drone to scoop up wayward pilots, which makes rescue easier (pending you're not in combat).
 
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Chip Hazzard

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Apollo imo but again it comes down to what your looking for, every ship here is kind of like can I do this solo or do I need a crew, to me this is the biggest question when it comes to most ships. Really you could prolly solo a Red or maybe 1 other person, the Apollo will prolly require a few more crew and yes I know AI is an option but their still crew so I will regard this in the same manner, crew is crew AI or not and most professions combined with ship size will largely come down to how competent is the crew and we already know AI wont be as good as human.
From the details for both, it says they both have a max crew if 2, I know all will change, but looks doable. I will hopefully end up with a single NPC copilot.

Yay Med talk.. this is my type of convo!

As mentioned, the Cutlass Red is an Ambulance. SAR (Search & Rescue) is it's primary purpose. It can stabilize patients to get them to other medical facilities.

When describing the Apollo, it's somewhere between "Advanced Life Support Medic Unit" at low end, to "Urgent Care Clinic" or even small rural hospital ER (with the top tier bed installed) at high end.

It really comes down HOW you wish to play the medical/SAR side:
  1. Do you want to play more SAR (collecting ejected pilots, doing EVA to get trapped occupants out of a damaged ship, doing rescue in more dangerous zones, or straight up 'Combat SAR'), then Cutlass Red may be better suited.
  2. Do you want to play more medical (be a doctor, focus on others bringing patients to you for healing, potentially being a mobile spawn point, and still have ability to rescue pilots but best suited for more lawful space or with escorts) then Apollo Triage is way to go.

The Apollo Medivac is sort of the compromise, as it has better armor and adds missiles to make combat rescue easier. But I think I'd rather go for the Cutlass Red with its larger assortment of weaponry and better maneuverability if I'm doing combat rescues. But that's personal opinion.

Lastly two things to consider that are uniquely different:
The Cutlass description says it has the "Nav-E7 Echo Transponder" which allegedly is a long range scanner (utility item not a part of the radar). No further info has been given on this.
The Apollo has the med bed sled thing, a recovery drone to scoop up wayward pilots, which makes rescue easier (pending you're not in combat).
I am looking forward to doing S&R missions. Hopefully getting sent to crash sites and disabled/destroyed ships, as well as combat sites.

The Apollo med drones look like they will be super useful.

From the name of it, I reckon the Cutlass Red "Echo Transponder" scanner will pick up de-stress signals from further away.

If you could get a single med drones for the Red, that would be a winner, but I doubt it will be able too?!

I think I'm going to keep both and see how they pan out. Can't wait for the Red to be flyable in a few months! Get to see how the med interior is.
 

Scape

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Im guessing the Red will be flyable first with basic med gameplay so it makes sense to at least own one.... Then upgrade depending on how the gameplay works. Im def getting a triage, im not sure where on the roadmap medical is now??
Also if they do use the Apollo as a mobile respawn point then thats a money spinner to start (if you can dictate your respawn price).
 

Chip Hazzard

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Apollo Medivac, it's pretty and has more armor and supposedly will be able to have tier 1 beds.
I missed the Medical version, and didn't see the upgrade available, so went for the Triage.

Im guessing the Red will be flyable first with basic med gameplay so it makes sense to at least own one.... Then upgrade depending on how the gameplay works. Im def getting a triage, im not sure where on the roadmap medical is now??
Also if they do use the Apollo as a mobile respawn point then thats a money spinner to start (if you can dictate your respawn price).
That would be good! Especially if you were somewhere more remote?
 

Chip Hazzard

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So, found the Apollo Medivac game page, and have CCU'd the Triage to the Medivac :o7:

Still keeping the Cutlass Red, as that is being released sooner, and will hopefully be a good ship in more combat type missions/roles
 

Deroth

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Cutlass Red for solo+personal NPC expedient missions where you must encounter some hostile resistance.

Apollo for missions in safe spaces or with a group into openly hostile space.
 

Sky Captain

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I went with the Apollo Triage instead of the Cutlass Red.

When I am hankerin' to do the medical game, my thought was to have more needles and bone saws at my disposal.
 
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