People love the dedicated cargo ships, but lament the fact that they don't have much more cargo capacity than similar sized general purpose vessels. The dedicated cargo ships are generally worse in every way, but seldom offer more than 1.5 times the cargo capacity of another vessel in a similar price range, or a comparable general purpose vessel of a similar size range. In the case of the Python, the T7 is cheaper but larger and its cargo capacity in no way makes up for its inability to land on medium pads.
The cargo capacity of cargo ships can't be too easily changed because internal cargo capacity is dependent on internal volume. The cargo racks are designed to accomodate a fixed number of cargo canisters, each of which have a fixed mass.
I think that dedicated cargo vessels (and those vessels only) should be able to equip a different sort of cargo module- the bulk cargo hold. These should be able to hold large items of cargo (lumber, land vehicles, prefabricated buildings, and other sorts of break bulk cargo) which do not fully occupy the volume but which can only be carried in large holds, or bulk cargoes (like mineral oil, grain, water, iron ore and so on) which can completely fill a hold.
These new types of holds would add some interesting gameplay choices to the game. The break bulk cargoes would be able to transport the same volume of cargo per module slot, but a much higher mass. This would make each run more profitable but dreadfully slow the ship down and also drastically reduce its jump range. Not all types of containerised cargo can be transported in bulk, but some types of bulk cargo cannot be containerised. More cargo types would be available from extraction and agricultural economies, and to a limited extent, refinery economies. This would make routes more profitable in one direction than another, forcing players to make gameplay choices.
Break bulk cargo (ranging from postal items like packages to reels of cable, mecha suits and live animals) would work in a similar manner to passengers, except that instead of fancier passengers requiring more internal volume, it's simply larger whole items. Very large items require very large holds, and pilots of the largest vessels can charge a premium for the largest holds. Break bulk items do not completely fill the hold in which they are held, so they are not as massive as bulk cargoes, although, just as with bulk, the density of the material varies. Some break bulk items will be lighter per unit volume than containerised cargo but still be more profitable to carry.
On real world sea going vessels, the main drawback to carrying bulk cargoes and break bulk cargoes is that they take much longer to load and discharge in port. This is a factor that should be carried over to ships in Elite. There should be a waiting time to load and discharge these new cargo types. This might only be a few seconds for small ships, but for very large vessels like the T9, it should be at least a couple of minutes. This compensates for the much increased profitability per trip. On board real world vessels, the other problems caused by bulk and break bulk cargoes are instability (fluids carried in holds not completely full slosh around and affect manoeuvring and stability) and this could be carried over to E
with difficulty and dubious benefit to the gameplay experience, and the problems of fire control and fire risk management, which probably can't be implemented in E in any meaningful way.
Piracy would have to work a bit different for bulk cargoes. Possibly a pirate would need to destroy the whole ship and scoop up fragments of the bulk cargo inside. Alternatively, pirates could demand credit payments from vessels carrying cargo in bulk, rather than demand the ejection of the cargo itself.
Aside from adding an interesting new dimension to trading beyond simply comparing prices and considering the shortest routes to take, bulk cargo holds would make cargo ships more vulnerable and therefore increase the need for an escort, increasing the demand for wings and multicrew gameplay. More importantly, Community Goals involving the transportation of break bulk cargoes would force players to take more vulnerable ships and potentially make them more exciting.
I hope this proposal will be considered because it adds a decent bit of gameplay choice without requiring many new graphical or sound assets to be added to the game. It gives players flying ships that are already more boring and irritating to fly more to think about and makes their ships more customisable without taking anything from players flying other ships.
The cargo capacity of cargo ships can't be too easily changed because internal cargo capacity is dependent on internal volume. The cargo racks are designed to accomodate a fixed number of cargo canisters, each of which have a fixed mass.
I think that dedicated cargo vessels (and those vessels only) should be able to equip a different sort of cargo module- the bulk cargo hold. These should be able to hold large items of cargo (lumber, land vehicles, prefabricated buildings, and other sorts of break bulk cargo) which do not fully occupy the volume but which can only be carried in large holds, or bulk cargoes (like mineral oil, grain, water, iron ore and so on) which can completely fill a hold.
These new types of holds would add some interesting gameplay choices to the game. The break bulk cargoes would be able to transport the same volume of cargo per module slot, but a much higher mass. This would make each run more profitable but dreadfully slow the ship down and also drastically reduce its jump range. Not all types of containerised cargo can be transported in bulk, but some types of bulk cargo cannot be containerised. More cargo types would be available from extraction and agricultural economies, and to a limited extent, refinery economies. This would make routes more profitable in one direction than another, forcing players to make gameplay choices.
Break bulk cargo (ranging from postal items like packages to reels of cable, mecha suits and live animals) would work in a similar manner to passengers, except that instead of fancier passengers requiring more internal volume, it's simply larger whole items. Very large items require very large holds, and pilots of the largest vessels can charge a premium for the largest holds. Break bulk items do not completely fill the hold in which they are held, so they are not as massive as bulk cargoes, although, just as with bulk, the density of the material varies. Some break bulk items will be lighter per unit volume than containerised cargo but still be more profitable to carry.
On real world sea going vessels, the main drawback to carrying bulk cargoes and break bulk cargoes is that they take much longer to load and discharge in port. This is a factor that should be carried over to ships in Elite. There should be a waiting time to load and discharge these new cargo types. This might only be a few seconds for small ships, but for very large vessels like the T9, it should be at least a couple of minutes. This compensates for the much increased profitability per trip. On board real world vessels, the other problems caused by bulk and break bulk cargoes are instability (fluids carried in holds not completely full slosh around and affect manoeuvring and stability) and this could be carried over to E
with difficulty and dubious benefit to the gameplay experience, and the problems of fire control and fire risk management, which probably can't be implemented in E in any meaningful way.Piracy would have to work a bit different for bulk cargoes. Possibly a pirate would need to destroy the whole ship and scoop up fragments of the bulk cargo inside. Alternatively, pirates could demand credit payments from vessels carrying cargo in bulk, rather than demand the ejection of the cargo itself.
Aside from adding an interesting new dimension to trading beyond simply comparing prices and considering the shortest routes to take, bulk cargo holds would make cargo ships more vulnerable and therefore increase the need for an escort, increasing the demand for wings and multicrew gameplay. More importantly, Community Goals involving the transportation of break bulk cargoes would force players to take more vulnerable ships and potentially make them more exciting.
I hope this proposal will be considered because it adds a decent bit of gameplay choice without requiring many new graphical or sound assets to be added to the game. It gives players flying ships that are already more boring and irritating to fly more to think about and makes their ships more customisable without taking anything from players flying other ships.