Cargo Containers - Variable Capacities?

Hello everyone.

I'd like to suggest a modification to the current cargo system. Cargoes placed in cargo racks of specific sizes should have their own standardized size. What do I mean by this?

Currently, each cargo canister, or any form of transportable non-material and non-data cargo, takes up precisely one unit of space, I believe weighing one tonne each as well. I'm suggesting that larger cargo canisters might be implemented to be placed in larger cargo racks - each canister being 1/8th the size of it's cargo rack.

Essentially, If a trader has:

1x Size 7 (128t) cargo rack
2x Size 6 (64t) cargo rack
4x Size 4 (16t) cargo rack

and purchases 320t of cargo, He will have:

8x Size 7 (16t) canister
16x Size 6 (8t) canister
32x Size 4 (2t) canister

I'd like to clarify - while this is how canisters would be purchased, a ship with enough cargo space to fit a canister on one cargo rack may take any cargo that fits, i.e a Cobra with a single sixteen tonne cargo rack may still carry a Size 7 canister, but only one per cargo rack. A 16t canister may NOT be placed between two 8t cargo racks.

Why is this any better than the current system? There are two reasons - cargo transfer to other players, and piracy. With this new system, cargo canisters become vastly easier to collect - currently, if a flailing target is dropping cargo siphoned by a hatch breaker limpet, the cargo will scatter, and ships beyond a certain size will find the process of collecting canisters to be unprofitable, and some parties may believe it to be boring. This new system will also give pirates a better sense of scale for their achievement - being able to collect larger amounts of cargo with little downtime (more time focused on the act of piracy rather than the collection of cargo). Hopefully, this will inspire greater numbers of players to try out the dastardly trade, which can be incredibly fun.

Lastly, I'd like to ask that this not be the final change. Currently, the crime system does need some minor changes, such as greater bounties and non-monetary penalties (refusal to dock at high-sec stations, refused services, etc), but I'd like to see more incentives to commit crimes before any of that is implemented.

Thank you for your time, and please tell me what you think. :)
 
I like this idea,
But rather than over complicating thing, simply allow the dropping of cargo in batches.

CMDRs can choose to drop cargo in large or small batches, with limits.
So say you want to transfer 200t of cargo, you can't drop a 200t container, but you could drop them in 1, 2, 4, 8 or 16t batches. Trying to scoop a batch which is bigger than you can hold will just waste the remainder.
A batched container could look like this on the contracts panel
Canister [Occupied Escape Pod] 16t
Canister [Occupied Escape Pod] 4t

Hatch breaker controllers can have a stat attached which says how many tonnes they can release per batch, so a good hatch breaker might pull cargo in batches of up to 8t, and the worst being 1t.
And cargo hatch malfunctions can be RNG or singles.
 
@CMDR_Cosmicspacehead

I'm not sure I understand. Do you mean separate canisters will all be floating in space in large clumps, or will multiple canisters floating in space be connected, able to be brought in all at once by one limpet or scoop?

I'm imagining a pallet (for lack of a better term) with multiple canisters on it, and the pallet itself counts as one item which can be scooped. Is this what you mean?

I'd absolutely like that. My main goal when writing this up was to speed up the collection of cargo and to be able to take more than what is currently possible in the same amount of time. A large ship like an Anaconda or Python fit for piracy won't usually be happy stealing a few (10-30 ish) canisters per target, in my experience.
 
Sorry, I do mean, they drop one physical container model, but it holds multiple commodities, as you stated.

So 1 physical container could actually be worth up to 16t(or whatever) of whatever commodity.

They can't be mixed commodities containers though. That'd be messy in the contact panel.


So yeah, it would speed up cargo collection nicely. Which would help piracy and all sorts.

It's entirely up to FD if they'd want to make a new model for a batched cargo container that maybe shows a few strapped together or something.
But I'd be happy with the default cargo container, with just an added numerical value to it, like in my previous post.
 
It should be fairly straightforward.

Materials already do that in 3's.

We'd just need;
1) a UI tweak to the contacts panel to show it.
2) a UI option on the jettison/abandon dialogue to show it. That could be a single toggle for "batched" or "default". Or it could be entirely automated, based on the maximum amount of containers we're allowed in one instance.
3) a stat attached to hatch breaker limpet controllers, so show there range of cargo thievery.
 
I support a crime and punishment system for the Pilot's Federation.

However for cargo, I like the current system. One should think of it like modern naval cargo ships that carry thousands of identical containers to make shipping massively efficient. Different sizes and etc. would complicate equipment and processing.

Also, a Tonne is a standard container but not necessarily the mass of the cargo in it. It's old school navy terminology in use in ED, but that's just my interpretation.
 
+1 to this... Some refining of how cargo is stored/dropped would be extremely helpful to piracy. Linking it to cargo-rack size is clever (and logical).
 
But wouldn't a container that is many times larger than regular ones have a hard time fitting through our cargo scoops?
 

Lestat

Banned
I like how it is now. The only thing I wish they do is as the trader is be able to type in the number of cargo you wish to drop. Or do 1 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64.

But wouldn't a container that is many times larger than regular ones have a hard time fitting through our cargo scoops?
This is the reason why the Op idea would not work. It would also make it impossible for a pirate to pick it up for the same reason.
 
I like how it is now. The only thing I wish they do is as the trader is be able to type in the number of cargo you wish to drop. Or do 1 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64.

This is the reason why the Op idea would not work. It would also make it impossible for a pirate to pick it up for the same reason.

We could hand-wave it... although a few players wouldn't like that. Perhaps larger cargo scoops can be embiggened? :p

Maybe, as CMDR_Cosmicspacehead said, cargo could come in bundles which are disassembled and collected by cargo limpets?

Hopefully we could get some hand-wavium in here, if not a deep look into this by the developers, because I surely wouldn't mind it, and I think quite a few pirates wouldn't either. Just conjecture though :)
 
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