Currently we can have several ships at any station and store them there. But we lack the option of transferring cargo between them and I think lack of this functionality is not only immersion breaking, but also removes gameplay options players might otherwise have. I believe Frontier should look into it and create an option for a player to transfer cargo between their ships whilst all are docked / stored at the same station.
This would allow a player for several things:
1. If they arrive at the station and already have some mission cargo in their current ship, but the station offers another cargo delivery mission the player finds interesting, they could purchase a ship with bigger cargo capacity, transfer their current cargo into that ship and accept the mission offered.
2. In case of mystery missions, where circumstances change, the player could adapt to them. If they are being sent somewhere they can't go in their current ship, they would be able to swap the ship for something more suitable for the task at hand. For example, they are currently flying Type 7 and the mission sends them to a dangerous Anarchy system, they could buy a combat capable ship at the station, transfer their cargo and go there. Or, they are currently flying a data / document courier ship and the mission sends them to deliver bigger quantities of goods to some place, they would be able to purchase some freighter for completing the task.
3. It would allow for swapping between various activities more easily. For example, a player was doing cargo delivery missions for some time and they would like to do some trading, but still haven't completed some mission, they can just swap the ship, transfer the cargo, finish the mission and purchase larger quantity of some commodities at the station they complete the mission at. This saves them jumping back and forth for no reason.
I am aware there has been talk about players being able to have their ships delivered from other stations at some point. This may be a problem without a cargo storage in the stations. For example:
Player has their smuggling Cobra at station A, with its cargo still inside the ship. They are with their Diamondback Explorer at station B, where the cargo they have in another ship is prohibited. If they get their Cobra delivered, they get also all the illegal goods onboard. Which means 2 things:
1. Effectively they smuggled cargo to a station where it's prohibited without the risk of getting scanned, which allows this feature to be abused. I can pack Type 9 full of Imperial Slaves, leave it at station A and go to station B in a completely innocent Sidewinder, then get my Type 9 delivered to me with all the cargo and sell it at the black market. Then load my Type 9 full of platinum at station B, travel in a Sidey to wherever it fetches a good price, get my Type 9 delivered thus avoid the risk of loosing that Type 9 with its cargo on the way.
2. If I got that smuggling Cobra delivered with its cargo to a station B, where the goods are prohibited and there is no black market there, that means I may end up being scanned on take off and run into problems with local authorities.
Therefore, there is a need for the players to have some cargo storage at the stations. This way it will be possible to prevent the ship transportation system from being exploited for illicit gains simply by having all the cargo automatically unloaded into cargo storage before the ship is being delivered. The amount of storage available should be somewhat limited throughout the galaxy to perhaps a few thousand tonnes. In my opinion this storage should be free of charge, just like storing the ships is, however I'm not to fussed, if there is some small fee for storing cargo, I don't see it being a problem.
Also, cargo storage would play vital role in transferring cargo between the ships. After all, unloading/ loading facilities are needed to transfer tonnes of goods, so this way transferring cargo between the ships would be available only at star ports.
This would allow a player for several things:
1. If they arrive at the station and already have some mission cargo in their current ship, but the station offers another cargo delivery mission the player finds interesting, they could purchase a ship with bigger cargo capacity, transfer their current cargo into that ship and accept the mission offered.
2. In case of mystery missions, where circumstances change, the player could adapt to them. If they are being sent somewhere they can't go in their current ship, they would be able to swap the ship for something more suitable for the task at hand. For example, they are currently flying Type 7 and the mission sends them to a dangerous Anarchy system, they could buy a combat capable ship at the station, transfer their cargo and go there. Or, they are currently flying a data / document courier ship and the mission sends them to deliver bigger quantities of goods to some place, they would be able to purchase some freighter for completing the task.
3. It would allow for swapping between various activities more easily. For example, a player was doing cargo delivery missions for some time and they would like to do some trading, but still haven't completed some mission, they can just swap the ship, transfer the cargo, finish the mission and purchase larger quantity of some commodities at the station they complete the mission at. This saves them jumping back and forth for no reason.
I am aware there has been talk about players being able to have their ships delivered from other stations at some point. This may be a problem without a cargo storage in the stations. For example:
Player has their smuggling Cobra at station A, with its cargo still inside the ship. They are with their Diamondback Explorer at station B, where the cargo they have in another ship is prohibited. If they get their Cobra delivered, they get also all the illegal goods onboard. Which means 2 things:
1. Effectively they smuggled cargo to a station where it's prohibited without the risk of getting scanned, which allows this feature to be abused. I can pack Type 9 full of Imperial Slaves, leave it at station A and go to station B in a completely innocent Sidewinder, then get my Type 9 delivered to me with all the cargo and sell it at the black market. Then load my Type 9 full of platinum at station B, travel in a Sidey to wherever it fetches a good price, get my Type 9 delivered thus avoid the risk of loosing that Type 9 with its cargo on the way.
2. If I got that smuggling Cobra delivered with its cargo to a station B, where the goods are prohibited and there is no black market there, that means I may end up being scanned on take off and run into problems with local authorities.
Therefore, there is a need for the players to have some cargo storage at the stations. This way it will be possible to prevent the ship transportation system from being exploited for illicit gains simply by having all the cargo automatically unloaded into cargo storage before the ship is being delivered. The amount of storage available should be somewhat limited throughout the galaxy to perhaps a few thousand tonnes. In my opinion this storage should be free of charge, just like storing the ships is, however I'm not to fussed, if there is some small fee for storing cargo, I don't see it being a problem.
Also, cargo storage would play vital role in transferring cargo between the ships. After all, unloading/ loading facilities are needed to transfer tonnes of goods, so this way transferring cargo between the ships would be available only at star ports.
