Cargo Unloading and Loading During Ship Change

[Dad Rock]

o7 Frontier Dev,

I know that some form of cargo storage has been discussed in all manner and forms and ruled out in previous discussions, but hear me out on this. I think there may be a way to address a fundamental problem many Commanders are facing, but without implementing cargo storage, namely a "loading and unloading" facility at Orbis and Coriolis stations *only* - owing to the space needed.

Say a Commander has a ship with seventy units of Lavian brandy, and wish to change from their Python to one of their stored ships, which currently hasn't enough cargo bays installed, but which, properly configured, could happily accomodate seventy tonnes of the said cargo. At the moment, it is simply not possible to swap ships, and the user will have to either sell the commodities or abandon/jettison them somewhere outside the station's no fire zone.

What if there was a cargo loading/unloading facility that would *hold* the cargo whilst they swap ships. In this way, a player can then swap/purchase the new ship, configure it correctly in the outfitting screen, and then load the cargo.

If they do not load the cargo, they simply will be denied exit permission from the station, and would not be able to undock.

Problem solved, nice and simple, and hopefully with a minimum of effort.

Many thanks,
Commander Baba Ghannoush

 

[trollson]

Yep -- let the pilot become "overloaded" on the landing pad (but not from trading) but they cannot take-off until they shed the excess. This would also cover commodity rewards.

 

[Six6VI]

Yep -- let the pilot become "overloaded" on the landing pad (but not from trading) but they cannot take-off until they shed the excess. This would also cover commodity rewards.

At least make a decision what to do with it (plus one-click "sell all") but all at once instead of having to unload a few (passenger) missions until you open a cargo reward (because you can't tell before opening it) then swap into the commodities screen and back to sell it, or just jettison it in the hangar (Does that attract a fine yet?).

 

[Mae Tang]

I like this idea! I wish we could have storage units on stations though that we pay a rent fee for. It could be a bill that racks up each day or week, and it can be paid through interstellar factors. Like maybe 100,000CR p/w for 10T of storage, 500,000CR p/w for 300T of storage, 1,000,000CR p/w for 700T of storage, something like that. I'd 100% invest in that!

But, your concept is great too, and maybe more like something they would want to implement

 

[trollson]

...or just jettison it in the hangar (Does that attract a fine yet?).

Dumping cargo in a space port seems to be okay.

I was thinking that it would still all appear in your cargo (and materials) manifest, so you would be free to sell it on the open or black markets, or dump it (or, oneday, just use it yourself). Only you cannot take off in the "overloaded" state - you'd be leaving crates stacked on your landing pad!

 

[Six6VI]

Dumping cargo in a space port seems to be okay.

I was thinking that it would still all appear in your cargo (and materials) manifest, so you would be free to sell it on the open or black markets, or dump it (or, oneday, just use it yourself). Only you cannot take off in the "overloaded" state - you'd be leaving crates stacked on your landing pad!

If you've ever been in an aircraft loading role, they tend to stack things on tug trolleys so it's easy to go find the vehicle no matter which gate it's assigned to. But, on reflection it seemed the 34th century might have a slightly more automated system, built into the infrastructure of the station due to issues like breathing, and gravity.

If your commodities are sitting in the loading mechanism of the pad for the ship you arrived in, it shouldn't be too difficult to automatically move them to another bay, and back without them needing to go into station stock holding areas. It would appear the game already simulates this when you change, and reload alternative ships.

We can't leave a ship in storage with cargo in it, perhaps because some goods are perishable, corrosive, flammable or explosive so it's not worth making the distinction and all goods are just banned. Given the propensity of people to "pack rat" things that might one day be useful I'm not convinced on-station storage is a good idea either.

Temporary maybe, that has to be cleared before leaving but paid storage?