Is there a reason that commodities are listed in 'units' rather than 'tons'?

[Eukanuba23]

Coming from Frontier (Elite 2), I find it strange that all the missions talk about commodities in a non-specific 'units' way. Judging by the cargo racks, the game is still explicitly dealing with tonnage, so why does it uses the less meaningful nomenclature of 'units'?

Maybe just me, but the idea of transporting 30 tons of slaves made a much bigger psychological impact than transporting 30 units of slaves.

 

[Ophion]

Ton is a unit, that's all there is to it.

 

[Quantis Trap]

If I recall correctly, when Elite Dangerous started, the game missions were using the term tuns/tons instead of units, but that changed somewhere along the line. I con't remember of there was ever a reason given as to why.

My guess would be that there's no way you can fit a ton of any materials universally in the same space unless you have TARDIS technology and that's not in this games lore.

 

[MadDogMurdock]

It's the equivalent of the 20ft Container - for standardized cargo handling.

 

[Vasious]

Standardisation of terms so one delivers to CG units of commodities , units of materials and, units of data, as previous it was tons of commodities, tons of materials and, tons of data, which I am guessing was a UI thing

​

 

[Hacker#451563]

Ton is a unit, that's all there is to it.

Tonne.

 

[Lightspeed]

Which weighs more ... a ton of water or a ton of uranium?

 

[metatheurgist]

I believe it was changed because CGs could collect units of things that were obviously not tons, like materials, but they looked wrong because that implied we had tons of materials on board our ships.

This is one of the ways the old game was superior. You had grams for gems and kilos for precious metals. Just bringing those back would broaden some activities in the game. You could now have high profit trading in light courier ships of gems or precious metals; T9s and Cutters wouldn't be the be-all and end all of trade. Piracy would be more viable. Mining could have strikes of gems and precious metals that didn't take up a whole unit of cargo giving it (much needed) profitability. Eh, what do I know.

 

[Jmanis]

I think it changed to divorce itself from some strange conversions you could do.

E.g 1t of Gold is =~ 9,000cr, and 1t coffee is =~ 1,000cr, so gold is roughly 9 times more valuable.

Compare that with 1kg of gold (=~ $39,000) versus 1kg of coffee at wholesale prices which is =~ $30, placing gold more than 1,000 times more valuable.

 

[Galaxias]

One ton is one unit. thread ends here. better do a here otherwise god KNOWS what’ll happen.

 

[Vasious]

I think it changed to divorce itself from some strange conversions you could do.

E.g 1t of Gold is =~ 9,000cr, and 1t coffee is =~ 1,000cr, so gold is roughly 9 times more valuable.

Compare that with 1kg of gold (=~ $39,000) versus 1kg of coffee at wholesale prices which is =~ $30, placing gold more than 1,000 times more valuable.

Yeah, but on Earth in 2018 you cannot easily mine a few tonnes of gold from an asteroid in an afternoon.

Gold isn't that rare anymore, in 3304; according to google one figure for all the gold in the world is 171,300 tonnes, how long would it take a CG for mined gold to surpass that?

 

[fu9ar]

in awe of the size of this load, a ton is an absolute unit

 

[ExoForce]

It is written somewhere that 1 ton is per cargo rack. So, deliver 5 tons means use 5 cargo racks.

Me thinks, early in the morning without coffee.

 

[Askorti]

As far as I know, all cargo canisters have the same size, and your cargo space is just that, how many cargo canisters of uniform size you can fit inside your hold. So if their size is uniform, it makes no sense for their weight to be the same, since you can load just as many cargo canisters of gold as cargo canisters of clothes.
Hence, in my opinion the units don't represent tonnes at all.

 

[Frank]

It might have been better to have sold commodities by the "tun"

...The "Galactic Tun" could of course be any size convenient for Elite

 

[-VR- Max Factor]

I would have preferred that there was a difference in weight and have weight play a more critical role. A unit of tea shouldn't weigh as much as a unit of gold.

So while you could trade in gold your FSD range, fuel usage and manouverability would be negatively effected. It would then mean things that are less valuable could actually be worth shipping.

 

[Patrick_68000]

Maybe just me, but the idea of transporting 30 tons of slaves

With or without the bones ?

 

[Patrick_68000]

To use the units is a simplification.

Because certain people consider 1 ton as 1000 kilograms, while others consider as 1024 kilograms.

Unless my interpretation is bad...

))

 

[Patrick_68000]

Which weighs more ... a ton of water or a ton of uranium?

A ton of lead and a ton of feathers is a more formidable trap.

 

[kpmop]

I would have preferred that there was a difference in weight and have weight play a more critical role. A unit of tea shouldn't weigh as much as a unit of gold.

So while you could trade in gold your FSD range, fuel usage and manouverability would be negatively effected. It would then mean things that are less valuable could actually be worth shipping.

But you'd be able to fit more (volume-wise) gold in your ship than tea**, which OK might trash your jump range & maneuverability* but would ultimately skew things even more in favour of valuable metals... the fixed weight containers at least limit the amount of dense stuff you can transport.

*which you probably wouldn't even notice in a T7!

** also given how few agricultural planets compare to extraction/refinery systems there seem to be, it's a little odd that tea (or food generally) isn't far more valuable than metals... but hey.

Which weighs more ... a ton of water or a ton of uranium?

The ton of uranium would weigh more heavily on my mind...