Materials/Data Storage

Moritasgus · Oct 13, 2017

So i know this has probably been done to death, as someone who after 3 years is finally putting a bit more effort into engineers other than FSD range i wanted to put forward a few solutions for the annoying micromanagement.

Option 1

The devs type a new max number in, be it double or infinity.
- Positives, manage your inventory your own way. Probably the easiest and quickest 'fix'.
- Negatives, doesn't really fix micromanagement just moves it to a new higher level. Not very lore appropriate to have 2000 units of mech scrap on an eagle.

Option 2

Each individual material and item have their own limit, say 50 of each.
- Positives, (for the devs) it still keeps some kind of arbitrary limit on the amount of materials and rolls. No more micromanagement as you never have to dump anything!
- Negatives, no flexibility to stock up on certain items more than others.

Option 3

Off ship storage of materials and data like an mmo bank. Still possibly the same on ship limits but you could take stacks of data or materials out of unlimited or much greater storage. Possibility to also make materials destructible like explore data while on ship.
- Positives, more fitting lorewise than having 2000 units of mech scrap on an eagle and makes it more like commodities.
- Negatives, probably a lot of work to implement. Data and mat loss either a positive or negative depending on view point. Materials also probably need to be stored at a single station meaning lots of back and forth to drop off point.

Be interested to see which option people prefer or any other ideas, lets be proactive about the problem not salty that its still the same after a year or so.

Chris Simon · Oct 13, 2017

I have a feeling that what you call "annoying micromanagement" would Sandro call "design choice", or "anti-hoarding failsafe, forcing you to play the game instead of just grinding"

Moritasgus · Oct 13, 2017

Chris Simon said:
I have a feeling that what you call "annoying micromanagement" would Sandro call "design choice", or "anti-hoarding failsafe, forcing you to play the game instead of just grinding"

Well that's the problem for me, as someone who doesn't grind for mats and would like to collect on the go I've got this wonderful spread of materials from all over the galaxy. No idea what are are used for mind..
And still I'm constantly dumping materials even when I'm not looking for anything specific.

I'm used to arbitrary limits, MMOs characters have weight limits and ED has ships of limited dimensions so I understand they can't really give us unlimited in its current format just for a tiny bit of plausibility. But surely there has to be a viable solution?

Personally I'm a fan of my option 2 but I do realise that removes some customisation.

Miklos Atreides · Oct 13, 2017

Yes, it was already discussed to death several times.
I am still in for external storage which is station specific and you have to pay for.
Maybe 1000 slots of Mats/Data summing up to 1000 CR and you can drop off your items you
don't need.

I have a lot of other things like that in my mind like this doens't stop at mats only and brokerage
comments I've already given too.

Yes, the decision to drop mats at a station will make you run to pick them up again, but this
is decision and consequence.

Regards,
Miklos

Valethar · Oct 13, 2017

If they went with #3, then the hue and cry would shift from not having enough storage space, to having to actually go get it from station A when your engineer is at station B. "After all, we can transfer ships and modules, so why not materials?" would become the new mantra.

#2 seems the best compromise, the problem would be deciding what the limit is, because no matter how high it's set, someone's going to end up salty because it's too high or too low.

M00ka · Oct 13, 2017

I just want to know how the shrink all the physical stuff down to a minuscule size to allow it to be transported with you in your lifepod when your ship goes boom. Pity they couldn't use the same technology for collected bounties and exploration scans

bubbabenali · Oct 13, 2017

Chris Simon said:
I have a feeling that what you call "annoying micromanagement" would Sandro call "design choice", or "anti-hoarding failsafe, forcing you to play the game instead of just grinding"

I play the game and I am 'ing annoyed to manage all my material storage on every mining session and doing the same in every HazRrs session for the data storage.

Stupid_hippy · Oct 13, 2017

Option 4 : Leave it just as it is.

I've never had a problem with space. Once in a while I have a clear out. It's no big deal.

Stop hoarding.

Surprised Brony · Oct 13, 2017

With the need to try 20 times for a half decent roll being diminished in Q1 2018, I'm content with what we have.

Limoncello Lizard · Oct 13, 2017

Chris Simon said:
I have a feeling that what you call "annoying micromanagement" would Sandro call "design choice", or "anti-hoarding failsafe, forcing you to play the game instead of just grinding"

And you might have a point, if FD didn't go changing the rules on us. E.g. basic conductors were stupidly common as a mission reward, yet completely useless. Now that I've thrown them all away, they've been removed as a mission reward, yet they're now needed for heat sink synthesis. If I wasn't always running out of space, I'd have held onto some. (Granted they were easy enough to get, but a couple of dozen trade ships shouldn't have had to die. Dom, that's on your conscience

)

CMDR Brock Samson · Oct 13, 2017

Data limited to 500 is plain ridicolous and Sandro Sammarco knows it.Having to throw away stuff every day because my computer has no space in 3303, get out of here.

BradHann · Oct 13, 2017

M00ka said:
I just want to know how the shrink all the physical stuff down to a minuscule size to allow it to be transported with you in your lifepod when your ship goes boom.

Maybe it's just a manifest, and the stuff is not actually stored on your ship.

I know, that kind of thinking opens up a whole different can of worms.

GoldenSilver484 · Oct 13, 2017

CMDR Brock Samson said:
Data limited to 500 is plain ridicolous and Sandro Sammarco knows it.Having to throw away stuff every day because my computer has no space in 3303, get out of here.

I disagree with increasing the 500 data capacity, over 30 types of data in the game are either worthless or only used on a single G2-4 internal module blueprint that you will end up using a G1/5 for in nearly every case. Yes it is annoying that you have to empty it of junk but say you now have 1000, you'll just get more time between junk dumping.

Materials are a little different though, they're limited to stop hoarding and require you to use inventory management when it comes to how many of certain types you need vs want.

I still have 100 free slots while having ~5 of the not used at all mats, 10-20 of the used in some things but 25+ for mats that are used all the time in basic synthesis and engineering. I've even have the mats for 10 premium FSD boosts even though I only use the basic one.

TL,DR: I agree with Stupid hippy, Option 4.

Chainguns · Oct 13, 2017

They should at least have added 1000 for the new Thargoid mats and 500 for the new Thargoid data. I'd like to explore more crash sites and bases but am "saving" it for when I know what mats/data are worth picking up.

testmate · Oct 13, 2017

option #2 would be best, I think. Make an extra storage pool of 50 (or 100) for every material/data

The way its handled now is really annoying. Storage too low. And I'm not hording mats! I keep a stock of all available mats/data/elements (about 10 low lvl and 15-20 high lvl each) and there's very little space left.
after Every BH-session or Mining-trip I have to dump things to have space for needed mats. If you forget to clean up, you probably end up wasting high rank data the next time.

[VR] Goooost · Oct 13, 2017

I like option 2, but if you want to hoard stuff for exploration it isn't great.
Option 3 is optimal.

-VR- Max Factor · Oct 13, 2017

Any materials over the 50 mark I get rid of. Common materials I try to keep at a 25-50 area as they are so easy to get hold of.

Personally I would prefer off ship storage at a broker (you can pick them from any broker), and then have your materials perishable on ship destruction.

Data would be kept in a small HD in your escape capsule, so you don't loose them, also data should have a bigger storage capacity.

Hadarmil · Oct 13, 2017

50 per mat!

Unless you're god rolling a fleet of PVP ships that's more than enough. I hate checking Inara mid game if some convoluted male cow droppings will be useful or is only used in reduced scent G3 roll for the ship toilet( it also reduces integrity - really bad when you're 10k from home, let me tell ya).

That way at least the constant cleaning can go away.

CMDR _BigJay_ · Oct 13, 2017

Chainguns said:
They should at least have added 1000 for the new Thargoid mats and 500 for the new Thargoid data. I'd like to explore more crash sites and bases but am "saving" it for when I know what mats/data are worth picking up.

THIS is the valid complaint.

I have just under 6,000 engineering rolls. In order to be efficient you need to really learn which mods work, which mats and data you need for those mods, and also the REAL rarity of different mats and data. (the ingame description is a lie, sometimes). Yes, it is more involved than just picking up all of the lego bricks after you kill an enemy and then cashing it in for an upgrade. I think it's supposed to be this way. If you make the storage infinite, or if you make it "per material" you are removing that whole process of deciding what to keep and what not to keep. It's up for debate whether this is GOOD gameplay or not. But it IS the current mechanic. Personally, I like it.

However, like Chainguns says, we've had new data, new materials, new engineer recipes, and new synthesis recipes added to the game, with no additional storage. Meaning that the "Material management minigame" is getting harder and harder with every patch.

Karlos Ploryman · Oct 13, 2017

Moritasgus said:
Option 2

Each individual material and item have their own limit, say 50 of each.
- Positives, (for the devs) it still keeps some kind of arbitrary limit on the amount of materials and rolls. No more micromanagement as you never have to dump anything!
- Negatives, no flexibility to stock up on certain items more than others.

Hi commander Moritasgus,

I like the option 2, but the player would be allowed to set this limit for each material type by himself ... Everything above that limit would be automatically vented out. Micromanagement would shrink to setting those limits.

There would be no more iddle limpets, waiting in front of your cargo scoop, holding tight to the collected material... It would give it to the ship, if the limit of the material hase been met, the ship dumps it automatically.

Karlos