Cargo Improvements

[Awdred]

Cargo is really cool, but there are a couple things that would make it better IMO.

First, is expanding the capacity of cargo spaces. Even if it was just up to two or three hundred.

Second, you should be able to connect multiple chests to one space.

 

[Mr.Steam]

I would like to offer a counter point and say that I think 100 mass per cubic meter of storage is too much. I have a 60 meter long cargo ship (which I consider small) and it will hold over 6 million basic hull blocks. Maybe if some players think storage is too small and some think it is too big it is about perfect.

 

[Edymnion]

I'm on the "Its too small" side myself. It took me over 115,000 cargo blocks just to get my inventory stores to where they weren't in overflow, and thats with basically no room for expansion (mainly because I'm replacing that station soon anyway), and not counting the blocks for things like my factories and refinery.

I wanted to make nice cargo bays and make it look cool. That went right out the window when I realized how low the storage density was. Any ideas of making it look good went straight in the trash as cargo became station gap filler.

 

[Mr.Steam]

It took me over 115,000 cargo blocks just to get my inventory stores to where they weren't in overflow

My guess is you have over 100 MILLION blocks in storage. If you want to store that much stuff I think it should take a lot of room. We need to get past the hoarder mentality. What are you going to do with that much stuff? No offense, that is just my opinion.

 

[nightrune]

I think its just a little bit on the too small side, but I'm loving this up date nonetheless

 

[BrotherLazarus]

I would like to offer a counter point and say that I think 100 mass per cubic meter of storage is too much. I have a 60 meter long cargo ship (which I consider small) and it will hold over 6 million basic hull blocks. Maybe if some players think storage is too small and some think it is too big it is about perfect.

Pretty much this. I built a ship to prep for the cargo update before I had any info on how cargo would work, so I built for raw cubic meter capacity. It can carry the blocks of 300 of my capital ships. Seems a mite excessive.

I'm on the "Its too small" side myself. It took me over 115,000 cargo blocks just to get my inventory stores to where they weren't in overflow, and thats with basically no room for expansion (mainly because I'm replacing that station soon anyway), and not counting the blocks for things like my factories and refinery.

I wanted to make nice cargo bays and make it look cool. That went right out the window when I realized how low the storage density was. Any ideas of making it look good went straight in the trash as cargo became station gap filler.

This is about a quarter of a system's asteroids.

Is there the possibility that you just have way too much stuff?

 

[Jaaskinal]

Pretty much this. I built a ship to prep for the cargo update before I had any info on how cargo would work, so I built for raw cubic meter capacity. It can carry the blocks of 300 of my capital ships. Seems a mite excessive.

This is about a quarter of a system's asteroids.

This is Thryn homebase

Is there the possibility that you just have way too much stuff?

Maybe.

That being said, I kind of like the look of the huge trash heaps. That woulds really weird, and I'm not being ironic, it actually looks kind of nice to see that I have that much stuff.

 

[Master_Artificer]

I would say 50. Maybe even 20.

 

[Edymnion]

My guess is you have over 100 MILLION blocks in storage. If you want to store that much stuff I think it should take a lot of room. We need to get past the hoarder mentality. What are you going to do with that much stuff? No offense, that is just my opinion.

I'm currently building a new mega station in single player creative mode that is approaching 4 million blocks that I'll need to blueprint in to our server. I'm also designing a titan that has about half of it's outer hull done and is at about a million blocks.

I also have a fleet of dreadnaughts, cruisers, and fighters to support the titan that I need to build.

Not to mention cargo ships.

Basically I've got a lot of stuff to build that I've been saving up for. And I've been saving up on the same server for months, having eaten many planets.

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

It would be nice to have multiple access points on a single cargo system. It would also be nice to have chests linked to a storage system and be able to filter so it only displays certain blocks so those who don't want to get rid of old sorting rooms don't have to.

The Cargo needs to auto sort itself into what the creative menu looks like instead of being a jumbled mess where you have to use the search feature to find anything. (At least the search feature works like creative)

I hope the 100 Low-ball of a config will get looked at once there is adequate feedback from the community. I understand the desire to low-ball configs as a buff is more well received than a nerf and I also understand not wanting to make storage space "too efficient".

 

[Mr.Steam]

Well, no matter what number is decided upon the great thing about space is you can always find more room if really needed. It's not like ARK where real estate is limited.

 

[Valck]

As a general cargo usability improvement, I'd like to be able to give more meaningful names to inventories. The current ten-character limit is too restrictive in my opinion, maybe double that would be sufficient.

Along with that, it would be brilliant if the storage block itself could act as a display, and show its inventory's name and maybe total/used capacity. I don't think it would take a lot of coding and texture trickery to adopt the display module's code somewhat like this quick mock-up (sorry for the bad legibility, I tried to match the texture's colour when I should have gone for contrast instead)

[DOUBLEPOST=1449514020,1449511655][/DOUBLEPOST]

This is about a quarter of a system's asteroids.

I seriously hope the current configs are "meant more as guidelines" and a base for discussion, and will get revised eventually ;) - that image illustrates nicely how disproportionate the current values are.

 

[jayman38]

Display blocks should also be able to display block names. Suggested mark-up:
<NameMaster count=1>
<NameSlave count=1>
<NameSelf>
<HealthCurrentSelf>
<HealthMaxSelf>
<HealthCurrentMaster count=1>
<HealthMaxMaster count=1>
<HealthCurrentSlave count=1>
<HealthMaxSlave count=1>
<InventoryCapacityMaster count=1>
<InventoryCapacitySlave count=1>
<InventoryTotalMaster count=1>
<InventoryTotalSlave count=1>
<InventoryGroupsMaster count=1>
<InventoryGroupsSlave count=1>
<InventoryGroup1Master count=1>
<InventoryGroup1Slave count=1>

Example to show the current inventory status of a slaved storage block:
<NameSlave count=1>
<InventoryTotalSlave count=1> / <InventoryCapacitySlave count=1>

would show something like
Main Cargo Bay
247.1 / 125000

(count numbers used for when multiple masters or slaves are linked to display blocks.)

 

[kiraen]

This also means that the feedback you're going to give now is going to matter the most. So please let us now if the chosen values are too low or too high from your point of view.

I started a new universe with this patch. My beginner salvager has so much cargo space compared to my salvage input that it'll take me a week real-time to fill my hold. I have the one storage and about 20 cargo. So...

Storage block should be nerfed to about 20%. The storage block all by itself is a large chunk of my storage capacity. I can save so much space just by deleting the cargo and adding more storage. And probably triple (or more) my already-to-large storage.

I'm thinking maybe scaler effect on the cargo? The more you have connected in one area, the more the compression? There are always those little nooks and crannies that you can't fit something into when packing. But if you merge them together you get a big enough space. This way a larger cargo hold will be much more efficient.

And guys, throw some of that crap away. It's not like it'll be hard to get more if it ever (doubtful) becomes usable.

 

[HerrColonel]

I'm thinking maybe scaler effect on the cargo? The more you have connected in one area, the more the compression?

Let's imagine a missile destroy 10% of my cargo space (thus reducing efficiency). What happend to the blocks that are in remaining storage? If losts, how the game choose which blocks are losts?

 

[Captainredfox]

Yeah, I think that 100 per block is way too much, I think 5-20 would be better. Especially if it weighed even less in storage than it does now.

 

[kiraen]

Let's imagine a missile destroy 10% of my cargo space (thus reducing efficiency). What happend to the blocks that are in remaining storage? If losts, how the game choose which blocks are losts?

What system are they using now? Randomly? I really don't see what this has to do with scaler compression.

Anyway...

I also wanted to add that actual volume requirements will make a big difference here as well. Right now a Log Book takes up more space then SA. Once volumes are customized on a per block basis, that will drastically effect storage.

I can easily see armor blocks being 'broken down' or folded up like a cardboard box. You'd be be able to store the same amount of ASA in the same space as hull. Computers, otoh, have internal components and require more space when packed up. Unfortunately, things like rocks and water don't really break down. Sure you can compress them some, but not like you could a rail block. I doubt 5 ore capsules would take up the same amount of space as the raw ore itself. I imagine metal mesh folds up, but I'm not sure about crystal composite.

It's not just a matter of how much volume we have to fill. We also need to make suggestions about how much each block should fill that volume.

(And exactly why do people think they need to carry around a box of rocks anyway? They have no use and they are pretty easy to find.)

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

I started a new universe with this patch. My beginner salvager has so much cargo space compared to my salvage input that it'll take me a week real-time to fill my hold. I have the one storage and about 20 cargo. So...

Storage block should be nerfed to about 20%. The storage block all by itself is a large chunk of my storage capacity. I can save so much space just by deleting the cargo and adding more storage. And probably triple (or more) my already-to-large storage.

If you think your storage container on your ship is too large then why not make it smaller? You can't just look at starter ships and miners when thinking about cargo and volume, what happens when you start stock piling advanced armor for building warships? It may take you a week to fill your small salvager but a single cargo space only holds 100 advanced armor.

 

[kiraen]

If you think your storage container on your ship is too large then why not make it smaller? You can't just look at starter ships and miners when thinking about cargo and volume, what happens when you start stock piling advanced armor for building warships? It may take you a week to fill your small salvager but a single cargo space only holds 100 advanced armor.

First, I've scrapped that universe and am starting over again. So yeah, making my hold smaller.
Second, this ties in to my other post. Right now raw materials take up a lot less space then they should and manufactured blocks take up way to much.

 

[Lone_Puppy]

I built my cargo ship containers on a 1 to 1 ratio for cargo. This is what I was expecting, so now I have what look like unnecessary and really huge cargo containers. I even built my freighter with the mass in mind, knowing it would likely be a clunky hauling machine.

The up side is, my freighter can haul loads more than I planned for.
The down side is, it's not as realistic as what I had hoped, but I can live with that.

Although, in an advanced society like that depicted in the movie "Ultraviolet" we could have retained the existing storage blocks in their original function. The technology in the movie was called "Flat Space Technology", where you literally have what looked like infinite storage capacity.

Improvements I would like are around connectivity.

• Push as well as pull abilitiy.
• Ability to pull across rails without turning off the pull on the source storage block. This has rendered a modular salvage design I was building useless.
• Wireless connectivity like or similar to the wireless blocks would be preferred, when connecting. I find using the dockers is creating a lot of double handling for me.
• Otherwise, a different connect method altogether. Like from the ship menu in the GUI.
• Perhaps a revamp of the whole connectivity, pull and block select functions