I agree to all of
I think standardized cargo pods are a great idea.
Why?
- Once upon a time, we discussed having ready-made ships that new players can buy, so that they wouldn't have to be builders if they didn't want to be. Standardized cargo pods would allow them to buy bulk parts for upgrades and bulk survival items for building bases.
- It would be an easy way for an admin or faction leader to give out "prizes" whether as rewards for missions or for other reasons, such as giving new players a "booster pack" to get them building.
- It could be used by the game to provide mission rewards.
- It could be used by the game for more detailed missions, such as intercepting cargo transfers, cargo destruction missions (that don't require total destruction of every little enemy craft), and cargo missions where you are the carrier.
- It will lead to standardized cargo handling blueprints and fancy rail-based handling designs.
- The game could embed random cargo pods on random planets, similar to random cities and pyramids, as an exploration enhancement or for recovery/destruction missions.
- Personally, I'd rather see a small cargo pod spat out of a destroyed cargo block than a "loot cloud".
- Speaking of loot clouds, the game could spawn cargo pods as rewards for destroyed players, pirates, stations, and other destructables.
What to avoid:
Microtransaction Gambling/Random Lootbox cargo pods ( perhaps inevitable, but a guy can dream.... )
And about:
- Quoted: Personally, I'd rather see a small cargo pod spat out of a destroyed cargo block than a "loot cloud".
- Quoted: Speaking of loot clouds, the game could spawn cargo pods as rewards for destroyed players, pirates, stations, and other destructables.
;
+1
Loot clouds disappear. Cargo pods work more unified with the ship-tracking system.
Something is a Cargo-Pot (like a turret is a turret) when it only-extends the cargo-pod blueprint and as long as it's disguised (no weapons or when no weapons can be detected).
Every size comes in some quality classes: "Basic Container", "Hardened", "Luxus", "Lightweight/Volumetric", "Secret", "Heavy/Massive"
" Basic Containers": contain basic items, such as survival kits, small-craft (drones/mines/satelites/pre-mixed) ressources, basic (one-type, cheap) bulk-ressources, ...
" Lightweight/Volumetric": would be the container choice for volumetric content types (more volume, less mass, such as ready-to-fly fighters, decoration and gas-ressources)
" Hardened": is the right choice for everything expensive or explosive.
" Secret": is either secret-service, contraband, privacy-protection, may hold nasty surprises (as in traders vs pirates), research secrets, etc.
" Luxus containers": contain additional living room, a store or other things that only peoples would use (robots don't need it).
" Heavy/Massive": is only for bulk-terrain or ore.
All of these could fit in a certain shape and allow for more grouping WHERE cargo is actually stored and how it is protected.
It also allows RP-meta-decissions like "we need to put heavy containers in the centre for equal mass distribution".
It is also implausible to randomly-access all materials as if they were teleported when compressing the cargo's mass to the density of neutron-stars. Not all container types may support different material types or random access in their cargo management system.
Perhaps a cargo computer needs to receive a blueprint of the logic system which to use for cargo handling, so that players can even tweak the UI functionality.
EDIT: RP may decide to additionally reserve X volume per cosmetic unit and only semi-liquids can fill that place (semi-liquids are all materials that can plausibly easily be separated but are measured, collected and used in volumetric units. Examples: Sand, earth, water, Small fruits, leaves, etc because they can fill small spaces without being broken into a product with different chemical or mechanical properties)
