Mining computers and PlexStorage Containers

[Sahji]

Tired of your player inventory filling up with space rock, lava and sand? me too!

The solution?

select your mining computer with "c" and then any PlexStorage container with "v" and everything you mine will go into that container instead of your player inventory. Great idea huh? yeah I know. How, the obvious selecting of, multiple containers would work out (evenly distributed? once first is filled move to new available space in new container? a new subsystem where the player can see all his, or her containers either in the form of some sort of display or list and the player chooses the next container? who knows... I'm sure a best idea will make itself apparent before long) ...but think of the new ship designs for cargo carriers that will ensue, your friends playing along to escort your cargo freighters hither and yon, sector to sector. A new block representing a PlexStorage container with maybe one slot, but but with abundant space (typical container size for cargo use). Yes, I can see it now

So what do you think?

 

[Rhyunix]

I have thought of this idea a lot, and I'm all for it, but I think that perhaps it would make mining so... easy. I wouldn't think that's what the devs would want

 

[MossyStone48]

It's actually an old suggestion. It goes all the way back to the old forum. It extended out as far as automatically placing looted items into the storage of the active ship (if any) and would also allow for mining drones. A bobby AI with some plexstorage sent out to mine anything it finds and return to base. The risk of course come in the form of pirates and player pirates destroying them for their cargo enroute or while collecting.

 

[BDLS]

^ What he said, but yeah I like the idea of connecting salvage computers to plexchests. Especially now that salvagers will see more use.

I like it even more in conjunction with that suggestion (too lazy to find the link, perhaps was on the old site?) to make storing materials take up more room, being held in an expandable bounding box type area. This would create a need for cargo holds, and is certainly cooler than 999999 of X items held in a 1x1x1 box.

 

[FunnyBunny14]

It won't make mining easier, it will just make it less tedious, you know, with you not having to stop all the time to move everything into the storage.

 

[MossyStone48]

<insert obligatory disney movie song here>

 

[Sahji]

It's actually an old suggestion. It goes all the way back to the old forum. It extended out as far as automatically placing looted items into the storage of the active ship (if any) and would also allow for mining drones. A bobby AI with some plexstorage sent out to mine anything it finds and return to base. The risk of course come in the form of pirates and player pirates destroying them for their cargo enroute or while collecting.

"...pirates and player pirates destroying them for their cargo enroute or while collecting."

Which, I'm sure some of the more prepared, hardcore players would welcome as a challenge. I can see some less than sporting players taking advantage though, and it become excessive, but I'm not so sure we should let those players dictate how we play. (We don't negotiate with terrorist and all that sort of stuff) The universe, much like real life can be cruel, hard, and unforgiving place, but if certain patterns emerge that would be a time for an admin to step in and weed out those players. If the server you are on is completely lawless, maybe its time to try another with a better rep and range of players. Adding this element will help this game evolve. Not so sure if loot should be treated the same as mined materials though, but perhaps that loot could go "where ever" its the players cargo space after all to fill with what ever and it has to go somewhere.

The players immediate inventory is simply too small to be used for mining and at the same time be used to store building blocks and what ever else. IMHO. It simply makes things a bit more organized, and the game more immersive, since cargo bays are already a staple in a lot of space simulation games. If I leave my ship I should not be carrying mass quantities of ore in my pockets. It is within reason that it be in a cargo hold on the ship that mined it with me having access to whats in that hold and be able to distribute it either with some sort of beam transfer resembling the mining laser, or by drones we build, or ship to ship proximity where we can select that close/docked ship via some menu contraption and then transfer goods between.

I hope this idea gets the reboot it deserves. It certainly should not be stifled by fear of pirate attack, or bully"ish" players/factions.

Its been a couple of hours, time to get back in there!
(as always, I apologize for not being able to write as fast as I think. I think it makes sense though)

 

[jayman38]

I agree with the OP. It doesn't make sense to me that the spaceship salvage beams dump into your personal inventory, all inventory physics aside (I'm assuming that plex lockers and personal inventory use some sort of dimensional rift to store stuff, so you can store as much as you want, without affecting ship mass or walking around. Just stuff 14 tonnes of metal in your back pocket. No problemo!), it just makes sense that the ship will dump its salvage into its own storage bay instead of dumping found material into the pilot's lap. Maybe something like "trans-dimensional rift" can be added to the plex storage description, to make it make more sense and to make it sound more "spacey". Also, maybe to keep it from being ridiculous, limit the connection from the salvage computer to one plex storage only. That way, you still have the necessity of moving things to alternate boxes when you have collected too many different types of material. When storage gets too full, no salvage beam fires, and maybe a helpful message declaring the Salvage storage bay full when you try to fire it.

Now I'm wondering what Disney Song WarSong had in mind. "Whistle While You Work?"

 

[NeonSturm]

Spoiler: Off-Topic response to [USER=386267]jayman38[/USER]

If inv and pstores use multi-dimensional space to compress blocks and technomagcially not affect inertia-mass of your ship, I want weapon arrays which have just their nose pointing outside this multi-space.

Also it would not make a lot of sense to have different types of blocks occupying more space than less of one type.