Implemented New Cargo System!

[Lecic]

I'm going to have to object to you on that one.

Some servers do not allow imported blueprints for certain reasons (Overpowered buildings, Easy-spawn titans, stolen ships from other servers, etc.) So this would cripple anyone who wanted to play on these kinds of servers, or anyone who just wants to build legitimately in survival, where it is more satisfying.

Ok, but you've still ignored my second point.

 

[CaptainTaz]

Ok, but you've still ignored my second point.

No, I read it, but We dont know how the shipyard system is going to work. I, for one, have heard that its where a ship is auto-assembled from a blueprint, not physically built there.

 

[Ithirahad]

No, I read it, but We dont know how the shipyard system is going to work. I, for one, have heard that its where a ship is auto-assembled from a blueprint, not physically built there.

...It'll also be the only place where you can use build mode, if I remember correctly. An astrotech beam revamp (and astronaut-mode building/repairing - this will probably give us more reason to have corridors and/or elevators to access parts of our systems or hull or whatever.) will take care of in-flight repairs.
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Did the math, and there are currently 661 occupied IDs (might be some unfilled between 1 and 661, but I didn't check), which gives us 363 unoccupied IDs, or 113 left for non-modding purposes.

Yeah, there are also several IDs for stuff that's not being used. PlexLanders, DeathStar Cores, old factories (e.g. the Recycler), some extra enhancers that were scrapped, and maybe a few other things I'm forgetting... All open IDs waiting for use.

 

[CaptainTaz]

...It'll also be the only place where you can use build mode, if I remember correctly. An astrotech beam revamp (and astronaut-mode building) will take care of in-flight repairs.

I hope that's implemented so that you dont have to build a station large enough to house your ship in first, because then nothing would ever get built.... as well as if one faction's was destroyed along with all their mining ships in a raid, it could cripple an entire faction.

 

[Ithirahad]

I hope that's implemented so that you dont have to build a station large enough to house your ship in first, because then nothing would ever get built.... as well as if one faction's was destroyed along with all their mining ships in a raid, it could cripple an entire faction.

The dimensions will probably be like docking mechanics... And in my experience, getting a big ol' dock isn't that hard.

 

[CaptainTaz]

The dimensions will probably be like docking mechanics... And in my experience, getting a big ol' dock isn't that hard.

how would you get the credits for a station though without a decent mining ship?

 

[Lecic]

how would you get the credits for a station though without a decent mining ship?

Cut down an abandoned one to a single block. That's very cheap to repair. Or, live on a planet, preferably a small one.

 

[CaptainTaz]

Cut down an abandoned one to a single block. That's very cheap to repair. Or, live on a planet, preferably a small one.

A would require some sort of ship, and B not only causes lag, but also risk of server lag, crashes, or corruptions should players not accurately judge their builds and try to launch without enough thrust.

 

[Ithirahad]

A would require some sort of ship, and B not only causes lag, but also risk of server lag, crashes, or corruptions should players not accurately judge their builds and try to launch without enough thrust.

Hopefully, by the time someone's building ships larger than maybe 75-100 meters long, they have a space station. In my experience, the effects of a small ship landing temporarily on a planet aren't nearly as catastrophic as some people believe, as long as the person doesn't just leave it sitting there. (i.e. as long as they realize their mistake and dock the ship back on their dock we'll be fine)

As for option A, it's incredibly easy to make "some sort of ship" using astronaut building and find a station that way, especially if it's just a noobship. I build my noobships this way sometimes, I'd know. Besides, I'd expect a rise in the popularity of server spawn stations with public shipyards, which'll help things out a bit.

 

[NeonSturm]

I still think cargo storage should be linked to a 'defined' space/volume outside player storage (only because player storage changes would be terribly inconvenient). Not sure what the devs have planned but I would like to see ships affected by the mass/volume of the cargo they carry as cargo. A simply example of this being an entire planet can be harvested in only a few storage modules and this seems an incongruity with a physics based universe.

Inertia Dampeners!!!

Inside your cargo storage : Cargo Compressors
For your whole ship : Warp Drive


I still prefer my idea of Cargo-Boxes (with core in the middle on top face), because then you can move Cargo without accessing the interface.
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[Valiant70]

This thread was over a month old, it's nice that you support it, but show some class and don't necro old threads.

Go away.

 

[whooplaah]

Dragleones pointed out a few things I was thinking about as I read through the original posts.

1. How will this affect astronaut inventory? It must lower it, otherwise no one will use the cargo/storage systems. If it lowers astronaut inventory capacity, how then will I transfer huge amounts of cargo from a freighter to my station's cargo hold?
2. If I am working on a new ship (just a ship core), the only inventory I have access to is the astronaut inventory. Must I use Astronaut inventory to build a ship cargo space so I can then fill the cargo space to have enough blocks to build the rest of the ship? Or must I enter/exit build mode a dozen times to restock my supplies?
3. If I am mining/harvesting and I have a hard-coded inventory capacity I am forced to go drop off goods. This means that harvesting trips will be a lot of back-and-forth flying through empty space, and a lot of walking to and from my ship to transfer cargo to the station.
4. Faction permissions will need to be implemented to control who can access which cargo holds. If my player cannot carry the millions of blocks I've bought/built/found I have to store them, and if I store them I need to protect them from unauthorized use - especially within my own faction.

Don't get me wrong, I really like this idea. If I go into battle with a freighter and destroy it, I should be able to salvage the cargo instead of the pilot dying/teleporting away with it all. And if I missile the cargo hold then it should destroy cargo blocks (as sad as that would be). And blowing up Isanths should not produce a cloud of items that has hundreds or thousands of mass that I collect by flying through.

So however we go about limiting cargo capacity/inventory we have to make a way of transferring cargo. This could be as simple as a Cargo-Transfer Beam. Each Cargo Module has a beam like a ship core that can target another Cargo Module (or module enhancer connected to a cargo module). Upon connection the two cargo modules are opened so a player can transfer items between the inventories.

This will allow ship construction to access station/freighter inventory with the push of a button so long as the design keeps the modules exposed for use.

---

Schema has said he will be implementing a ship yard to construct ships, and that there will be an expansion of Astronaut play. The way these features are implemented may have a huge impact on the way inventory works. I've also read that moving parts will be implemented at some point - cargo bays that slide out of one ship an into another sounds nifty.

 

[Lecic]

1. How will this affect astronaut inventory? It must lower it, otherwise no one will use the cargo/storage systems. If it lowers astronaut inventory capacity, how then will I transfer huge amounts of cargo from a freighter to my station's cargo hold?

Probably with some sort of way to transfer cargo through a docking module to a cargo hold.

2. If I am working on a new ship (just a ship core), the only inventory I have access to is the astronaut inventory. Must I use Astronaut inventory to build a ship cargo space so I can then fill the cargo space to have enough blocks to build the rest of the ship? Or must I enter/exit build mode a dozen times to restock my supplies?

In the future, build mode will probably be a shipyards only feature, with starter ships built by hand (or, more likely, in a small shipyard at the spawn station)

Shipyards will let you draw blocks from storage as you build, so this wouldn't be an issue.

3. If I am mining/harvesting and I have a hard-coded inventory capacity I am forced to go drop off goods. This means that harvesting trips will be a lot of back-and-forth flying through empty space, and a lot of walking to and from my ship to transfer cargo to the station.

The simple solution to this is to make a larger cargo bay on your salvager.

 

[Fum]

It's a neat idea. But why fiddle around with the docking area? We all know the docking box was a pain to work with.

I'd suggest a somewhat EVE Online-like solution. Each PLEX Storage Container has X cubic metres of capacity (configurable!) for items. Every item takes up Y cubic metres of space. As the storage gets filled up, the block could change textures to 25%, 50% etc. for a visual representation.

To promote dedicated mining ships, there could be a tier 2 storage block (comPLEX?) with 10x increased storage room, but it can only store 1 type of block. For convenience, the type would be whatever is set in the control block that comPLEX storage is slaved to.

All of this, would of course need inventory management to be overhauled. Only after cargo can be easily transferred between docked entities would it be feasible to build mining ships and freighters.

 

[ltmauve]

It's a neat idea. But why fiddle around with the docking area? We all know the docking box was a pain to work with.

Because honestly having a box shape for storing cargo makes sense, while requiring ships to be box-shaped doesn't.

I'd suggest a somewhat EVE Online-like solution. Each PLEX Storage Container has X cubic metres of capacity (configurable!) for items. Every item takes up Y cubic metres of space. As the storage gets filled up, the block could change textures to 25%, 50% etc. for a visual representation.

Except that this naturally makes cargo give ships extra mass in an intuitive system, and gives a very intuitive way of telling how much space is left.

To promote dedicated mining ships, there could be a tier 2 storage block (comPLEX?) with 10x increased storage room, but it can only store 1 type of block. For convenience, the type would be whatever is set in the control block that comPLEX storage is slaved to.

Or maybe we have different types of inventories, that can be a master to the cargo pad block.

 

[nightwalker_007]

I would prefer if, instead, a free-form area was selected as a cargo area, rather than a bounding box. Unlike area triggers, we could actually give this block a texture: a wire shelf, or something. Shelves placed together become linked.

The only issue with this is, it would make the game considerably harder.... but it would be cool to be able to walk around and actually see what's on the shelf. Each shelf should store at least half of what an astronaut can carry.

Storage boxes could still be used, but lets make these things actually lockable, with a combination. The game *really* needs a lock system.

 

[ltmauve]

Maybe not a shelf, but how about linking a storage to area triggers to turn it into a bulk storage thingy? No new blocks needed, and then the area triggers are turned into cargo blocks once you start adding blocks?

 

[Fum]

Because honestly having a box shape for storing cargo makes sense, while requiring ships to be box-shaped doesn't.

I don't quite understand. What's the difference between designating an area inside your ship with a shape vs. simply filling the area you want inside your ship with storage blocks?
It's much more intuitive to fill your ship with empty boxes rather than having some sort of area defining cube system.

Except that this naturally makes cargo give ships extra mass in an intuitive system, and gives a very intuitive way of telling how much space is left.

Au contraire. Placing empty boxes that then change texture and fill up as they get fuller is a very intuitive and physical way. Fiddling with area designators is just additional busywork.

Or maybe we have different types of inventories, that can be a master to the cargo pad block.

Probably. I simply wanted to have a way to increase storage significantly for miners, but prevent using the advanced storage blocks as a default storage for everything, essentially making the basic storage useless.

I would prefer if, instead, a free-form area was selected as a cargo area, rather than a bounding box. Unlike area triggers, we could actually give this block a texture: a wire shelf, or something. Shelves placed together become linked.

So basically what I suggest. Placing blocks creates storage. They all get automatically linked for convenience. Texture changes indicate how full the storage is. Additional bonus is we get a free-form system instead of rigid boxed areas.

 

[ltmauve]

Au contraire. Placing empty boxes that then change texture and fill up as they get fuller is a very intuitive and physical way. Fiddling with area designators is just additional busywork.

Except it won't give the mass change.

So basically what I suggest. Placing blocks creates storage. They all get automatically linked for convenience. Texture changes indicate how full the storage is. Additional bonus is we get a free-form system instead of rigid boxed areas.

Also not to mention the weird effect of having a cargo bay that looks full when you don't have any cargo.

 

[NeonSturm]

I don't quite understand. What's the difference between designating an area inside your ship with a shape vs. simply filling the area you want inside your ship with storage blocks?

If you use a box of storage-blocks, you can't see the content.

If you designate an area for storage-content, it's just like you place inventory blocks down there.

The difference would be it wouldn't affect the values of the new HP-system and these blocks would be somehow marked as "in inventory" for easier access.