Standardized Cargo/Shipping Containers

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    What say you we all agree on formats for cargo containers? Like the standardized docking port - we agree on a general shape and size for the containers, so that we can carry them between ships of different makers without worrying if they'll fit or not?

    I know each would need:

    Thrusters
    Docker
    Storage
    Cargo Spaces
     
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    Something to note about trying to standardize cargo: Shape and size matters, but so does cargo capacity. Because starmade is built with cubes, I can only assume a cube shaped container would be the most efficient volume per surface area. So in theory the most efficient shape would probably be a cube, or a rectangular prism. Then perhaps with a standardized shape, the size could be based on volume contained? Every 10k volume or something would be considered some standardized size.

    Just some of my thoughts on this!
     
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    Something to note about trying to standardize cargo: Shape and size matters, but so does cargo capacity. Because starmade is built with cubes, I can only assume a cube shaped container would be the most efficient volume per surface area. So in theory the most efficient shape would probably be a cube, or a rectangular prism. Then perhaps with a standardized shape, the size could be based on volume contained? Every 10k volume or something would be considered some standardized size.

    Just some of my thoughts on this!
    From what I picked up from the last thread it seems there was the least resistance to the shape being pure cubes, with the majority leaning towards having odd dimensions. (This is not biased here, I wanted even numbers and rectangular prisms)

    So going from that the best public options in my mind would be Odd dimensional Cubes, with the sizes being multiples of each other so that they can fit into scaling sized holds.
     
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    Definitely odd since it is far easier to locate rail dockers either at the dead center of the surface or at the center of any edge. As for the cube or the rectangular prism - I definitely vote for the prism. Cubes are boring...
     
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    I thinks all those standardized things, wich can be usefull in real life are so boring IN A SCIENCE-FICTION WORLD.
     
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    My friends and I are currently playing with a standardized cargo container that is 5x5x11. Some of the containers are capsule shaped, while others are rectangular. I fancied them up by attaching a logic clock to a beacon so that it blinks whenever it's not docked, and a thruster so that it can be maneuvered independently if need be.

    We're talking about automating the transfer of the capsules from ship to station and back, using something like a crane. I'm on the fence about the endeavor, because I suspect that players would rather simply dock and have everything sucked out with the existing storage logic than wait around for the extra steps involved with a fancy logic gizmo.
     

    Ithirahad

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    I'm fairly certain that at the time that this was posted, we didn't have the storage logic that's in there now.
     
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    Something to note about trying to standardize cargo: Shape and size matters, but so does cargo capacity. Because starmade is built with cubes, I can only assume a cube shaped container would be the most efficient volume per surface area. So in theory the most efficient shape would probably be a cube, or a rectangular prism. Then perhaps with a standardized shape, the size could be based on volume contained? Every 10k volume or something would be considered some standardized size.

    Just some of my thoughts on this!
    Cubes are also the most efficient in real life, in terms of volume per total surface area.

    I think that matters less in SM than it does in RL though - generally most of us won't care about saving a few percentage points of build material.

    Because SM ships are usually (not always of course) long on one axis and relatively short onthe other two, we can assume that cargo spaces will also be more likely to be long on one axis and short on the other two, and that therefore we moght want to make cargo containers long on one axis and short on the other two, because it will mean fewer of them are required to fill a cargo space, which means less work to load and unload a ship.

    I suspect in practice more people would care about saving time/effort than cheap building materials.
    (And longer, larger containers will save on the more expensive materials: thrusters, docks, etc)
     
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    a cube does fit more with a standardized system. less to remember for ship builders to remember. just one number and go from there.