"Trash Compactors" (aka Long Term Storage) and Micro Assembler "Recycler" Revamp

[Edymnion]

Okay, cargo is here and as stated by the devs they have set the initial storage density fairly low, figuring its easier to buff it later than it is to nerf it, and I agree with that. Its going to be a balancing game for a while to find the best ratio.

One problem I (and I assume others) have is that due to uneven resource allocation across the universe, I end up with truly obscene amounts of some resources and a complete dearth of others. So I may have 20 million mattise capsules, I can count the amount rammet I have literally on my fingers. And thats without even getting into colored rocks and downright worthless things like icy rock and other assorted planetary stone that aren't used for anything.

So what if we added a new layer of blocks for long term storage that act like the ingots we currently have? As in use our factories to compress things like stone and rock and even capsules into denser forms that are more storage friendly? Say we have, for a lack of a better term, a Stone Ingot. Make it in a basic factory (or even have a new Compactor block), requires 100 regular stone per block. Do the same with colored rock, and capsules. Make ingots out of all of them that can't be directly used, they're just packaged for long term storage.

Then revamp the Micro Assembler (which desperately needs it anyway) to be a recycler that can "unpack" the ingots back into their normal forms. Get rid of the "turn valuable crystals into worthless composite" stuff it currently has, and instead let it deconstruct things that don't pack into long term storage blocks (like say armor, computers, etc) back into some of their component parts.

That way we can go through extra steps to put things into long term storage and take them back out to save cargo space, and get better functionality out of the assembler which, lets face it, isn't used for anything but scrap in the first place.

 

[Master_Artificer]

I like the idea of packing and unpacking.

Maybe have it require a scrap or something to pack and unpack (as well as time and energy) so people will be more likely to treat it as long term as a tiny bit of resources are expended. (just scrap, but still). I feel like if ores or a % of materials were lost instead of scrap, people wouldn't use it (shards and ores like hylat are just that valuable) but it shouldn't also be free.

And we can adjust normal cargo space to 20-50 per block instead of 100! :D

 

[Edymnion]

What about instead of calling it an ingot, we make the crafting recipe be 100 blocks of whatever you want to store and one storage block?

Then when you unpack, you only get the materials back, and you've lost the storage block you had to craft.

 

[Comradecolonel]

I think being able to compress and decompress block would be a great mechanic to add. It addresses 2 problems. It helps us be able to store large amounts of things and also make blocks easier to transport. It also helps when you over manufacture too much of something you can convert it back.

Individual blocks would gain even further value. Ships with lots of "junk blocks" could be deconstructed to make any block you desire. It allows anything in the universe to possibly be used.

A way to balance it would be to make it have fast ticks that require a decent amount of regen to keep up with. It could be a more the opposite of a factory, which tends to require more power in reserve.

 

[NeonSturm]

How about compressing all that useless things into some sort of station-hull-block?

High mass, low hp, very low cost.​

 

[Edymnion]

How about compressing all that useless things into some sort of station-hull-block?

High mass, low hp, very low cost.​

Eh, I think that would be a little redundant. To make our stations and ships match, the station blocks would need to look like regular armor, at which point its pretty silly to have two identical looking blocks. Would be better to simply have a way to convert rock either directly into armor or into materials that could then become armor.