[Feature request] Ship mod that increases cargo space

[LandogarX4]

A recurrent request by players is for XL-sized superfreighters. Anyone who does Terraforming projects will understand why.

But of course, such new ships would take development time away from other urgent issues. In addition, there could be balancing issues since it will become too easy to haul large amounts of freight.

So here is an alternative that might work: Add a ship modification that increases cargo space. The basic mod would add 10%, the advanced one +30% (with also a downside attached), and the exceptional one +50%. Given how scarce exceptional ship mods are, (and given the opportunity cost of not being able to reduce ship mass), this would not be spammable and hence there would not be a balancing issue. On the other hand, this would enable players to have a small number of superfreighters and make terraforming projects less of a clickfest.

It would also take very little development time, I dare presume. So this change would add great benefit, at a little cost. Hoping that CBJ sees this and gives his thumbs up or thumbs down

[Axeface]

I would really like this and I think its been requested a few times (by myself as well).

[CBJ]

It's not a bad idea, but not quite as easy to implement as you might think. Cargo capacity isn't determined by the ship itself, it's determined by it's storage module, and there are various bits of code, potentially including important optimisations, that rely on that not changing. Being able to switch mods at any point could mess things up in all kinds of ways, especially if you had a full cargo and then switched to a mod that mean you had more cargo than available space!

[LandogarX4]

It's not a bad idea, but not quite as easy to implement as you might think. Cargo capacity isn't determined by the ship itself, it's determined by it's storage module, and there are various bits of code, potentially including important optimisations, that rely on that not changing. Being able to switch mods at any point could mess things up in all kinds of ways, especially if you had a full cargo and then switched to a mod that mean you had more cargo than available space!

I always underestimate the complexities of programming xD. But many thanks for considering the idea, maybe there is a way to still make it work.

[Alan Phipps]

Maybe some ships could tow/tractor a rigid trailer cargo pod (without frying it with their engines)? If they are capitals then docking and undocking with such an 'extension' might not be such an issue. Of course the space-train would be really slow and a pig to turn.

[-=SiR KiLLaLoT=-]

This is a great idea, but I can say you can already do something very similar.

For example, to carry the huge quantities of Graphene or Metallic Microlattice (and you surely know why ), i am using exactly 4 Shuryaku Sentinels with the only four blue modifications in my possession for hull and engines.

Basically by increasing the travel speed and main thrust significantly, you get much the same effect as having a cargo modification.

I can confirm that the modification of only four transporters with that tonnage can guarantee a MUCH faster delivery speed than you can imagine.

[LandogarX4]

This is a great idea, but I can say you can already do something very similar.

For example, to carry the huge quantities of Graphene or Metallic Microlattice (and you surely know why ), i am using exactly 4 Shuryaku Sentinels with the only four blue modifications in my possession for hull and engines.

Basically by increasing the travel speed and main thrust significantly, you get much the same effect as having a cargo modification.

I can confirm that the modification of only four transporters with that tonnage can guarantee a MUCH faster delivery speed than you can imagine.

But the important metric in the late game is not (cargo/time), which can be increased infinitely by buying more and more ships. What really matters is (cargo/click), i.e. how many times do you have to click in the UI to transport x units. And this cannot be improved at all even by the most advanced player with infinite resources. The best you can do is to buy an Incarcatura Sentinel.

[-=SiR KiLLaLoT=-]

This is a great idea, but I can say you can already do something very similar.

For example, to carry the huge quantities of Graphene or Metallic Microlattice (and you surely know why ), i am using exactly 4 Shuryaku Sentinels with the only four blue modifications in my possession for hull and engines.

Basically by increasing the travel speed and main thrust significantly, you get much the same effect as having a cargo modification.

I can confirm that the modification of only four transporters with that tonnage can guarantee a MUCH faster delivery speed than you can imagine.

But the important metric in the late game is not (cargo/time), which can be increased infinitely by buying more and more ships. What really matters is (cargo/click), i.e. how many times do you have to click in the UI to transport x units. And this cannot be improved at all even by the most advanced player with infinite resources. The best you can do is to buy an Incarcatura Sentinel.

I understand what you mean, but in my case I do transports of this magnitude via repeat order behavior, so that kind of mod all in all works

I think the number of clicks should be solved with the possibility of selecting multiple ships and being able to order all of them to perform the same operation manually.
In reality there is already a similar menu, which few people know. When performing a manual trade, there is the possibility of selecting ships via a drop-down menu.
The problem is that I don't understand the list of ships in this menu, I don't understand the logic of the ships shown.

It would be nice if it showed SELECTED ships at that time, so that you can decide whether to select all or some and be able to deliver all the goods to the same place.
That menu could also show information about the cargo of each individual ship so as to keep track of the amount of cargo transported.
Something like this