Epic: Stocking Containers

Is it possible to stock containers (I don't want to sell now) in the cargo bay of a station?
and if so, how can I do that?

A few days ago, I was able to pick some containers, but I cannot sell them at this moment. So I tried to drop them on safe place in space, saved the game, but loading the game, the containers were gone.

I reloaded a safe game just after the pick up, asked my wingman to unload the cargo, tried to dock to a container to get them in a base but could not dock to the containers.

Trying to let my wingman dock to the base did not work too, but even if I manage to dock him, I will probably not be able to get my containers in the cargo bay of a station.

Hi esraven,

No, you are not able to stock pods in the cargo bay of a station. Might be a feature for the future, but currently you cannot.

I am curious..what kinds of pods did you have that you were not able to sell? Were they pirated, or were they just of a type that no one wanted in that system?

Also, I thought that cargo left in space would be restored after a save. Perhaps I was wrong. GrandpaTrout would be the one to answer that question. I am sure he will be along in a moment.

edit: I just tested if I could leave my pods in space, save the game, reload, and pick them up again. It worked no problem. So you can do it. I am wondering whether you put them in a place where you couldn't find them again easily? Or maybe they were stolen?

Cargo pods are only saved if they are docked to player ships. Or if they are within 200km of the player when the game is saved.

The reason is that the Flux engine is limited. A cargo pod is a ship. And 100 ships will slow the game. It is easy to collect 100 cargo pods and leave them here and there.

I guessed as much... but I'd seen something a few days ago which made me wonder.

Azaran and EtCom got into a brush war in Alcuin. Azaran ships would start scragging EtCom stations while EtCom seemed to target Azaran supply lines (i.e., hammering freighters lined up to exchange cargo with stations).

I'd visited an Azran station and bought my goods, filling up my transport. Then, as I'm leaving, EtCom forces storm the place and start destroying freighters... so I decide to stick around a bit and see what ends up floating in space.

Some good stuff... high-dollar... since I'd already bought my cargo and filled my freighters I had to decide what to take. I grabbed the most expensive cargo dropped by the freighters and ended up leaving five pods I'd bought from the station.

Ran to a few other stations within the same system (to sell the good stuff I'd collected) and then returned to the Azran station. I was very surprised to find three of the five pods were still there. Still tagged in my name too. Had no problems trading them either.

Was this a bug?

If you did a save/restore those pods left behind would be gone. But they are set so they won't be culled until you quit the game. As long as you keep playing, you can leave pods all over the place and they will stay. But they don't survive a save/restore cycle.

In the Beta, no pods survived a save/restore unless you had them docked. But people were purchasing pods, and then going inside the station to save. When they got back, all the pods were gone. An expensive save. So I added the code to save pods near the player. Basically, if you only expect pods on your ships to survive, you will be fine. Even if you make the occasional mistake and save before loading is totally complete.

But pod hording is not supported. Just because the engine cannot handle the volume. It seems a good comprimise solution.

We are looking at adding player stations now. What do you think of the idea that the player can drop cargo near those stations and have them saved as well. Then the player can still save pods, but the game does not end up with 100 pods scattered around the cluster. If the game is getting slow, the player could sell a few off. If the player loses the station, he loses the cargo (which would be fitting).

Ugh... not crazy about that idea. Give the player a station and then he starts wondering why he has no fleets. Give him fleets and then he'll complain about the command interface. Etc. etc.

How about this: create the futuristic version of the Storage store. Essentially a station which does nothing but warehouse pods for a fee. Fee computed daily, weekly, or monthly. Non-payment of fee punishable by seizure of any property within storage area.

Player would have to have the required reputational standing with the station's owners, and a maximum number of pods could be stored within the station. Should the player have pods stored, and then later become the enemy of that faction, all property will be seized.

Place about five of these stations throughout the MS cluster and the player will have the means of storing unused pods. But he'll have to pay for it and maintain good standing.

Then the save routine would only have to check each of the five stations to see what pods are stored. Since the pods are inside the station (and not rendered), it's just data.

However, the downside is that the station would require either a custom GUI to handle pod storage.