Backdaft
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Posted - 2009.07.06 06:40:00 -
[1]
Here are some of the crazy rules that have developed over the years regarding containers. It's time for a complete revamp. Really.
You cannot contract a ship, not even a private contract, if it has an expanded cargo container within its cargo hold. There is currently no method to remotely remove a container from a ship.
You cannot contract a container, not even a private contract, if it has even one damaged item within it (ie weapon and mining crystals). There is currently no method to remotely remove a damaged item from a container.
You can only put Freight containers within a freighter. There are no other more usable sizes.
You can put perishable items (ie. livestock, hookers, frozen seeds, etc) into a station container, but not into a Freight container. A Freight container doesn't have a Plank field, so what's the big deal?
Freight containers become worthless once you get to a POS. You can't get anything into, or out of, these containers until you find a station to dock.
A container, once put into a POS module, like an assembly or a CHA, cannot be opened. This used to work. It doesn't now. No reason give as to why.
A station container, for no reason that can be fathomed, will periodically "forget" it's settings. If you set it to unlocked, it will eventually switch back to locked. So you will have to redo these settings on every single station container you own, probably at least one every month. We don't know why.
And despite all this craziness, I believe it is still possible to use a courier mission to shrink wrap a ship, (as long as it's smaller than 120k m3 -why? We don't know.) with rigs, perhaps even with damaged weapon crystals, and haul THAT around. However, this feature used in a secure method is reserved for the elite, who have director status within a corp that allows them to create such missions and use the same character to then accept them on behalf of the corp. Where you can then freely transport your goods where ever you want and then crack open the shrink wrap.
I'm sure I'm forgetting a few, but this a solid start. If you can think of others then I'll add them to the list.
So how would I go about starting to fix this? Make freighter cans usable within a freighter when it's within the shield of a POS. Make cans usable within an assembly without having to first remove them. (Currently, if you're in a freighter at the time, you're screwed again.) Convert all current standard cans to secure cans. Rework standard cans to have no plank field, reintroduce them on the market, so they can be put anywhere into anything while expanded and JUST WORK. Create a new contract type called DAMAGED CONTRACT that will allow damaged items. Create a new contract type called SHRINK WRAP that will package all selected items into a namable shrink wrapped container up to a max size of 250k m3. This container type can only be contracted to your own corp, corp members, or other chars on your account. Since you can remotely contract items, this now creates methods to remotely transfer ships that may have damaged weapon crystals, or other containers within them. Originally, I believe CCP created the "no container in a ship" rule to prevent undetectable smuggling of contraband or the exploit of placing contraband on contract using this method. I believe they have code now to prevent this anyway, so they should now remove this rule.
Come on CCP. Help out us logistics players. Look at the list above. That's alot of hoops to jump through (and remember) to just try and get stuff from point A to point B. How about some simplification to these game mechanics?
----- I've said it before, I'll say it again - CCP hates logistics players. FIX THE CONTAINERS! |