#Ship Inventory Management

31 messages · Page 1 of 1 (latest)

upper spruce
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So to make the Zone menu and ship wide inventory management work I had a great idea! Get a scanning tool and computer set up and make it a whole room setup called the Stewards Office maybe add in wall mounts to "Scan/Set" inventory zones so you can haul things in beep them into your system and then access that info from your PDA after linking it all together. I know this sounds like adding more work for the point of adding more work for the player but there might be some form of mechanic that works with this?

glossy turtle
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my take:

  • a new "app" is added to PDA called "inventory". maybe it could be purchasable or downloadable from someone else's PDA even.
  • a scanner tool is added which allows you to scan containers and add their contents to a ship inventory database, accessible through the inventory app by any crew member.
  • scanning a container could be done manually or done auto action. maybe with a separate priority if roster priorities get expanded.
  • maybe an option could be added to rescan containers each time their inventory changes, if the crew person interacting with that container has a scanner tool on them. but idk could be a pain to manage.
  • scanning is done periodically for each container. each container has an "expiration" time, which when reached schedules a rescan by a crew member.
  • an inventory upgrade is added, which could be applied to various storages to have them auto-report their contents at all times, keeping them up to date and with no need to scan them manually anymore. this would require connecting a conduit or maybe using a battery (for batteries it would require some update to managing these so crew can replace them, otherwise it would just be annoying; for conduits, there's a cool mod to hide them from view which hopefully would be adapted to the game and make this option not so ugly).
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scanner wall mount sounds cool ngl. they could be bulky and expensive but scan everything in their vicinity without needing a crew for that. eg having 2 of these to either side of a medium storage area could cover it all.

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a stationary terminal also sounds cool. eg placed near the scanner and accessible by anyone.

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also having an ability to pinpoint the cargo seems important. I see few ways to do this:

  • a visual overlay over a storage with the item where it "pulses" or does something else visually.
  • a radar kind of thing where it roughly points where the storage is. beeping would be cool, closer = faster.
  • storage with inventory upgrades could also have a light that flickers when pinpointing.
upper spruce
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You see my idea was with making it require an office essentially you would have to actually put effort into setting up and managing inventory just like at any warehouse/job ive ever had in real life. Having 2 kinds of cargo containers would be better. 1 low tech with no inbuilt scanner ie metal box stapled to ship. And then a higher tier with all of your scanners installed for inventory, climate, atmo, and rad shielding that can degrade to make it harder to port around inventories. So youd need to replace refrigerant, special climate bottles based on the various atmospheric conditions, and just having the option to use that app requiring the setup would make it much more rewarding in my opinion for keeping better track and care of your investment in inventory.

glossy turtle
upper spruce
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And even without them being bulky they would need to be expensive and need multiple for room scanning say they work in pairs like the parts to the reactor. Treat it like a 3d xray scan almost where you need multiples to cover spaces. It would remove the ability to just cram massive rooms together and mean youd have to plan out your stomrafe more

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Since space is empty and you have down time while flying lol

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What else will your crew do to fill time when everything is repaired and they are full on rest and liesure?

glossy turtle
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I do agree that we need some kind of container to store items (think shipping container), something that could be moved from place to place. we have cargo pods but they are stationary and only usable for specific set of goods only storable in them.

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big, bulky, spacious

upper spruce
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But it could be hey your guy/gals count inventory submit it to the computer then it gets turned into an app report

upper spruce
glossy turtle
upper spruce
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Hmm just like the conduit in some cases yes

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Wont impede movement but it would allow for crates/racks/bins/containers to be placed under and scanned

glossy turtle
glossy turtle
upper spruce
glossy turtle
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maybe it could even be like an input area where you place stuff, it gets scanned and then you move it to storage elsewhere

glossy turtle
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it's pretty good for walls too

upper spruce
glossy turtle
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but I would love to designate such an area with eg a warning tile

upper spruce
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Tech walls and floors that function as scanning, weighing, checking for radioactive materials if that becomes a thing

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Like have it be a function built thing like the reactor where you can build the scanner as a room?

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Give it custom min and max sizes. Say a small 3x3 at the least for the dolly then 5x10 for the largest

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Maybe have the scanners built into a wall unit that needs power ran to so you still need to cash out the money for it all?

glossy turtle