Depending on how this is designed, the cargo handling all by itself can offer ways to interact with the game or in short... gameplay.
The important thing here is that there must be ways to visualise that something is happening.
As long as you can show that it is happening, you have no trouble convincing the player that something is happening - even if the mechanics behind it are automated and simplistic. Smoke and mirrors are an extremely important tool in games.
If you just instantly beam cargo from ship to ship, you're also missing out on all the interesting things that could happen to cargo in transfer between ships.
Someone might sell you an empty cargo pod and scoot while you are still retrieving it to check the contents. Or might quickly retrieve it again after your payment has been processed. Or... well, use your criminal creativity. =)
- Difference between ship supplies and cargo
Internal cargo bay can be added in the ship designer but is more costly in terms of whatever points there are.
It is the only way to store usable supplies like ammunition, fuel, or repair materials.
If something is not in this cargo bay, it's not useful in a fight.
The distinction of cargo mechanics would help in designing different ships for different purposes.
A military ship would need it's ammo and supplies armoured but a merchant may opt for the far more efficient external cargo storage... - Vulnerability of internal cargo
Low.
Internal bays lie below the ship's hull / armour but it may be possible to target them specifically.
Pirates would want to.
You won't get a lot of useful cargo that way... but some. - External cargo bays
Think trailer truck.
In the ship designer you define hardpoints for external cargo bays.
A big merchant ship (like an ELITE Anaconda) could have 20 external hardpoints and be able to haul huge quantities of cargo... or be a base of operations for a nefarious band of pirates...
Visualisation is important and you could see how many external bays a merchant is carrying, not to mention the gameplay implications. - Vulnerability of external cargo
If you are good with lasers, you might be able to destroy the hardpoint, leaving the cargo bay floating in space.
Destroying the cargo bay will just get you a million parts of cargo items floating in space - usually turned into trash in the process. - Actual cargo transfer
- Smaller ships might not have the means to handle cargo at all.
They would have to dock with a station or a similarly equipped ship to do so. (similar to a navy tender / oiler / tanker) - The next step would be the ability (built in with the ship designer) to exchange small cargo containers via cargo drones, little more than containers with engines.
This would transfer cargo to and from an internal cargo hold.
A standardised cargo container becomes a temporary ship and the only thing it can do is fly to it's destination.
This - and docking at stations - would most likely be how free traders conduct business. - Going up in scale you have the huge cargo haulers / container ships of big shipping lines or governments.
When an ore hauler is transporting a week's production of a mining station, transfer by small cargo containers would be inefficient.
The biggest ships would have (big!) external cargo holds that they dock / detach outside on their hull.
Like cargo containers for smaller ships, these cargo holds have a minimum propulsion system to fly them to their new owner / destination.
Obviously the ship would have to stop for such a cargo bay to maneuver into position. That's not going to happen in a fight.
Using tugs for that would greatly increase the complexity for no good reason.
- Smaller ships might not have the means to handle cargo at all.
- Towing cargo
Also proposed in this thread but I'll briefly mention it because it could be part of the system.
Ships (with the appropriate equipment) should be able to tow... things.
Abandoned / derelict ships as well as cargo that won't fit.
A small trader who "finds" a detached cargo bay could tow it to a station and sell it.
The basic procedure is the same except that the bay is "detached" from the tractor beam instead of the hull.
Towing should affect speed / acceleration.
The ship designer obviously has some formula for mass/size versus engine power.
If towing anything, you add the mass of both ships and compare it to the towing ship's engine power.
There's your new speed / accel while towing this thing. Simple.
This adds more opportunities for gameplay as well.
A huge ore hauler has strong engines by necessity.
If attacked by pirates, it could detach it's cargo bays and actually outrun the pirate's ships - especially if they are slowed down by picking up and towing their newfound riches. - Piracy
How could this be missing in a thread about "cargo transfer"? =)
- Persuasion
Drop your cargo if you want to live.
Works with ships equipped for at least small-scale cargo transfer. Smaller ships aren't really worth the trouble in the first place. Pirates are businessmen, not psychotic murderers.
This may need some... convincing... but that's just part of the job. - Blow up the target ship or damage the internal cargo bay.
A lot of cargo is destroyed in the process, making this less than ideal, but some traders are unnecessarily stubborn. - If you come across a large, undefended cargo hauler, this is the jackpot.
With a small and agile ship you destroy the hardpoints by which the external cargo bays are docked to the ship.
That gets you a huge amount of fully intact cargo.
It probably won't be easy to hit such a small system, especially with it being between cargo bay and ship, but that's your problem.
If your aim is off and you destroy the cargo bay - lots of space junk.
- Persuasion
- Scanning cargo
There are pros and cons to allowing it.
- Pro: you can have customs / police / military ship scanning traders for contraband.
Smugglers would have to outrun / evade those pesky lawmen and not let them into scanning range.
Or jam their communications and kill them - although you're probably poking the beehive by doing so.
Without external scanning you would have to be boarded for customs inspections. - Con: piracy is easier because you don't bother with low value cargo.
You gain more gameplay value by pirates having local informants and buying information about particular cargoes. Like today's pirates.
The player pirate would have to deal with some shady port officials, always risking them blowing the whistle on this dastardly pirate. Like if he didn't pay what said honourable official was asking for the information. - Con: you can't cheat on a deal when the trade partner can immediately see what's in the floating cargo container / bay.
Squandered opportunities for gameplay.
- Pro: you can have customs / police / military ship scanning traders for contraband.
- Star Trek beaming cargo between ships
Obviously the easiest to implement but basically no gameplay value.
Not much to say about this. It's just there. *snap* - Illegal goods
Considerable overlap with "Scanning" but too big of an issue to just cram it in here.
Use Illegal Goods instead.