I tried to cover the commonalities of Cargo Tech work and Salvage work; getting resources to players. It doesn’t go into the specifics of the jobs (like whether Salvage should be stationbound or free to go to space) but I think I put good emphasis on how despite Cargo being a department meant to provide for the station it is also supposed to be better when collaborating.
Also we need to standardize whether the department as a whole is named Cargo or Supply lol (if it’s the latter I’ll rename the doc and stuff).
I think this covers Supply/Cargo very well. For naming, I think “Supply” is the entire department. “Cargo” would be the part that orders and sells stuff. “Salvage” is the, well, salvaging part of Supply.
When resources run low (either due to a lack of work or outside influences) the reliability should come into question, with pressure to get back into operational quantities. A station without a working Cargo department should feel its absence.
I do think however that there needs to be backup systems for Supply. It really halts the entire station loop. Science can’t make stuff. Engineering cannot repair stuff. It’s not really fun waiting for cargo to get funds to buy more materials. Usually that also results in a backlog of multiple people wanting to get mats, meaning that even if theres some available it’ll get instantly taken.
I do know theres other methods, such as the material reclaimer or recycler. Both of which can work pretty well, but are not as often available or “stocked”.
I’ve sort of hinted at it in the document but it isn’t explicitly stated; Cargo may be the primary resource generator for the station, but I agree it shouldn’t be the only one. Currently the secondary major resource generator is Botany, who technically can replace a lot of the base materials (steelcaps and glassthistle to name a few) but that relies on them spending time mutating those plants which they are unlikely to do since the assumption is Cargo will work. Science is a minor resource generator via artifacts/anomalies (rock anomalies but also arti spawn triggers, when they happen) and there’s some niche Atmos/Chemistry generation that is largely not used.
As the document says it should be felt when Cargo is not able to do work, but maybe that’s a bit overtuned atm. The fact destroying the ATS computers is grounds for calling Evac means maybe it needs to be a bit more robust and have some back-up options that doesn’t take ages to get going.
Also yes I will start an initiative to properly rename every instance where Cargo refers to the whole department to Supply.
I think the ATS should probably only be used to sell stuff. I suggested once before in passing that buying items should just drop temporary shuttles that self destruct after a short time with the bought items. So that cargo has more use for the shuttle instead of just flying from the station to the ATS and back.
Ok well, flying to a random shuttle in space that can’t fly and self deletes after a short time isn’t that exciting as well, but it at least removes one round ending attack vector.
Imo we’re getting a bit too into specifics for a design doc but re: ATS, it’s it being the only selling location that makes it so vulnerable to sabotage. Buying requires destroying all pallets, which takes a surprising amount of time, and the telepad can be researched as a back-up. Selling is over once the two consoles are kaput which takes very little time.