Oolite Bulletins

Since installing v1.77 (under Debian Linux) I have been plagued by frequent losses of large amounts of Gold and Platinum. This made my clients rather unhappy as I arrive with possibly less than half my contracted delivery.

As far as I can tell what is happening is that during a fight "Gold Destroyed" no longer means a kilo but a tonne!

Is this by design or a bug? How on earth can you destroy a tonne of Gold or Platinum?

davcefai wrote:

Is this by design or a bug? How on earth can you destroy a tonne of Gold or Platinum?

If the metals are in your ship's safes (max capacity 499kg of each) then they are indestructible. Well, not quite, but they'll last at least as long as your ship does.

If you're carrying more than that, the surplus gets packed into normal cargo canisters, each of which can hold up to 1000kg. These canisters can be destroyed in the same way as any other cargo if you get hit while your shields are down. There is an equal probability of any cargo canister being destroyed. (This has not changed since 1.76, that I'm aware of)

To reduce the chances of this happening:
1) Get hit with your shields down less often.
2) Fill up the rest of the hold with food, textiles, and other cheap goods as padding.

I can confirm that in 1.76 you can lose a tonne of gold/platinum when hit.

I think it was introduced in Oolite 1.75 to fix the inconsistent cargo volume. Before you could have 5 ton gold and this was not added to the used cargo space. That felt wrong. Having an imaginary safe on board was okay, but not with an unlimited size.

Now, when the safe is full, the surplus has to be stored in the hold itself. And as we have 1 ton containers, it makes sense to store up to 1000 kg in a container, instead of using a new container for every few kgs.
Same for gems. You can have up to 500 000 grams in the safe, but above that, the surplus has to be stored in 1 ton containers.

Eric,

The logic is irrefutable but the consequences bring tears to my eyes.

Keep up the good work. Thanks.

I simply see it as part of the job of contract-hauling.. your primary obligation is to your clients, which means you should be avoiding combat wherever possible. When contract-hauling, for the times combat can't be avoided, I carry hardheads and/or some more exotic missiles, to buy me time while I run like hell!

Diziet Sma wrote:

I simply see it as part of the job of contract-hauling.. your primary obligation is to your clients, which means you should be avoiding combat wherever possible. When contract-hauling, for the times combat can't be avoided, I carry hardheads and/or some more exotic missiles, to buy me time while I run like hell!

This don't help when you get a Malfunction Hyper Jump and lose cargo like what happened to me last night. Luckly I was carrying surplus cargo and only lost a ton of furs instead of my Platnium shipment. But I agree, avoid combat where possible, although it can be difficult if you are unluckly to have several Anarchy systems on route.

S-P wrote:

This don't help when you get a Malfunction Hyper Jump and lose cargo...

Aye, it can be harsh out there at times... but that's the way the cookie crumbles!

Just make sure you have a well maintained ship when you are transporting valuable cargo. In a well maintained ship, there is only a less than 1% chance of a mishap during a jump between systems.
And from this 1%, 75% will be misjumps and less than 10% will lead to internal damage. (Cargo or equipment).

With badly maintaned ships, the odds become quickly 3 times higher to a 3% chance of a mishap.

Well I had just had an overhaul in the last system, unless they did an bad job of it.

S-P wrote:

Well I had just had an overhaul in the last system, unless they did an bad job of it.

They might have.. the higher the TL of the system, the better the overhaul. An overhaul from a low TL system may only 'last' a jump or two.. of course, you may have just been unlucky..

Diziet Sma wrote:

S-P wrote:

Well I had just had an overhaul in the last system, unless they did an bad job of it.

They might have.. the higher the TL of the system, the better the overhaul. An overhaul from a low TL system may only 'last' a jump or two.. of course, you may have just been unlucky..

Well there is that, but I have had a broken piece of equipment hyper jumping just after having a service at a T14 planet. So I guess even the high tech planets make mistakes. I guess I just had a run of bad luck.