Ruffles
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Posted - 2003.09.01 09:47:00 -
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We have two toally different scenarios for the use of secure containers, and I completely agree for the needs of both.
1) Transporting very valuable items. Kinda like a ship/train-safe. Just because you stop a train to rob it doesn't mean you can automatically open the safe.
2) Miners needing somewhere large to dump the ore they mine in mass-mining operations.
Ok, so the problems we face are really two issues:
A) Secure containers take more inside them then they take up.
B) Have way too many hits to survive.
I see the need for both uses above (1 and 2), and I think we can counter the problems of the containers:
A) Secure containers SHOULD take LESS inside them then normal containers. Lets be a little realistic now. The standard containers should offer increased space, the secure ones should offer reduced space at the price of security.
B) Its just practically invulnerable. Hell I wish I could buy a ship that cheap that took as many hits.
However, if you make the contents smaller, you then have a big impact on miners that have a need for something like this. How do we solve that one.
Ok this is probably more far-fetched then perhaps I would like, but its an idea:
Miners have a item they can deploy into space. A force-field like Dumping ground. It would basically need to be set up in space (takes time) and would basically expand to suit the quantity of ore deposited in it. This would get around the issue of the containers never being big enough to cater for large scale mining operations. Each miner would require one of these set up near them to which they could connect (like openning a container), and dump ore into.
It would have two connection points, one into which the miner can dump their ore, and one from which the industrial ship could collect the ore. Obviously, it would require some kind of password, but the system itself should be a little vulnerable to assault, say 2000 armor hits or something.
If someone attack this object of course, you would then be perfectly entitled to return fire, as perhaps its an item which has an ownership ID of the individual+gang+corp, so that any of those people could retaliate.
It would offer the miners a means to do what they want to, whilst also making the changes to secure containers that really should have been in place in the first place.
PS You might want to add Huge and Giant normal containers for traders that want that additional space, but of course comes at the cost of not being secure.
Any ideas/comments folks?
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