Help me understand mass/volume

[Snipington]

Not literally....and ignore my hours played 99% of that is afk

Tried a new start with PE, that stuff on, trying to be authentic
Is the idea that you'll just be doing many, many small trips in regards to items and resources to begin?
Even doing some missions at the start, im dropping things left and right to hold the next thing I need to hold, hv/sv doesnt hold much of anything....

Its realistic I guess, but boring as hell.....(i understand the power connection thing mostly but that isn't the issue

[Bif]

That would drive me up a wall. Either use the connectors and keep your stuff in a large container, or turn that shizzle off.

[The Big Brzezinski]

Basically, it means you can only stuff so much into containers, and the thrusters on a ship can only lift so much off the ground.

The big feature is the wireless logistics system. You hit F4, pick a container on the right, and hit the icon in the middle to connect to it. This makes the container act a bit like your personal inventory even though it's on a ship. The yellow toolbar it adds (switch with T) is part of the connected container. This is how you place and retrieve blocks too big to move by hand. It also works with hand mining, salvaging, and trading with NPCs. You pop a big promethium rock or salvage a thruster off a wreck, it goes right into the container. F4 is also how you move items between containers you're within range of, even on different structures. Wireless devices provide extra 100 meters of connection range, centered on each device.

[Amrak]

There is a pinned thread at the very top of this forum. It has a very good video explaining the w/v system.
https://steamcommunity.com/app/383120/discussions/0/1743357605568499531/

It looks long but it is worth a watch. It was made in 2019 but still has what you need to understand and use w/v.
Hope this helps you!!

[ChumSickle]

To also add, from what I have gathered from the developers of PE and RE they really want players to work more for things. This means encouraging players to use vehicles made for specific purposes. I.e. mining SV/HVs and the like. In pretty much every game I start now I start with the portable constructors (they have unlimited space/volume, are only limited by slots, but thats still a lot). I then build a small mining SV that has decent storage. If I feel like sticking around the starting planet, I will put up a small, simple base.

Also, use container controllers. The early cargo boxes for vehicles are laughably small, but once you add the container controllers you can carry quite a bit. So when you land at a POI to check out, just connect to your vehicles wifi, and as long as you stay within around 100 meters you can use the vehicles cargo.

And remember, what you find boring is what others find immersive. I think being able to stuff a million tons of iron ore into my pocket is boring.

[ShelLuser]

This change was somewhat recent though, before the default behavior ignored all constraints.

Still, imo it's not bad at all, 500 by default, 600 when you get armor. I recently started a new game (default settings) and well... The main 'hiccup' was that I could no longer clean out a full pocket of resources like copper or silicone. Not even a small one.

Well, easily solved when using a hv and connecting to its storage. I think it makes sense, and they applied a decent setup.

[Brew]

HVs and SVs can hold plenty (though "doesn't hold much of anything" is subjective. You didn't give an actual capacity to give us an idea of what you're dealing with). It depends on how they are designed. You can have up to 32,000 SU of storage capacity on the same controller in an HV/SV. I designed a level 10 T2 cargo SV with a 20,000 SU capacity with modest material requirements, which is warp capable and can get me lots of materials from all over the starter system.

Yeah, connect to your ship's cargo before picking things up, mining out a deposit, etc. It all will go into the ship cargo automatically so you don't have to keep emptying your pockets. When you get back to base, use logistics to move everything from ship to base storage in bulk. No need to go back and forth. If you're needing to do that, you probably aren't using the right ships, or not using game systems designed to help you move cargo around.

I think you can work your way up from smaller vessels with smaller cargo capacities, to larger ones.

This is my 20k SV hauler:

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2766840181

Doubt anyone cares to use it, but just as a demo. You can get good carrying capacity. Use the controllers, not the little cargo boxes. You can have fun designing your own ships to do what you need them to do.

[japp_02]

If you play with volume=on, then be prepared to have a lot of transport HVs and SVs to deposit your materials, and also a lot of high-volume containers. Because I don't want to grind when not necessary I have swtiched volume=off, it shouldn't make a big gameplay difference.

[The Big Brzezinski]

Or just a half decent CV.

[ZomBeGone]

Originally posted by The Big Brzezinski:

Or just a half decent CV.

This is the key to having it work well. Lots of storage with wifi.

Before you get the CV, same thing applies to the HV and SV. Lots of storage + wifi.

If the ships you use have cargo boxes, remove them and replace them with the container controllers + extensions + wifi. Do NOT use cargo boxes.

[ChumSickle]

Yup, cargo boxes are primarily useful for storing specific items. I.e. trade goods, weapons, armor, armor mods, and fuel/02.

[The Big Brzezinski]

A simple ammo box is plenty for noncombat CVs with just a few 15 mm and sentry guns for defense. You can fit in a few stacks of ammo along with your spare promethium fuel, warp fuel, and oxygen. That's something to remember about ammo and harvest controllers. A box that does a useful trick is still also a box.

[M.Red]

Originally posted by ChumSickle:

Yup, cargo boxes are primarily useful for storing specific items. I.e. trade goods, weapons, armor, armor mods, and fuel/02.

exactly and cargo boxes are great to explain volume
volume is technically relevant if items dont stack (like weapons) one can drop several into a cargobox until all the slots are filled (despite the fact that the mass is not exceeded)

[Snipington]

I tried it again, and even with everything you've all said in mind.
(I have some difficulties that seem to still prevent me from fully understanding some of the link stuff)
I just don't think I prefer it.

I feel like it also has to do with the number of early games I've played.
I just can't handle an early game this long where I can't even hold or store the things needed to make the things that can.
I just get irritated at the monotony.

[ChumSickle]

Originally posted by Snipington:

I tried it again, and even with everything you've all said in mind.
(I have some difficulties that seem to still prevent me from fully understanding some of the link stuff)
I just don't think I prefer it.

I feel like it also has to do with the number of early games I've played.
I just can't handle an early game this long where I can't even hold or store the things needed to make the things that can.
I just get irritated at the monotony.

A few things that may help:

Those survival containers you can create in your suit constructor have unlimited volume. What they can hold is only limited to the number of 'slots' inside.

If you can build a base you can easily access 16k sized storage boxes. A bit further, you can utilize cargo controllers that can hold hundreds of thousands in volume.

Use the factory. If its just spare stuff you have laying around, drop it in the factory. Many of us use a massive blueprint that we never plan on actually spawning in, and just dropping stuff in. This way you dont have to save every single steel plate that falls in your path.

Or just turn it off. I cant play with weight/vol turned off as it breaks any semblance of realism that I enjoy. But, in the end, this is a game. We play it for fun, so make it fun for yourself.

[Hominin]

pick CPU limits or M/V, not both. cargo extenders use up CPU and you need massive amounts of them later game.