What have I done :(

[archmagexin]

I just let some weird ship called Zendu space hulk pass me. I thought it must be some kind omg ship of death and I was busy running away with 1 last enginee after a furious battle with three seperate syndicate bounty hunters.

Anyway...I noticed the alien ship had over 800 pieces of cargo...

and zero guns. zero missiles.

Did I just let the loot of lifetime go?

[slayernz]

Yeah you might have, but on the other hand, it sounded like your ship was pretty battered. The Space Hulk could have just rammed you causing you to lose your final engine. Given that they are alien ships, you'd suffer quite painfully if you were captured - many captains are never seen or heard from again (screams don't travel well in the vacuum of space).

[Cory Trese]

that is true, if you loose the the space hulk your ship is insorbed into the great mass of space hulkyness and you captain spends the rest of eternity drifting through the void, tortured and forgotten.

[Tenebrous Pirate]

Space Hulks are the biggest cowards in the 'verse. They run from Rychart shuttles.

[archmagexin]

FAIL

Also, can someone explain me the benefit of caches? Like how it works?

Do I plant some weapons in it and it mulitply like a fungus?

[Cory Trese]

Say you find a surplus. It is selling Crystals for like $16, but you don't want to waste time finding a buyer -- you've got credits to burn and you want a stash of Crystals.

You can "create a cache" and store your horde (unlimited storage) of crystals and later sell them (perhaps, when someone has a shortage!)

You can see your list of Caches under the Cargo tab in Status. You can create as many as you want.

Be careful of the "Treasure Hunter Rumor" tho, because it can steal your Cache!

[k0rd]

i just recently started having games that last long enough to effectively utilize the cache for taking advantage of rumors.
also if you are playing a game where you are at war with 5 or all 6 factions, you can put caches of water and rations in enemy territory.
i sometimes have games where i do this. it can come in handy more often than you think as long as you remember when you are fleeing for your life with 1 sail left dangling from your torn-to-shreds hull...
i have flown right beside planets with caches while my crew were getting their equipment on, getting ready to harvest ice.

another thing i like to do is just dump my hold on a planet if my cargo fills up while i'm doing a contract or rumor and i still have a good distance left to fly. if there are still opportunities to liberate cargo, i'd rather do that than blow it up and call attention to myself.

also, spread your caches out. that way treasure hunters can't hit you as hard. don't just dump all of your crap on one planet. there are probably different strategies for breaking it up, one of the explorers here could probably elaborate on some of them.

[slayernz]

I also use caches heavily if I am an explorer. When I go to a planet I want to plunder, I fly in with a huge amount of W-F, some records, a pile of expendable crew. The first thing I do is go to my cache on that planet (or create one if I don't have it). I dump all but some records and a small amount of fuel (eg around 8 - 10 units).

That gives you the greatest likelihood of being able to take all of the stuff that you find without having to leave anything for the local wildlife to come and steal.

As soon as you've done a successful explore/harvest, you then go back into your cache and dump all of your goodies there, recheck your fuel supplies, and go back to do another explore/harvest.

You do this cycle (wash, rinse, repeat) until either (a) you've run out of crew (b) you've run out of things to find/recover, or (c) you're bored of finding loot.

Then you have the choice of going back to the cache to load up on a pile of goodies for immediate sale, or you could leave the goodies in the cache until you get a rumor of a shortage. Then you've got a pile of electronics, or artifacts, etc ready to sell.

[mordechai]

Caches of water-fuel are also helpful when behind enemy lines and/or late on a contract and need to refuel.

[slayernz]

I tried burying some spare crew so that I could come back later after a particularly bad encounter or exploration.

After several decades, I finally got the smell out of the rest of the cached goods. It's weird because the luxury rations and the clothing kept for decades too. I guess they just don't make crew durable these days.

[mordechai]

Aug 21, 2011 17:27:30 GMT -5 slayernz said:

I tried burying some spare crew so that I could come back later after a particularly bad encounter or exploration.

After several decades, I finally got the smell out of the rest of the cached goods. It's weird because the luxury rations and the clothing kept for decades too. I guess they just don't make crew durable these days.

It's because you didn't properly prepare them for storage. For proper processing methods, try googling "Soylent Green."

[noesis]

mordechai, Wouldn't that just turn crew into luxury rations instead of keeping them as crew ? - still it could be beneficial in exploration & other crew deaths - "you lost 25 crew but gained 25 luxury rations" or 10 enemy crew died & (in successful ship boarding or capture) there is 10 luxury rations extra in the hold - meat shouldn't be wasted after all !!

[mordechai]

True, but at least this way you have something of resale value, rather than just useless remains and the expense of cleaning smelly cached goods.

[slayernz]

Since you didn't really pay anything for a crew member, you come up with a very suspect source of unlimited profit. Soon you'll actually have the "Accidents" happen once the crew step into their quarters for the first time.
"Hey - this is a cool room. I really like that ceiling fan - it's styled to look like blender blades"

[noesis]

I couldn't agree more with the last two comments - but we all know it will never be approved by Cory due to it being a great Idea !!! but unbalancing in game terms