Everything in cubic metres, a metal refinery, and holds that say how much they want
Published
In short: this space RTS now has one storage unit, the cubic metre. There’s a metal refinery, wrecks stay salvage instead of turning into ore, and a storage can say how much of a good it wants. Gatherers can also fetch water when asked. Metal and water have no use yet: this is the groundwork.
One unit: m³
Holds and hangars were in cubic metres while goods were in tonnes, each with its own room per tonne. Now ore, salvage, metal, water, rice and fuel each take 1 m³ a unit, and screens show m³. Most numbers stay and only the unit changes: a Mk1 squadron costs 270 m³ of ore, and prices are in m³ of rice. A Prospector’s 15 m³ bay now holds 15 of anything, down from 37 t of ore. Ammunition and whole items are still counts, and ship mass is still in tonnes.
This is new and untested in long play, so gathering may get rebalanced.
The metal refinery
A new module turns ore and salvage into metal in the hold of whatever it’s fitted to: 2 ore or 1 salvage for 1 metal. Your starting bunker has one. It uses only its own host’s hold, so you feed it, for example with a hauler. It stops at 200 m³ of metal. Metal buys nothing yet; recipes still cost ore. More: metal refinery.
Salvage is its own good
A gatherer digging a wreck now carries salvage, not ore. Salvage pays for no build or repair directly: it has to be refined, or sold, since towns trade it. A gatherer now carries one kind a trip. More: salvage.
Keep N
A storage can now set a stock target per raw good, with the Keep button on the cargo screen or K on a hold row. Once any storage in an area has a target for a good, gatherers there work only to targets for it. They land on the number, wait with “waiting: ore stocked”, and go back by themselves when the stock falls. More: storage and hauling.
Water on request
With a “Keep water” target set, a gatherer with its work on goes for water first. Nobody marks a spot: it finds the nearest river or sea, hovers over it and draws water at its rig’s rate. Water has no use yet; refining it is planned. More: work and gathering.