Cargo Technician
Reason: Disposal mailing section out of date.
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| Cargo Technician
"Push, Pull, Push" |
Department:
Lonestar |
Access:
Cargo, Mining, Maintenance |
Supervisors: | Difficulty:
Easy |
|---|
The Cargo Technician's role is, after staffing the front window to facilitate selling the greatest amount of goods you can get from other colonists, to unload crates, load the crates, make things in the autolathe, operate the cargo train and use the mail system. Don't forget to monitor the disposals area as well for any goodies. Or people.
Your Workplace
The cargo bay is your home as a Cargo Technician and, naturally, where you start the game. It contains a hand labeler, a cell charger and power cell set, a station bounced radio, some rods, a multitool, a med-kit, some empty crates, some full crates full of garbage useful items, a copy machine, and an autolathe.
Obtaining The Almighty Credit
For a more technical description, please refer to the Standard Operating Procedures for Lonestar.
The primary reason you're employed here, above all others, is to make sure Lonestar Shipping LLC turns a profit. Therefore, you've been graciously trusted with the account number and PIN (See Notes in the IC tab) for the business account to deposit into. At least 80% of all sales made should be going directly into the business account, though taking up to 20% of profit as commission is permitted, with Miners delivering materials and those guarding them eligible for up to 10% profit total, to be divided among themselves. The synthetic workforce has no need of profits and can be safely ignored in these calculations.
Every single transaction has to be a win for Lonestar. To make sure you're getting the best deal, grab an export scanner and synchronize it with the cargo database by clicking on the cargo computer. Then run it over the item in question, and it will show the sale price should you sell it off in the cargo shuttle to the off-colony buyers. DO NOT QUOTE THIS PRICE. This price exists to provide an absolute baseline for honing your haggling skills. Remember the old Sol saying of buy low, sell high. Feel free to lower your offer for buying things off of colonists, and add a healthy markup to any supplies you sell, within reason.
If a colonist has multiple items to sell, you can scan them all at once by packing all the items in question into a crate, wrapping the crate with packing paper by clicking on the closed crate with the wrapping, and running the export scanner over it to provide a total. Colonists tend to bring their own pre-packed crates or lockers, so this is generally little issue.
At the end of the day, you NEED to get a profit for the company, and product must be moved, and if that means eating into your commission to keep your job, so be it. It's just business, after all. And remember, always get a receipt.
Disposals Mailing
This is an alternative way of delivering items.
- Wrap your item/crate with package wrapper.
- Pick up the destination tagger and click in your hand to set a destination.
- Use the destination tagger on the parcel.
- Optional: Use a pen to write a message on the parcel, or custom set a destination.
- Stick it on the conveyor, or dump it in a disposals unit, and let the system handle it.
- Tip: Click and drag the large parcels to disposals units to put them in. This can only be done a few times, however.
You can also gift wrap packages, but these cannot be tagged with a destination, and have to be delivered manually. This will not work with large objects. The process is slightly more complicated.
- Pick up the item you want to gift wrap.
- Hold a sharp object in your other hand. (Wirecutters are the most common for this.)
- Click the wrapping paper with the item you want to wrap.
Gift wrapping a human is also possible, but they must have a straight jacket on and you need the wrapping paper in your hand. This is usually not a good idea.
Garbage Day
In addition to mail, the disposals system runs through the Lonestar Cargo area. It's generally either your duty or preferably the Janitor's to take a look now and then to make sure nothing too untoward gets caught. For the most part it runs itself, recyclable materials getting slowly but surely processed by the machine into usable metal, glass, plastic and other interesting sheets for use in your Autolathe or sale. Any completely useless trash is finally sent to the crusher on the top level for obliteration, removing it from the map completely. The Crusher also is able to refine scrap (even more efficiently when upgraded), which the Guild is always VERY eager to obtain.
OOC: At time of writing, forges and recyclers are unable to be upgraded without completely breaking, so let it do it's thing.
Materials that have a significant amount of biomatter are automatically passed over and shunted to the Church for processing in their biogenerator, but corpses of bugs and unfortunate colonists get stuck on the recycler and must be manually moved. Bugs can either be carved up if you're skilled enough with a knife, and delivered whole to Soteria for chemical extraction, to the Church for processing, or the Chef for 'exotic' meals. You may be able to make a tidy profit from Soteria this way, but Vectors and Primes tend to take a dim view of such greed if you try it with them. Don't expect any fancy medkits from the Church if you go this route.
Bodies of colonists however, are an entirely different matter. Upon discovery of a dead one, the conveyor should be immediately stopped and the Marshals alerted. Only Marshals should move bodies, preferably the Ranger. Living but seriously injured bodies should be the care of Soteria Medical and their Paramedics, while lightly injured ones are usually mishaps from the trash beacon chute or thrill-seekers and should be escorted out with a stern warning.
Care and Maintenance of your Cargo Train
Located in the warehouse, the cargo train exists to help speed the delivery of shipments to buyers in an alternate fashion.
To use the train, it requires the key to be inserted, which has a distinct decoration, as well as a charged L-sized battery. The battery can be accessed by using a screwdriver on the engine, and then a crowbar to pry the battery out safely. Once recharged or replaced, reinsert the battery, and fasten the maintenance plate with a screwdriver once more.
For driving the train, drag your sprite onto the engine, and if the key is in place, and the battery is charged, go to the Vehicle tab in the status window, and select Start Engine. You are now free to move about at a faster pace, and without the worry of slowing down due to hunger or bulky armor suits. When you're finished moving wherever it is you want to go, use the Stop Engine command, click the engine to get off, and if you want to prevent any unruly Colonists from taking a joyride, right click the engine and remove the key.
The cargo train needs one engine, and at least one trailer to be of any use hauling things. Using the right click menu, you can detach unneeded trailers for a mild boost in speed and battery life.
