Beginner's Guide to Cargo Technician

[Miraviel]

Welcome to Cargonia! This is a brief guide on what to do as a Cargo Technician (cargo tech or CT), intented for new players.

Cargo is a small but essential department of the station. If it runs well, the entire station will benefit from it.

 Main responsibilities

You have four jobs to do:

• Order and deliver crates
• Print and hand out items from the Autolathe
• Overwatch the Ore Redemption Machine (ORM)
• Handle disposals

It might seem a lot at first but let's go over them step by step.

Also don't forget that you are not alone - you have a colleague and your boss, the Quartermaster. Should you get lost anytime, ask them for help!

 Order and Deliver Crates

Crates of goods can be ordered with supply points. Supply points are earned over time or by shipping specific items.

Shipping Crates

• Go to Cargo Bay, west from the main office
• Drag a closed, preferably filled crate onto the shuttle (or use the conveyor belts)
• Close the airlocks and send the shuttle (see below)

Shipping empty crates doesn't yield too much but it is a tradition to do it at the start of the shift. Later you can fill it with the following items for a tremendous amount of points:

•  Supply manifest (they come with ordered crates, stamp them with APPROVED or DENIED accordingly)
•  Technology disks (Scientists can bring them)
•  Plasma sheets (obtained from the ORM, see below)
•  Mutated botany seeds (you'll almost never get this)

Now that we have points - and Cargo should always have points, what if an emergency situation kicks in? - let's move on to how to order crates and handle orders.

There are two consoles in the Cargo Office area, the Supply Shuttle Console and the Supply Ordering Console. The latter is used by the crew to order things so let's focus on the former.

Ordering Crates

The  Supply Shuttle Console is the heart of Cargo. It sends and calls the supply shuttle (with its corresponding Supply Control buttons) and you can accept or deny supply crates with it. A few tips:

• Never send the shuttle without checking Cargo Bay and/or asking if it is good to go.
  • If someone is in the middle of loading it and you send the shuttle, you space your colleague, most often killing them with it.
• Never deny a crate without a good reason. People will usually order what they really need.
  • If it seems out of place (insulated gloves for Medbay, supermatter shard for Security), ask your Quartermaster to review it.
  • If it is a crate called ERROR_NULL_ENTRY, send a message to the Head of Security/Warden through your PDA and stay silent. Why? Because it's a syndicate (= antagonist) crate full of contraband items and, more importantly, someone just blew 140 points that cannot go unpunished.
• It's tempting to order 5 crates of pizza with 3 crates of corgis when you are bored and I wouldn't blame you for it.
  • However, if you order something for yourself, try to check in with the Quartermaster (they'll almost never deny a pizza crate) and make sure there will be supply points left.
• It's also tempting to order things that "might come handy later". This is generally frowned upon and I'd rather you didn't do it either.
  • This includes ordering insulated gloves (when the AI isn't rogue/engineering didn't ask for it), weapons (when there is no nuclear emergency/security didn't ask for it), space suit crate (this is almost never justified), you get the idea. The golden rule for how not to be annoying in this game is "just because you can, you shouldn't".

It's also a good idea to put every order the console prints to the  filing cabinet below it. This way you can keep a track of crates, who ordered what and when. It's rarely asked for, paperwork is not enforced on this server, but sometimes Security come over to check it.

Delivering Crates

The last part of this section is how to deliver crates. There are three ways of doing it: sending it through the disposals, with a MULE, and delivering it personally.

Sending it through the disposals is the most preferred method - it's fast, safe, and efficient. Disposal units aren't simply trash bins, they form a complex system capable of sending items (and people) from one unit to another. (Though people can only end up in Cargo, they cannot be tagged.)

• Wrap a crate with a  wrapping paper to turn it into a  delivery crate
• Use the  destination tagger in your hand, select the target office and click on the delivery crate with it
• Put it on  the conveyor belt (the horizontal one) and click on the  conveyor stick.

Make sure there is no trash on the horizontal belt before you send the crate or it will be delivered with your shipment.

If there are massive explosions on the station, the piping system can be compromised. In this case, MULEbots (but preferably, personal delivery) should be utilized.

MULEbots are incredibly stupid and slow machines, preferred by some people... For unknown reasons. Never send two mules after each other to the same destination. They will get stuck and beep in the maintenance until the end of shift. This is a personal opinion but I suggest never using them at all. However, since this is a guide, I should include how to use them:

• Drag the crate on top of the MULE
• Set a destination on its control panel
• Send the MULE

The last way to deliver crates is delivering them in person. Control-click the crate to drag it and run to your destination. This is probably your only chance to get out of Cargo a bit and look around on the station.

 The Autolathe

The Autolathe is a machine that can print simple items. Insert  Metal and  Glass sheets into it then click on it to use it.

People will stand in a queue to ask for items. You'll most often asked for buckets, beakers and construction tools (welding mask, screwdriver, multitool, and so on). While many items, especially the multitool and the welding tool can be used for nefarious purposes, you should almost never deny an autolathe request. Don't forget that your character doesn't know about "antagonists", it shouldn't expect everyone trying to hack airlocks or make makeshift weapons.

My piece of advice is, just hand out everything unless it's clearly a weapon (speedloader, flamethrower, slugs). You can click on the windoor on the table to keep it open, then take the printed item from the Autolathe, press R and throw it on the table. This will not only save you from a hundred steps to and from the table but it will also give you the "oh this guy knows what he is doing" aura.

 The Ore Redemption Machine (ORM)

If the Supply Shuttle Console is the heart of Cargo then the ORM is its backbone. Miners returning from the asteroid bring their ores to the ORM which smelts them into usable sheets. Minerals are mostly used by Scientists, Roboticists, and Engineering.

There isn't much to do about the ORM if you are new. You can use it to dispense Metal and Glass sheets for the Autolathe or Plasma sheets for supply points (see above) - make sure there are at least 30 sheets of plasma left if you use it for supply points.

The only thing you should look out for is people wrenching it. The ORM can be moved by wrenching it then dragging it around like a crate. Some people do it after flushing themselves down the disposals (see below) to get out quickly. Good lord is it annoying, but the most you can do is to make sure the ORM gets back to its place.

If the ORM gets stolen or destroyed, it can petrify the entire station. Luckily, it almost never happens.

 Disposals

The disposals system isn't only for sending items but also for what the name suggests - handling the trash. People flush down the weirdest things (including other people) and you have the thankless job to sort it out. While you don't have to do it, it can be very rewarding. This section can be entirely skipped but I suggest reading it.

Tips:

• Stand next to the trash pile and alt-click it. A "floor" tab will appear on the top-right where you can inspect dozens of items without freezing your client.
• Sometimes you can find weapons, headsets or even IDs in there. It's NOT for you to keep - if it's something illegal or related to Security, notify Security immediately.
• Sometimes people flush down themselves to unstuck themselves or to run from security. If you hear security screaming about it, do NOT let out the person who comes in. Let out everyone else. It's an annoying job to do but they can get out with other methods and you sure don't want that.
• Once you are done with sorting out trash, pull the conveyor sticks to send the trash into the delivery chute.

The conveyor belt sends things to "Disposals". It's a small room in the maintenance. Go to the supply shuttle, open the yellow airlock to the north (called "Cargo Bay Maintenance") and head to the west. It is very important to keep the conveyor belt turned off here as this place can kill, even permamently kill people.

The  Recycler turns certain items into ores and sends it to the stacking machine. If Cargo is really low on minerals, you can use the green console on the wall to retrieve some sheets from it.

There are two buttons just next to the mass driver. The "Disposal Vent Control" opens and closes the blast door - open it to move the non-recycable trash on top of the mass driver, then use the "Mass Driver Button" to eject it into space. Don't forget to close the blast doors and turn off the conveyor belt after you're done!

 

That's it. It might seem a lot to do at first, but as I said before, rely on your colleagues! Cargo is a usually close-knit department, probably the most accepting and welcoming workplace on the entire server. You cannot mess up too much, you can learn a great deal about the game and you can easily make friends here. I can only recommend CT for a new player, be it a new player to the server or to the entire game.

Edited April 2, 2018 by Miraviel