Cargo Technician
| SUPPLY STAFF | |
  Cargo Technician |
Access: Cargo Bay, Cargo Office, Maintenance Additional Access: Mining Station, Mining Station EVA, Mineral Storage Difficulty: Easy Supervisors: Quartermaster Duties: Distribute supplies to the departments that ordered them, collect empty crates, load, unload the supply shuttle... Guides: List of Supply Crates, Cargo Bounties, Guide to Exploration Drones Quote: I get pushed around more than the cargo. |
Basically, you load and unload crates, order things for people, deliver orders, make things with the autolathe, and ghost-ride the MULE. It's fun and easy.
Bare minimum requirements: Pull full crates out of the cargo shuttle, and push empty crates back into it. Stamp the paper that comes glued onto the crate with the green stamp and put it back on the shuttle. Deliver items to who requested them. Yell at everyone to come pick up their DAAAAMN MAAAIL
Your workplace
The Cargo Bay is your home as a Cargo Tech and, naturally, where you spawn at the beginning of the round. 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, a MULE, and an Autolathe.
Your equipment
You will start the shift equipped with the following equipment:
Export Scanner, which can be used to scan items to check their value, as well as scanning BOUNTY CUBES to receive a handling tip.
Boxcutter, which can be used to remove the package wrapping off of a box or package without creating a mess. It can also be used as a makeshift knife if need be.
I need my order NOW!!!
Cargo Techs can order crates and approve requests made from a terminal near the foyer via a supply console in the cargo bay or at the front desk. Ask over the supply channel if there are any more orders before sending the shuttle, so other people don't have to wait for it to arrive, be unloaded, and sent back before they can order what they need.
Your Boss
You answer to the Quartermaster! The majority of QM's will leave you to your own devices, provided you're not abusing your position or rejecting perfectly reasonable orders so you can save credits for guns or a hat crate. Hacking MULEBots and the autolathe would best be done with his/her permission, but most players don't care/expect these to be hacked.
Paperwork and Other Things
Forms: You will largely be dealing with two types of paperwork in cargo, those being requisition forms, and manifests.
Requisition forms are created when someone puts in a request on a cargo console. The console will print a requisition form that typically includes the name of the item, who it was requested by, and why they requested it. This can be useful if you forget who ordered an item as you can simply refer to the requisition form.
Manifests are receipts attached to cargo crates as they come in on the shuttle. These manifests include the name of the crate and its contents. Manifest can be stamped and loaded onto the shuttle, and if correctly filed, it will reward cargo with an 80 credit bonus. This may not seem like a lot, but it can add up quickly in a busy cargo bay.
Bounty Cubes:
Any bounty cubes that come out of the civilian bounty console must be sent back to Centcom for processing. Afterward, the crewmember who did the bounty will receive their credits. When a bounty cube is created, it has a speedy delivery bonus. This speedy delivery bonus last five minutes, after which the speedy delivery bonus is lost. In addition, you can scan a bounty for a handling tip, which scales in proportion to how much the bounty was worth!
Goodies:
You may ask, why are people bothering to do bounties? Good question! It's so they can purchase Goodies. Goodies are unique and that can only be purchased via a private order. You cannot order it via the cargo budget. Goodie Cases will arrive via the cargo shuttle, and the person who ordered the goodies can open it with their ID.
Methods of Delivery
So the cargo shuttle has arrived? Now what? Well, you'll need to deliver everyone's orders, of course! Generally, there are three methods of doing so.
Hand Delivery
Simply walk over and hand a department their order!
Advantages
- The most simple form of cargo delivery, almost impossible to mess up.
Disadvantages
- Potentially leaving your department unmanned, which can leave the department vulnerable.
- At best, you can only transport two crates at a time (via pulling one crate and pushing the other crate) unless you are utilizing the Cargo Modsuit, which isn't available on all maps.
- You'll be leaving the cargo crate in front of whatever department you're dropping the crate off at, which can result in it being stolen.
MULEbot
Using a MULEbot:
You can control the MULEbot by clicking on it and unlocking its controls, but it's a lot easier and safer with the PDA.
- Drag the crate you want to deliver next to the MULE.
- Drag the crate's sprite on top of MULE's sprite. It should load on.
- Open your PDA.
- Click Delivery Bot Control.
- Click Scan for Active Bots.
- Choose your MULE.
- Click on Destination: (set).
- Choose a destination and click OK.
- Click Proceed.
Your MULE should be on its way to the destination, with the default settings of also coming back home when the job is finished. Sometimes the MULEbot will make a funny sound when it encounters something in it's way, this is the MULEbot nervously farting.
It's common for the Cargo Tech to, at the very least, enable nonstandard cargo and speed the motor up. The MULE is one of your best tools as a Cargo Tech, and can make your life (and subsequently the lives of the rest of the crew) so much better.
You can also turn on an AI personality for the MULEbot using its controls panel. (Unlike other bots, the MULEbot does not have this setting enabled at roundstart.) This allows a ghost to take control of the MULEbot and help you out.
Advantages
It is extremely simple to set up. Depending on the map, there are typically one or two MULEbots in the cargo bay at round start.
Disadvantages
- Slower than the delivery system.
- MULEbots can potentially get stuck in unintended places.
- MULEbots can be destroyed.
- MULEbots can have the crate they are carrying stolen.
- MULEbots can open almost any door, allowing crewmembers who don't have access to get into the department.
The Delivery System
In addition to MULEs and hand-deliveries, you can also make use of the disposals mailing system. Note that a break in the disposal piping could cause your package to be lost (this hardly ever happens), so this is not always the most secure ways to deliver something. You can wrap up a piece of paper and mail it the same way if you (or someone at the desk) wants to mail a letter.
- Wrap your item/crate in packaging paper.
- Use the
destinations tagger to choose where to send it. - Tag the package.
- Stick it on the conveyor and let the system handle it.
Alternatively Metastation possesses a series of direct mail chutes that will deliver directly to departments without the need of packaging paper and being destination tagged inside its mail office.
Advantages
- The fastest way to deliver packages.
- Typically delivers the order into the department itself, which drastically reduces the chance of crewmembers stealing orders.
- Allows you to still stay in your department while still sending packages to departments, which can be extremely useful if you do not wish to leave your department.
Disadvantages
- Untagged items, such as crates, wrapped crates, and wrapped items/packages will be treated as trash and sent to the trash disposal room. This can even result in the package being destroyed by the recycler if the conveyor is running!
- Any disruption to the station's piping (usually explosions, or construction projects attached to the pipe network) will result in packages shooting out of wherever a pipe was breached.
Exploration Drones
The Cargo has a exploration drone bay on every station, usually in the Cargo or near it in the maintenance.
Exploration drones can retrieve great loot from the exploration sites you send them to, which can give you a advantage or profit!
So if you have nothing better to do, go on adventures with exploration drones!
King of the Hill
On occasion, Cargo can become a battleground between antagonists and security forces.
- Security will, more likely than not, will begin to ship in as many loyalty implants, lasers, and armor as the budget can afford if there are believed to be revolutionaries. Once revolutionaries are confirmed, cargo is usually the first department to be mindshielded and fortified.
- Revolutionaries will likely want to destroy cargo to stop the shipment of mindshield implants, kill the Quartermaster, or even take over cargo to ship in weapons and armor for themselves to use!
- While it is far less likely, Blood Cult may take an interest in capturing or disabling cargo. This is usually done to stop the shipment of mindshields and especially holy water, if the Chaplain is dead or if there wasn't one, to begin with.
- Nuclear Operatives may try to disable cargo in order to cut off any shipments of lasers or armor. Infact, cargo is often a point that Nuclear Operatives will strike first!
Revenge of the Crates
If you're a Traitor, spawn a Cryptographic Sequencer and you'll have easy access to just about anything you want - but make sure to grab a lighter or welding tool and burn those ordering forms. Make sure the cargo manifests and emagged crates are sent back on the shuttle. A hacked autolathe can create .357 ammunition for traitor revolvers, handcuffs, and circular saws (powerful melee weapons). Be careful not to be caught ordering or making things you shouldn't be.
Emagging the supply ordering console enables you to order cheap special ops crates.
Remember that the area around cargo is usually a high-traffic area, which can make doing illegal actions tricky or impossible. In addition, there may be security officers who are stationed in cargo.
Opening ID-locked Crates
These can be opened with any of the following:
- The correct ID.
- An Emag.
- Repeated EMP blasts.
- Damage from a laser, shotgun, wielded fireaxe, chainsaw, or a thrown spear.
- Emitter beams.
- Dragging the crate over lava, with the help from a friendly miner.
- A Kinetic Accelerator. Keep in mind that a Kinetic Accelerator does more damage in an unpressurized environment.
Tips
- There will usually be metal rods, metal sheets, and glass sheets in the auxiliary and primary tool storage areas. This can be a useful way to fill up the Autolathe at the start of the shift. If someone has already taken the materials, then some can either be ordered via the ordering console, or you can wait for the miners to bring up their mining hauls.
- Make sure to send any and all crates that came on the cargo shuttle back to CentCom to increase the budget of cargo. Crates can also be found in maintenance, among other places. Other station items, like water/fuel tanks and stray materials, can be sold for credits.
- Consider checking all the crates in cargo for items. There may be junk or even something valuable! It's probably going to be mostly trash, though.
- When the shuttle arrives, activate the conveyor with the lever beside it. Consolidate the contents of the crates you ordered into one crate, leaving the manifests on the floor. Put what you ordered into one of the ID locked cargo tech lockers (lock them by clicking on them with your ID in your hand), to prevent trespassers being able to help themselves to it.
- Once there is enough metal, consider building a conveyor system to unload the cargo shuttle faster.
- Similarly to packaged crates, you can use the destination tagger on mail to send it directly to a department.
- If any crew members have created a bounty cube, make sure to place it in the shuttle. Delivering it fast enough will give extra credits to Cargo and the cube's creator. Check the radio for updates on new cubes or cubes that are close to passing the bonus time limit!
- Make sure no one else has any crates they want to load onto the shuttle by asking through Supply, then send back the shuttle.
- Make sure to close the shutters on the shuttle before launching it. Otherwise, it will have all the air sucked out of it! This can even suck out packages, crates, and so on out of the shuttle while it's in transit!
- Alternatively, you can build plastic shutters, which will prevent the contents of the shuttle from being sucked out, even if the shutters are left open.
- Remember, your job is to order supplies for people, so if you're called to your desk, make sure to answer. All cargo officers come equipped with a desk bell that crewmembers can ring.
- If you're looking to make a lot of money as a cargo technician without doing bounties, throw bounty cubes inside the cargo shuttle then scan them with your export scanner to receive a handling tip.
- Moving the Autolathe out into the lobby will typically drastically reduce the number of break-ins into cargo itself.
- Order manifest can be incorrect sometimes. This can range from the contents not fully matching up with the manifest, such as in ingredient crates, to the crate being entirely empty! Deny these manifests with the DENIED stamp.
- If you accidentally approve a wrong manifest, you can still deny the manifest by using the deny stamp. If you accidentally deny a correct manifest, you're screwed.
- You can hack cargo consoles to unlock additional things to order.
- You can order most base minerals, such as glass and iron via the cargo console in the event that mining is slow, robotics is building a ton of stuff, or if you or someone else needs a lot of materials for a construction project.
- If you are looking for a large quick cash injection, you can dispense some plasma from the ORM and load it up on the shuttle. A stack of 50 plasma sheets typically nets 4,000 credits.
- Alternatively, if you want some of those credits for yourself, you can use a package wrapper to wrap up the plasma, then scan it with a sales tagger to give yourself a cut of the credits. You can take upwards of 50% of the credits.
- Mail for the crew doesn't come in on Sundays!
