Goods Container OXZ
Contents
FE Shipyards
FE Shipyards is pleased to announce an initial production run of externally mounted cargo cannisters, to be attached to the hardpoints of any available missile pylon. The following capacities are becoming available in the Equipment departments of most reputable shipyards:
- The 5-ton container for 5,000 cr (tech level 6+)
- The 10-ton container for 10,000 cr (tech level 6+)
- The 20-ton container for 20,000 cr (tech level 6+).
- The 30-ton container for 30,000 cr (tech level 6+).
We supply both "cannister" and "container" variants - the former with a rectangular frame adaptor for transport vehicles downworld, as well as shuttle offloading by machine.
Attachment points ('hardpoints') on the ship pylons must be modified to clamp the containers before fitting. Delays are therefore unavoidable. Installation time for the 20-ton container, for example, is an estimated 2.5 Lave days.
Logistics
Upon sale of goods, the container is detached for shipment downworld or for Station wholesale or retail. A fresh container is then affixed and loaded with your choice of commodities. Thus when 'buying' a container or cannister, you are in effect purchasing a per-pylon licence to carry the particular container class.
Once unloaded at the downworld receiving-point or warehouse, FE Shipyards' empty containers are shuttled back to Station for cleaning, refitting or repair. Depending on care and planetary conditions, the useful lifetime for one of our containers is expected to be between 10 and 35 Lave years.
Terms
To help ensure longevity, the trader will pay to G.E.T a periodic maintenance fee (0.05 of cost) for each container licenced.
A small handling fee (0.005 of cost) will be taken for each container upon docking. This is merely to cover our attachment/detachment & loading/unloading services.
Per container, and to restore pylons for weapons-use, the trader will be charged a dismantling fee (0.1 of cost) upon cancellation of their licence (ie. when 'selling' or 'unmounting' at the shipyard).
Guilders may optionally apply for an exemption to the handling and dismantling fees.
Should a trader jettison one of our containers in deep space, a mishandling charge will be levied upon docking. The mishandling charge shall be equal to the container's cost.
Sizes
A note on the size of a 20-foot (6 m) Goods Container
The '20 TC' Goods Container's dimensions - in Lave metres - are:
6.10 m long x 2.44 m wide x 2.59 m high
That is to say, equal to the Galcop-mandated standard downworld size for this class of transport container. Sizes of our other container products may readily be extrapolated from these measurements.
Taking the Cobra III FE's quoted hull dimensions of 130 x 81 x 34 metres, it is not hard to see that a 20-ton Goods Container's external profile is negligible - just a small bump/bulge on the underside of the craft: only a little larger than the missile or mine it replaces.
Downworld, a 6 m container’s unloaded weight is 2,300 kg and can, in theory, be loaded to a maximum weight of 28 tons (25,400 kg). However, this depends in large part on the possible restrictions and/or limitations of the shipping line, the nature of the cargo, planet gravity, and specific details of the shipment.
In space there is of course no weight - only mass and volume. A recent G.E.T. feasibility study has shown that there would be no impediment to developing Containers of 30, 40, 50, and 100 tons. As a result, their go-ahead has been given to the FE Shipyards to proceed with production.
Watch this page for news.
Examples
Some example capacities, using FE Ships as a baseline:
20-ton Container:
Adder FE: 15 TC base + cargo bay extension = 30 TC + 1x Goods Container = 50 TC.
Krait FE: 17 TC base + 4x Goods Containers = 97 TC.
Viper II FE: 30 TC base + cargo bay extension = 45 TC + 3x Goods Containers = 105 TC.
Asp II FE: 75 TC base + cargo bay extension = 90 TC + 1x Goods Container = 110 TC.
Cobra Mk 3 FE: 55 TC base + cargo bay extension = 70 TC + 4x Goods Containers = 150 TC.
I-2 Containers
FE Shipyards is proud to announce the introduction of our Iteration 2 line of Goods Containers. I2 Containers are more durable and reliable than their first generation counterparts, and have an expected useful lifetime of 40-50 Lave years.
The initial manufacturing phase is already in progress, turning out containers in the 10 to 30 TC range for immediate preferential trial by traders with more than one Lave year on our customer lists, and all Guilders of Grade 1 and above.
Our services to you, our regular and valued customer, extend to in-ship information displays of charges levied, number of containers of a particular class carried, other useful data, and for all FE shipowners and Guilders the privileged option to waive all handling and dismantling fees.
I-1 Downloads
Once downloaded, just move or copy the three OXZs to
Oolite->Oolite app->GNUstep->Library->ApplicationSupport->Oolite->ManagedAddOns
They will then appear as installed on your OXZ list in-game.
5-ton Goods Container download
10-ton Goods Container download
20-ton Goods Container download
Warnings
Since Goods Containers are technically classed as mines, they are not to be dropped in flight. And you are advised to run with weapons offline while carrying them.
As a precautionary step prior to purchasing your first Goods Container, please unmount and sell all pylon mounted weapons in the shipyard first. You will receive notification confirming completion of your container installation, and then you may verify your vessel's increased total capacity via your F5F5 Manifest.
