Cargo tips, and what YOU can do to help cargo out.

[KingKire]

Marines love supplies, and the art of getting and delivering supplies is quite the difficult challenge. Im here today to give a few tips, and maybe if anyone else wants to add on as well:

Cargo Tips
-Make sure to "click and drop" items. This means that when your unloading vendors, make sure to pop out all the gear your want to load into the crate, and using the drop hotkey, quickly "spam-click" items and "spam-drop" them to the floor. You can then push the crate over the items and close it.
Save your hands, your time, and your sanity. Dont click the item and then click the crate to load it in, you will go mad.

-Recycle weapons for metal: theres about 350ish pistols available in the marine vendors, each pistol is worth 17 metal. You only need to recycle about 42 pistols and youll have all the metal you could need for a round. No need for every getting the steel crate, save those points.

-Use the autolathe! Its an AMAZING resource that you can count on if used properly.
Flashlights: marines need light, this makes light. Match made in heaven.
Emergency station radio: If communications ever go out, use these to keep comms up. They work without a radio network. Make sure the microphone and speaker are on, and that its located in your backpack (weird bug, only works inside the backpack)
RCD's: able to cut their way through any wall, ordering one of these and a few matter cartridges for engineers to use and be happy with.
Surgical tools: You can make a full surgury set with the autolathe. No need for surgury crates (unless docs whine about bonegel)

- Make supply bags: If you have spare time, make supply bags to ease your troubles and space issues.
lightbag: 4 flares, 3 flashlights
m41a Ammo: 7 m41a mags
Random ammo: toss in any other ammo

medical: Fill a bag with medical supplies;
-Tramadol Pill bottle: Very important, pain killers keeps marines alive, and they go by sooo damn quickly
-Trama kits: really useful to load in at least 1 of each
-anything other medical supplies.

make an emergency stockpile for the crew: If any SHTF situation occurs, you can easily equip the crew without too much panic.
-10 armor
-10 helmets
-10 loaded pistols

Try to secure some command commsets for your cargo techs. This allows them to be on the ball when it comes to ordering supplies ahead of time.



What YOU, the marine, the doctor, the etc., can do to help CARGO.

- Please, PLEASE. If briefing hasnt started or you have some free time to spare, MAKE SOME SUPPLY BAGS. Making supply bags takes a LOT of time, and if you make some supply bags, we cargonians will guarantee that we will send it down. It is not against lore for marines to load up supplies to give to cargo. Marines are known for loading magazines, Humping gear, and stacking crates. Dont disappoint cargo by sitting in your seats, or cargo will disappoint you!
(also, supply bags really are space efficient, allowing bigger supply drops, at the cost of taking alot of prep time)

-Dont forget to keep asking for supplies and make sure to make orders consistent. We get EXTREMELY busy really quickly, and we can lose track.
-Dont forget to keep asking officers to ask for supplies. Officers will forget that THEY have to launch the crates, causing crates to sit on the pads for the rest of the round.
-Docs, please make medical bags to be sent down if you have time, or even just vend out medical supplies so they can be quickly picked up with a crate.
-If you think your gonna need something, order it ahead of time. If you order things (lets say explosives) right when you need them, i guarantee that you almost will either not receive them or it will take 20 minutes for it to reach you somehow.

-Engineering: ask cargo if they are ordering flamers. If so, ask them if they might want your 10 spare plasma tanks that you have available. Fully charged of course.
Dont forget to drop off an electrical toolbox, insulated gloves, and a toolbelt to cargo in case they may need it to deploy out. Maybe also add on a plasteel stack if it can be spared.

-Research: upgrade the autolathe in cargo with supermatter bins, they do make a difference.

[Renomaki]

I myself been thinking about going RO sometime, maybe dabble a bit with CT again too. Helping the marines get the supplies they need would be a great pleasure for me.

What tips I'd want to know is when to do what, to help avoid accidentally metagaming. I want to be on the ball, but not too much that I end up cheating.

[KingKire]

Seriously, if you have time to load a bag, load one. If even half the marines deployed made one supply for cargo to send, you would never have cargo issues.

[Renomaki]

Seriously, if you have time to load a bag, load one. If even half the marines deployed made one supply for cargo to send, you would never have cargo issues.

So, before first contact, what is ok to preprep and what isn't?

Would having premade ammobags before touchdown be fair game? What about helmets? What are good things to order during the first few minutes of a shift before saving up points for bigger fish?

[KingKire]

As for metagaming theres certain guidelines:
-Before planetfall:
Everyone should be prepping for a nighttime emergency operation. Marines shouldnt be loaded up to the gills with stuff, maybe one ammo guy in the squad, engineers/medics carrying maybe a spare toolbox of items. Cargo shouldnt be excessively stocking up on one item, but they should be prepping for in case things take a long time. Loading up on 30 helmets would be metagaming, but having 5 or 10 spare armor suits and helmets would be normal. It wouldnt be considered unusual for cargo to stock up with several gear bags ready to deploy. Things like spare lights, food, ammo, metal, guns. Stocking up on this is considered normal.
Having 50 bags of gear would be considered over prepared, having 10-20ish would be fine.
Just do a standard rule of thumb of about 1/3rd of items will need replacing over an operation and you should be fine.

-After Planetfall but before aliens access the hanger:
Things start getting chaotic, and alot of the basic rules get tossed out the window, but just remember: you dont know aliens can fly, the sulaco is safe.


-Aliens accessed/on the ship:
You can prepare for boarders. This means you can weld doors, close emergency shutters, set up table walls, barricade ladders. This is all standard anti-boarding procedures, which is even practiced today in real life. Also make sure to distribute the armor and pistols to crew members.

-Aliens have arrived, place is dying: all the chips are off the table.

[Jeser]

I myself been thinking about going RO sometime, maybe dabble a bit with CT again too. Helping the marines get the supplies they need would be a great pleasure for me.

What tips I'd want to know is when to do what, to help avoid accidentally metagaming. I want to be on the ball, but not too much that I end up cheating.

Best method: switch ON all channels, if you are RO, so you can listen to all squads directly. Listen, analyze their chatting, predict situation.

Marines set up FoB? Prepare ammo and medical supplies, metal and plasteel.
Marines under heavy assault? Explosion crates.
Marines preparing for assault? Medical crate and flamers.
That specialist with SADAR/sniper is still alive and have confirmed kills? Order special ammo for them.

That's it. Do not wait till they ask, they can simply forget,that they have this possibility. Predict marines needs, ask, and propose different supplies, they will specify, what they need.