Todd Papy · Star Citizen Live Game Director

A big part of trading is the cargo system. I'm not happy with cargo.

Jared Huckaby · Host, Community

This isn't one of the questions, I just know he wasn't happy, so I want you to know what I know.

Todd Papy · Star Citizen Live Game Director

Basically, we have a cargo grid, and then we have what we want to do for cargo, and we have what we consider kind of a first implementation. So we have the one SCU version of cargo. We have a 0.5 version just so that the players can actually carry it, just because we didn't have the cargo jack yet or the multi-tool working to actually move the one SCU boxes around. So then there's iCache, and basically myself and John have a whole bunch of work that we want to do on cargo to improve it, to make it fun and interesting and make it relevant for a lot of these bigger ships. However, we need iCache to come online first, because if we do any of this work before iCache, there will be a certain amount of rework that will need to be done after iCache. So we're waiting for the iCache boot to drop, which is basically allowing us to have that persistence associated with it. And then at that point in time, we hit this, because cargo and trading to me is a major, major staple of the game. We've got resource acquisition; you've kind of seen what we've done with mining. Obviously, there's other resource acquisitions that we can do, whether that be salvage, farming, so on and so forth. And then cargo is another one, whether that be freight, people, or data. So there's work there, and we know that there's work there, and we've been chomping at the bit to do that work, but basically our tech directors are saying, don't do it until iCache comes in.

Jared Huckaby · Host, Community

For those who follow the project for a while, it can always seem like there's the next thing, because you're following along in development. You can't do this until object container streaming comes in. Server-side object container streaming comes in. Can't do this until Server Meshing comes in. Can't do this until platform persistence comes in. Development is always about dependencies.

Todd Papy · Star Citizen Live Game Director

Right, but there's certain things. For example, with cargo, for us to do extremely volatile cargo, or a box that you pick up and you move around and if you don't get rid of it in a certain period of time, it explodes, in order for us to do that work, it's going to take us, let's say, two, three sprints to do that work. iCache right now, I think, internally is scheduled in another quarter or two, internally. So for us to do that work and then basically redo that work is not a good use of time.

Jared Huckaby · Host, Community

And for anybody that's not familiar with the term iCache, I recommend you check out the keynote during CitizenCon, or I think there was some of it in the last Pillar Talk. In layman's terms, it's the ability for me to drop my ship there or my Lando Pony there and log out and have it still be there for somebody else to come and find it later on, in its simplest form.