Cargo

Anything and everything that can be sold and bartered with is considered cargo. However, in Galaxy on Fire 3D and Galaxy on Fire 2, the term "cargo" is a statistic that defines how many units of space a ship possesses to hold commodities and inactive weapons and equipment. This statistic is measured in tons, abbreviated "t" as in "50t".

In Galaxy on Fire 3D

Galaxy on Fire 3D was first to introduce the cargo statistic. Often after missions, Keith loots the wreckage of firefights and, generally, anything that needed to be blown up and is placed in his ship's cargo bay. The player is shown what and how much was looted after the mission was completed. However, if the cargo bay is full, the game will tell the player so, and nothing can be looted after the mission.

After returning to the hangar, the player can sell the items to the station's shop. The player may only sell commodities and may only buy ships and weapons. If the station does not have the ability to trade, Keith will have to fly to another station where trading was possible.

Missions that required the transport of goods seem to be completely separate from the goods that the player can sell to a station, if not because cargo information is not displayed while travelling.

The ships in this game that possessed higher cargo space generally cost more, with the Draaken at 60t and the Vol Noor at a paltry 5t.

In Galaxy on Fire 2

Galaxy on Fire 2 greatly expanded on the cargo and the general trading mechanic, allowing for more sophisticated gameplay. Commodities, ships, weapons, and equipment may be bought and sold in the same tonnage units.

With the introduction of a modular customization system, weapons and equipment could now be kept and not replaced immediately after purchase, allowing the player to mix and match weapons to his or her preference. This also meant that they now took up space in the ship's cargo bay. Keith can splurge on every bit of Buskat he can find, but he cannot leave the station with more than he can carry.

Flight and combat was made less linear, making the post-mission loot report obsolete. Instead, cargo is added and depleted as Keith fights, mines, and loots his way through the galaxy.

Loot crates and asteroid pieces drop from destroyed ships and asteroids, respectively, and Keith could not immediately pick them up without investing in a tractor beam. When the loot crate eventually ends up in his ship, the game's HUD tells the player what and how many of an item was recieved. Certain missions even required a tractor beam to retreive important mission objectives.

Also, the introduction of mining (and, similarly, plasma harvesting) made use of this new cargo system, with the products being immediately stored after an operation.

Cargo space could even be expanded within a ship with the purchase of compressors, with their capabilities stacking so that even the smallest holds of ships can be made to haul the likes of freighters.

A Note on the Inconsistency of "Tons" as a Unit of Measure

As some players may notice, the usage of "tons" in the Galaxy on Fire universe is completely different from Earthly uses of the same word. While a ton is clearly defined as 2000 lb, 2240 lb, or 1000 kg on Earth, Galaxy on Fire's "ton" seems to be more or less an arbitrary measurement of cargo space, made to simplify what could seem to easily become a more complicated way of describing weights with decimals. Though it makes much sense when concerning commodities (AMR digital watches versus Implants), it breaks down when concerning weapons (an Edo "weighing" the same as a Hammerhead D2A2?)

For example, if weight was standardized and, say, for the purposes of demonstration, an Edo missile happened to be exactly 1t, there exists the potential for everything else to be heavier or lighter, and for everything to have decimals depending on how exact or realistic the game would like to become; jet rockets can be 0.3t because of their simplicity, a M6 A4 "Raccoon" at 8.1 because of its sheer power, and so on. This can lead to increased time in the hangar figuring exactly how much can be put onto a ship without overloading. The decision to make every weapon 1t each makes the gameplay more streamlined, even if it means that "t" looks funny when comparing 10t of jet rockets to 10t of M6 A4s.