Loose Module (S)

Loose Module (S)

T1

Cargo Depot module for transferring loose materials (such as Bauxite). It can be built in any empty slot of a Cargo Depot.

Construction	40
Workers	4
Electricity	None
Maintenance	None
Footprint	10x5
Cargo	Sulfur or Quartz or Uranium Ore
Storage	180
Required Research	Cargo Depot
Designation	Cargo Docks
Variants	Loose Module (M)

The Loose Module (S) is a small-capacity storage for loose products which automatically unloads Cargo Ships. It features storage for 180 units and two output connections for U-shape Conveyors (or their variants).

Unloading the compartment of a Cargo Ship with this module takes 40 days which equates to 135 units /60s. This rate is almost an exact match to the throughput of the U-shape Conveyor II. It should be noted that the round trip ship transit time (from one docking to the next) is exactly 3 months. At 130 days per cycle, this equates to an average throughput of 62 units /60s or almost exactly the throughput of one first-tier U-shape Conveyor.

Resource selection

After construction, Cargo Dock modules require the desired cargo to be set in the module's UI window. The player may choose from Sulfur, Quartz, or Uranium Ore if they have discovered and repaired the Sulfur Mine, Quartz Mine, or Uranium Mine outposts respectively.

The cargo selection of adjacent modules, and even the types of modules themselves, can be mixed-and-matched as desired. It should be noted that modules which share a Cargo Dock are frequently built in identical pairs for ease of Cargo Ship management. As a Cargo Ship will wait idle for several months before venturing back out if not fully unloaded, mixing of module types can result in a situation where the ship waits for extended periods for the less-utilized cargo type to be empty before departing, causing reduced throughput or shortages of the more-utilized cargo type.

Module throughput vs resource extraction

Given the averaged download speed of a small Cargo Module is 62 units /60s and the following outpost extraction rates we can calculate that...

• Sulphur Mine at 9 units /60s per shift:
  • One small Cargo Dock module can continuously outpace production from a 1-shift outpost producing (at 14.5% duty cycle)
  • One small Cargo Dock module can continuously outpace production from a 2-shift outpost producing (at 29.0% duty cycle)
  • One small Cargo Dock module can continuously outpace production from a 3-shift outpost producing (at 43.5% duty cycle)
• Quartz Mine at 15 units /60s per shift:
  • One small Cargo Dock module can continuously outpace production from a 1-shift outpost producing (at 24.2% duty cycle)
  • One small Cargo Dock module can continuously outpace production from a 2-shift outpost producing (at 48.4% duty cycle)
  • One small Cargo Dock module can continuously outpace production from a 3-shift outpost producing (at 72.6% duty cycle)
• Uranium Mine at 18 units /60s per shift:
  • One small Cargo Dock module can continuously outpace production from a 1-shift outpost producing (at 29.0% duty cycle)
  • One small Cargo Dock module can continuously outpace production from a 2-shift outpost producing (at 58.1% duty cycle)
  • One small Cargo Dock module can continuously outpace production from a 3-shift outpost producing (at 87.1% duty cycle)

See also

• Loose Module (M)
• Unit Module (S)
• Fluid Module (S)
• Outposts