Introduction

The purpose of this tool is to help you avoid going OPC when mining — making you a better player and saving you from losing precious resources and materials to attacking pirates.

‍NOTE For detailed guidance on Protected Cargo and related concepts like OPC, UPC, and Zero Node, see our popular and comprehensive free STFC Player's Guide.

Star Trek Fleet Command tells you the amount of resources remaining on a mining node, how fast your ship can mine it, and how long it will take to fill your ship's total cargo capacity. It will NOT tell you how long to fill your cargo Under your ship's Protected Cargo (UPC) limit. Without CargoCalc, it's a guessing game to determine when best to pull your ship from the node to avoid going over.

Tell CargoCalc what it needs to know about the node and your ship and it will tell you the exact time needed to fill your cargo WITHOUT going Over your Protected Cargo limit (OPC). The total time to fill your ship's entire cargo hold is also shown for your reference and to confirm accuracy.

CargoCalc will tell you exactly when to pull you miner off the node to avoid going OPC.

Input Values

CargoCalc requires three key input values in order to calculate results...

Node Resources

This indicates the remaining amount of "Resources Available" on the node that you wish to mine. As your ship mines, resources are withdrawn from the node and deposited to your cargo hold until the node is drawn down to zero. At that point of Zero Node, your ship will completely stop mining unless and until you move your mining ship off of the node or an attacker destroys your ship. To find this value in the game, tap the mining node:

In the example above, the Node Resources are 824,420.

PRO TIP When entering a large number that contains a lot of trailing zeros, pressing the K key will increment the current value by one thousand number places. For example, to yield the number 450,000, you need only enter 450K and the output will adjust accordingly.

Mining Rate ( /hr )

This is the rate (expressed in units per hour) that your ship will mine a given node. Each of your ships has a different mining rate and it differs not just from node to node but also based on ship tiering and crewing, player research, and many other factors including active exocomps, territory services activated, Syndicate level, and ship speciality. To find this value, tap the mining node:

In the example above, the Mining Rate /hr is 107,316.

Protected Cargo

Like your ship's mining rate, your protected cargo is extremely variable. To find this value, MANAGE your ship, navigate to the DETAILS tab, and scroll down to the UTILITY section:

In the example above, the Protected Cargo is 407.88K.

Unlike the prior two values, the game reports this value in decimal form, representing thousands (K). If needed, CargoCalc will automatically convert the value you input to a whole number when you move the cursor to the next field, press the ENTER key, or push CALCULATE.

CargoCalc also accepts a fourth optional input value to calculate results...
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Existing Cargo (optional)

In some cases, you may begin mining with an existing accumulation of resources already onboard in your cargo hold. CargoCalc allows you to offset results by any existing cargo already onboard. To find this value, select your ship and simply look at the context menu:

In the example above, the Existing Cargo is 0.

If your Existing Cargo is empty, as in this example, simply leave this input field blank.

If your Existing Cargo already equals or exceeds your Protected Cargo capacity, you are already OPC and really should return to base to empty your cargo hold. CargoCalc will alert you if your Existing Cargo is already over the line.

As with Protected Cargo, the game reports Existing Cargo in decimal form, representing thousands (K). If needed, CargoCalc will automatically convert the value you input to a whole number when you move the cursor to the next field, press the ENTER key, or push CALCULATE.

Dock Selector

The hidden Dock Selector allows you to mark the letter corresponding to the Dock of the mining ship CargoCalc is evaluating. This is an optional convenience feature that has no impact on calculations.

In this example, we are evaluating the mining ship in Dock F.

To reveal the Dock Selector, click on the main CargoCalc logo at the top of the interface. The logo will bounce to reveal a row of letters, A through H. Select the Dock Letter of your mining ship.

To re-hide the Dock Selector, simply click or tap on the main CargoCalc logo again. Tapping the logo will toggle visibility. The Dock Letter selected will be preserved through toggle states.

PRO TIP You can open multiple instances of this page to compare ships and use the Dock Selector to label/annotate each of the different Cargo Results.

Cargo Results

Once you provide the necessary Input Values, CargoCalc will generate a result informing you precisely how much time it will take for your survey ship to fill within its Protected Cargo Limit.

1 Indicates the countdown time from now to remove your survey ship from the target mining node and empty your ship's cargo to avoid exceeding its protected cargo limit.

2 Indicates the same, expressed in clock time using your local area time zone. Every time you press the Enter key or push CALCULATE the clock time is recalculated.

3 Indicates the countdown time from now to fill the ENTIRE remaining cargo capacity of your survey ship, in most cases to beyond the Protected Cargo Limit into OPC status.

This value should exactly match the "to fill cargo" value that STFC already reports when you inspect a mining node. It is included in the results so you can confirm that you've provided CargoCalc with the correct Input Values,

This section will also report a warning, if necessary...

ZERO NODE RESET WARNING indicates that the node will be empty at the target UPC time. Under most RoE, allowing a mining node to reach zero resources available for more than a few minutes is grounds for enemy attack. CargoCalc alerts you of this in advance so you can be more diligent about resetting the node in time to avoid such attack.

EXISTING CARGO IS OVER PROTECTED CARGO is a warning that at the point of this calculation, your ship is already OPC, making the CargoCalc calculation somewhat pointless. In such cases, you should empty your cargo hold and recalculate.

4 Click or tap the X button to clear all values and reset CargoCalc.

PRO TIP You can also clear the values of individual fields by simply placing your cursor in the field you wish to clear and pressing the SPACEBAR.