ship fuel use

[Webbco]

I think I might be mistaken about them running out - they turn grey after you have explored them. Some have minable resources, some don't.

[Litjan]

The whole refuel thing is still puzzling to me. Sometimes ships seem to be able to refuel at mining-stations (if they mine the fuel), sometimes not (maybe a freighter just ferried everything away?).

The supply ships don´t work for me, either. I had one with about half a tank of fuel creeping back at sublight-speed to a far-away starport to "refuel". It wouldn´t even Hyperjump, even though it had an operational hyperdrive...

Otherwise I like the fact the fuel-system is set up, even an idle ship in space will use energy, running its systems. Maybe it should be possible to add the solar-collectors even to regular spaceships, so they can reduce fuel usage while stationary? I guess another option is to add more fuel-cells, to lessen the logistical burden of refueling.

Jan

[theonlystd]

ORIGINAL: Litjan

The whole refuel thing is still puzzling to me. Sometimes ships seem to be able to refuel at mining-stations (if they mine the fuel), sometimes not (maybe a freighter just ferried everything away?).

Your ships can empty out a place of its fuel .


I had a big fleet of 26 ships with capitals and such.. It sucked every place dry for quite some distance staying fueled.

[bamjo]

ORIGINAL: elliotg

ORIGINAL: bamjo
Is there any way to station my ships somewhere where they won't consume fuel? I know automated ships will refuel themselves, but I like to keep a few fleets on ready alert in strategic systems to respond to emergencies. The problem is that they keep running out of fuel, I either have to constantly flip through my fleets to manually refuel them or waste precious time refueling them when they are needed.

Or alternatively is there a way to give a fleet a patrol mission and have it automatically refuel? The times I've used the patrol mission manually my ships patrol until they run out of fuel, then just sit there stranded.

If you set the home colony of the fleet (Fleets screen - F8), then automate the fleet, they will hang around that colony and periodically refuel themselves.

I notice when I do this ships will leave my fleet, until the fleet itself disbands. It seems that when a ship is low on fuel it leaves the fleet when it is assigned a refuel mission. Then when it completes the mission, it is no longer part of a fleet, but it is still automated so it gets assigned a mission like any other ship.

I have automatic fleet formation turned off, but I guess that doesn't prevent the fleets form disbanding on their own.

[Gertjan]

Can you also order a fleet to refuel at the nearest supply ship, instead of going to location that is further away?

[JaguarUSF]

Resupply at the nearest available thing is in the right-click menu (select a fleet, right click on one of the ships).

[Gertjan]

Thanks!