Fleet Refueling Why So Slow?

[Tanaka]

Am I doing something wrong it takes my fleets FOREVER to refuel???

[malkuth74]

No your not. Thats just the way it is. Hence why some of us complain about how micromanagment refueling is. And why it needs to be automated.

Large fleets can take a very long time to fuel. Then you have the unfortunate thing of having 2 different engine types in your fleets with 2 different fuels. And then things go . AHHAAHAHAHAHH.

LOL.

[theonlystd]

have less big fleets using the same port or refuel port? =p

[Tanaka]

ORIGINAL: theonlystd

have less big fleets using the same port or refuel port? =p

I only have one fleet [:'(]

[lancer]

Goodaye,

Imagine that you had a big fleet of warships in the Pacific (or anywhere) on Earth. To refuel them you have to send them to a port and berth them alongside a wharf (you can do it by tenders but for purposes of simplicity lets stick with the wharves).

The more wharves/jetties you have at your port the more ships you can refuel simultaneously. So a little flyspeck one-wharf port way out in the boondogs is going to take forever versus refuelling the fleet at 'Mega Port' with multiple wharves.

Distant Worlds works the same. Space Ports instead of Ports. Docking Bays instead of wharves. Take a look at the Space Port where you are refuelling the fleet, how many docking bays does it have?

If you want fast turnaround for fleet refuelling you have to design and build a Space Port with a lot of docking bays to get the throughput.

If you think of your empire being a series of 'Ports' then you are heading in the right direction. Add on the fact that ports differ in size (number of docking bays) and hence their ability to handle cargo/refuelling and you're about there.

Also your Space Ports need to have sufficient fuel stockpiled to cope with a big fleet otherwise your fleet sits there waiting while the freighters top up the stock. You can't go to war on the smell of an oily rag.

Getting your 'Ports' tweaked to your strategic requirements is a big part of the game.

[edit] Hey, I just noticed that you're a WiTP player. I shouldn't have to tell you this!

Cheers,
Lancer

[Journier]

tanker ship that automatically unloaded fuel to ships in its fleet as they needed it would be so simple and solve all these issues

[malkuth74]

ORIGINAL: lancer

Goodaye,

Imagine that you had a big fleet of warships in the Pacific (or anywhere) on Earth. To refuel them you have to send them to a port and berth them alongside a wharf (you can do it by tenders but for purposes of simplicity lets stick with the wharves).

The more wharves/jetties you have at your port the more ships you can refuel simultaneously. So a little flyspeck one-wharf port way out in the boondogs is going to take forever versus refuelling the fleet at 'Mega Port' with multiple wharves.

Distant Worlds works the same. Space Ports instead of Ports. Docking Bays instead of wharves. Take a look at the Space Port where you are refuelling the fleet, how many docking bays does it have?

If you want fast turnaround for fleet refuelling you have to design and build a Space Port with a lot of docking bays to get the throughput.

If you think of your empire being a series of 'Ports' then you are heading in the right direction. Add on the fact that ports differ in size (number of docking bays) and hence their ability to handle cargo/refuelling and you're about there.

Getting your 'Ports' tweaked to your strategic requirements is a big part of the game.

[edit] Hey, I just noticed that you're a WiTP player. I shouldn't have to tell you this!

Cheers,
Lancer

Good day back too you.. Your situation which you seem to use a lot is invalid. When you can prove to me that the President of the united states personally goes down to the warf and makes sure that every individual ship is fueled. Then I will believe you story. what your saying is true. The problem is that You IE the president of your Star Empire does not personally oversee this part of the battle. He says go to this place... The admirals and fleet logistics people handle the supplies and the fueling not the president. IE YOU!

Nice try though.

[lancer]

Goodaye,

Not sure if we are on the same page here.

I'm thinking Presidential thoughts. My job is to build space ports with enough capacity to refuel my war fleets in an adequate time. Kind of like me directing Admiral Wally to expand Hawaii so it can handle the sixth fleet.

Once that's in place then I let Admiral Wally refuel the sixth fleet, or any other, at Hawaii as he sees fit.

Off you go Admiral Wally. Conquer the Pacific. Call me when it's over.

Cheers,
Lancer

[malkuth74]

Yeah right now admiral wally want you to hold his hand though. And I want to fire his ass.

I see what your saying now. I agree.

[forsaken1111]

Still, the Automation's handling of fleets and fuel is not very good. I got a 'suggested attack' for a pirate base. It said fleet 3, a 16-ship fleet, would go take them out. I selected fleet 3 so I could watch, out of curiousity. The fleet met up at a spacedock, which I thought was good as half of them were out of fuel and one was damaged AND out of fuel. I watched some of the refuel, then suddenly they all took off for the pirate outpost! 7 of the 16 were extremely low on fuel, and ran out halfway there, the one ship never got repairs and died in the first volley. What the heck?

[Gertjan]

I like the idea of having tankers.

[Hyfrydle]

Refueling is definately not very good surely a fleet should be fully fueled and prepared before any attack I have numerous examples in my current game where ships whizz off to attack and arrive only to sit and do nothing while the enemy just picks them off one by one. Maybe the fuel usage is too high?

[Athalian]

Or maby enable ships to dock with a station, eliminating fuel consumption and in doing so always have a fleet ready for battle. For that purpose you could design a station with loads of docking ports, enabling that station to recieve tons of goods and keeping a fleet on standby

[Erik Rutins]

Regarding ships taking a long time to refuel, if they are simply not refueling your local fuel stocks may have run out, you can check this by double-clicking on the base or resupply ship and looking at its cargo. If it's just a matter of a large fleet taking time before all of them rotate through the available docking ports to refuel, that's part of the design.

Some good suggestions here though and in general we do want to make managing refueling and fleets easier for all players.

[Gertjan]

How long does refueling per ship take (given that you have sufficient resources) and how many ships can dock at an AI designed starbase at the same time? Perhaps an idea is to have the possibility of ordering a fleet to refuel at a system (instead of at at colony) so that it spreads out itself to different bases/colonies (if there are more present of course).

[HsojVvad]

So if my refueling ship has no cargo, how do I get cargo in there? Can I do something about it, or do I have to wait for the AI to fill the tank up again? I just made a resuply ship. Is this suppose to be a fuel tanker or is it something else? If this dosn't refuel ships, what refuels ships then?

[tuser]

A refueling ship is essentially a mobile gas miner. you deploy it to a gas cloud or gas giant that has the fuel resource your ships need, and once it has some of the fuel in storage your ships can dock and refuel. Assuming you can get it to actually deploy and work, it's a little.. fidgety.

[Banquet]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins

Regarding ships taking a long time to refuel, if they are simply not refueling your local fuel stocks may have run out, you can check this by double-clicking on the base or resupply ship and looking at its cargo. If it's just a matter of a large fleet taking time before all of them rotate through the available docking ports to refuel, that's part of the design.

Some good suggestions here though and in general we do want to make managing refueling and fleets easier for all players.

m

Erik,

Can you confirm whether the AI understands range and fuel, and how to use refueling ships, or if it just sends ships anywhere and trys to refuel them when they run out?

[Erik Rutins]

The AI is supposed to understand range and fuel. In my test games at least I have seen it keep ship and fleet fuel status up and pull them back when fuel was low. I've also seen it stage resupply ships to support deeper operations. Is it doing that correctly in all cases? Maybe not, but saves would be helpful if you see it doing stupid things so that we can figure out why.

[licker]

ORIGINAL: Erik Rutins
If it's just a matter of a large fleet taking time before all of them rotate through the available docking ports to refuel, that's part of the design.

As Christopher Hitchens is wont to say... "Some design, ehh?"

Ok, to the point, yes, it is realistic. But, is it fun?

My answer is no, it's annoying.