Noob Questions - Refuel and Patrols

[Malevolence]

Sorry for the noob questions. A forum search didn't find a working solution...

(1) Refuel

My fleets are constantly running out of fuel when they get to their destinations. Then they sit in one spot to be picked off by pirates. Do I need to put a refuel ship with every fleet/group of ships?

(2) Patrols

I can't get my combat ships to patrol throughout a system. They sit at one planetoid and don't respond to pirate attacks in system. Following directions posted on forum results in the ships sitting at the sun doing nothing.

Anyone work out these details yet?

[Wade1000]

An update should cause all ships in any grouping to always retyurn fire.
 
Resupply ships do resupply other ships while travelling with them. A resupply ship acts as gas station once it is deployed at a gas giant or a gas cloud. Try it in or near an enemie's border.

[Malevolence]

I'm sorry, but I attempted to use "resupply ships". I moved the resupply ship to an unoccupied system and deployed it at a gas giant. I then ordered my fleet to refuel specifically at that ship name. The ships moved to the resupply ship at the gas giant and then stopped -- their order went to "(no mission)". Meanwhile the planet and resupply ship continued to rotate around the star. The fleet sat stupid in space--totally without fueling. When I told the fleet the "resupply at nearest" they all jumped back to my home world.

I really wouldn't find the near constant klaxon about some pirate attack somewhere a bother, but I find my fleets and ships totally unresponsive to specific instructions... both with "auto" on and turned off. Fleets don't seem to attack targets when ordered to do so, and their pursuit pathfinding is really bad---running after where the ship is instead of where it will be based on vector. When trying to give orders to fleets, sometimes only a few of the ships follow the order. Then sometimes they run off somewhere else and sit halfway in between systems. That's just about the time they run completely out of fuel... apparently they have enough fuel to warp back to a fuel station, but are totally useless otherwise.

"Supply" rules are something designers always want to include, but the promise rarely meets the reality of fun play. I'm finding this to be nothing but frustrating at this point.

[Kouga]

I'm new to the game as well, so correct me if I'm wrong.
Are you sure your resupply ship is mining the correct type of gas for fuel for your ship from the gas giant? AFAIK there are at least 2 types of fuel, hydrogen and caslon. Your ships might need caslon for fuel while your resupply ship is mining hydrogen or some other gases from the gas giant.

[PDiFolco]

Add more fuel storages to the ships... it's the simpler solution !

[Malevolence]

I have no idea what the ship takes, but my summary screen just says "Fuel" -- it doesn't say Hydrogen or Caslon. I suppose I need to dig down into the ship editor---not that I have made it that far that such things are even needed. The gas giant, however, lists percentages of both Caslon and Hydrogen as resource.

I also had a 5 destroyers in a fleet wiped out, because they couldn't refuel at space port -- only one ship in the fleet actually refueled. The rest sat their dumb and refused to refuel, even after I ordered them to individually. Is their only one hose coming out of that space port?

[Malevolence]

ORIGINAL: PDiFolco

Add more fuel storages to the ships... it's the simpler solution !

Thanks bud, but I am just trying to get through the first hour of gameplay with the starting ships. I haven't reached that far.

[HsojVvad]

A good tip I read on the forums and I impliment now, is, as soon as the game strats, I pause it. I go to the desgin screen. Then I pick the escort, and click the "choose as new" or something like that. Then I put solar panels on the ships. This way if you have your fleet waiting for an attack or what ever, I make shure the fleet stops. Once the ship stops and dosn't move, the solar panels kick in to give the rest of the ship's "static energy" power. If it didn't have solar panels, then the engine would be using fuel to power the "static power" of the ship.

Static Power is stuff like the Habitation moduales, Life support etc etc. This stuff needs power. Even if no mission is selected the crew needs to live right? So if you have solar panels on ships this will produce the power needed. Remeber once a ship is moving solar panels don't work. (same goes for research labs on ships as well. If a ship moves, science labs and solar panels do not work.)

Hope this helps a bit.

[Malevolence]

Thanks I'll try that... maybe these "solar panels" should have just been standard in every ship. You know to save us the hassle.

Also-- I've been trying to pay close attention to the fuel "type" and gas giants and such. Every time I order my Resupply ship to deploy at the gas giant with the correct fuel type, the ship refuses and then switches to a "refuel at planet __" mission. I shut off automation. It will not deploy. It will not stop giving itself such a refuel mission. The ship is more than half full of fuel itself.

Anyone else see this behavior?

[jam3]

Don't understand the answers here if refueling isnt WAD then this is a bug does anyone have a concrete answer to the OP's post? Haven't gotten to a point to build refueling ships myself.

[Malevolence]

tm.asp?m=2417767

Well there is the Bug Thread. Looks like it has been reported by someone else as well.

Let me make a note here that my wonderful resupply ship appears to be carrying Hydrogen. Now the Gas Giant also has hydrogen, so I wouldn't think that would make any difference. My entire fleet, however, including the stupid resupply ship use gd caslon for fuel ffs. If that is WAD, it's stupid.

[jam3]

You know it says in the galactopedia that a ship needs a docking bay to refuel, none of the default ships have dockingbays although they can refuel at the space ports for sure so no idea I assume only the giver of fuel needs a docking bay not the reciever.

[Malevolence]

ORIGINAL: jam3

You know it says in the galactopedia that a ship needs a docking bay to refuel, none of the default ships have dockingbays although they can refuel at the space ports for sure so no idea I assume only the giver of fuel needs a docking bay not the reciever.

Maybe so. I didn't build the "resupply ship". It came with my starting empire.

[Gertjan]

I agree fuel management should be way easier and less cumbersome. Perhaps ships should always have a collector onboard.