How to be a refueling site

[Evrett]

My star base dont seem to get the refueling point blue icon. What is required to be considered a refueling point? These are Star Bases at planets not Space Ports and they lack construction bays. Does that matter?

[Sindri]

Hi, space port needs a docking bay to refuel ships and cargo storage with required fuel in it, like caslon or hydrogen.
Construction yards are used for building new ships and retrofitting existing ones

[Keston]

As described in another thread, calling something a space port tells your AI that it is a place where fuel should be collected for fueling, and Small < Medium <Large. Whether a Large SP is actually large or small and how much storage it has is a separate matter.

Gas mining stations also show up with fuel icons. Ships have also decided to refuel at research stations, but I don't know the mechanics.

[Aeson]

As Sindri said, your design needs to have cargo bays, docking bays, and fuel in the cargo bays. If it has these three things, it's a valid refueling point. If at least one of these is missing, it's not.

[Evrett]

My star base have cargo bays, docking bays..I'm not sure if they have fuel but they have fuel tanks...Does it have to be a "space port" ? 'cause I'm talking about Star bases..I dont want construction bays on these bases because they end up building ships in annoying places. To repair do you need a construction bay? This stuff needs to be in the game literature.

Can you like that other thread Keston?

[Airpower]

If you're talking about a Star Base located at a planet, then in order for that Star Base to get Hydrogen or Caslon in its cargo storage, freighters will have to bring it there. I think that that will only happen if the Star Base has a Commerce Center. I think...

Alternatively, you can make a Star Base with 8000 cargo space, some docking bays, and 1-2 gas extractors (you need 40 extraction to max it). Place one of these on a world with only Hydrogen or only Caslon (as you need), and when built, it will fill its tanks up with the chosen gas and act as a refueling base. The 8000 cargo space will give you room for 32000 gas, which is 1000 over the hardcoded storage cap.

If you mine a 50% Hydrogen planet, the station will reach maximum cargo capacity for the chosen fuel in 10 game months. A 75% Hydrogen planet will fill to capacity in 6.7 months. Therefore it might be a good idea to build a couple of these things on the same planet, to speed up the overall rate you restock your fuel stores.

[Sirian]

@Evrett: fuel tanks are only used for the base itself, they are not used to store fuel for others. Fuel for others is stored in the cargo hold.

[Lonck]

AFAIK for the refueling icon to appear on the system star bases require the commerce center along with extractors. I placed a star base once with fuel converters on a star and the fuel icon appeared it had a commerce center.

[Skyjack]

Can one of the veterans give a definitive answer for this?

our design needs to have cargo bays, docking bays, and fuel in the cargo bays. If it has these three things, it's a valid refueling point. If at least one of these is missing, it's not.

The above seems true but then I read:

AFAIK for the refueling icon to appear on the system star bases require the commerce center along with extractors. I placed a star base once with fuel converters on a star and the fuel icon appeared it had a commerce center.

Thanks for any clarification.

[feelotraveller]

There is no need for a commerce centre for a place to act as a refueling site. Colonies without bases are prime examples of this. (I'm not sure about the case of starbases, it is possible that something peculiar goes on but...) The appearance of the refueling icon on the sector/galactic map is somewhat erratic, when it is there it indicates that A fuel is present for refueling (not even both ) but there can be fuel for refueling without the icon being present. It does not do anything other than draw a players attention to the site as a place to refuel.

Edit: I should add that if you want the AI (and that includes your own private sector ships) to be aware of a base as refueling site then as far as I can tell you do need to include a commerce centre.