Any sense for placing docking ports on ships?

[0x7be]

What if I place docking port on my capital ship?
Will then freighters bring in fuel required by ship?

[Aeson]

Resupply ships and construction ships are the only types of ships which have a reason to have docking bays. Resupply ships so that other vessels can dock and be refueled, construction ships so that freighters can bring resources to them if they happen to run out during a construction project.

As far as I know, freighters will never ship fuel to any ship; even if they could, since cargo gets transferred from docked ships to cargo bays and ships not set to the resupply role cannot refuel from their own cargo bays, I don't think it'd help at all.

[Shark7]

Putting a docking bay on a military ship would serve no purpose, and would drive up the maintenance costs of your ships. I wouldn't do myself.

[RemoteLeg]

Put 10 docking bays on a Resupply ship and ten ships can refuel at the same time. This is a good thing.

I put one docking bay on my constructor ships because the game forces it.
@Aeson: Do freighters really come and deliver cargo to constructors when they run out? I've never seen it happen, but it's not something I've tested personally.

I've never found a use for docking bays on any other type of (mobile) ship. Bases, of course, are another matter.

[Bingeling]

They have delivered to resupply ships at least. An old AAR to the rescue: The red vector shows a freighter incoming to the resupply ship. And yes, I watched it happen.

[Aeson]

Do freighters really come and deliver cargo to constructors when they run out? I've never seen it happen, but it's not something I've tested personally.

Yes, it happens. Just leave a stalled construction ship alone long enough and a freighter will eventually bring it some of the resources that it needs. Emphasis on eventually; it doesn't seem as though this is a particularly high-priority mission.

[Shark7]

ORIGINAL: Aeson

Do freighters really come and deliver cargo to constructors when they run out? I've never seen it happen, but it's not something I've tested personally.

Yes, it happens. Just leave a stalled construction ship alone long enough and a freighter will eventually bring it some of the resources that it needs. Emphasis on eventually; it doesn't seem as though this is a particularly high-priority mission.

The best way for a player to see this in action is to locate a World Destroyer project, order a construction ship to repair it, and then just focus on the construction ship and watch for a while. It won't be too long before freighters start coming in to drop off materials. Since repairing the World Destroyer takes a lot of resources and a lot of time, you'll be able to get a good view of the freighter deliveries.

[RemoteLeg]

Thanks for the tip!
Every time my Construction ships ran out of resources I thought they just trundled back to the nearest base to resupply. Just when I thought I was getting the hang of this game, I discover something new. [&o]

[HerpInYourDerp]

You can also tell the ship to stop and then to 'repair' the ship/base again, which would make the conship head back to the nearest port for missing supplies if you can't wait for the AI to assign freighters.