How to create/manage a fuel depot?

[Shark7]

My main reason for doing the star base depots the way I do is that the AI economy tends to suck up all the fuel from mining stations, and I can't refuel a military fleet in the middle of a war. When I build these depots, I put them in gas clouds, etc and just let them sit there. Since they have tons of fuel available, the military fleets tend to head straight for them when they need to refuel, and I'm not stuck waiting on the fuel to be produced.

As a general rule I design them with:

20 cargo bays
2 gas miners
12 docking bays

then I stuff the design with as much defense and weapons as I can (basically as big as it can be and still be built by construction ships).

Not only can these store a ton of fuel and get my ships fueled in hurry, they can hold their own until the cavalry arrives if they get attacked.

It is a trade off though. These are big expensive stations that will hit you in the maintenance hard, but the positive side is I don't have a fleet knocked out of action by a lack of fuel.

You can also use a design with energy to fuel converter and more fuel tanks, but I'm not sure it is as efficient. But that design would work in a system without a source of fuel on the planets.

[BlindOne]

If there is an asset you want protected with a fleet 24/7 ... then just consider replacing the fleet with an actual fortress instead. This will save you the headache you are worried about.

So for the 3 super luxuries I always build Fortress Mines on top of them to ensure they are protected. We're talking thicc boys here that can easily handle an enemy fleet all by itself.

For those crucial fuel depots at the edge of another empire that act as springboards I will build a fortified station that can fend off pirate raids and small strike teams but in general I strongly believe you are much better off trying to keep your empire as lean and mean as possible.

Building defensive and offensive systems on stations that will never see action and/or are not crucial will only increase your maintenance cost and economic burdens more than is necessary.

It is better to have an extra mobile fleet than have all your stations be armed with shields, armor and weapons in case of an attack. Most of the time your stations will get overwhelmed by the enemy regardless of how well it is armed and you can't pool all the stations together like you would with a fleet to actually provide a strong enough force to fight off your enemy. It is better to take your loss in stations on the compromised border and call up your fleets to handle the mess than it is to have them all armored up with systems that will get overwhelmed by any proper attack anyway.

Mobile Assets will benefit you much more than trying to fortify your way into safety.

As for fuel depots in general ... if it has fuel (preferably hydrogen/caslon combo), I build a gas mine on it ... period. Gas mines everywhere! You get a gas mine, and you get a gas mine! and you!!! Gas mines for every planet that has hydrogen/caslon! wooh!

Also make sure to split your fuel economy in 2 by doing the private sector hydrogen, military sector caslon once you are capable of it mid-tech tree. The annoying part is that the end of the tech tree it is better to use hydrogen for military ships as this relationship switches around annoyingly enough at the end. So you start with caslon for everything. Then get hydrogen reactors as a secondary option which has less energy output (hence better for civilian) and caslon quantum engines which are great for military vessels. But then at the end of the tech tree it switches this around again and hydrogen provides the best energy ... so you will want to switch those around again at some point.

Regardless the best cure for a lack of fuel is to build a metric tonne gas stations.

Now if by some reason you absolutely MUST get fuel to a specific location that has no fuel of its own. Build a star base with a lot of storage capacity (20 units or so) there. The civilian freighters WILL ensure that star base will get fed with enough fuel (if available of course) to fuel any fleets docking there to get their gas tanks filled up. Be wary though ... if your empire is suffering from a lack of fuel as it is ... building a star base that requires a constant supply of fuel could deplete your own fuel reserves from wherever you are drawing them from (usually the home world) ... It's a good reason why you may sometimes want to actually scrap those abandoned star bases you find out in space, especially really early game if you're suffering a lack of fuel supply.