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Does fuel affects other things than shield regen and weapons? does it affect construction speed and other stuffs? because in bases without weapons i usually design them with only 1 fuel cell(because i'm cheapskate like that, i see they just keep refueling itself, or is it?). thanks for helping!

Depend if you design them with energy collectors or not ?
With energy collectors who cover the static energy use, all systems work correct even without fuel, just active components who need energy from the reactor like shields/weapons don't work.

ORIGINAL: Canute

Depend if you design them with energy collectors or not ?
With energy collectors who cover the static energy use, all systems work correct even without fuel, just active components who need energy from the reactor like shields/weapons don't work.

That's not quite right. He asked about fuel on bases and actually energy collectors DO work as energy source for weapons and shields on them. They provide energy on everything that doesn't move.
For more detailed guide on Energy please refer to Sylian post at A guide to Energy

maybe i should phrase my question more clearly(sorry i'm not a native english speaker ), i'm aware that some components do consume static energy(thus consumes fuel to operate without collectors), but i see bases just keep refueling itself, which makes me think: is it viable just to build bases with only 1 fuel cell?

it also seems from my observation, that research stations(even without collectors in the early games) also doesn't really need fuel, because even if it's empty i still get the research points. :\

Viable? Yes. IF you have Energy Collectors installed. Sufficient collectors will cover all Static energy costs. However if you need shields, weapons, movement, then you need fuel to cover things.

i see bases just keep refueling itself, which makes me think: is it viable just to build bases with only 1 fuel cell?

Basicly a base never refuel itself, they use the fuel gas they need from the cargo when they run out of fuel.
But this can be tricky, since these gas from the cargo can be used to refuel docking ships too.

When you think its important for a base to fight, you should add a few fuelcells other bases who don't need to fight just need 1 fuelcell.

Canute's rule of thumb (his summary) is how i do my designs, and they work well. Its good advice.

Its annoying that ships and bases who have the energy maker can't take the fuel from cargo to refuel themselves. It should work on bases at least cuz for ships it could be considered gamey since AI is too dumb to do that.