A Question About AP Ratings for Ships

[NeilGartner]

Another dumb question but I have to ask. I'm planning to build this huge tanker to skim for fuel in my system. Now, if I give it a AP of 4, can I order it to the planet, skim for fuel and return to my homeworld to offload? I need the fuel to make torpedoes... Lots of them.

 

Cheers

[ali-t-akua]

Another dumb question but I have to ask. I'm planning to build this huge tanker to skim for fuel in my system. Now, if I give it a AP of 4, can I order it to the planet, skim for fuel and return to my homeworld to offload? I need the fuel to make torpedoes... Lots of them. nuke.gif

 

I believe you only need an AP of 3 (assuming you have enough Fuel Shuttles to fill the tanker in one skim. The sequence under this assumption is:

 

1. NM Planet Skim

2. Skim

3. NM HW.

 

The Offload command does not cast AP (neither does the Load command btw)

 

To have an AP of 3 make sure that you have at least Mk II Nuclear Engines.

[Ur Lord Tedric]

We'd go for 4AP just so the shuttles are doubly useful per trip, but it will take twice the Fuel Tankage too.....

 

You can, of course, do a cost benefit analysis of fuel skimmed per cost of ship to do so.....

 

But then you could also build FDCs too........

 

Chief Existentialist to Ur-Lord Tedric

[Mechanica]

Neil,

 

As an alternative you could build a gas mining operation. If you have a gas giant in your home system you will achieve 100% efficiency for skimming.

 

Build one skimming ship per Ur-Lord's specs. Build twice the fuel tankage that you can skim. If you can skim 1000 per order then build 2000 fuel tankage. My skimmers also have 1,000 cargo bays to carry a colony beacon.

 

Plant a colony beacon on the gas giant then issue 2 xskim and a xOC all order to your skimmer and leave it. The x orders are given the turn after you plant the beacon as you need to get the pop#. The turn you plant the beacon you can still do 2 normal skims to fill your tanks. Then unload the fuel into the new pop center and issue the x orders. This will begin to stockpile fuel on the gas giant.

 

Now build a fuel transport ship to haul the fuel from the gas giant to your homeworld. If you know how much fuel you want to transfer per turn then you can design your freighter to carry that amount. Once the ship is built then establish a convoy route to carry the fuel for you. Establish your fuel numbe high say 10,000,000 in your convoy route. This way you don't have to adjust your convoy route order as you add ships to either fleet.

 

Start your fuel transport convoy route at your homeworld. That way to expand its capability you can build ships directly into the fleet. To add ships to your skimming fleet I used a 3rd fleet with 1 small ship permanently in it. Build new skimmers into this fleet then NM to the gas giant. Don't transfer the ships this turn as they already expended 1 AP by moving and would limit your skimming fleet to only 1 skim order. You can perform 1 skim with the transpoort fleet and unload the fuel. At the start of next turn RN them to the skimming fleet.

 

This way you only need 1 nuclear enginge and can automate the process to a large degree.

[Lord Uriel]

This is what I do with a gas giant that I have handy.

 

I built a ship with one Mk I nuclear engine, 250 Fuel shuttles and 200000 Fuel Tankage.

 

I set it on a convoy to do the following;

 

Turn 1

NM: #1, System X, Orbit 1.

Skim #1

 

Turn 2

Skim #1

Skim #1

 

Turn 3

Skim

NM: #1, System X, Orbit 2

OC #1, pop group 123456

 

It may not be efficent or worth the resources to build, but once it's in place it will continue to give you 200,000 fuel every three turns.

 

I built a much larger one later on that brings in 750,000 fuel every three turns.

 

Lord Uriel

[ali-t-akua]

By the way it does not have to be a Gas Giant either. You could follow any of these proposal on other planets as well. The efficiency of skimming varies but some types of worlds can be nearly as good as a Gas Giant. For example, an ammonia world with a semiliquid ocean is 70% efficient. The numbers are in a thread on skimming that is pinned.

[ShadowKitsune]

There are also folks who have built Harvester/Tanker combos.

 

Harvester Ship - Fuel Shuttles/Tankage & Engines - High AP

Tanker Ship - Fuel Tankage & 1 Nuclear Engine - 2 AP

 

If you put your Harvester Fleet on SUPP, the Tankers just need to NM to the Gas Giant, then NM to your Homeworld.

 

Convoy Route [Tanker]:

NM [Tanker Fleet] [Gas Giant]

NM [Tanker Fleet] [Homeworld]

OC [Tanker Fleet] [Pop Group] ALL

 

Convoy Route [Harvester]:

SKIM [Harvester Fleet]

SKIM [Harvester Fleet]

 

Remember that Convoy Routes are executed until the Fleet runs out of APs and they loop.

 

As the Ur-Lord pointed out advanced Fuel Refineries (e.g. Fuel Distillation Centers) are more cost-efficient than SKIM Fleets, but early in the game these Installations aren't available. Besides, once you get these fleets up and running, however you implement them, they'll just keep on going. (Can never have too much Fuel. )

 

-SK

[AKO]

We follow the same tactic as ShadowKitsune, with an OC after every SKIM for the Harvester fleet (saves Fuel tankage).

Kind regards,

[NeilGartner]

Thanks for all the suggestions, including the Harvester/Tanker combos.

 

I have a couple moons in my system that contains useful atmospheres and the best one has Methane which will give me about 80%. On top of that, my HW also has Chlorine (50%). I'm assuming I can skim my own planet for fuel (if needed) without harming it.

 

Cheers.

[ali-t-akua]

I'm assuming I can skim my own planet for fuel (if needed) without harming it. unsure.gif

 

You sure can. In fact I get most of my fuel from orbiting refineries that skim and unload.

[Mechanica]

By the way it does not have to be a Gas Giant either. You could follow any of these proposal on other planets as well. The efficiency of skimming varies but some types of worlds can be nearly as good as a Gas Giant. For example, an ammonia world with a semiliquid ocean is 70% efficient. The numbers are in a thread on skimming that is pinned.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

 

 

Very true. Having 7 gas giants in my home system kinda warped my perspective somewhat.

[Octus Imperium]

When we started 40+ cycles ago, our HW had sufficient gas production and population growth to build all the planet side resources we needed for fuel production. When we got the tech for converting petro to fuel, we didn't think much about it. Now that fuel consumption is way up (for various reasons), natural resources are quickly getting to the point that they can't replace what we use each cycle. So now conversion of petro looks like the way to go.

 

However, we have extremely limited petro on the HW and the only reasonable in system colony planet also has severe limitations.

 

So where do we go next? Start building skimming stations on gas giants. Back to the future?

 

Octus Imperium

[Ur Lord Tedric]

When we started 40+ cycles ago, our HW had sufficient gas production and population growth to build all the planet side resources we needed for fuel production. When we got the tech for converting petro to fuel, we didn't think much about it. Now that fuel consumption is way up (for various reasons), natural resources are quickly getting to the point that they can't replace what we use each cycle. So now conversion of petro looks like the way to go.

 

However, we have extremely limited petro on the HW and the only reasonable in system colony planet also has severe limitations.

 

So where do we go next? Start building skimming stations on gas giants. Back to the future?

 

Octus Imperium

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

FDCs are so efficient it's worth converting the raw resources......

 

Chief Planner to Ur-Lord Tedric

[Octus Imperium]

Good thought! And maybe time to build those orbital crystal facilities while I'm at it.

 

Octus

 

When we started 40+ cycles ago, our HW had sufficient gas production and population growth to build all the planet side resources we needed for fuel production. When we got the tech for converting petro to fuel, we didn't think much about it. Now that fuel consumption is way up (for various reasons), natural resources are quickly getting to the point that they can't replace what we use each cycle. So now conversion of petro looks like the way to go.

 

However, we have extremely limited petro on the HW and the only reasonable in system colony planet also has severe limitations.

 

So where do we go next? Start building skimming stations on gas giants. Back to the future?

 

Octus Imperium

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

FDCs are so efficient it's worth converting the raw resources......

 

Chief Planner to Ur-Lord Tedric

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

[Mechanica]

Hmmm. Indeed food for thought. Our accounting firm indicates that we can provide superior fuel production capabilities using FDCs when compared to skimming operations. We may need to readdress our home system production of fuels during the next planning cycle. This will free up skimming ships that can be used outsystem to stockpile fuel for future operations.

 

Fortunately we have a small stockpile of ICMs on our homeworld that we can put to immediate use.