Refueling Fleets

[Prospective]

Got my initial setup and fleet 101 has 7200 units of fuel on it (out of a maximum of 9600). So, I want to refuel that fleet.

 

How do I do it?

 

Is it a LC (Load Cargo) order?

 

MUST I skim the homeworld (it may not be rated high enough to refill the tanks).

Thanks.

 

Steve

[crossroads]

You must indeed use LC. Fuel will automaticly go in your fueltanks.

[Prospective]

Thanks Crossroads.

 

However, my 'Imperial Stockpiles' report shows 100 units of fuel, which is far less than the 2400 units to top fleet 101 off. So, am I S.O.L. until I produce enough the other 2300 units?

 

Also, what happens to the new Pathfinders that are created for each of the next 5 turns? If there are 0 fuel on planet, do they arrive empty?

 

If so, then my only other option would be to SKIM, right?

[crossroads]

Build more fuel refineries if you have a good gas resource. Most of us just skim a gas giant.

 

New ships do not have fuel. You must procduce that seperately.

[ali-t-akua]

However, my 'Imperial Stockpiles' report shows 100 units of fuel, which is far less than the 2400 units to top fleet 101 off. So, am I S.O.L. until I produce enough the other 2300 units?

 

Also, what happens to the new Pathfinders that are created for each of the next 5 turns? If there are 0 fuel on planet, do they arrive empty?

 

If so, then my only other option would be to SKIM, right?

 

Your potions depend on your situation. Your new pathfinders will be out of luck as fuel is not automatically created for them but rather, as suggested elsewhere, requires gas refineries. Therefore your other option is to SKIM.

 

One thing you should think about doing is look at your HW atmosphere and the composition of your ocean. If the combination of the two is high enough you can skim that (Check the Skimming Fuel FAQ). Also if your HW is rich enough skimming possibility yopu might want to consider building a orbital that is nothing but fuel tankage and fuel shuttles and use that to perform standing SKIM orders. (Two per turn.) Then set the orbital on SUPP which will automatically fuel your ships as they are created.

[PhaseDragon]

Another point that is very important -

 

You CAN do a COLB on a Gas Giant and use the Pop Group created to stockpile fuel directly on the Gas Giant. Then you could just send every ship you build to the Gas Giant before jumping out of the system.

 

With another ship with lots of fuel tankage you could just hang around the Warp Points in your home system and refuel ships before they jump through even if they have no fuel tankage of their own. When it runs out just move it back to the Gas Giant and load up again.

[Krelnett_of_Kraan]

We use a similar process. With only 2 warp points at home it's easy for us to have a large orbital with nothing but fuel tanks sitting on permanent SUPP orders. then we have SKIM-happy ships on convoy to fill up said orbitals.

Be careful to use OC ALL NO FUEL orders in your convoys, though, or with this setup you'll be dumping precious fuel back into stockpiles...

[athonian]

how do you deal with the attrition on gas giants?

[Kurassier]

If you're just skimming, no attrition.

If you just have a COLB, no attrition.

Attrition will only occur if you add colonists (and thus POP).

Think of a COLB as a big empty warehouse. In the example used previously,

XSKIM 999; XOC colb 999 Fuel 999999999999

XSKIM 999; XOC colb 999 Fuel 999999999999

 

For a 2 AP ship, skims and dumps fuel twice each turn into the colb(use whatever pop group # is assigned of course)

and then your refueling ships just move to the gas giant and LC colb 999 Fuel 9999999

tada!!

 

I however prefer Krelnet's method, I have designed 2 types of ships, Skimmers and ReFuelers. The skimmers go to the local gas giant (this I've set up as a convoy so I could add other ships if neccessary) skim until full, move back (in my case) to my HW and dump all the fuel into a pop group. I then have tons of refueler ships that just sit there and do XLC fuel all day, and are on resupply duty. That way, any ship coming to my HW gets refueled AND all new ships just built get fueled up right away.

[hobknob]

If you have good enough colonization bonuses you can survive pretty well on a gas giant or any planet for that matter. Even a pathetic race can likely keep a few pop alive just about anywhere.