Newcomer / Intro What is the technical difference between an unladen ship and a laden one?

In other words, what does having a heavier (more cargo spaces used) ship do in terms of my route planning? It seems that it takes the same number of jumps to go to various places, regardless of how much I'm hauling. Does it only affect the amount of fuel per jump used?
 
In other words, what does having a heavier (more cargo spaces used) ship do in terms of my route planning? It seems that it takes the same number of jumps to go to various places, regardless of how much I'm hauling. Does it only affect the amount of fuel per jump used?

It will reduce you maximum range, and increase the amount of fuel used. Do your planning when fully loaded, or use the handy slider to simulate a full hold.
 
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Apologies if my assumption below is not the case and apologies if you already know all this but....

I assume that you use the economical routes as opposed to the fastest routes tick box when planning your routes... (under the navigation tab of the galaxy menu, about half way down).

Economical route planning picks a line of the shortest jumps to your destination, this uses less fuel but takes many more jumps so takes AGES.... Fastest route will get you there more quickly (i.e. in many fewer jumps) but uses more fuel.

Being full of cargo drops your maximum jump range, but not by enough to limit most of the economical routes - you will see it's effect a lot more on fastest routes.

Make sure you plan your route when you have your cargo on-board, or as Dommarraa suggests, use the slider to simulate a full load. if you plot a fastest route while empty, then fill up your cargo your jump range will drop below some of the jumps in the route you have calculated and this can be mildly annoying to fatal depending on the situation.
 
It will reduce you maximum range, and increase the amount of fuel used. Do your planning when fully loaded, or use the handy slider to simulate a full hold.

So basically (again, to be technical), it simply increases the fuel cost of individual jumps? Of course, more fuel spent per jump means (naturally) less distance can be travelled before refueling, but it isn't specifically/separately altering maximum range in addition to increasing fuel costs, right?


Apologies if my assumption below is not the case and apologies if you already know all this but....

I assume that you use the economical routes as opposed to the fastest routes tick box when planning your routes... (under the navigation tab of the galaxy menu, about half way down).

Economical route planning picks a line of the shortest jumps to your destination, this uses less fuel but takes many more jumps so takes AGES.... Fastest route will get you there more quickly (i.e. in many fewer jumps) but uses more fuel.

Being full of cargo drops your maximum jump range, but not by enough to limit most of the economical routes - you will see it's effect a lot more on fastest routes.

Make sure you plan your route when you have your cargo on-board, or as Dommarraa suggests, use the slider to simulate a full load. if you plot a fastest route while empty, then fill up your cargo your jump range will drop below some of the jumps in the route you have calculated and this can be mildly annoying to fatal depending on the situation.

I did not know of the route planing stuff, thank you. I'm assuming this is almost never really a problem for people (economical vs fastest) route, because in all the trade routes I've seen people share they make many stops at planets to pick up goods so there is always plenty of opportunity to refuel.
 
So basically (again, to be technical), it simply increases the fuel cost of individual jumps? Of course, more fuel spent per jump means (naturally) less distance can be travelled before refueling, but it isn't specifically/separately altering maximum range in addition to increasing fuel costs, right?

Dom specifically stated that it reduces jump range. Reduced fuel economy a side effect of that due to how fuel use is calculated. You can see the difference between laden and unladen jump range in the outfitting screen.

Most likely your ship can carry so little cargo or has so little jump range to begin with that the difference is not immediately apparent.
 
Dom specifically stated that it reduces jump range. Reduced fuel economy a side effect of that due to how fuel use is calculated. You can see the difference between laden and unladen jump range in the outfitting screen.

Most likely your ship can carry so little cargo or has so little jump range to begin with that the difference is not immediately apparent.

I tested it out in my Type-6, A-class everything.
 
If everywhere you jump is within your minimum jump range when fully laden then you won't notice a difference. Plot a route to a system 100LY away with your T6 laden and unladen and you'll almost certainly see a difference.

PS you are using the quickest jump route calculator setting, yes - not the economical one? That would also make a big difference as the economical setting would most likely produce the same jump route in many cases.
 
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