Fuel scoops - reality check required.

Well, I usually play in 3-4 hour chunks, do a lot of FSSing and have fun on the planets both with SRV and fighters. When I'm out in a Beluga, I refuel every three or four days.
 
As a Fuel Rat (and occasional Buckyballer) biggest "A" scoop every. Single. Time.

For example my Clipper has a 7A, and I embrace the 12s scoopiness, despite people saying "but you can fit a 7B and it's only 2 seconds slower, and you save 70 million credits".
Money? HA! 2 seconds is 2 seconds baby!
7A on a Clipper? That's like a portable hydrogen fuel processing plant you are flying. My Clipper jumps 25ly unladen and 4A is enough to fill entire tank in a spin.
 
7A on a Clipper? That's like a portable hydrogen fuel processing plant you are flying. My Clipper jumps 25ly unladen and 4A is enough to fill entire tank in a spin.
Believe me. Buckyballers are insane. I only ever tried to compete twice and it almost cost me my mind and reason.
They would literally die for two tenths of a second.
 

Deleted member 38366

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I equip Fuel Scoops with the role of the Ships in mind.

  • any Ship that frequently has to go places quickly will get a large Fuel Scoop (sacrificing largest slot if the Internals dictate it)
  • any typical Exploration Ship will get the largest remaining slot behind Shields
  • any Ship that only infrequently has to travel (mild distances) but rather remains on Station at the Destination after arrival will get a smaller Fuel Scoop (i.e. 4A on a Large Ship)
Since typical Fuel Scoop sizes are available at many places, I'm not shy to buy & sell as required (i.e. for some Engineering round-robin).
 
my aim is to fill the tank in about 30 secs, which means you can refill a half empty tank 'en passant', which is my favorite way to go. jumps were never boring for me (if you do 1000 jumps in a session that's a completely different issue). this means that even when fitted for combat i usually reserve the second biggest internal slot for the scoop, e.g. about an A4 for a fdl.

if it is a highly specific wasp then i would probably have no scoop at all and just use ship transfer (or very carefully planned my jumps before that), but given the low quality of the combat implementation, the abysmal multiplayer setting and the silly and convoluted power creep aimed at kids with more self esteem issues than time and plenty of time, i haven't done that for ages. meh.
 
Well, I usually play in 3-4 hour chunks, do a lot of FSSing and have fun on the planets both with SRV and fighters. When I'm out in a Beluga, I refuel every three or four days.
I'm in the Abyss right now so eco jump is a lot like fastest jump.

I'd rather stick needles in my eyes than use either of those on a Phantom.
Flying a Phantom would be sticking needles in my eyes. 3A is already a huge compromise for me. I really like my armours :)
 
Simple; for exploration, the biggest I can afford.
Asp/Orca, etc 6a
'Conda 7b
For missions; Python 4a
 
130,000Ly round-trip to Beagle Point.
65Ly ship.
2,000 jumps.
And exta 0.2s per jump equates to nearly 7 whole minutes of extra scooping during the journey to Beagle Point and back.

Seems like some slow ships, but yeah, 7 mins could drop you multiple places.

 
Never really put too much thought into fuel scoops, so it's really interesting to read this thread. My only strategy has been to fit the biggest possible on explorers and anything else gets something that'll fill the tank in 1 min 30s - 2 min. I always fit a-rated, since they get chucked into the bottom of the power priority list anyway.
 
I ususally use up all my fuel before i scoop, didnt know everyone else did it differently lol.

With bad memories of how hard and time consuming I used to find fuel scooping back on the Spectrum it was ages before I bought one this time round, I was quite surprised to find just how deep into fuel scooping distance from the star I had been flying for all that time in fact I actually started to fly a little further out.
 
Always the biggest possible A rated for exploration.

For other ships, it depends on the available modules. Used to run a Python for bubble duties and found a 4A worked perfect for that...

For ships that make me jump-nervous like the Vulture and Viper3 I often fit an ‘emergency’ 1A fuel scoop and leave it powered off. It’s comforting to know it’s there.
 
With bad memories of how hard and time consuming I used to find fuel scooping back on the Spectrum it was ages before I bought one this time round, I was quite surprised to find just how deep into fuel scooping distance from the star I had been flying for all that time in fact I actually started to fly a little further out.
Yeah, I remember that. Cabin temperature off the scale, alarms going off and the moment of panic that it's not going to work and you'll crash into the star. Have to admit I started the game hugging the exclusion zone as a result of that as well.
 
I use a 6a scoop in my phantom for explo, but for everything else I use a 5a and that is still pretty quick, but like you I find anything below that tedious.
 
I always use the biggest scoop I can fit/afford on anything that isn't a pure combat ship.

This is what I do too. The long haul ships get the biggest and best one I can afford. I have a couple of C7 scoops, one an A and the other a C (or D iirc ?) and basically one of each all the way down to a C2 or C3 of various grades stay in my garage.

Normally I don't put one on my combat ships or short range hauler but if I need to take it 6 or 10 jumps away for eng or whatever, I'll put a fuel tank on it. I have one of each from C2 to C6; really handy imho.
 
Never really put too much thought into fuel scoops, so it's really interesting to read this thread. My only strategy has been to fit the biggest possible on explorers and anything else gets something that'll fill the tank in 1 min 30s - 2 min. I always fit a-rated, since they get chucked into the bottom of the power priority list anyway.

Lots of feelings in this thread - please allow me to inject some facts:

Unless something major has changed, once you load into the system, you have the FSD Cooldown timer, and then the FSD Charge-Up time where you are going exactly nowhere. If maximum travel time efficiency is what is desired, then your Fuel Scoop need only fit into this amount of time. Anything faster is not, in fact, saving you any time at all, though it does allow you to scoop at a higher rate from farther away. I find that benefit to be minimal at best, to be honest. If someone is the type that runs the tank pretty dry before scooping, then a faster scoop will (obviously) refill it faster per time, but most people don't do it that way the majority of the time. All your scoop needs to do, in most cases, is refill one maximum jump's worth of fuel during the FSD Cooldown/Spool Up time period.

Running a 7A or 8A scoop is an egregious waste of both credits and power. It's nothing to me if people decide to use those, but that doesn't change the truth of what I just said. 8D/7C are what they should be using, especially if they are also running thin on power.

And yikes, what the hell happened to my pic? It looks terrible in this new forum.

Riôt
 
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