Carrier refuelling?

[Stealthie]

To be honest, I find the notion of buying limpets, or buying anything at all, in your own carrier a bit daft.

I would prefer to have storage for those kinds of things, and you could buy limpets from stations and stockpile them on the carrier for future usage.

Uhuh, that's what I mean.

At the extreme, it might mean you could stock up with limpets for free and then dispose of them for Cr100 each, thus providing an unlimited (if really, really dull) source of credits.

I suppose it could be explained as you "hiring" NPC crew to provide services aboard your Carrier (provide limpets, UniCart, commodity traders, Authority Contacts etc) and there might be some penalty (limpets cost more, you get paid less for data or CBs etc) for using them.

 

[askavir]

So you want to buy them for your carrier, not on your carrier. So your carrier is some kind of store of virtual value. Like ARX. Which apparently people think are bad. People are bizarre :_)

I don't think I understood your reasoning... I'll assume you just wanted very much to make a statement about people and arx.

I want to buy limpets to store on the carrier and take them with me on the carrier, so I can transfer limpets from the carrier to my docked ships at any time. Getting limpets from a shopping mall on my own carrier doesn't make sense for me.

 

[Factabulous]

I don't think I understood your reasoning... I'll assume you just wanted very much to make a statement about people and arx.

I want to buy limpets to store on the carrier and take them with me on the carrier, so I can transfer limpets from the carrier to my docked ships at any time. Getting limpets from a shopping mall on my own carrier doesn't make sense for me.

It's equivalent - and another form of storing value like ARX - just think it's funny that one is apparently ok, but not the other Funny humans.

 

[askavir]

I suppose it could be explained as you "hiring" NPC crew to provide services aboard your Carrier (provide limpets, UniCart, commodity traders, Authority Contacts etc) and there might be some penalty (limpets cost more, you get paid less for data or CBs etc) for using them.

In truth, I'm pretty convinced the carrier will work exactly as a station in those matters. Not because it makes sense or there's any logical explanation for it, but simply because it's easier and faster to just re-use station mechanics, and carrier upgrades simply unlock station buttons. On the other hand, I'm ready to be surprised.

 

[Stealthie]

Not keen on the idea of buying/storing limpets.

Regardless of anything else, it'd mean you've got a finite supply of them so that'd massively impact the ability to just head off into the black indefinitely.

I guess there's also the support ships to consider.
Maybe if you don't have a support ship you'll have to manually provide stuff like limpets but if you buy a support ship they'll potter around, doing their own thing, and present the appearance of gathering the mat's required to manufacture limpets for your use?

 

[IndigoWyrd]

Not keen on the idea of buying/storing limpets.

Regardless of anything else, it'd mean you've got a finite supply of them so that'd massively impact the ability to just head off into the black indefinitely.

I guess there's also the support ships to consider.
Maybe if you don't have a support ship you'll have to manually provide stuff like limpets but if you buy a support ship they'll potter around, doing their own thing, and present the appearance of gathering the mat's required to manufacture limpets for your use?

You know you can synthesize them from fairly common components you can stockpile before venturing out, and even collect some of "out there", right?

 

[Stealthie]

You know you can synthesize them from fairly common components you can stockpile before venturing out, and even collect some of "out there", right?

That's a marvellous suggestion.

Tell me, how much Iron and Nickel would be required to synthesise, say, 200 limpets for an hour-long mining session in my T10?

 

[Chaparral]

1) It should be ship context relevant. ie. Bounty ships use drops from blown up ships, mining ships use drops from mining, exploration ships use scooped fuel.
2) It won't be context dependent. It will be a grind completely inconsistent with the ship purpose.

 

[VR SenseiMatty]

Anybody care to speculate on how this might work?

I understand that refuelling our Carriers will involve either collecting fuel or purchasing it.

I was wondering how purchasing fuel might work.
Will we just show up at a station, hand over a bunch of credits and then go back to our Carrier to find that it now has a full tank of gas?
Alternatively, will we have to buy it, as a commodity from the market, and then transfer it back to our Carriers?

I assume it'll be possible to carry spare fuel for a Carrier aboard one of the stored ships, to refuel it from existing supplies rather than having to go and hunt for it each time we need to refuel.
I hope this is the case, at least, or it could be impossible for the fuel-rats to refuel a stranded Carrier.

I was thinking about the ships I want put aboard my Carrier for the trip to Colonia and it occured to me that I might need a T9, filled with cargo racks, working as a fuel tanker.
Alternatively, perhaps I'll be able to use a mining ship to mine Carrier fuel and transport it after buying it?

Thoughts?

Scoopable Gas Giants! \o/

 

[VR SenseiMatty]

The most obvious solution wold be Hydrogen Fuel.
You buy the Hydrogen at stations or you scoop it at stars and you store it in cargo racks. It will require a new module to transfer it to containers while scooping.
The fact that we need to "mine" the fuel is another of the many things that I don't understand about FDEV decisions.
But on the other hand we have infinite surface scanner probes so, hey welcome to FDEV!

 

[insanephoton]

I discovered a leaked image of the refuelling tool....

Spoiler: refueling tool

 

[Stealthie]

I discovered a leaked image of the refuelling tool....

Spoiler: refueling tool

Worse Better....

Spoiler

 

[[VR] Goooost]

Anybody care to speculate on how this might work?

I understand that refuelling our Carriers will involve either collecting fuel or purchasing it.

I was wondering how purchasing fuel might work.
Will we just show up at a station, hand over a bunch of credits and then go back to our Carrier to find that it now has a full tank of gas?
Alternatively, will we have to buy it, as a commodity from the market, and then transfer it back to our Carriers?

I assume it'll be possible to carry spare fuel for a Carrier aboard one of the stored ships, to refuel it from existing supplies rather than having to go and hunt for it each time we need to refuel.
I hope this is the case, at least, or it could be impossible for the fuel-rats to refuel a stranded Carrier.

I was thinking about the ships I want put aboard my Carrier for the trip to Colonia and it occured to me that I might need a T9, filled with cargo racks, working as a fuel tanker.
Alternatively, perhaps I'll be able to use a mining ship to mine Carrier fuel and transport it after buying it?

Thoughts?

Might be able to call in a refueling tanker for a lot extra, or bring multiple loads of fuel to the carrier with your normal ship, or jump directly into a system's dry dock where it can be purchased directly. You might even just be able to keep track of the refueling tankers and jump to them as well.

I suspect that in the field, the fuel needed will be from gas giants, and you will have to find specific cloud types to mine, and they probably will be in a very dark and scary place most of the time. Rarely you'll find a gas giant practically made of the stuff.

 

[Stealthie]

I suspect that in the field, the fuel needed will be from gas giants, and you will have to find specific cloud types to mine, and they probably will be in a very dark and scary place most of the time. Rarely you'll find a gas giant practically made of the stuff.

I'm all for the idea of interacting with Gas Giants in some way, as a fan of everything from TESB and Event Horizon to episodes of things like Star Trek where a ship has to be rescued from inside the atmosphere of a Gas Giant.

Trouble is, Carriers are coming in December and I seriously doubt FDev are going to take the time to mess with the fundamentals of how the galaxy works (by modifying the exclusion zones around Gas Giants) just so we can refuel our Carriers.

With the benefit of hindsight, I think doing something with Gas Giants should have been wayyy higher up the to-do list, possibly as part of Horizons, right after planetary landings, before engineers and definitely before all the other fluff such as SLFs, Multicrew and HoloMe.

If FDev had done that, back then, it would have given them an extra mechanic to use as the basis for a bunch of other gameplay - combat, cargo delivery, gathering fuel/mats/commodities, exploration, mining etc all with the extra hazards/challenges the atmosphere of a Gas Giant presents.

 

[Cmdr Nemo]

Probably because it's unlikely that the Carrier will be able to be piloted in the same way that our ships are.

Your correct, carrier's will not have the ability to be flown or piloted by cmdr's. They will simply spawn at designated areas in what ever system they are programmed or plotted to go to. Which may not always be close to a particular station even if the system has a station. It's stated that Jameson Memorial in Shinrarta is the busiest station and home to the majority of player's. If that's true, where will they all park there carrier's when returning home?

 

[GraphiteGB]

Your correct, carrier's will not have the ability to be flown or piloted by cmdr's. They will simply spawn at designated areas in what ever system they are programmed or plotted to go to. Which may not always be close to a particular station even if the system has a station. It's stated that Jameson Memorial in Shinrarta is the busiest station and home to the majority of player's. If that's true, where will they all park there carrier's when returning home?

As each carrier will generate a single stand alone persistent instance they will all park in the same system... you need permission to land at a carrier so the instance will be blocked from those with no landing access...
Its likely that those with multi landing permissions will have to select which instance they will land in manually from the Left side target screen before they can access the carrier instance... if you only have landing permission from one carrier owner the selection will be automatic...

 

[VR SenseiMatty]

Gas Giants scooping would be a nice addition indeed but remember that December Update is only about Fleet Carriers.
Having Gas Giants available would be a content bigger than that and remember that we're also still waiting for Ice Planets (not announced for 2019), so for December I don't expect anything more than FC.

To refuel we will deliver the commodity (purchased or mined) directly in the FC fuel tank (once docked we'll have an option to do that).

 

[Stealthie]

Your correct, carrier's will not have the ability to be flown or piloted by cmdr's. They will simply spawn at designated areas in what ever system they are programmed or plotted to go to. Which may not always be close to a particular station even if the system has a station. It's stated that Jameson Memorial in Shinrarta is the busiest station and home to the majority of player's. If that's true, where will they all park there carrier's when returning home?

We know that Capital ships can select their exact destinations 'cos they manage to arrive in CZs and we know Carriers will be able to make orbit around planets 'cos they're shown doing that in FDev's videos.

I suppose it's possible that FDev will set it up so that there's just one arbitrary arrival-point for Carriers within a system, some of which are around planets, but it seems likely that you'll be able to pick a body from the system map and jump to it.

Maybe that's part of the gameplay associated with Carriers?
If you just hit the "jump" button into an unknown system it'll be quicker but you'll end up orbiting the star and the nearest place to mine more fuel might be 50Ly away or around a planet 300kLs from the entry point.
Conversely, you can make the effort to use a regular ship to scout ~500Ly ahead, find a system with a planet that has the resources to gather Carrier fuel and then either travel back to your Carrier and jump it directly to the location you found or, ideally, you'll be able to just open up the galmap/sysmap while you're sat in your DBX/AspX/Phantom and jump your Carrier to your location.

That'd be fine with me.

 

[VR SenseiMatty]

If you just hit the "jump" button into an unknown system it'll be quicker but you'll end up orbiting the star and the nearest place to mine more fuel might be 50Ly away or around a planet 300kLs from the entry point.

Uuuuh that's very dangerous. Consider binary systems. What if your FC interferes with a star or arrives in between two of them? Raise your hand if you've never crossed a secondary star dropping from Witch Space.
An alternate would be that your FC drops at the edge of an unknown system, as it was in the original game.
I think (this doesn't mean I like it) that we will not be able to jump to an undiscovered system. We first need to have the system map to select the entry point. In terms of gameplay it means that you need a scout ship to go out and find what you're looking for and then you can send your FC in.

 

[Navigare Necesse Est]

We know that Capital ships can select their exact destinations 'cos they manage to arrive in CZs and we know Carriers will be able to make orbit around planets 'cos they're shown doing that in FDev's videos.

I suppose it's possible that FDev will set it up so that there's just one arbitrary arrival-point for Carriers within a system, some of which are around planets, but it seems likely that you'll be able to pick a body from the system map and jump to it.

Maybe that's part of the gameplay associated with Carriers?
If you just hit the "jump" button into an unknown system it'll be quicker but you'll end up orbiting the star and the nearest place to mine more fuel might be 50Ly away or around a planet 300kLs from the entry point.
Conversely, you can make the effort to use a regular ship to scout ~500Ly ahead, find a system with a planet that has the resources to gather Carrier fuel and then either travel back to your Carrier and jump it directly to the location you found or, ideally, you'll be able to just open up the galmap/sysmap while you're sat in your DBX/AspX/Phantom and jump your Carrier to your location.

That'd be fine with me.

Shown in video doesnt translte to gameplay directly.