Carrier refuelling?

[Robert Maynard]

Uhuh,

Course, that begs questions such as whether the fuel will be collectable in a regular mining ship and whether we'll collect it as fuel or whether we'll collect ingredients and the Carrier will convert it into fuel etc.

We have, from what I remember, been told that we will be able to buy or mine the commodity (note, not a material). As Carriers don't seem to require Horizons then that suggests belt / ring mining.

 

[Robert Maynard]

This doesn't make any sense tho.
You can dock a ship full of cargo. But if you switch to another ship the cargo moves with you.
So how did we got to the premise that we will somehow be able to dock 8 ships full of cargo?

Eight ships owned by different CMDRs - CMDRS that may be altCMDRs of a single player.

 

[Lightspeed]

We have, from what I remember, been told that we will be able to buy or mine the commodity (note, not a material). As Carriers don't seem to require Horizons then that suggests belt / ring mining.

Possibly one of those complex-name commodities (methyl monoclathrate ?) in ice rings would be my guess.

 

[Factabulous]

Possibly one of those complex-name commodities (methyl monoclathrate ?) in ice rings would be my guess.

or ... bromellite?

 

[Bob McBobblehead]

or ... bromellite?

or ...
Cummingtonite, with chemical composition (Mg,Fe2+)2(Mg,Fe2+)5Si8O22(OH)2

 

[Stealthie]

I play on XB, i can make multiple accounts easily.
That does not mean the Carrier will be able to be refueled by anyone else except the owner.

Do you think it's likely that FDev would deliberately restrict refuelling of a Carrier to it's owner?

Seems like the only reason a Carrier needs to be persistent is so that multiple players can operate from it regardless of whether the owner is on-line or not.
And one of the most obvious activities for somebody who's operating from a Carrier would be to procure fuel for it.

Especially given the origin of Carriers as a Squadron ship, it seems likely that they'll have been designed, from the ground-up, with shared maintenance in mind.
Changing that to restrict responsibility for refuelling and maintenance solely to the owner would be pretty spiteful.
from a gameplay perspective, surely one of the main purposes of a Carrier is for co-op gameplay?

Personally, I suspect refuelling/maintenance of a Carrier will work a bit like cargo missions currently do.
There'll be a list of items/mat's required to repair/refuel the Carrier and anybody authorised to land on a Carrier will simply click a menu item and then transfer fuel/mat's or other commodities from their personal stock to the Carrier.

The Carrier could even have it's own "cargo facility" to allow players to deposit stuff in a communal store.
If you were operating a Carrier as, say, a mobile mining base for a group of players, it'd be perfectly reasonable to spend a week mining VO's, storing them aboard the Carrier, and then jump it to wherever you can get the best price to sell them.
Be interesting to see how/if this is implemented, though, cos it could also create an opportunity for player/player trading and all the bad things associated with that.
Want a billion Credits? Paypal me $10 and I'll authorise you to land on my Carrier, where there's a billion credits' worth of VO's in store for you to take.

We shall see.

 

[Nadreck]

As our existing ships are presumably powered by nuclear fusion, it's hard to see what mineral might be better than hydrogen. There are only a handful of candidate elements better for some fusion reactions, such as lithium or helium-3. And while helium-3 does accumulate in "space rocks" in tiny quantities, you'd have to mine a prodigious amount of stuff to get a tiny amount of fuel, so then FDev would have an even worse case of the fueltank-size issue (being able to store fuel extracted from millions of tons of material).

So lithium then, or something weird. Dark matter? Some new way of finding and mining that, bearing in mind that it's normally invisible and barely interacts with normal matter?

 

[Northpin]

Do you think it's likely that FDev would deliberately restrict refuelling of a Carrier to it's owner?

They deliberately restricted the buy process to a single commander. Just like you buy any other ship
I have little reasons to believe they will allow it to be refueled by someone else except the owner. Like it happens with any other ship

Seems like the only reason a Carrier needs to be persistent is so that multiple players can operate from it regardless of whether the owner is on-line or not.

Multiple players can operate from it, if given permissions ofc, but that's different than refueling or moving the carrier around.

 

[Friedenreich Xante]

Do you think it's likely that FDev would deliberately restrict refuelling of a Carrier to it's owner?

FDev deliberately restricts any trading / exchanges between commanders, so yes. They are very consistent on this (with the only exception being cargo drops).

IF other commanders will be able to refit, refuel or repair at the FC, then it won't profit the owner. Maybe even the owner will have to pay regular, or at least discounted fuel and repair prices at his own FC.

 

[NeilF]

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?

I suspect a new commodity you can farm or buy, and then you have to drop off at the carrier?

 

[Stealthie]

They deliberately restricted the buy process to a single commander. Just like you buy any other ship
I have little reasons to believe they will allow it to be refueled by someone else except the owner. Like it happens with any other ship.

Fair enough.

Don't take this the wrong way but I hope you're wrong about that.

It's be kind of crappy if you're, say, exploring, trading or mining with a bunch of mates and they all get to do whatever they want while you hunt around for stuff to maintain/repair the Carrier.

 

[Kamiyoda]

As our existing ships are presumably powered by nuclear fusion, it's hard to see what mineral might be better than hydrogen. There are only a handful of candidate elements better for some fusion reactions, such as lithium or helium-3. And while helium-3 does accumulate in "space rocks" in tiny quantities, you'd have to mine a prodigious amount of stuff to get a tiny amount of fuel, so then FDev would have an even worse case of the fueltank-size issue (being able to store fuel extracted from millions of tons of material).

So lithium then, or something weird. Dark matter? Some new way of finding and mining that, bearing in mind that it's normally invisible and barely interacts with normal matter?

Our existing ships are also capable of casual FTL travel. I wouldnt think about this too hard from a realistic approach, its most certainly not going to pan out that way.

 

[Stealthie]

FDev deliberately restricts any trading / exchanges between commanders, so yes. They are very consistent on this (with the only exception being cargo drops).

Oh, I agree.

Related to what I posted a few minutes ago, one of the things FDev have specifically said is that there'll be a "Trade" Carrier and I'll be interested to see what facilities it'll have that demark it as a "trade" Carrier.

Seems like one of the best features it could have would be some kind of facility for storing commodities, so you could buy/mine stuff then jump the Carrier to a market for sale.
A communal storage area opens up the possibility of player/player trading.
I guess it's possible that everybody who lands on a Carrier will have their own private storage facility but that would mean a bunch of players could buy extra fuel for the Carrier and then store it aboard the Carrier for future use.

Course, it's just as likely that a "Trade" Carrier won't have any kind of extra storage at all... but in that case I'm not really sure what use it'd be.
Why would anybody bother with the faff of buying/mining stuff and then boarding a Carrier and waiting for the owner to jump it rather than just making a handful of regular jumps in your normal ship?

 

[Robert Maynard]

FDev deliberately restricts any trading / exchanges between commanders, so yes. They are very consistent on this (with the only exception being cargo drops).

Indeed - and what is filling a fuel tank up with bought / mined commodities other than a form of cargo drop?

 

[Northpin]

Fair enough.

Don't take this the wrong way but I hope you're wrong about that.

It's be kind of crappy if you're, say, exploring, trading or mining with a bunch of mates and they all get to do whatever they want while you hunt around for stuff to maintain/repair the Carrier.

I try to set my expectations quite low.

So i don't think they'll be able to be refueled by other accounts.
No shared storage either. Not between Commanders and not for the owner either.
Basically like services we can get from current megaships, dock, refuel, rearm, repair.

The surprise will be what various incarnations of SupplyShips will bring in. Maybe various outfitting options?

 

[Friedenreich Xante]

Oh, I agree.

Related to what I posted a few minutes ago, one of the things FDev have specifically said is that there'll be a "Trade" Carrier and I'll be interested to see what facilities it'll have that demark it as a "trade" Carrier.

Seems like one of the best features it could have would be some kind of facility for storing commodities, so you could buy/mine stuff then jump the Carrier to a market for sale.
A communal storage area opens up the possibility of player/player trading.
I guess it's possible that everybody who lands on a Carrier will have their own private storage facility but that would mean a bunch of players could buy extra fuel for the Carrier and then store it aboard the Carrier for future use.

Course, it's just as likely that a "Trade" Carrier won't have any kind of extra storage at all... but in that case I'm not really sure what use it'd be.
Why would anybody bother with the faff of buying/mining stuff and then boarding a Carrier and waiting for the owner to jump it rather than just making a handful of regular jumps in your normal ship?

Trade carriers? I only knew about mining, exploration and mercenary types of carriers.

Indeed - and what is filling a fuel tank up with bought / mined commodities other than a form of cargo drop?

A Fleet Carrier Refuel Limpet Controller, yay! A new limpet module is all what was missing, we have so few of them

 

[GraphiteGB]

Maybe various outfitting options?

No may be about it, all ready stated that the support ships controll out fitting and thats why each support ship shown currently is different..

 

[Robert Maynard]

A Fleet Carrier Refuel Limpet Controller, yay! A new limpet module is all what was missing, we have so few of them

Nah - just dock and deposit....

 

[Lightspeed]

or ... bromellite?

Di-lithium crystals, or the FD equivalent would be ...... LTDs

Imagine having to search for LTDs to keep the ship going! It's bound to be something commonly available, or a new commodity named specially for the purpose.

The most sensible suggestion that has been mooted a few times is to 'fuel scoop' through gas giants, but FD would have to introduce gas giant atmospheres into the game at the same time

 

[Stealthie]

Trade carriers? I only knew about mining, exploration and mercenary types of carriers.

You might be right about that.

I've seen it discussed somewhere but it might not have involved an FDev source.

A Fleet Carrier Refuel Limpet Controller, yay! A new limpet module is all what was missing, we have so few of them

I'm waiting for specialised fuel-tank modules and, possibly, some kind of fuel-convertor module - so you'll need, effectively, a duplicate of your mining ship but dedicated to collecting Carrier fuel.
... and no module storage aboard Carriers, for maximum irritation.