Just 'cos something is already "possible", it doesn't mean we should accept things that make it easier.
Carrier refuelling?
- Thread starter Stealthie
- Start date
Just 'cos something is already "possible", it doesn't mean we should accept things that make it easier.
That cargo depot UI accessed from the mission boards? I expect to see something like that for carriers, you'd be able to transfer the fuel from your ship to the carrier's fuel tank.
I don't think Frontier will go overboard with the size of that tank, otherwise there would be no need to mine for the fuel deep into the black and players would be able to jump all over the place for months, without firing a mining laser in anger.
I don't think Frontier will go overboard with the size of that tank, otherwise there would be no need to mine for the fuel deep into the black and players would be able to jump all over the place for months, without firing a mining laser in anger.
There's a lot of fertilizer going spare at present .... and it would make an excellent fuel additive 
Uhuh.
Honestly, it never even occured to me that a Carrier might have a tank big enough for more than one 500Ly jump.
If it has a big enough tank for 2, 3 or 4 jumps, that'll be a bonus.
As I've said, I just can't see a Carrier only using, say, 20t of fuel per jump 'cos that'd mean people could store enough fuel to get to Beagle Point in a T9 they have aboard the Carrier.
We just don't have enough information at this point, and I wish Frontier would fix that sooner rather than later.
For all we know, there are different classes of Capital Ship Drives for Carriers. Frontier have said 500Ly jumps but that could be for a Class A drive, with cheaper options (Class B, C etc) with reduced jump ranges to make Carriers more affordable for the masses.
Heck, there could be different sized tanks, 20T for 6M CR, 40T for 12M CR etc.
But yeah, I'm sure (I hope) Frontier won't let Carriers go jump-crazy....otherwise Distant Worlds III could be interesting and over very quickly for those who want to rush to the final waypoint.
The question I would like answered is how the amount of fuel required for a single jump scales with the distance of the jump. Namely, is fuel usage linear to the range of the jump (e.g. 500 ly -> 500T of fuel, 250ly -> 250T) or is it some exponential to the range of the jump (e.g. 500 ly -> 500T of fuel, 250ly -> 125T of fuel)?
I think the answer to this could have a much larger effect than the size of the fuel tank fleet carriers are given. If players can double the maximum distance on a single tank for a fleet carrier by plotting jumps that are half of the fleet carrier's maximum range, the maximum distance that fleet carriers could travel on a single tank could increase massively by further reducing the range of individual jumps, which would in turn decrease the need for refueling.
You might only enough fuel for a single 500 ly jump, but if you can make 2500 jumps of 10 ly each using the same amount of fuel, you could potentially get a fleet carrier to Colonia on a single tank of fuel without needing to refuel the carrier at all.
I think the answer to this could have a much larger effect than the size of the fuel tank fleet carriers are given. If players can double the maximum distance on a single tank for a fleet carrier by plotting jumps that are half of the fleet carrier's maximum range, the maximum distance that fleet carriers could travel on a single tank could increase massively by further reducing the range of individual jumps, which would in turn decrease the need for refueling.
You might only enough fuel for a single 500 ly jump, but if you can make 2500 jumps of 10 ly each using the same amount of fuel, you could potentially get a fleet carrier to Colonia on a single tank of fuel without needing to refuel the carrier at all.
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I just want to buy my fuel and go. Charge 1mil per jump, fine. Just let me carry enough to be useful (say 100kly round trip) Why must everything be difficult? Why can't I just arrive at my chosen area of exploration and do just that? That is what is fun; not the unending drudgery of fueling something that, like a US Carrier, should have vast range. What is fun about taking ages longer to arrive because of "reasons" and others caring more about what you are doing than what they themselves are up to. What is fun about that?
Come on, doesn't everyone believe that Fdev is more that capable of taking all the joy out of something without suggesting ways they can be more effective at it?
I really am looking forward to this potentially really nice addition but I see that many want to diminish the real usefulness of it for exploration. Come on, I can already jump some 300ly with neutron boost.
There, that should net me plenty of hate.
How about multiple modules?
Consider that if a Carrier can be engineered, the modules might need to be able to fit into regular ships so we can take them to an engineer.
In that case, maybe your Carrier has slots for up to, say, 6 FSDs.
When you buy a Carrier it comes with 1x 6E FSD but if you want a 500Ly jump-range, you're going to need to buy, engineer and fit 6x 7A FSDs.
And then there's the PPs, PDists, Sensors, Life-Support etc......
All pure speculation, of course, but FDev could be opening the door to a lot of mat' scavving and engineering.
Heck, there could be different sized tanks, 20T for 6M CR, 40T for 12M CR etc.
But yeah, I'm sure (I hope) Frontier won't let Carriers go jump-crazy....otherwise Distant Worlds III could be interesting and over very quickly for those who want to rush to the final waypoint.
Thing with fuel is that if we can mine it in a regular ship we have to be able to store it aboard a regular ship as well... and if we can do that we can, theoretically, store up to 794t of it aboard a suitably-equipped Cutter.
Course, FDev could apply some arbitrary limitation on the amount of Carrier fuel we can stockpile ("It reaches critical mass if you store more than, erm, 50t of it together") or, perhaps, use the Support Ships to limit how much we can stockpile ("it's radioactive and must be transferred to a Supply Ship immediately or it'll damage and destroy any ship it remains aboard").
Ultimately, though, if Carrier fuel is abundant, mining it won't be a huge hassle.
If, OTOH, it's like mining VO's and we need hundreds of tonnes of it to make a single jump, it's going to be a nightmare.
I fancied blowing some stuff up last night so I took one of those "Massacre the cruise ships" missions.
30 Cruise ships to destroy.
Let's have at it.
Jumped into the target system and... the mission POI is 86,000Ls away, right on the edge of the system.
I already know how this is going to go but let's see.
Travel to POI.
Drop in.
Kill half a dozen Belugas before the others escape.
Jump into SC.
Check nav-HUD.
Yep.
New mission POI is now on the opposite side of the system, 160,000Ls away.
Abandon mission.
Quit game.
FDev have a talent for sucking the fun out of things whenever possible.
I think the carriers will require enough of the "special" fuel material that a single player will find it nearly impossible to collect, or at least an intolerable grind. Fleet carriers carrying dozens of ships however, working cooperatively will probably be able to collect the fuel material in a much shorter time hence the "fleet" aspect of the "fleet" carrier. I also speculate that in order to purchase the fuel material individual CMDRs will have to purchase the fuel and transfer the fuel from stations to the carriers, a new time & credit-sink for players.
Nope, as long as I can buy it as stated and in very large quantities.
I hope you're wrong about that.
When Carriers were intended to be a Squadron ship, that might've been justifiable.
Now they're intended for individual players, I'd hope the maintenence requirements have also been revised.
Course, this is FDev we're talking about.
I'm really just treading water in ED right now 'cos the next thing I want to do is move a fleet of ships to Colonia.
That being the case, I'm pretty keen to buy a Carrier.
Even so, I won't be buying one on day 1.
Instead, I'll be waiting to see what people say about operating them.
If it does turn out to be a giant chore, I'll just head to Colonia in my Annie and then spend the credits I planned on using to buy a Carrier to transfer my fleet to Colonia instead.
What a shame that would be. It would imply another wasted opportunity by Fdev.
Good question, scoopable? Purchasable within the carriers own maintenance screen? Needs to be delivered and stockpiled by its pilots?
My speculation:
Standard star fuel plus some fairly rare resource at a given ratio. Say 6:1 fuel to resource.
This would let you keep a fuel ship with tanks and a few tons of cargo space plus mining bits to go collect with.
Something dumb like this for example that might take 1 or 2 trips (at whatever RNG they find acceptable) per jump.
Standard star fuel plus some fairly rare resource at a given ratio. Say 6:1 fuel to resource.
This would let you keep a fuel ship with tanks and a few tons of cargo space plus mining bits to go collect with.
Something dumb like this for example that might take 1 or 2 trips (at whatever RNG they find acceptable) per jump.
Attachments
Regarding needing a squadron to support a single player owned carrier: Fdev does not now nor ever has been about that type of gameplay.
Kind of the whole reason they said it's a personal feet carrier.
Because dropping cargo isn't already easy enough?
I wouldn't be surprised if this isn't already being done.
That implies that the carrier could jump while the player is docked, which I sincerely hope for, but like anything else, it's speculation.
And then IF the FC can jump with its player on board, there would be thousands of stars more appealing than beagle point.
Some young wizard got his pay this way for killing Salomé. And many other "mercenaries".
I guess I'm an immersion fan, and one of the game's strengths for me is the sheer size of the sandbox. Space is BIG and I like the way ED reflects that. Capitial Ships Drives (can I call them CSD's?) should have great range and yeah, a big tank, but then if the tank is huge then why is there the option of mining for fuel?
Don't worry, I don't hate you.