No video for today's segment at this time, but I did want to talk about something that doesn't get a lot of discussion, until there's a problem...
Fuel and Fuel Management:
Everybody Fuels, but we don't like to talk about it, until we run out of it. Running out of Fuel is a terrible way to end a venture across the void. Fortunately there are a number of ways to prevent this from happening, and it's happened to nearly everyone at some point in time - or will. Fuel is a limited commodity, and each ship has a different capacity, based on the size of the Fuel Tank. For once, Size really does matter. Small ships typically have small fuel tanks, which limits their total range. Larger ships have larger tanks, and gives them a larger range. A Fuel Scoop can extend the range of any ship, by allowing them to draw fuel from certain classes of stars (A, B, F, G, K, M, and O - or as a mnemonic device: KGB-FOAM or FAM GO BK [if you like junk food]). But it can, and does, happen that you may find yourself deep in a region of space where none of these stars are along your route, or anywhere near by to replenish your fuel supply. There is a region leading out to the Alien Ruins I have dubbed "The Skid Mark", as it is a 7-star long string of Brown Dwarf stars. Terrible name, I know, but it seems appropriate. Anyways...
Fuel Management becomes a major factor when planning any trip, especially those that exceed your ship's fuel capacity. One method for addressing this is the addition of an extra fuel tank. More fuel means more jumps. It also means more mass, which means smaller jumps, so it's a trade off, and one to consider carefully. More fuel and more tanks also means more time spent scooping fuel. One of the first factors to consider when planning a trip is on the galaxy map, in Route Planning. There are three options: Fastest, Economical and Boost.
Fastest will plot the fastest, shortest route from where you are to where you're going, without consideration for star types.
Economical will plot a longer route of shorter jumps, and often includes scoopable stars as well.
Furthermore, your map can be filtered for only scoopable stars and this will force route plotting to always plot using scoopable stars, though this can produce some very long routes of many jumps.
Boost has nothing to do with this, so I'm going to skip it.
Using these methods does not ensure you won't run out of fuel however. It is also possible to run out of Fuel in-flight in a system, or while landed on a planet, and that's where the other part of fuel management comes in to play. You have a base utilization, shown above your fuel gauge as ##.#/hr, which indicates how many tons of fuel you burn, per hour of operation. This can be while hanging around somewhere mining, or while scanning planets in a system, or even while sitting parked on a planet. Your fuel reserves will deplete over time.
You can lessen this and extend your fuel reserves simply by turning modules off from your right-hand panel. A module that is turned off consumes no fuel, and will reduce your overall consumption. This can be done while landed on a planet or while super-cruising about a system. Minimum systems do need to be maintained, however. At a minimum, Life Support, Fuel Scoop and Thrusters should always remain active systems. Only in the most dire of cases should Life Support be turned off, and without Thrusters, you're not going anywhere*, so leave these systems on at all times. Your Fuel Scoop you'll also want left on in nearly all cases, as you can't replenish your supply while it's off, unless you're facing one of those Most Dire situations. It's also easy to forget to turn these systems back on, except for Life Support, as a dwindling air supply will remind you, and immobility from inactive thrusters is pretty obvious, but it's not hard to overlook an inactive fuel scoop.
Boost - not the map plotting, but Frame Shift Injection in general, will increase your jump range by 25%, 50% or 100% without consuming additional fuel. This has been my own personal saving grace more than once. If you find yourself too low on fuel to make the jump to the next system or the nearest scoopable star, or even a station to refuel at, you can use a Boost to help get you there. These are one-shot increases to your jump range, but can rescue you from a bad situation. I always try to keep enough materials on hand for at least one of each grade of boost, though they do not stack.
One more thing about the Galaxy Map - you've likely noticed that most of the time, your routes are plotted and show a solid line from where you are to where you want to go. This indicates your destination is within range of your fuel capacity. If you're traveling farther, you'll note your route will show a dashed line at some point, indicating that you do not carry enough fuel to get that far. But careful planning as mentioned above, a Fuel Scoop or stops at populated systems along the way will get you to where you're going - most of the time.
Dire Situations:
It does happen that we either lose track of our fuel gauge, or time, or both, and this can land you in a Dire Situation. Most of the time, these can be avoided simply by refueling at the entry star of a system, if that star is Scoopable, however there are times when even this isn't enough. Many have run afoul of critical fuel issues en route to Hutton Orbital, or while simply taking in the signs and scans of a system, or when making the long trek from the non-scoopable primary star to a scoopable secondary star. But whatever the reason, it can and does happen. As mentioned above, turning off modules can reduce your consumption and extend your supply of fuel to reach your destination.
Let me present my own particular examples of Things Gone Wrong:
For my first example - I was harvesting materials from Signal Sources, and had been for quite some time. As it so happens, I wasn't paying enough attention to my fuel gauge, and it wasn't until I heard the audible warning that my Fuel levels were critically low that I realized my situation. I shut down everything except Thrusters and Life Support - there were no scoopable stars in the system, and even a boost jump wouldn't get me to one, but there was a station in the system, and they sold Fuel, so I set a course. Around 1.2 Mm from the station, while waiting for the Safe Disengage, I received my final warning. Fuel would expire before I'd reach my destination, so I shut down Life Support, knowing it would take me less time than my air supply would last, and might just buy me enough time.
It almost did. I dropped in to the station instance, but I knew I wouldn't have fuel enough to actually land. So I lined up my approach, sent my docking request, turned off Flight Assist, and used whatever fumes were left in my tank to Boost - through the mail slot, drifting on nothing but momentum, and a bit of hope, and managed to touch down on my assigned pad with 3 minutes of air remaining. I still wish I'd have been recording - it was a miraculous landing indeed, as I had no thrusters either, and had to rely on my angle of approach to stick my landing. I have NO desire to ever repeat this, I would probably fail 1000 times in a row. But I did stretch my fuel supply to its absolute limit and then some.
In another situation, I was surveying a system for mining, when I realized just how low my fuel was, and made the jump to the next near-by system, where my mining ship was parked. At 2.2 Mm from Safe Disengage, I managed to run completely out of fuel, and there is no FA-OFF option in supercruise - when this happens, you're dropped out into normal space and just plain stuck. And that's where the final option lies: https://www.fuelrats.com/
I logged out, and paid a visit to The Fuel Rats site. I provided my information, location and situation and remained offline until they had arrived at my location, logged back in, held my breath, and received the blessing of Fuel enough to finish making it to the station I was heading for, sold my cartographic data, and went about my business - in this case, strip-mining a ring for Painite.
Fuel and Fuel Management:
Everybody Fuels, but we don't like to talk about it, until we run out of it. Running out of Fuel is a terrible way to end a venture across the void. Fortunately there are a number of ways to prevent this from happening, and it's happened to nearly everyone at some point in time - or will. Fuel is a limited commodity, and each ship has a different capacity, based on the size of the Fuel Tank. For once, Size really does matter. Small ships typically have small fuel tanks, which limits their total range. Larger ships have larger tanks, and gives them a larger range. A Fuel Scoop can extend the range of any ship, by allowing them to draw fuel from certain classes of stars (A, B, F, G, K, M, and O - or as a mnemonic device: KGB-FOAM or FAM GO BK [if you like junk food]). But it can, and does, happen that you may find yourself deep in a region of space where none of these stars are along your route, or anywhere near by to replenish your fuel supply. There is a region leading out to the Alien Ruins I have dubbed "The Skid Mark", as it is a 7-star long string of Brown Dwarf stars. Terrible name, I know, but it seems appropriate. Anyways...
Fuel Management becomes a major factor when planning any trip, especially those that exceed your ship's fuel capacity. One method for addressing this is the addition of an extra fuel tank. More fuel means more jumps. It also means more mass, which means smaller jumps, so it's a trade off, and one to consider carefully. More fuel and more tanks also means more time spent scooping fuel. One of the first factors to consider when planning a trip is on the galaxy map, in Route Planning. There are three options: Fastest, Economical and Boost.
Fastest will plot the fastest, shortest route from where you are to where you're going, without consideration for star types.
Economical will plot a longer route of shorter jumps, and often includes scoopable stars as well.
Furthermore, your map can be filtered for only scoopable stars and this will force route plotting to always plot using scoopable stars, though this can produce some very long routes of many jumps.
Boost has nothing to do with this, so I'm going to skip it.
Using these methods does not ensure you won't run out of fuel however. It is also possible to run out of Fuel in-flight in a system, or while landed on a planet, and that's where the other part of fuel management comes in to play. You have a base utilization, shown above your fuel gauge as ##.#/hr, which indicates how many tons of fuel you burn, per hour of operation. This can be while hanging around somewhere mining, or while scanning planets in a system, or even while sitting parked on a planet. Your fuel reserves will deplete over time.
You can lessen this and extend your fuel reserves simply by turning modules off from your right-hand panel. A module that is turned off consumes no fuel, and will reduce your overall consumption. This can be done while landed on a planet or while super-cruising about a system. Minimum systems do need to be maintained, however. At a minimum, Life Support, Fuel Scoop and Thrusters should always remain active systems. Only in the most dire of cases should Life Support be turned off, and without Thrusters, you're not going anywhere*, so leave these systems on at all times. Your Fuel Scoop you'll also want left on in nearly all cases, as you can't replenish your supply while it's off, unless you're facing one of those Most Dire situations. It's also easy to forget to turn these systems back on, except for Life Support, as a dwindling air supply will remind you, and immobility from inactive thrusters is pretty obvious, but it's not hard to overlook an inactive fuel scoop.
Boost - not the map plotting, but Frame Shift Injection in general, will increase your jump range by 25%, 50% or 100% without consuming additional fuel. This has been my own personal saving grace more than once. If you find yourself too low on fuel to make the jump to the next system or the nearest scoopable star, or even a station to refuel at, you can use a Boost to help get you there. These are one-shot increases to your jump range, but can rescue you from a bad situation. I always try to keep enough materials on hand for at least one of each grade of boost, though they do not stack.
One more thing about the Galaxy Map - you've likely noticed that most of the time, your routes are plotted and show a solid line from where you are to where you want to go. This indicates your destination is within range of your fuel capacity. If you're traveling farther, you'll note your route will show a dashed line at some point, indicating that you do not carry enough fuel to get that far. But careful planning as mentioned above, a Fuel Scoop or stops at populated systems along the way will get you to where you're going - most of the time.
Dire Situations:
It does happen that we either lose track of our fuel gauge, or time, or both, and this can land you in a Dire Situation. Most of the time, these can be avoided simply by refueling at the entry star of a system, if that star is Scoopable, however there are times when even this isn't enough. Many have run afoul of critical fuel issues en route to Hutton Orbital, or while simply taking in the signs and scans of a system, or when making the long trek from the non-scoopable primary star to a scoopable secondary star. But whatever the reason, it can and does happen. As mentioned above, turning off modules can reduce your consumption and extend your supply of fuel to reach your destination.
Let me present my own particular examples of Things Gone Wrong:
For my first example - I was harvesting materials from Signal Sources, and had been for quite some time. As it so happens, I wasn't paying enough attention to my fuel gauge, and it wasn't until I heard the audible warning that my Fuel levels were critically low that I realized my situation. I shut down everything except Thrusters and Life Support - there were no scoopable stars in the system, and even a boost jump wouldn't get me to one, but there was a station in the system, and they sold Fuel, so I set a course. Around 1.2 Mm from the station, while waiting for the Safe Disengage, I received my final warning. Fuel would expire before I'd reach my destination, so I shut down Life Support, knowing it would take me less time than my air supply would last, and might just buy me enough time.
It almost did. I dropped in to the station instance, but I knew I wouldn't have fuel enough to actually land. So I lined up my approach, sent my docking request, turned off Flight Assist, and used whatever fumes were left in my tank to Boost - through the mail slot, drifting on nothing but momentum, and a bit of hope, and managed to touch down on my assigned pad with 3 minutes of air remaining. I still wish I'd have been recording - it was a miraculous landing indeed, as I had no thrusters either, and had to rely on my angle of approach to stick my landing. I have NO desire to ever repeat this, I would probably fail 1000 times in a row. But I did stretch my fuel supply to its absolute limit and then some.
In another situation, I was surveying a system for mining, when I realized just how low my fuel was, and made the jump to the next near-by system, where my mining ship was parked. At 2.2 Mm from Safe Disengage, I managed to run completely out of fuel, and there is no FA-OFF option in supercruise - when this happens, you're dropped out into normal space and just plain stuck. And that's where the final option lies: https://www.fuelrats.com/
I logged out, and paid a visit to The Fuel Rats site. I provided my information, location and situation and remained offline until they had arrived at my location, logged back in, held my breath, and received the blessing of Fuel enough to finish making it to the station I was heading for, sold my cartographic data, and went about my business - in this case, strip-mining a ring for Painite.
