For those who might be interested in some data...
I've been doing most of the heavy lifting with my FC. Its basically just for the stuff required from a Refinery as that is the largest portion of most builds anyway. i.e. A quick calc shows the "Surface" Refinery commodities to be about 17,264 of the 18,473 required for a Tier 1 Outpost. That's 93% of a build which can be loaded in only a single FC jump (and then back of course).
The other benefit is that you can save a bunch of time (and likely a bunch of competition) if you use the FC to jump to a very remote Surface Refinery to do your loading. I'm using one that's over 400K LS from the beacon. The carrier will position wherever you want in a system - no matter how far out - in its single jump. If you choose your destination wisely, you can get about 93% of your build in a single carrier jump! This also virtually eliminates competition with CMDRs who are simply using their ships to get commodities. No one in their right mind is going to be doing in-system transits of several hundred thousand LS over and over to get their stuff...
So, that being said, using optimal FC jump locations (to orbit a specific planet in a system, or as close to your build as possible), I have been timing my round trips. (IOW: Don't just jump to a system, jump to a specific planet or build site in that system!) In my experience, it typically takes about 6 minutes to do either a loading or unloading round trip. That's basically loading a FULL Carrier load (24,070) with my Cutter (760 T) in about 3-1/2 hours. Note that I always fill up the carrier so as not too waste the capacity. Basically, I'm loading for both my current build as well as my next one (as space permits). If all you wanted to load was the 17,264 Surface Refinery commodities required for an Outpost that would only require about 2-1/2 hours on each end.
Yeah, you can just jump around to pick stuff up, but the carrier lets you get to much more remote sources (inc distance from a system's star) in a single jump. You will have a much better selection of sources without having to worry about jumping around multiple systems/stations, competing for inventory, and long in-system transit times.
I do all the "lesser tonnage" commodities by just jumping around as the aggregate loads from each station are so small anyway. ...but the carrier is the way to go if you want to source with efficiency. Its also a bit of a grind to load/unload from the carrier (hence the efficiency) but treating it like a mini-game to optimize your loop times goes a long way...
In less than a week, I built two Tier 1 Outposts (18,473 T Each), one Tier 1 Surface Industrial Outpost (36,829 T), and have a Fully loaded FC (24,070 T) currently waiting for the Construction stoppage to be lifted (Asteroid station next)...
FC's work REALLY well for colonization if you use them efficiently. This is not a secret. That's why its tough getting time slots right now.
I've been doing most of the heavy lifting with my FC. Its basically just for the stuff required from a Refinery as that is the largest portion of most builds anyway. i.e. A quick calc shows the "Surface" Refinery commodities to be about 17,264 of the 18,473 required for a Tier 1 Outpost. That's 93% of a build which can be loaded in only a single FC jump (and then back of course).
The other benefit is that you can save a bunch of time (and likely a bunch of competition) if you use the FC to jump to a very remote Surface Refinery to do your loading. I'm using one that's over 400K LS from the beacon. The carrier will position wherever you want in a system - no matter how far out - in its single jump. If you choose your destination wisely, you can get about 93% of your build in a single carrier jump! This also virtually eliminates competition with CMDRs who are simply using their ships to get commodities. No one in their right mind is going to be doing in-system transits of several hundred thousand LS over and over to get their stuff...
So, that being said, using optimal FC jump locations (to orbit a specific planet in a system, or as close to your build as possible), I have been timing my round trips. (IOW: Don't just jump to a system, jump to a specific planet or build site in that system!) In my experience, it typically takes about 6 minutes to do either a loading or unloading round trip. That's basically loading a FULL Carrier load (24,070) with my Cutter (760 T) in about 3-1/2 hours. Note that I always fill up the carrier so as not too waste the capacity. Basically, I'm loading for both my current build as well as my next one (as space permits). If all you wanted to load was the 17,264 Surface Refinery commodities required for an Outpost that would only require about 2-1/2 hours on each end.
Yeah, you can just jump around to pick stuff up, but the carrier lets you get to much more remote sources (inc distance from a system's star) in a single jump. You will have a much better selection of sources without having to worry about jumping around multiple systems/stations, competing for inventory, and long in-system transit times.
I do all the "lesser tonnage" commodities by just jumping around as the aggregate loads from each station are so small anyway. ...but the carrier is the way to go if you want to source with efficiency. Its also a bit of a grind to load/unload from the carrier (hence the efficiency) but treating it like a mini-game to optimize your loop times goes a long way...
In less than a week, I built two Tier 1 Outposts (18,473 T Each), one Tier 1 Surface Industrial Outpost (36,829 T), and have a Fully loaded FC (24,070 T) currently waiting for the Construction stoppage to be lifted (Asteroid station next)...
FC's work REALLY well for colonization if you use them efficiently. This is not a secret. That's why its tough getting time slots right now.
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