Fleet Carrier Automatic Refueling.

[Arthur Pirx]

The post was placed in the wrong place, so I'm posting it here.
Hi guys
I have suggestion - As in the title - automatic refueling fleet carrier. However, for this to be possible, the pilot must meet several conditions:
1 - The Fleet Carrier must orbit a planet with rings containing Tritium.
2 - The player must scan this the planet and rings.
3 - Fuel is automatically refilled only into the Fleet Carrier fuel tank and it is not possible to remove this fuel from the tank.
4 - Refueling rate to consider - 100 units per hour?

This idea came to me because 99% of the time I play Elite as an explorer/exobiologist. I have a Fleet Carrier as a base from which I travel around space, stop somewhere and use a smaller ship (Hauler is great for this activity!!) to hop around planets and scan. Each time I collect fuel for the Fleet Carrier, it's a huge hassle for me, and I can't buy it because I'm far from civilization. I think that an automatic refueling function would be a very good solution.

Greetings to everyone and I wish you only black holes

 

[aRJay]

This is the first one of these I have seen that just deals with the 1000 tonne tank which is a nice change.
I believe removing fuel from that tank is impossible already.

My main use of my FC is exactly the same though I tend to send it off in 500Ly steps chasing after it in my Hauler to do the scanning and sampling, I then move off at right angles for a couple of hundred light years then chase the FC home, when I get back I pick a suitable system and set up a buy order for Tritium letting some other player do the work to fill me up, which has even worked in Colonia.

 

[Arthur Pirx]

So far, I have done the opposite, first scanning the planets in a certain direction, when I found a gas giant with rings containing Tritium, I remotely based the Fleet Carrier there. I have a nicely made Imperial Courier, but they get terribly hot and it takes too much time to cool it down. In fact, developers could do something about this temperature in the courier. Hauler is great as a launch ship for exploration/exobiology operating from the fleet Carrier platform.

 

[Ian Doncaster]

1 - The Fleet Carrier must orbit a planet with rings containing Tritium.
2 - The player must scan this the planet and rings.
3 - Fuel is automatically refilled only into the Fleet Carrier fuel tank and it is not possible to remove this fuel from the tank.
4 - Refueling rate to consider - 100 units per hour?

Icy rings are very common, and at that refuelling rate you'd be at a full tank in 10 hours, so anyone making fewer than 4-8 jumps a day (depending on weight, but you wouldn't need a hold full of Tritium so could run relatively light otherwise) would never need to collect Tritium directly so long as they found a reasonable final system to stop in for the night.

Between "deep space explorers playing less than 3 hours per day" and "anyone in the bubble who can buy it extremely easily already" and "Sol-Colonia ferries which can stock up before they go with enough fuel to make the round trip (twice!)" it's hard to see who would be mining Tritium to fuel a carrier at this point.

If you want to get rid of the hassle of refuelling the carrier in deep space, it seems simplest to just suggest "carriers no longer need Tritium to jump" - paid for by a higher credit cost per jump if you think it needs something to balance that, but even that's probably superfluous.

 

[Northpin]

If you want to get rid of the hassle of refuelling the carrier in deep space, it seems simplest to just suggest "carriers no longer need Tritium to jump" - paid for by a higher credit cost per jump if you think it needs something to balance that, but even that's probably superfluous.

Since were at that stage - Arx based refueling?

The post was placed in the wrong place, so I'm posting it here.
Hi guys
I have suggestion - As in the title - automatic refueling fleet carrier. However, for this to be possible, the pilot must meet several conditions:
1 - The Fleet Carrier must orbit a planet with rings containing Tritium.
2 - The player must scan this the planet and rings.
3 - Fuel is automatically refilled only into the Fleet Carrier fuel tank and it is not possible to remove this fuel from the tank.
4 - Refueling rate to consider - 100 units per hour?

This idea came to me because 99% of the time I play Elite as an explorer/exobiologist. I have a Fleet Carrier as a base from which I travel around space, stop somewhere and use a smaller ship (Hauler is great for this activity!!) to hop around planets and scan. Each time I collect fuel for the Fleet Carrier, it's a huge hassle for me, and I can't buy it because I'm far from civilization. I think that an automatic refueling function would be a very good solution.

Greetings to everyone and I wish you only black holes

As Ian posted above, Ice rings are so common that you could simply ask FDev to remove tritium altogether and use some other mechanic for jumps

 

[Greasetrap42]

I always fill up with Tritium before I leave civilization. Because I know I don't want to mine 22,000t in deep space.

And before a bunch of people jump at me.... yes I spend months at a time in deep space on the other side of the galaxy. And yes I sometimes supplement my tritium using a good dedicated tritium mining ship.

 

[Arthur Pirx]

Icy rings are very common, and at that refuelling rate you'd be at a full tank in 10 hours, so anyone making fewer than 4-8 jumps a day (depending on weight, but you wouldn't need a hold full of Tritium so could run relatively light otherwise) would never need to collect Tritium directly so long as they found a reasonable final system to stop in for the night.

Between "deep space explorers playing less than 3 hours per day" and "anyone in the bubble who can buy it extremely easily already" and "Sol-Colonia ferries which can stock up before they go with enough fuel to make the round trip (twice!)" it's hard to see who would be mining Tritium to fuel a carrier at this point.

If you want to get rid of the hassle of refuelling the carrier in deep space, it seems simplest to just suggest "carriers no longer need Tritium to jump" - paid for by a higher credit cost per jump if you think it needs something to balance that, but even that's probably superfluous.

I don't mind the fact that the ship uses some kind of fuel, I just find the digging system very labor-intensive and I don't like it very much. I liked the mining experience with EVE, but this is a different game. Full refueling actually takes 10 hours, but if someone wants to do it faster, they can use a mining ship and dig themselves.

 

[Timjfjdd]

I like the idea of more modules and or abilities for the carrier in general, having something to automate fuelling would be awesome. I wish they would do more with the carriers already, i feel like they deserve some love

 

[LCU No Fool Like One]

I have a fleet carrier in the bubble and my commander is out at Tenerbea and I need to get my carrier to my commander. So its a bit of a pain to do this without help and in order to actually travel to my commander I need someone on board to fill the tank for a journey that will take several days.

I would like the tank to be automatically filled from Cargo or done away with completely. If the tank is no longer required then I'd still like to retain the ability for people to donate tritium at zero cost.

I would also like automatic refuelling like the op, but I think it would make more sense for the carrier to put in a buy orders.

The speed at which the tank would be filled would be determined by a formula based on the distance from a tritium source, the size of the population and the price that you are prepared to pay for the tritium.

If you are in a well populated system with a station nearby selling tritium and you set a price a little over the local buy price, then the carrier will take a few hours to fill. If you sent the price to maximum price you might fill it in a few minutes.

If you are out in the black in a system without icy rings then you would need to set a high price it might still take a few hours to get refilled.

 

[Merlin StWahgwaan]

The post was placed in the wrong place, so I'm posting it here.
Hi guys
I have suggestion - As in the title - automatic refueling fleet carrier. However, for this to be possible, the pilot must meet several conditions:
1 - The Fleet Carrier must orbit a planet with rings containing Tritium.
2 - The player must scan this the planet and rings.
3 - Fuel is automatically refilled only into the Fleet Carrier fuel tank and it is not possible to remove this fuel from the tank.
4 - Refueling rate to consider - 100 units per hour?

This idea came to me because 99% of the time I play Elite as an explorer/exobiologist. I have a Fleet Carrier as a base from which I travel around space, stop somewhere and use a smaller ship (Hauler is great for this activity!!) to hop around planets and scan. Each time I collect fuel for the Fleet Carrier, it's a huge hassle for me, and I can't buy it because I'm far from civilization. I think that an automatic refueling function would be a very good solution.

Greetings to everyone and I wish you only black holes

I think this should be seriously considered and implemented.
Even at 50 per hour.
Any rate at all.
Even at 10/hr is only 100hrs, or just over 4 days, which would still be amazing for exploration. Having 4 days of time to explore an area would be awesome, then when your refueled, you can keep exploring or move on past the area you've explored.

Refueling an FC away from the bubble is the main reason I havnt bothered to obtain an FC myself. I like exploring, but I don't like the idea of grinding out fuel constantly to move to a new area, even though having an FC would make exploring much easier by allowing me to repair, sell data sooner, and have multiple ships to help avoid getting bored in just 1 ship for an extended period of time.

Automated FC refueling in some fashion, would change the entire usage ability for them and allow many more CMDRs to use them much more often for exploring new areas, rather than just quick ferries between known areas.

I really hope Fdev consider this soon, please!

 

[Koma Pahu]

I think this should be seriously considered and implemented.
Even at 50 per hour.
Any rate at all.
Even at 10/hr is only 100hrs, or just over 4 days, which would still be amazing for exploration. Having 4 days of time to explore an area would be awesome, then when your refueled, you can keep exploring or move on past the area you've explored.

Refueling an FC away from the bubble is the main reason I havnt bothered to obtain an FC myself. I like exploring, but I don't like the idea of grinding out fuel constantly to move to a new area, even though having an FC would make exploring much easier by allowing me to repair, sell data sooner, and have multiple ships to help avoid getting bored in just 1 ship for an extended period of time.

Automated FC refueling in some fashion, would change the entire usage ability for them and allow many more CMDRs to use them much more often for exploring new areas, rather than just quick ferries between known areas.

I really hope Fdev consider this soon, please!

No thanks. If you fill up before you head out, you can explore for a long time before needing to mine for tritium. And most trips don’t even require filling up before heading back to a fuel station.

 

[Merlin StWahgwaan]

No thanks. If you fill up before you head out, you can explore for a long time before needing to mine for tritium. And most trips don’t even require filling up before heading back to a fuel station.

Most trips?
Maybe for people who only stay between the bubble and Colonia, but not for people who plot 15-18k ly routes in the galmap regularly without heading near any stations or popular areas, on the opposite side of the galaxy.

I have been out in the Begal Point side of the galaxy for +2 years without returning to the bubble; its easily been months since i even sold any data.

I'd like to continue to spend more time in unexplored space on the edges of the galaxy, but there's no way I can spend 2 years with an FC on the edge of the galaxy without spending significant time gathering fuel. I only get a few playing hours a week now, frequently under 10hrs/week, so right now, it could take me literally weeks to completely refuel depending on the situations.

Anyway to have refueling be automatic would be the only way I'd even consider buying and taking an FC out exploring.
I want to explore, not mine.
I mined for hours, days, and weeks already to make the money to build my exploration ship, ect.
I want to see new places, experience new terrain, see new views and things, not search for fuel in rings and drag it back to my carrier, basically ignoring the beauty of everything around me because I'm concentrated on refueling.
I've spent enough time Engineering, and running missions, and in combat.
The only thing that feels new every time, is exploration. Amazing views, possibilities, first discoveries, space phenomenon, ect.

I get not everyone thinking this feature would be good, but even making it an outfitting option, like a fuel scoop, along side the other modules, with added maintenance costs, would atleast allow people who want to actually just explore, do that, without having to constantly refuel to move to new areas.
The benifts of an FC to exploring are many, but the lack of auto-fueling is a huge downside that makes the continuous costs of an FC not worth it, when you still need to take the time to mine and transport the fuel manually, instead of just exploring like you want and feel like your paying weekly, to be able to do with an FC.

I wouldn't mind having to locate/scout the correct ringed planet to jump too/orbit first, it shouldnt just be fuel from anywhere, but i don't like the current way of having to find a fuel planet along my route, then go back to my current FC location, switch ships, go back, mine the area, drag the fuel to the FC again, and then jump to that planet, refuel again, then jump to a new area ahead i want to go to. All assuming Im trying to spend only minimal time refueling, so not going too 100% full each time.

If i go ahead of my FC exploring, and find a fuel planet with rings, scan it fully, and then go all the way back to my FC, and use the last of my fuel to jump to that new planet, I don't want to then still have to mine and refuel, to be prepared for the next jump(s). I'd like to go back to exploration and let the ship auto-refuel over time and then i can come back for it when both it and I are ready, weather it's full or only partially fueled, I can continue to explore essentially uninterrupted.

Anyways, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but i still hope Fdev does give this some serious consideration now. I'm sure there's alot more CMDRs who would appreciate it than there are that would actively object to any implementation of this feature in any form.

 

[Koma Pahu]

My carrier can do more than 110 jumps without refuelling (Significantly more as you wouldn’t be jumping with a full carrier every time). I think that covers most trips.

You don’t jump your carrier into every system, you park up somewhere convenient and explore out from there. My carrier can sit in the same spot for months.

 

[Dillon Fallon]

Most trips?
Maybe for people who only stay between the bubble and Colonia, but not for people who plot 15-18k ly routes in the galmap regularly without heading near any stations or popular areas, on the opposite side of the galaxy.

I have been out in the Begal Point side of the galaxy for +2 years without returning to the bubble; its easily been months since i even sold any data.

I'd like to continue to spend more time in unexplored space on the edges of the galaxy, but there's no way I can spend 2 years with an FC on the edge of the galaxy without spending significant time gathering fuel. I only get a few playing hours a week now, frequently under 10hrs/week, so right now, it could take me literally weeks to completely refuel depending on the situations.

Anyway to have refueling be automatic would be the only way I'd even consider buying and taking an FC out exploring.
I want to explore, not mine.
I mined for hours, days, and weeks already to make the money to build my exploration ship, ect.
I want to see new places, experience new terrain, see new views and things, not search for fuel in rings and drag it back to my carrier, basically ignoring the beauty of everything around me because I'm concentrated on refueling.
I've spent enough time Engineering, and running missions, and in combat.
The only thing that feels new every time, is exploration. Amazing views, possibilities, first discoveries, space phenomenon, ect.

I get not everyone thinking this feature would be good, but even making it an outfitting option, like a fuel scoop, along side the other modules, with added maintenance costs, would atleast allow people who want to actually just explore, do that, without having to constantly refuel to move to new areas.
The benifts of an FC to exploring are many, but the lack of auto-fueling is a huge downside that makes the continuous costs of an FC not worth it, when you still need to take the time to mine and transport the fuel manually, instead of just exploring like you want and feel like your paying weekly, to be able to do with an FC.

I wouldn't mind having to locate/scout the correct ringed planet to jump too/orbit first, it shouldnt just be fuel from anywhere, but i don't like the current way of having to find a fuel planet along my route, then go back to my current FC location, switch ships, go back, mine the area, drag the fuel to the FC again, and then jump to that planet, refuel again, then jump to a new area ahead i want to go to. All assuming Im trying to spend only minimal time refueling, so not going too 100% full each time.

If i go ahead of my FC exploring, and find a fuel planet with rings, scan it fully, and then go all the way back to my FC, and use the last of my fuel to jump to that new planet, I don't want to then still have to mine and refuel, to be prepared for the next jump(s). I'd like to go back to exploration and let the ship auto-refuel over time and then i can come back for it when both it and I are ready, weather it's full or only partially fueled, I can continue to explore essentially uninterrupted.

Anyways, everyone is entitled to their opinion, but i still hope Fdev does give this some serious consideration now. I'm sure there's alot more CMDRs who would appreciate it than there are that would actively object to any implementation of this feature in any form.

I mean, the simple answer is that if taking the fleet carrier to the edge of the galaxy isn't fun, don't do it.

 

[Merlin StWahgwaan]

My carrier can do more than 110 jumps without refuelling (Significantly more as you wouldn’t be jumping with a full carrier every time). I think that covers most trips.

You don’t jump your carrier into every system, you park up somewhere convenient and explore out from there. My carrier can sit in the same spot for months.

110 jumps, really? What's your avg jump range per jump then?

I didn't realize that was even a thing, I thought FCs couldn't do more than 4 or 5 jumps, upto a max of 20k ly distance, without refuel.
Do I just have a fundamental misunderstanding of FC fuel usage/economy and carry capacity?

I realize it doesn't go to every system, cool down periods would make that ridiculous;
But how many jumps would you need and refuels would it take, to go from Sol to Beagel Point, as an example?

 

[Merlin StWahgwaan]

I mean, the simple answer is that if taking the fleet carrier to the edge of the galaxy isn't fun, don't do it.

XD true, very true.
But it could be fun if refueling was easier like it is for all regular ships, just needing a fuel scoop and a fuel star.
But for FCs, a Fuel Scoop and Tritium rich rings, and some stationary down time.

But yeah, I get the point XD

 

[Merlin StWahgwaan]

Also, I'm not saying removal of regular mining and fueling needs to happen.

That should still be an option so if someone wants too do it faster, they absolutely can.

But just add this automatic option for those who want an FC for exploration, but don't want to mine the fuel constantly just to take their fleet with them places, and don't mind leaving their FC in orbit refueling for extended periods while they explore the surrounding systems ect.

Just feels like it should be a capability at this point.

 

[Koma Pahu]

110 jumps, really? What's your avg jump range per jump then?

I didn't realize that was even a thing, I thought FCs couldn't do more than 4 or 5 jumps, upto a max of 20k ly distance, without refuel.
Do I just have a fundamental misunderstanding of FC fuel usage/economy and carry capacity?

I realize it doesn't go to every system, cool down periods would make that ridiculous;
But how many jumps would you need and refuels would it take, to go from Sol to Beagel Point, as an example?

You need to transfer the fuel from your hold to your tank, so technically I misspoke.

Sol to Beagle: https://spansh.co.uk/fleet-carrier/...1000&tritium_market=25000&used_capacity=25000