You also have to travel around the star, so might as well scoop.
I never thought about doing this... Might be doing it in the future though!
You also have to travel around the star, so might as well scoop.
Do bare in mind that even with All of the unscoopable stars deselected so that you should only be routed through scoopable stars, the route plotter may still sometimes include unscoopable stars on the calculated route. So ensure that you have at the very least sufficient fuel capacity for 2 jumps. I would err on the side of 3 jumps.
I presume it does this based upon some efficiency factor used during the course plotting. If diverting around the unscoopable star would add a significant amount of jumps, the unscoopable star is used instead. I don't know to what extent this may impact upon the number of consecutive unscoopable stars is... But potentially, it could be 2 or 3 if the alternative is to fly around a large area of unscoopable stars, adding a significant number of jumps to your trip.
This is a problem because it doesn't warn you that it has added unscoopable stars to your route. At the very least, it should do this so that there are no nasty surprises during your trip.
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How would massive fuel tanks make your jumponium go further? A larger/extra tank would reduce your jump range due to the increased mass. Hence, you would need to use more jumponium to offset this reduction in jump range.
Yes, and this is what I do actually. My Vulture in theory can't quite do 3 max range jumps back to back, but for the purposes of plotting, it will generally manage 3, as they're seldom at full range potential.
If I did more on the extreme fringes (that I could reach, regardless of ship and specific range), I might prefer a bit more just in case.
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I totally agree with you Stealthie. Self sufficiency is a big thing, at least to me.
In over two years of playing ED, I've never had to call the fuel rats out. On the other hand, some cmdrs have called them out on multiple occasions! I suspect that this is a mindset thing. Possibly also about taking responsibility for yourself and your ship. Cmdrs who call the fuel rats out on multiple occasions just don't appear to take responsibility for their own actions. I think the fuel rats are way to lenient for their own good in this respect. After two rescues, you should be on your own because you are clearly not taking responsibility for your own safety, and just abusing the good will of others.
If you factor it in as a possibility, I don't think it's much of an issue. Navigation is a lot easier in general than it was before, and I managed well enough back then too. But yeah, I had to keep a closer eye on it back then and actually check what I was jumping to now and then. That only happens once in a blue moon now, and it's usually my fault for going away from the game for a while in supercruise.
...
I think the stock tank of the Cobra is more than sufficient for these scenarios, unless you're running low getting to where you're going in a trade run loop or something.
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This tends to be the best solution when you need a full fill. If you park yourself right at the point where you are not gaining heat while scooping, anyone trying to interdict you will normally have to travel within that area between being forced out of SC because you're too close to the star, and still having to be close enough that they are taking significant amounts of heat just getting into position. Meanwhile you have an easier time just going to full throttle and moving away from the star just as they close in, so can accelerate more quickly making it easier to break interdiction.
For cases when you don't need a full tank, skimming as you move around a star at half throttle works reliably and can usually get you a fair bit of fuel just as you re-align for the next jump. If you see someone moving to interdict, you can usually just go full throttle and do the next jump before they even have a chance.
Fuel tanks, normally, aren't much use once you get to larger ships. Even on longer hauls it can occasionally be more practical to find a mid-point station you can refuel at than accepting the additional loss of cargo space used for the fuel tank. But even a size 2/3 scoop can greatly extend your distance from just skimming.
On that note...
I wish ED had an option (a slider in the right-HUD, with the turret controls etc) to let you set a "fuel reserve".
You'd be able to se the fuel-reserve at anything between, say 0% and 50% of your tank capacity.
You'd set the fuel-reserve to, say, 20% and as a result the game would treat a 32t tank as if it was a 25.6t tank - and your ship had 6.4t of "cargo" aboard - instead.
That'd mean the galmap would plot your fuel-stars on the basis of 25.6t of fuel rather than 32t, thus allowing you to keep that last 20% for emergencies.
I absolutely hate the way the galmap plots your course in such a way that you arrive at the fuel-star with only fumes in the tank.
I simply don't trust the route-plotter enough and I always end-up getting to within a couple of jumps of a fuel-star and then manually selecting a scoopable system and jumping across to it.
Side note here. Anaconda takes a 32T tank but generally buckyball racers will fit anything around a 72T to 80T tank total for neutron hopping to get the balance between losing range and increased number of jumps. Of course they use a huge scoop too!
Anyway, for the main topic. If the tank required for the distance is smaller than the scoop you'd fit then yes it's worth it as more cargo. Especially affects ships where you'd use a size 6/7 scoop but can make do with say a size 3 or 4 tank instead. If you require a size 4 tank to replace a size 4 scoop then personally I'd go with the scoop. Less chance of hitting launch without refueling and having to do a go-around as well as much less chance of mess-ups.
Definitely a cheaper option though if that's a factor and a touch quicker due to not having to scoop you can immediately roll out to line up with the next hyper-jump star. Personally I always prefer a scoop but it's definitely viable with a big tank, just as the Beluga
Anyway, for the main topic. If the tank required for the distance is smaller than the scoop you'd fit then yes it's worth it as more cargo. Especially affects ships where you'd use a size 6/7 scoop but can make do with say a size 3 or 4 tank instead. If you require a size 4 tank to replace a size 4 scoop then personally I'd go with the scoop. Less chance of hitting launch without refueling and having to do a go-around as well as much less chance of mess-ups.
Definitely a cheaper option though if that's a factor and a touch quicker due to not having to scoop you can immediately roll out to line up with the next hyper-jump star. Personally I always prefer a scoop but it's definitely viable with a big tank, just as the Beluga
I'm not really sure about this because I don't really go exploring much. The last time I used jumponium was when I managed to neutron boost myself into a particularly quiet part of the Galaxy. But this is how I thought it worked..
Synthesising a batch of jumponium fills your tank
You can keep super-jumping for as long as you don't refill your tank
massive fuel tanks mean you don't have to refill for a long time
I was just wondering if you maybe needed more fuel for extended jump range, sort of like how you need more fuel per longer jumps. I don't know, and would generally presume that it wouldn't need more fuel than a standard max range jump, but am not sure, since I hardly ever use jumponium – only twice so far in the game to reach the Crab Nebula cluster of stars and back out again in my Vulture.
<shrugs>
The updates to the game mean it will be easier to experiment with things like this. The exchange rate may be poor, but it means you can take whatever materials you have to a trader and get jumponium ingredients.
After the upgrade I might climb into my asp, extend its tanks as much as I can, and go find out for myself.
The updates to the game mean it will be easier to experiment with things like this. The exchange rate may be poor, but it means you can take whatever materials you have to a trader and get jumponium ingredients.
After the upgrade I might climb into my asp, extend its tanks as much as I can, and go find out for myself.
Sometimes just testing these things out for yourself is how you'll definitely know one way or the other. Respect for that. o7
I tried something a bit different for fun, and it would probably work for you in the right ship.
I took an Adder and imstead of increased range I boosted the reboot time for the fsd. It was active in two seconds rather than ten. This meant I could jump faster, albeit with a shorter range (Adder had a decent range anyway, and with other lightened loads and fast thrusters it became a peach)
If I was interdicted, I could boost once, then activate fsd before enemy even got turned to face me. Super escape plan.
Made a good rare trading ship, and I am sure a bigger one could be designed (dbx springs to mind with its cool running and great natural range).
I took an Adder and imstead of increased range I boosted the reboot time for the fsd. It was active in two seconds rather than ten. This meant I could jump faster, albeit with a shorter range (Adder had a decent range anyway, and with other lightened loads and fast thrusters it became a peach)
If I was interdicted, I could boost once, then activate fsd before enemy even got turned to face me. Super escape plan.
Made a good rare trading ship, and I am sure a bigger one could be designed (dbx springs to mind with its cool running and great natural range).
I thought the "fast boot" mod' only had an effect on the length of time it takes for the FSD to come on line after it's been shut down? [where is it]
Only time I ever used it was on my Vulture, so that I could relegate the FSD to priority 2 in order to conserve power, and it'd be on-line a couple of seconds after I stowed my hardpoints.
Still took 10 seconds to spin-up prior to making a jump.
No idea if it had any effect on cool-down time. Didn't care about that.
Nice tip - never thought of that. Cheers!
Only read title and fist paragraph, in a bit of a rush, so forgive if it has been said before. For me there are simple criteria for whether or not it's worth carrying an extra fuel tank...
1) How much will it affect actual jump range and agility?
2) If the answer to 1 is 'not too badly', then the question becomes 'how quick can I scoop?'. If the answer is 'within one orbit of a star', then don't bother with a fuel tank.
In other words, it needs to be a tangible time saver and not negatively impact the performance of the ship too much.
With my courier, I went the opposite way. BEcause it can scoop to full with stock tank in exactly one orbit, and I wanted it for racing, therefore it needs to be able to fill by the time I've done the half orbit required to be facing my next destination. With this in mind, I REDUCED the size of the main fuel tank by half. Now I can only make 2 big and one small jumps before scooping, BUT, I'm always full by the time I face my next destination. Obviously, I'm using a 3A scoop. I believe this is signifcantly faster than doing say, 8 jumps then needing 2 orbits to scoop (or 5 mins sat still, even worse).
1) How much will it affect actual jump range and agility?
2) If the answer to 1 is 'not too badly', then the question becomes 'how quick can I scoop?'. If the answer is 'within one orbit of a star', then don't bother with a fuel tank.
In other words, it needs to be a tangible time saver and not negatively impact the performance of the ship too much.
With my courier, I went the opposite way. BEcause it can scoop to full with stock tank in exactly one orbit, and I wanted it for racing, therefore it needs to be able to fill by the time I've done the half orbit required to be facing my next destination. With this in mind, I REDUCED the size of the main fuel tank by half. Now I can only make 2 big and one small jumps before scooping, BUT, I'm always full by the time I face my next destination. Obviously, I'm using a 3A scoop. I believe this is signifcantly faster than doing say, 8 jumps then needing 2 orbits to scoop (or 5 mins sat still, even worse).
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