Are you a fuel rat? Were you a fuel rat?
What stories do you have regarding the group? Have they ever helped you?
What stories do you have regarding the group? Have they ever helped you?
Let's talk about fuel rats
- Thread starter husky of snow
- Start date
I think it was one my first days playing ED, about 2 months before Horizons went free (I remember still having to buy it in order to land on planets) - I just wanted to go see a gas giant. So I grabbed one of my first ships, never heard about fuel scoop before and I went few systems away from starting point. I flew to some gas giant, admired it, wanted to go back and of course I noticed that I have no fuel. Quick research done what to do in this situation - contacted fuel rats. Received help and learned about fuel scoop and other useful things. Never needed their help again 
No.
No. I have never considered myself suitable/reliable enough to apply.
Only what I have read in the forums, from in the early days when there would be talk of ambushes set up for them to the epic tale of how they rescued someone from far outside the galaxy using the equivalent of a multistage rocket.
Not personally, I died from lack of fuel very early on before I had heard of them. Later I have been refuelled but it was an informal thing not involving the Fuel Rats.
I've personally been helped by a Fuel Rat. CMDR Aanyath rescued me and my stranded Cobra MkIII. I'm very grateful to CMDR Aanyath and all the other Fuel Rats. The Fuel Rats are terrific! o7
Yes I was saved once. I had almost a billion in bounties and bonds (in Horizons where if you snooze you lose) else I would have just gone down with the ship. I was in and out of the game throughout the day as I was working from home. I wasn't watching my fuel and was working a CNB pretty hard, suddenly I get the life support indicator. My carrier was one system over but I couldn't have done anything even if it was within eyesight, I had no power. I reached out to the Fuel Rats and they responded, first with instructions to log out of the game to save my life support (I had synthesized more) and how to enable them into my instance (which I knew but needed their info). Once that was done they were there pretty fast, fueled me up and that was that.
I felt like I needed to return the fuel to them though
It's interesting that we can synthesize almost everything except fuel. I'm wondering how SLFs fly without taking our fuel.
I felt like I needed to return the fuel to them though
It's interesting that we can synthesize almost everything except fuel. I'm wondering how SLFs fly without taking our fuel.
Never needed their help (so far) and never been one, but always loved the concept and there was a time when I was thinking of applying to become one, as I could commit to a more consistent presence and reliability.
The friend who introduced me to ED, however, told me his interaction with them.
During his first week, when he was still clueless, he found himself stranded with his Sidewinder (or Adder, can't remember) somewhere in the Bubble, so he called the Fuel Rats, who helped him.
A couple of minutes later, as he resumed his trip, he did something else wrong, and got his ship destroyed anyway
The friend who introduced me to ED, however, told me his interaction with them.
During his first week, when he was still clueless, he found himself stranded with his Sidewinder (or Adder, can't remember) somewhere in the Bubble, so he called the Fuel Rats, who helped him.
A couple of minutes later, as he resumed his trip, he did something else wrong, and got his ship destroyed anyway
I can’t say too much about real individual rescues, but maybe a little background might help.
As a few have said here, we do aim to respond quickly. Often I’m in the client’s reported system within about 45-50 seconds of the webform being submitted. The procedure that we follow to stabilise client safety, get the client and rat friended and then in a team taking far longer. As such if the client responds quickly it’s quite possible to conclude a rescue in under three minutes. In some case an experienced rat who lucks with the game instancing might even be able to drop on a client low wake and refuel befe being friended.
Being a Rat is far more than flying a ship and lobbing a limpet (whilst important, that is a small part of a rat’s skills). The real strength of what we do comes from the procedures that we follow (that have been developed and honed since 3301), and from the massive knowledge about the game mechanics that we rely on. Over the years we have performed about 150,000 rescues with a success rate of over 96%. Our success is based on those procedures and knowledge.
We also realise that man of our clients are early commanders possibly in their first hours or minutes of play. We try to make the procedure as simple as possible. A simple webform collects are Cmdr name, the system the client is stranded in, Which game platform/game mode they are in, and if they see the Oxygen Depleted timer. No registration is needed. As soon as that form is submitted, the client is connected to text chat channel and the rescue is coordinated in that channel with the client talking to the dispatcher, and the assigned rats also talking to the dispatcher.
The chat between the client and dispatcher will usually be a mix of free form instructions/ questions /replies, and automated instructions to the client triggered by the dispatcher . We try to make those instructions as clear as possible and include the default keystrokes/instructions to achieve what we need (such as how to send a friend request,,or how to enable the team beacon).
Internally, we operate exclusively in English, however where a client cannot speak English, we prefer that our dispatcher translates the conversation. Many of our automated instructions are available in many languages, and our dispatcher will endeavour to send the most appropriate language variant.
Rats are as a minimum expected to know our procedures thoroughly, to communicate clearly and in line with those procedures, and be able to spot many common mistakes that a client might make (an exampe of which might be entering the wrong system name - the system that had targeted for their next jump as opposed to where thy are)
Many rescues are very basic simple affairs, but situations vary wildly and some rescues, particularly where there are instancing issues or client is on emergency oxygen can take a lot of specialised rat knowledge and skill.
Most rats care intensely about what they do and improving their own knowledge, skill, and speed. On the occasion where we lose a borderline case, you can guarantee the rats involved will be looking for things they might have done better.
One case a long time ago involved a client with not a lot of emergency oxygen left, who needed (because of their situation) the assigned rats to boost in normal space for just over a minute to reach them. I expected to get there just too late so the race was really on. I managed to successfully complete the rescue. During the post rescue chat I asked the client how much o2 they had remaining at the end “Literally one second” was the reply. Upon hearing that I was physically shaking for several minutes thereafter). Most rescues are very basic though and without that level of adrenaline.
As a few have said here, we do aim to respond quickly. Often I’m in the client’s reported system within about 45-50 seconds of the webform being submitted. The procedure that we follow to stabilise client safety, get the client and rat friended and then in a team taking far longer. As such if the client responds quickly it’s quite possible to conclude a rescue in under three minutes. In some case an experienced rat who lucks with the game instancing might even be able to drop on a client low wake and refuel befe being friended.
Being a Rat is far more than flying a ship and lobbing a limpet (whilst important, that is a small part of a rat’s skills). The real strength of what we do comes from the procedures that we follow (that have been developed and honed since 3301), and from the massive knowledge about the game mechanics that we rely on. Over the years we have performed about 150,000 rescues with a success rate of over 96%. Our success is based on those procedures and knowledge.
We also realise that man of our clients are early commanders possibly in their first hours or minutes of play. We try to make the procedure as simple as possible. A simple webform collects are Cmdr name, the system the client is stranded in, Which game platform/game mode they are in, and if they see the Oxygen Depleted timer. No registration is needed. As soon as that form is submitted, the client is connected to text chat channel and the rescue is coordinated in that channel with the client talking to the dispatcher, and the assigned rats also talking to the dispatcher.
The chat between the client and dispatcher will usually be a mix of free form instructions/ questions /replies, and automated instructions to the client triggered by the dispatcher . We try to make those instructions as clear as possible and include the default keystrokes/instructions to achieve what we need (such as how to send a friend request,,or how to enable the team beacon).
Internally, we operate exclusively in English, however where a client cannot speak English, we prefer that our dispatcher translates the conversation. Many of our automated instructions are available in many languages, and our dispatcher will endeavour to send the most appropriate language variant.
Rats are as a minimum expected to know our procedures thoroughly, to communicate clearly and in line with those procedures, and be able to spot many common mistakes that a client might make (an exampe of which might be entering the wrong system name - the system that had targeted for their next jump as opposed to where thy are)
Many rescues are very basic simple affairs, but situations vary wildly and some rescues, particularly where there are instancing issues or client is on emergency oxygen can take a lot of specialised rat knowledge and skill.
Most rats care intensely about what they do and improving their own knowledge, skill, and speed. On the occasion where we lose a borderline case, you can guarantee the rats involved will be looking for things they might have done better.
One case a long time ago involved a client with not a lot of emergency oxygen left, who needed (because of their situation) the assigned rats to boost in normal space for just over a minute to reach them. I expected to get there just too late so the race was really on. I managed to successfully complete the rescue. During the post rescue chat I asked the client how much o2 they had remaining at the end “Literally one second” was the reply. Upon hearing that I was physically shaking for several minutes thereafter). Most rescues are very basic though and without that level of adrenaline.
I could imagine this scenario:
Victim: "I need help! Rats where for art thou!"
Rats: "What's your emergency?"
Victim: "I am without fuel!"
Rats: "Makes sense, what's the situation regarding your dilemma?"
Victim: "I have no bonds, bounties or commodities, and I have plenty credits. I have a carrier that's just over there. My life support says 25 minutes"
Rats: "Ah I see the problem, be right there"
Rat shows up, destroys the victim
Rat: "there you go, back to your carrier"
Victim: "I need help! Rats where for art thou!"
Rats: "What's your emergency?"
Victim: "I am without fuel!"
Rats: "Makes sense, what's the situation regarding your dilemma?"
Victim: "I have no bonds, bounties or commodities, and I have plenty credits. I have a carrier that's just over there. My life support says 25 minutes"
Rats: "Ah I see the problem, be right there"
Rat shows up, destroys the victim
Rat: "there you go, back to your carrier"
That's, um, fast. Do you mean minutes or am I misunderstanding?
I have one story of my own
:And then there's THE story
:End of the Road
I've messed up. I am less than a thousand light years out from Beagle Point beginning a slow-boat journey home. Using the new feature in the galaxy map which highlights previous systems you have visited, I was retracing my jumps back and made a 50% boost into a system. It has one landable...
Thanks for sharing your insights! Seems you guys have figured out the logistics pretty well!
I love the concept of the fuel rats, but pretty much like @aRJay I don't think I'd make a good fuel rat. While it's tempting to apply to join to have some purpose to play instead of faffing around, I think I'm way too unreliable for the job.
Personally I have never needed the service of the rats. I've had a handful close calls, but I never ran out of fuel so far.
Can I ask: Do you go on "rat patrol", i.e. do you have scheduled times where you're sitting in your ship, prepared, waiting to be called? Is that the usual MO of a fuel rat, or do you have times where dispatch pretty much goes like "yo, who's available? Nobody? Really? Someone wake up Malcolm, he's got to rat!". You have some kind of on-call roster or something?
Rats log on and off when they want. There is no commitment, except once youhave put yorself forward for a case.
When a rescue comes in, Rats who want to be considered for the rescue plot to the client, start jumping, and tell thhe dispatcher how many jumps that have to the client. The dispatcher chooses one or two Rats to assign to the case. Any rats who started jumping but were not assigned go home... The Dispatcher uses various crteria to decide who to send..
As we have five different platforms we rat on (Ody, Live horizons, PC legacy horizons, Play station, and XVox, and then there might be starter zone or other permit requiermens,) ocasionally the right rat might not be on line. We can tweet/toot cases out.to pull appropriate help in. I picked up a playstation case that way a couple of hours ago.
I remember that. Wasn't there an article about this in PC Gamer or some such mag?I have one story of my own
Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gS9b4ROlPj4
And then there's THE story
End of the Road
I've messed up. I am less than a thousand light years out from Beagle Point beginning a slow-boat journey home. Using the new feature in the galaxy map which highlights previous systems you have visited, I was retracing my jumps back and made a 50% boost into a system. It has one landable...forums.frontier.co.uk
This kind of emergent gameplay is why I do everything to survive before pushing the easy button. I wouldn't intentionally create a scenario where I needed help, but I would give other players the opportunity to come to my rescue if that situation presented itself, or to come kill me, which ever they choose once there. We create better content for each other than the game could ever accomplish. Mostly.
I was in on the very early forum discussions for the Fuel Rats but couldn’t initially take part as I'd Buckyballed my way out to Sagittarius A* (which was a long way in those days) and was making my way slowly back when they began. I haven’t actively fuel ratted for several years now but have about 70 rescues to my name (small potatoes these days) and thoroughly enjoyed my time being part of such a fantastic group. If you're interested in how the group started and evolved from its ad hoc "will this even work" rag tag bunch of enthusiastic amateurs into the professional operation it's become today then you could do worse than read that original forum thread (linked here, already over 1500 posts in at that point, to my very first rescue in July 3301).
forums.frontier.co.uk
Out of Fuel? - Explorer Rescue Service, The Fuel Rats
When I finally drop out of SC and draw up next to jonnyv the only other difficulty I have is remembering which damn control I've rigged hardpoint deployment to? If I press the wrong key now this could be a real short trip. Fingers crossed, press and ... ... bingo, refuelling complete. Oh the...
Last edited:
I was a new cmdr, it was my first time out of the starter zone on my way to Tiolce to get commodities for a mission. I ended up in the Willbow system (Type T brown dwarf) and learned that not all stars are scoopable. I had heard of the fuel rats somewhere and reached out. Cmdr Tblflip quickly filled me up and gave me some good advice, and I was able to carry on. I haven't needed them since but I'm happy to know they're out there. As you can see it left a lasting impression on me