Multiple Fuel Scoops

shadragon

shadragon
Why not?

I have an unarmed shieldless Cobra smuggler. I use the three Class 4 spaces for cargo and have three Class 2 spaces open. I put a 2A fuel scoop in there but it's tediously slow at 75 kg/s and I usually overheat waiting for the tank to fill at max rate.

I can fit multiple fuel tanks, so why can't I fit three 2A scoops for a total of 225 kg/s? A 6A scoop delivers 878 kg/s so three times 2A is only a quarter of that. No game limits are being broken and explorers could fuel a lot faster. This means less heat absorption and I'm on my way faster.

Yeah or nay?
 

Lily from anim.o.v.e

Lily from anim.o.v.e
maybe it has to dock onto the place where you get refueled and therefore doesn't provide multiple scoop attachement. It's juts one of these "Design decisions" like only one refinery. Why not multiple ones? Someone said so!!
 

Mysturji

Mysturji
Because when you're scooping fuel from a star, your're not just flying through the extremely hot plasma in the star's corona, you're actually taking it on board. This presents a non-trivial heat problem. (Notice that if you try to scoop a T-Tauri star, your heat doesn't rise as quickly as when you actually scoop from a scoopable star.)
Multiple scoops=multiple heat source intakes=KABOOM!
 

Hell Razor5543

H
It may well be that the fuel is guided into the ship using magnetic scoop technology (much as a Bussard Ramjet collects its fuel), and having more than 1 fuel scoop would cause problems with the magnetic fields interfering with each other.
 

shadragon

shadragon
Mysturji said:
Because when you're scooping fuel from a star, your're not just flying through the extremely hot plasma in the star's corona, you're actually taking it on board. This presents a non-trivial heat problem. (Notice that if you try to scoop a T-Tauri star, your heat doesn't rise as quickly as when you actually scoop from a scoopable star.)
Multiple scoops=multiple heat source intakes=KABOOM!
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Sorry, but an A4 scoop in the same ship takes in 342 kg/s

Two A2 scoops would take in 150 kg/s and three A2's 225 kg/s so the scoops (by your stated logic) should actually run cooler.
 

Lily from anim.o.v.e

Lily from anim.o.v.e
GJ51 said:
Whoa!!!!!!!!

2 8A scoops on my Cutter!!!

Totally

Damn the star ran out of gas...
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AcY18.jpg
 

DrakeAurum

DrakeAurum
shadragon said:
Why not?

I have an unarmed shieldless Cobra smuggler. I use the three Class 4 spaces for cargo and have three Class 2 spaces open. I put a 2A fuel scoop in there but it's tediously slow at 75 kg/s and I usually overheat waiting for the tank to fill at max rate.
Click to expand...
Yeah, the Cobra tends to run hot at max scooping rate, regardless of the scoop size. If you stop far enough out for about 3/4 max rate, its temperature will stay a lot more stable.

I can fit multiple fuel tanks, so why can't I fit three 2A scoops for a total of 225 kg/s? A 6A scoop delivers 878 kg/s so three times 2A is only a quarter of that. No game limits are being broken and explorers could fuel a lot faster. This means less heat absorption and I'm on my way faster.

Yeah or nay?
Click to expand...
Why not just fit one class 4 scoop and three class 2 cargo bays? You'd only be down 4 tons on cargo capacity.

Fuel scooping stops are part of the built-in risk factor for both explorers and long-range smugglers. Allowing people to double up on them would make things too easy.
 

KaizoMK

KaizoMK
DrakeAurum said:
Yeah, the Cobra tends to run hot at max scooping rate, regardless of the scoop size. If you stop far enough out for about 3/4 max rate, its temperature will stay a lot more stable.


Why not just fit one class 4 scoop and three class 2 cargo bays? You'd only be down 4 tons on cargo capacity.

Fuel scooping stops are part of the built-in risk factor for both explorers and long-range smugglers. Allowing people to double up on them would make things too easy.
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I could see a quick scoop being useful for smugglers, maybe at a stretch if you want to say that extra fuel scoop time can get them interdicted. But explorers?

What's so bad about stacking fuel scoops to scoop faster, especially if you're using multiple modules to do so inefficiently?
 

Bacalao

Bacalao
Lily from anim.o.v.e said:
maybe it has to dock onto the place where you get refueled and therefore doesn't provide multiple scoop attachement. It's juts one of these "Design decisions" like only one refinery. Why not multiple ones? Someone said so!!
Click to expand...

This is likely it, but that doesn't mean it shouldn't be revisited. Things that look like they'd be unbalanced on paper or in water cooler chat can end up being very reasonable in practice. I think someone probably said, "that needs to be limited" because they were looking at it independently or in a very specific circumstance and then they just moved on. We can make up any "plausible" excuse as far as the in game mechanics go, but we could do that to justify multiple scoops as well.
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I'd go a step further and simply request that we be able to combine internals (2 class 2's become a class 3 and/or 1 class 2 becomes 2 class 1's). That would alleviate the problem somewhat, since that isn't the case, I really just don't see why there can only be 1 fuel scoop (or refinery).

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DrakeAurum said:
Fuel scooping stops are part of the built-in risk factor for both explorers and long-range smugglers. Allowing people to double up on them would make things too easy.
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But with a trade off, you're potentially giving up cargo, AFMU, scanner, SRV, shields, SCBs, HRPs or whatever else you might fit in favor of multiple scoops.
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It isn't as if fuel scooping is even an issue for explorers, it becomes so reflexive you don't even think about it. As far as smuggling goes, you can fit an Asp with enough fuel tanks that you don't need to ever scoop on your way back, should we be limited to only 1 extra fuel tank as well then? No? Of course not, because the trade off is giving up cargo/shields/etc.
 

Red Anders

Red Anders
KaizoMK said:
I could see a quick scoop being useful for smugglers, maybe at a stretch if you want to say that extra fuel scoop time can get them interdicted. But explorers?

What's so bad about stacking fuel scoops to scoop faster, especially if you're using multiple modules to do so inefficiently?
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For explorers quick scooping is desirable simply because of how many times you have to do it. I'm not a full time explorer by any stretch of the imagination but I'm heading to the Orion nebula at the moment via a roundabout route; last night my last leg before landing and parking up for the night was about 970 LY - 38 jumps. That's why I run a 6A scoop on my Asp, reason being I can fill up with a jump's worth of delicious plasma before my FSD has even recharged. Having said that, for 28m credits I should bloody well hope it's fast, I expect it to come with a built in back massager and coffee maker for that price.

Thing is, there's nothing else I would run in that slot at class 6 anyway on my exploring build.

Don't have any issues with OP's suggestion really. I have a smuggling cobra, I went with a class 4 scoop on mine accepting that it was a necessary compromise. Thing is, I don't have any shields on mine lol, pretty pointless when it boosts at 450. It has never been scanned, let alone caught since the day I built it.
 
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KaizoMK

KaizoMK
Red Anders said:
For explorers quick scooping is desirable simply because of how many times you have to do it. I'm not a full time explorer by any stretch of the imagination but I'm heading to the Orion nebula at the moment via a roundabout route; last night my last leg before landing and parking up for the night was about 970 LY - 38 jumps. That's why I run a 6A scoop on my Asp, reason being I can fill up with a jump's worth of delicious plasma before my FSD has even recharged. Having said that, for 28m credits I should bloody well hope it's fast, I expect it to come with a built in back massager and coffee maker for that price.

Thing is, there's nothing else I would run in that slot at class 6 anyway on my exploring build.

Don't have any issues with OP's suggestion really. I have a smuggling cobra, I went with a class 4 scoop on mine accepting that it was a necessary compromise. Thing is, I don't have any shields on mine lol, pretty pointless when it boosts at 450. It has never been scanned, let alone caught since the day I built it.
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What I mean to say is, stacking fuel scoops would not impact the game negatively from a balance perspective.
 
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