QOL fuel synthesis and helpful installation

[Boff'in]

Been asked a billion times, but seriously, why can’t we synthesize fuel?

What about synthesis which uses cargo items? So mining asteroids water, liquid oxygen?

—————

I found myself exploring rather spontaneously and I wandered into the dumbbell nebula and was hanging by the nice installation by the water world.

Now I know there is “gameplay” with these things, but what I wanted was some repairs, fuel, hot food, decent ale.

But there wasn’t a dock or a comm menu. Nothing.

It would be nice if we could buy “remote” services. A portable dock? Or just limpets that ‘fix you up’ and saves your progress.

And they can take some cargo/mats/money as payment.

Omg comlimpets to deliver cargo as payment,
Anaconda and small station “cargo” vehicle fix.

 

[CMDR M. Lehman]

1) Being able to synthesize fuel would just cheapen the challenge of making sure that you don't run out.

2) Player-run emergency fuel and repair services already exist.

3) A portable dock is... no. Limpets that repair you already exist, and your progress is (hard) saved every time either dock somewhere or (soft) exit the game.

Just about everything on your list is already in the game in some form or another. It's just not as simple as pushing a button for most of them.

 

[varonica]

Been asked a billion times, but seriously, why can’t we synthesize fuel?

You see it's like this, we can synthesise a lot of things because we have the raw materials to make them with, iron, technetium, copper etc, but what exactly is the raw material required for synthesising hydrogen fuel? Hydrogen, and if we already have the hydrogen, why the heck are we synthesising it? Because you see hydrogen is an element, it's not a thing comoposed of different elements. To synthesise hydrogen you would need to start with protons, nuetrons and electrons and assemble them into hydrogen, which is not what we can do. We can't synthesise raw materials because they are elements, we can't synthesie iron or copper or zinc, we must collect them, the same with hydrogen.

Just to add, if you are talking about breaking down water to hydrogen and oxygen that's technically not synthesis, however logically hydrogen is the most common element in the universe and arguably it would be much easier to collect the hydrogen directly from the atmosphere of gas giants than to collect the water then dismantle it to make hydrogen.

 

[Azmuth Divarchchron]

Been asked a billion times, but seriously, why can’t we synthesize fuel?

What about synthesis which uses cargo items? So mining asteroids water, liquid oxygen?

—————

I found myself exploring rather spontaneously and I wandered into the dumbbell nebula and was hanging by the nice installation by the water world.

Now I know there is “gameplay” with these things, but what I wanted was some repairs, fuel, hot food, decent ale.

But there wasn’t a dock or a comm menu. Nothing.

It would be nice if we could buy “remote” services. A portable dock? Or just limpets that ‘fix you up’ and saves your progress.

And they can take some cargo/mats/money as payment.

Omg comlimpets to deliver cargo as payment,
Anaconda and small station “cargo” vehicle fix.

You cant synthesize fuel because theres no way to collect materials to make it.

The ships run on hydrogen.

So unless you have a way to collect protons and neutrons separately there is no way to craft it.
Besides, you aren't gonna craft several tonnes of fuel with a few bits of resources.

Even if you break down water, where would you get the water from?
Theres only a handful of ice rings in the game and since you drop out at a star its easier to collect fuel from stars instead.

So just use a fuel scoop like everyone else.
Besides you have enough fuel in a stock tank to last for hours

 

[Lestat]

Best idea if you are worried about running out of fuel do a few things

1 Monitor your Galaxy Map and locate stations that supply fuel.
2 Either has an Extra Fuel tank if it a station is a little too far
3 Have a fuel Scoop and monitor the Galaxy map.
4 Engineer your ship so you have a longer jump range

 

[Leadfoot]

...Just to add, if you are talking about breaking down water to hydrogen and oxygen that's technically not synthesis, however logically hydrogen is the most common element in the universe and arguably it would be much easier to collect the hydrogen directly from the atmosphere of gas giants than to collect the water then dismantle it to make hydrogen.

Short note: while, in theory, you COULD synthesize hydrogen fuel from water collected from asteroids, you'd first need a mining drill, an icy ring, a refinery, etc. Odds that an explorer or in-bubble traveler would have all that stuff on board? Zilch.

Also, more to the point: How much fuel do you think you'll need for that next jump to a main sequence star? Couple of tons, right? That's going to be a lot of mining for water. With equipment you won't have. In a system that might not even have a planet with rings.

That's why we have a single module called a fuel scoop.

Use the map and pay attention to (1) where you're going and (2) how much fuel you'll need to get there and (3) select "efficient" jumps if needed to stretch your fuel out more if that's necessary and (4) bring a fuel scoop if necessary.