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Newcomer / Intro What's that thing right above the fuel tank bar indicator?
- Thread starter Turf
- Start date
The in-system-fuel tank?
Your fuel used while in super cruise or normal space is taken from that tank. It's filled up from the main tank when empty.
Your fuel used while in super cruise or normal space is taken from that tank. It's filled up from the main tank when empty.
Note that even if you are parked the fuel used to run any powered module also comes from that tank so being away from your keyboard for long enough will use all your fuel and leave you at the rebuy screen.
Oh, so it's just a mini-tank that draws fuel from the larger tank and is used for powering passive modules. Thanks.
But I wonder why don't the ship draw everything from one main tank?
It isn’t just passive modules it powers everything other than full jumps to other stars.
Why designers do things is a mystery to us all.
How would you like to finish a jump to find everything powering off and "Eject! Eject! Eject!" screaming in the cabin?
It's a design that predates ED, going back to the old FE2/FFE games: two fuel tanks, the "main tank" that powered the hyperdrive and the "reserve tank" that powered in-system travel. In FE2, you had to transfer the fuel from Main to Reserve manually (until and unless you purchased the module that did it automatically for you).
Of course, in FE2/FFE, the "main tank" was just part of general cargo space. You could use general cargo space to store fuel, or cargo, or whatever else you wished. You had to remember to constantly carry fuel around in your cargo space, otherwise you ain't jumping anywhere.
Every ship in ED comes with that auto-refueller module built-in as standard, so keeping the two fuels separate is kind of redundant now. Especially now that hyperjumps can use any fraction or multiple of 1 tonne fuel units (FE2 hyperdrives used discrete amounts - if your destination was 3.5 tonnes of hydrogen away, you still burned 4 tonnes of hydrogen to get there - the "leftover" half a tonne was simply thrown away).
Calling that second tank the "reserve tank" was somewhat misleading; it sounds like a "reserve tank" would be something useful in an emergency when you run out of fuel in the main tank, but this isn't the case. I'm sure I recall it was originally still called the "reserve tank" when ED first came out, but I notice the most recent edition of the manual (which only covers up to version 2.4) calls it the "active reservoir" instead, which is a much more useful name for what it actually does - power the ship's active systems. But the "active reservoir" still only holds a maximum of 1 tonne of fuel at any one time; when it gets empty, it automatically subtracts 1 tonne from the main tank.
Of course, in FE2/FFE, the "main tank" was just part of general cargo space. You could use general cargo space to store fuel, or cargo, or whatever else you wished. You had to remember to constantly carry fuel around in your cargo space, otherwise you ain't jumping anywhere.
Every ship in ED comes with that auto-refueller module built-in as standard, so keeping the two fuels separate is kind of redundant now. Especially now that hyperjumps can use any fraction or multiple of 1 tonne fuel units (FE2 hyperdrives used discrete amounts - if your destination was 3.5 tonnes of hydrogen away, you still burned 4 tonnes of hydrogen to get there - the "leftover" half a tonne was simply thrown away).
Calling that second tank the "reserve tank" was somewhat misleading; it sounds like a "reserve tank" would be something useful in an emergency when you run out of fuel in the main tank, but this isn't the case. I'm sure I recall it was originally still called the "reserve tank" when ED first came out, but I notice the most recent edition of the manual (which only covers up to version 2.4) calls it the "active reservoir" instead, which is a much more useful name for what it actually does - power the ship's active systems. But the "active reservoir" still only holds a maximum of 1 tonne of fuel at any one time; when it gets empty, it automatically subtracts 1 tonne from the main tank.
I have been reliably informed that the active tank value varies from ship to ship.
IRL, that design predates either of these games - ships (used to) have a "day tank" and bulk tanks. Engines were fed from the day tank, day tanks were refilled from the bulk tanks. Gives you a few more options for fuel management, filtering and tank placements.
And why in the bit that Turf highlighted does it sometimes have a white/grey section at the end (on the right where the 'orange' line has reduced (showing fuel use))?
On the thick bar of the main tank that would be the fuel earmarked for the jump you have plotted, it gives you a chance to see if you are going to be in fuel trouble when you arrive before you start the jump.
On the thin line of 'active resevoir' it probably shows the switched off pixels where the fuel has been used, not noticed one there myself.
@ aRJay, thanks for the answer, and yes it might have been on the thicker bar (i'll check next time i fly), which would explain it nicely
If you want to park for a long time while you leave your PC or for any other reason, you can reduce your fuel consumptin substantially by switching off everything except life support. Consumption from the working fuel tank depends on how much power you're using from active modules.
That works while you're travelling long distances too. You can switch off all the modules you don't need for travelling, like power distributor, cargo hatch, utilities, shields, SCBs, limpet controllers, etc. Not only does that save fuel, but it substantially reduces heat as well, which is very useful for scooping fuel.
That works while you're travelling long distances too. You can switch off all the modules you don't need for travelling, like power distributor, cargo hatch, utilities, shields, SCBs, limpet controllers, etc. Not only does that save fuel, but it substantially reduces heat as well, which is very useful for scooping fuel.
Awesome tips guys, thanks.
Even older than that, in a way. The Traveller RPG from Games Designers Workshop (1977) that inspired Elite had all their ship design rules requiring two different lots of fuel usage: the ships systems including life support, sensors and maneuver-drive thrusters (low-wake supercruise and normal space are the equivalent in Elite) had their hydrogen fuel need calculated (to power the reactor power plant). Jumps between star systems used up another calculated amount of fuel, which was rapidly run through the high charge capacity power plant built into the jump drive itself in one go, just as ED does now.
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