Why cant we synthesize fuel for the SRV on the ship??

[Lucian667]

Ok I know that refueling the SRV requires either synthesis or docking at a station with no option to refuel directly from your ship, I'm willing to accept the unreality of that as a gameplay compromise. A weird, clumsy and unintuitive compromise but......whatever.

What I dont understand is why we cant synthesize fuel for the SRV while its docked inside the ship. For some inexplicable reason you actually have to be in the SRV on the planet's surface and that just seems wrong, the SRV is tiny and the idea that it has a fully working fuel refinery packed into that little space is just stretching credibility to the breaking point and beyond. It really makes very little sense that (assuming you have the ingredients) you wouldn't be able to synthesize fuel for the SRV when it is safely docked inside your ship. Please fix this, my immersion is suffering.

 

[bitstorm]

It's a game, Frontier have said themselves they are not aiming for everything to be super realistic.

If you're immersion is being broken by this then in all honesty I'd say you're over thinking it.

I seem to remember in a live stream Frontier even cited the specifc case of materials and how this was a good example of the community expecting too much in regards to the "science".

 

[Lucian667]

I get that its a game but how exactly would gameplay be broken by allowing you to use synthesis ingredients to synthesize fuel while the SRV is docked inside the ship? The fact that you cant do it just seems like a lazy design omission rather than having any concrete gameplay reason.

For example if I'm landed on a planet and sitting inside my ship which contains an SRV with 10% fuel and I have all the right synthesis ingredients, for some obscure reason I cant use synthesis to refuel the SRV unless I actually deploy it to the planet's surface, do the synthesis and then re-dock. That's not gameplay, that's just silly. I dont require super-realism, just for things not to be obviously clunky and illogical.

 

[deleteduser]

I would suggest that the most obvious reason is that it would require a substantial rebuild of the UI.

Got to say though, as you're not going to need to fuel your SRV until you are in it, there doesn't appear to be any gameplay detriment in the current mechanic.

 

[Lucian667]

I would suggest that the most obvious reason is that it would require a substantial rebuild of the UI.

It would? Seems to me all it would require is that the existing SRV refuel option from the existing synthesis menu actually allows you to refuel your SRV while it is docked inside the ship instead of refusing unless the SRV is already deployed. In other works no UI changes would be need at all, just some slightly altered game logic.

 

[Ashnak]

I think I see where you're coming from.

At the moment:

Inside the ship:
synthesis for shipboard stuff is enabled
synthesis for SRV stuff is disabled

Inside the SRV:
synthesis for shipboard stuff is disabled
synthesis for SRV stuff is enabled

But all synthesis options are in the menu


What you want:

Inside the ship:
synthesis for shipboard stuff is enabled
synthesis for SRV stuff is enabled (as the SRV is actually clamped down in its docking bay right under your seat - no need to limit it to refuelling)

Inside the SRV:
synthesis for shipboard stuff is disabled
synthesis for SRV stuff is enabled

Sounds reasonable. Should beeasy to do (I'd guess - if not, it should be left as an excercise for the programmer/designer who did the software for the synthesis UI ). I'd suggest you bring that proposal into one of FDs threads about requesting new features. My guess is that this not implemeted this way because nobody saw a need for that, therefore the UI was limited to whatever options would have a direct impact on your current situation (K.I.S.S., sort of)

 

[GodBlock]

Why can't we synthesize ship fuel is my question

 

[Lucian667]

What you want:

Inside the ship:
synthesis for shipboard stuff is enabled
synthesis for SRV stuff is enabled (as the SRV is actually clamped down in its docking bay right under your seat - no need to limit it to refuelling)

Inside the SRV:
synthesis for shipboard stuff is disabled
synthesis for SRV stuff is enabled

Exactly. It just seems logical that you should be able to synthesize fuel for the SRV while it is already docked inside the ship. The fact that you currently cant do it is a little unimmersive to me. Also I find that it stretches credibility to think that the tiny little SRV has a fully functional fuel refinery packed somewhere inside its extremely compact frame, but I'm (grudgingly) willing to accept it for gameplay reasons. It would be a pain (in gameplay terms) if you were forced to return to your ship to synthesize SRV fuel even though I think it would make more a lot more sense immersion-wise.

 

[James Razor]

Frontiers entire approach to the SRV is questionable in my opinion. First of all i never understood why we need that thing in the first place. Most stuff u do with it can be done with the ship more efficiently. It is just FDev that force us to use it because they designed the mechanics around it. The change to skimmer mechanics and the inability to refuel that damn thing on the ship are just FDevs way to *politly* ask us to use the thing if we like it or not so they can claim they didnt waste resources on stuff no one uses.
While i bought Horizons until now it has been a major letdown tbh. I dont like SRV driving and i dont like the RNGineers. It is pretty sad that i think the best part about Horizons had been the Black Friday Paintjob Pack that came with it.

And yes, i did try out all of the features, even modded enough ships to get Grade 5 Access to Farseer. But beyond that i have no interessts. SRV driving is boring and dangerous. I almost lost a SRV because i did run out of fuel and the ship landed on a spot where i couldnt get below it to reach the SRV Bay.

And from what i did read they currently just did the same with Passenger Missions by nerfing all other missions into oblivion so that u have to do passengers if u want to make money with missions now.

 

[Lucian667]

Hmm, I actually like the SRV and the associated missions, maybe its because I'm still pretty new to the game but I actually seek those sorts of missions out and preferentially choose them. I just wish the whole deal with refueling the SRV made a little more sense and was not so hard to swallow, especially since allowing synthesis inside the ship would have no detrimental effect on game balance or gameplay.

 

[Ashnak]

Why can't we synthesize ship fuel is my question

Because ship fuel basically is a raw element. Any way of "synthesizing" it would require more raw materials and more energy than you get out of it.
Besides, it's available at the majority of the stars in the galaxy for the bother of picking it up - what's wrong with that?

In difference to the ships, which appear to run on some kind of fusion, the SRVs seem to run (from the materials that go into the refuelling process) on an electrochemical battery. Again, with the prime materials easily available on a lot of planetary surfaces.

 

[IndigoWyrd]

Because the synthesis engine for SRV fuel is on the SRV, thus it must be deployed and activated for it to synthesize anything.