Yeah as I said in my big post, we all THINK we do, but unless you are in a station on a pad, buy fuel, then calculate your route without leaving the station/pad we actually don't, but with just a little bit less than a full tank!
Why is the first jump after relog always out of range?
- Thread starter Aerendyl
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Yeah as I said in my big post, we all THINK we do, but unless you are in a station on a pad, buy fuel, then calculate your route without leaving the station/pad we actually don't, but with just a little bit less than a full tank!
I also have plotted countless routes in my Elite life, and this behavior only started a few updates ago, if memory serves. Often, the route is just not calculated properly after a relog. If I am traveling on a route and decide for a break, I drop to normal space (at that point I would have been able to make the next plotted jump) and log off. Log back on, open galaxy map to replot - excess fuel usage. This has nothing to do with in-between fuel usage, except if my ship goes for a joyride while I am logged off 
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Also, more a question: I thought I remembered that the route plotter always plots with the amount of fuel you tell it and your ship's total mass only determined if you could make the plotted jumps or needed to refuel. There even used to be a slider for it. In your screenshots, there is just the slider for manual cargo amount. Do I remember that slider wrong, or is it gone? I swear, what always had been taught here is: The route plotter always assumes a full tank.
Also: If the route plotter does not assume a full tank, we should encounter this problem way more often than we do, and not just after a relog. In theory it should come up every time we do a full fuel scoop, if the notion that we almost never plot with a full tank is true.
There is an easy test for the plotting behavior anyway: Use up a good portion of your fuel, plot a route, scoop a full tank - this should be done in a dense area to make sure you can actually do the full jump range and not artificially cut it short due to low star density. If the route plotter does use your current jump range and not the overall full-tank mass of the ship, you should not be able to do the jump. If nobody beats me to it, I will test this out later today.
.Also, more a question: I thought I remembered that the route plotter always plots with the amount of fuel you tell it and your ship's total mass only determined if you could make the plotted jumps or needed to refuel. There even used to be a slider for it. In your screenshots, there is just the slider for manual cargo amount. Do I remember that slider wrong, or is it gone? I swear, what always had been taught here is: The route plotter always assumes a full tank.
Also: If the route plotter does not assume a full tank, we should encounter this problem way more often than we do, and not just after a relog. In theory it should come up every time we do a full fuel scoop, if the notion that we almost never plot with a full tank is true.
There is an easy test for the plotting behavior anyway: Use up a good portion of your fuel, plot a route, scoop a full tank - this should be done in a dense area to make sure you can actually do the full jump range and not artificially cut it short due to low star density. If the route plotter does use your current jump range and not the overall full-tank mass of the ship, you should not be able to do the jump. If nobody beats me to it, I will test this out later today.
Yeah, screw that. I am going to test this out now. Stay tuned.
Testing is always good, let us know what you find out. Theory, test, adjust theory according to results, that's the way to go!
Okay, some hard data. I set of with my exploration Dolphin from my carrier with a fresh refuel. The Dolphin has a full tank jump range of 58.49 Ly and unladen of 61.74 Ly. I plotted a route to the other side of the bubble - 6 jumps (I skipped the last jump because I was out of fuel and the jump also was only 9 Ly). I turned off my fuel scoop and started jumping.
After the fifth jump I was almost out of fuel and had a jump range of 61.70 Ly:
Then I plotted to a system 60.75 Ly away from my current position. I should be able to do that in one jump, but the route plotter plotted two jumps. Sorry for the distortion, it is a VR screenshot, also the route icon is in the way, but you can just about see the kink in the route:
Then I plotted the course back to my carrier, still with a jump range of 61.70 Ly. The plotter plotted jumps less than 58 Ly even though there would have been stars in the 60 to 61 Ly range. I turned my fuel scoop back on, filled my tank and was able to jump back without issue:
My conclusion: The route plotter does not account for actual ship mass. It does assume a full tank, and the jump range displayed in the route settings is maybe just for the pilot's information...?
After the fifth jump I was almost out of fuel and had a jump range of 61.70 Ly:
Then I plotted to a system 60.75 Ly away from my current position. I should be able to do that in one jump, but the route plotter plotted two jumps. Sorry for the distortion, it is a VR screenshot, also the route icon is in the way, but you can just about see the kink in the route:
Then I plotted the course back to my carrier, still with a jump range of 61.70 Ly. The plotter plotted jumps less than 58 Ly even though there would have been stars in the 60 to 61 Ly range. I turned my fuel scoop back on, filled my tank and was able to jump back without issue:
My conclusion: The route plotter does not account for actual ship mass. It does assume a full tank, and the jump range displayed in the route settings is maybe just for the pilot's information...?
True, some time ago I was travelling large brown area with additional fuel tank, and always plotted jumps was less than without optional tank, no matter when was full or empty.
That has always been my experience, too. But I'm sure we'll get a second test from Varonica. If you two don't get the same result, I volunteer for the third test (unless I'm beaten to it, which is preferable
).Ah, there already was a test, THOUGH... Are you certain this is the range it uses? Do you see any jump longer than the original jump range?
I would need to replot the course to do that, then the next jump would be out of range after I scooped, I will do that next time and post pix.
If you were nearly out of fuel did you actually have enough fuel to do the 61.70ly jump?
It allo depends on actually having planets in the right distances, but I will do a test, this is how it has always worked, I suppose it may have changed but I would be surprised.
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This problem often happens to me too. As mentioned above, it started happening a few updates ago. It happens when I park at a planet to log off while in the middle of a trip, or if I start collecting HGEs and reload. First jump always out of range when attempting to continue my trip. Opening galaxy map used to recalculate on its own, but now I always have to change my routing method then back to original routing to get it to let me jump.
Ok, both your tests give the same result, so I guess this is it. At least we know how it works and, sadly, additional fuel tanks are still not advised if one wants to travel fast.
Yeah needs to be tested, do optional fuel tanks count, or only the fuel tank in the non-optional slot, does it use all fuel tanks for the calculation or just the main fuel tank?
ADMIT IT, at least in your heart you're a scientist and love testing things!
Last time I checked, the fuel tanks were included. Unless something changed...
From my experience all tanks are got under calculation as full. I remember my base DBX before engineering was about 37 Ly jump, but after add auxiliary 16T tank default route jump fall below 30 Ly. No matter all full, main full - always route planner was capped below 30 Ly.
Yeah it appears the wiki is wrong as well;
Since the half full fuel tank is calculated for jump range as if it's full having a half full fuel tank is NOT the same as having a fuel tank half the size!
I don't know. My screenshots tell me I could have made a 57.6 Ly jump and would have arrived on fumes:
It always worked like this, at least since I have been playing. If you target a system in the galaxy map, it overrides your plotted route, and only two things count: a) do I have the jump range and b) do I have the fuel. I always do neutron jumps that way: Plot a route, target the fourth waypoint, jump.
From my memory the route plotter uses all fuel tanks for calculation.
The route plotter will plot farther jumps with a tank half the size than with a half full tank. The wiki has been known to be wrong. I think my test has established that. Again: The route plotter does not account for fuel level.
Therefore, it is important not to overdo it with the size of the additional tank. I needed to do 1000Ly in economy mode without scooping up the fuel.
Edit: It was in 30Ly jump range DBX.