Why isn't fuel stored as hydrogen fuel in your cargo?

From memory back in the previous versions of elite, your onboard fuel tank was essentially good for 1 jump, you used bigger hyperspace drives for larger jump ranges and for multiple jump destinations you carried fuel in the cargo bay or used scoops ... now we have fuel tanks that allow us to have multiple jumps per tank so I do not see a need for being able to use stored fuel in the cargoo bay as a top up for the main tanks... I do think we should be able to 'scoop' fuel into cargo space when we have full tanks, (my reasoning for this is because it used to be part of the poor mans way of making a few extra credits when scoooping if you had spare space...

Military grade fuel... hmmm that should be gotten from scooping 'black holes' yes?? :D
 
What I can't get my head around is the comments people are making saying things like "you know fuel tankers you see on the road, they don't get their fuel from the cargo their carrying"

Yes, this is correct, but we're talking about a game set 1000 years in the future where we've figured out interstellar travel, built a butt load of space stations, can convert the vapours of a star into fuel, shoot bits off a rock and turn it into minerals

Could the human race not figure out how to store fuel in containers (like the concept of fuel cells)?


To be fair though, in 1000 years time we've still not cracked auto docking (beware google driveless cars you will fail!!! The Elite Simulation has proven this!! :p)
 
IRL a petrol tanker cannot refill itself from the tanker safely if it runs out of petrol. It has a petrol tank, and a huge tanker of petrol "cargo". Sorry, it ain't gonna work. You cannot syphon in zero G.

super tankers run on the crude oil they carry
and is more relevant in size
 

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I can only concur, that would make large trading ships the best ships for exploring.

And that wouldn't make much sense.

Wouldn't? Just watch startrek the next generation and you'll shat federation exploration ship is the biggest ship federation have.
 
That is exactly the same thing as saying cargo bay size should determine total jump range. You could sacrifice internal slots to carry more racks then stock them full of cargo, thus getting more jump range.

No, it's not. You can get more jump range by leaving *out* cargo. This would be purpose fitting a slot to carry nothing but (say) bullets, attached to a feeding mechanism for your gun.
Or a bigger/extra tank. Much like the shield cell now, basically, provides extra shield when needed.
 
Kinda makes perfect sense, but whatever its a game.
Indeed, and to remain enjoyable, a single ship shouldn't be good at too many things at the same time. Most large ships are already the best at trading, and they make some of the best miners, making them the best explorers would diminish the interest of other ships, and simply divide them between "combat" and "other things".

The current situation makes various ships fitting for various activities, some are good haulers and decent explorers, some are good fighters and decent traders, some are good explorers and decent fighters... and no ship is truly good at many things.

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Wouldn't? Just watch startrek the next generation and you'll shat federation exploration ship is the biggest ship federation have.
But it's not a video game, and it doesn't have to balance different things to keep them interesting. Still, it's not only a question of being "big" as in "lots of cargo space", it could be "big" as in "lots of equipment slots fitting for exploration", or "big" as in "lots of guns".
 
But why?
We can load fuel in canisters into a truck in the real world, and it will have extended range. What is the problem here?

You can't load fuel into a cargo plane (or the space shuttle, or a submarine etc etc) and extend its range.
 
You can't load fuel into a cargo plane (or the space shuttle, or a submarine etc etc) and extend its range.
Technically, you could, if you wanted to build it that way.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drop_tank
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Space_Shuttle_external_tank
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Navy_oiler
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aerial_refueling
http://www.uboat.net/allies/ships/rn_subs.htm

When you can have reserve and extra tanks connected to the main lines, when you can refuel ships and aircraft in-transit, then there is no reason that you could not do the same for spaceships capable of docking with each other, especially given that at some point we are supposed to transfer cargo canisters this way.

And I believe it would add something to the gameplay, too. You could have players become fuel collectors who spend their time skimming solar coronas, filling a hold of empty cargo canisters with hydrogen to sell at a nearby spaceport. Other players could fly tankers whose sole purpose is to refuel other ships - especially useful for exploration fleets such as the folks from the Great Expedition, with small scout vessels docking and refueling at an Anaconda with a hold full of hydrogen canisters ...

In turn, what would we actually sacrifice? The possible need to dock at a space station on every 3rd jump or so if we actually were one of those players who sacrifice free cargo space for hydrogen canisters reserved for personal use*?

*: personal use meaning a button in the Functions tab that would transfer the contents of a canister of hydrogen into the main tank.
 
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Importnatly here, it's worth mentioning that suddenly there would be a massive shift towards limpets and cargo hatch bursting.
EVERYONE would be targetting the cargo bay to empty / destroy it, effectively rendering a ship useless / unable to flee due to lack of fuel etc.

It would have huge ramifications across all areas of both PvP and PvE.
 
But why?
We can load fuel in canisters into a truck in the real world, and it will have extended range. What is the problem here?

It's insanely fast to travel around the galaxy. Limited fuel is a convenient plot device that gives a sense of distance by extending the time it takes to go from A to B with mandatory pit stops. ;)
 
EVERYONE would be targetting the cargo bay to empty / destroy it, effectively rendering a ship useless / unable to flee due to lack of fuel etc.
It would have huge ramifications across all areas of both PvP and PvE.
Only if you transfer all fuel to the cargo bay, instead of adding an optional way to store extra fuel to refill the main tank there. Or rather: just add an option to "convert" hydrogen canisters, which we can store there already.

Imagine getting stranded with 100 tons of hydrogen in your cargo hold but no way to transfer any of that into your main tank. Awkward!
 
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It's insanely fast to travel around the galaxy. Limited fuel is a convenient plot device that gives a sense of distance by extending the time it takes to go from A to B with mandatory pit stops. ;)

What pit stops would these be, when you can have a fuel scoop?
 
We didn't want cargo bay size to determine the maximum range of a ship. Giving fuel to stranded ships is something we have another idea for anyway.

This standpoint makes no sense to me whatsoever.

It will as others point out remove the opportunity for players to specialise their ship in the way they want. Nothing else. (as I see it)
 
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