Tractoring ships with no fuel

[Person012345 (OP)]

I had a ship run out of fuel, so I sent a tug to tractor it. I tell the fleet to then go home, with the empty ship in tow, and it tells me that the tractored ship doesn't have enough fuel to complete it's orders, and that the fleet has run out of fuel. Is there any way to move it without refuelling it?

[sloanjh]

I had a ship run out of fuel, so I sent a tug to tractor it. I tell the fleet to then go home, with the empty ship in tow, and it tells me that the tractored ship doesn't have enough fuel to complete it's orders, and that the fleet has run out of fuel. Is there any way to move it without refuelling it?

No (if by "refuel you mean 'make its tanks non-empty'").  This issue (or similar ones) involving "does the tow use its engines while being towed?" has been logged before, but it's probably worth putting an entry in the official suggestions thread.

To solve your problem, simply transfer some fuel from the tug to the tow (i.e. partially refuel your ship from the tug).  You can do this on one of the tabs in the ships (F6) screen.

John

[Person012345 (OP)]

Does the tractor beam serve any purpose other than module-based or unpropulsed ships then?

[sloanjh]

Does the tractor beam serve any purpose other than module-based or unpropulsed ships then?

? ? ? ?  The towing works fine - you just have to transfer a little fuel over.

John

[Atlantia]

Does the tractor beam serve any purpose other than module-based or unpropulsed ships then?

I guess only when there's SOME fuel in the tanks of the towed.

[Person012345 (OP)]

Oh, because when I moved, the ship being towed used up fuel. IE. there was no point in even having the tractor link. Or does it use less fuel or something?

[Grunden]

It appears to average the speed out depending on the relative masses/engine ratio of the respective ships. But mechanically both ships are moving themselves, which is why the towed ship needs fuel. Just hit the 'equalise fuel' button to give some from the tug to the target and continue on.

[ollobrains]

tractor beam just helps it move faster its not quite like a traditional star trek tractor where it can pull a ship along that is empty of fuel.  Not sure u can move orbital habitats with em i just throw engines on those good for some workers around remote colonies where i want mining operations

[sloanjh]

tractor beam just helps it move faster its not quite like a traditional star trek tractor where it can pull a ship along that is empty of fuel.  Not sure u can move orbital habitats with em i just throw engines on those good for some workers around remote colonies where i want mining operations

You *CAN* tow a ship without engines.  If engines are present on the ship being towed, it will try to use them to "help", which is what results in the "out of fuel" messages.  The suggested suggestion is to treat a ship without fuel as an engineless ship.  The workaround (as has been said upthread) is to transfer some fuel to the ship being towed, e.g. by "equalize fuel".

One thing to keep in mind - even if you don't tow the empty ship back, your tugs will probably be some of your fastest ships when empty (even if they use commercial engines).  This makes them good "rescue" ships for refueling stranded ships.  Also, because of the pulling power of commercial engines, I've not seen a need for military tugs for a couple of years of RW time - a military tug doesn't have the power to pull a big commercial ship, while a military ship will usually have negligible mass compared to a tug, and so will barely slow the tug down.  (I'm talking about true tugs here, not hte engine half of a modular ship).

John

[Person012345 (OP)]

In this case my tug wasn't a true tug, it was a makeshift design, a freighter with a tractor that was rushed out to try and save a smaller freighter type that had run into difficulties (but which ended up exploding due to a maintenance failure anyway) and was designed for a fast refit. I chose the freighter in question as it was one of my largest ships, and would therefore be least affected by the addition of more weight, but it was by no means a specialised tug with great pulling power. It was designed in a pinch to move relatively small vessels. In this case, with the low fuel situation, I did end up equalising fuel, but it would be nice to be able to tow it back for RP purposes (since the two ships were from two different factions - the out-of-fuel ship was transferred to the NSA in order to be rescued, but it wasn't actually their ship).

[sloanjh]

but it would be nice to be able to tow it back for RP purposes

Just to be clear, you could have towed it back, after equalizing the fuel.  (Also corrected typo "with engines" --> "without engines" in my message above.)

John

[Person012345 (OP)]

But then it would still have had the fuel transfer. I mean, there would be no point, it would behave in precisely the same manner if I just moved the task group back with or without the beam active (since the tug is part of a freighter task group which I just moved as a whole because /effort to detach and re-attach them). It's not too much of a problem, just RP-wise it would have been nice to have been able to simply tow it back and have it fill up the tanks from it's own faction.

As it was, I just billed them for the fuel. >.>