Sorium Harvesting Question

[Feeble (OP)]

I'm using a specific sorium harvest operation and I'm trying to figure how to get it to work.

The operation: There are two ships, the Fuel Harvester Station (FHS), which is marked as a tanker and has refueling priority 0, and the Fuel Harvester Base (FHB), not marked as a tanker and has refueling priority 1 (or a priority higher than the FHSs). The FHB contains a large storage capacity for fuel (>100M) and has a refueling hub. The FHS contains a small storage capacity for fuel (<5M), has Sorium Harvesters, and a Refueling System. The goal is to have a number of FHSs in the SAME fleet as the FHB under a mining admin command. The fleet will be moved into the orbit of a source of sorium and, as the FHSs work, the fuel they make will be transferred to the FHB with the storage of the FHSs acting as overflow.

The issue: If I put all FHSs and the FHB into the same fleet, I thought "Refuel from own Tankers" would cause the FHB to fill up and empty out the FHSs. However all that happens is an "Orders Completed" event 30 minutes after assignment. I could separate the FHB into it's own fleet and tell the FHS fleet to "Transfer fuel to refueling hub" but I would prefer if the FHB and FHSs are in the same fleet. Am I doing something wrong or is my operation not possible?

A side question: This might be a silly question, but if the FHB has a Refueling Hub, do the FHSs need a Refueling System to transfer fuel to the Refueling Hub? It is a little opaque if the Refueling System is needed and I just wanted some clarification.

[xenoscepter]

I can't answer most of these questions, but I can answer one of them...

You do not need Refueling Systems if you have a Refueling Hub.

[Feeble (OP)]

I can't answer most of these questions, but I can answer one of them...

You do not need Refueling Systems if you have a Refueling Hub.

I know this. Thank you. But my question was if you need a Refueling System to refuel a ship that has a Refueling Hub on it.

[xenoscepter]

No you do not, AFAIK.

[skoormit]

Put them all in one fleet, and then tell each FHS to "Refuel Own Fleet" (Ship Overview -> Ship Design Display -> middle left dropdown).
This should cause the FHS ships to continually xfer fuel to the FHB ship.

However, since the FHB is not a tanker, it won't provide fuel to other fleets that target this fleet with "Refuel from..." orders.
So I think you will need to mark the FHB as a tanker.

If that causes the "Refuel Own Fleet" setting to stop working, you may just be stuck needing two fleets.
But not to fret. Give your FHB fleet cycling orders:
1) Refuel from stationary tankers (targeting FHS fleet).
2) Move to location (targeting FHS fleet).

With these orders, the FHB will continuously suck your FHS fleet dry, and you won't get any event interrupts.

EDIT:
If you use these cycling orders, that fleet will generate a lot of fleet history records over time--so many that it may cause performance issues.
To work around this, periodically move the ship to a new fleet with the same orders, then delete the old fleet.
This is one of the chores I have in my annual checklist.

[liveware]

My current best solution to automating fuel harvesting is to use a fleet of several of these ships:

Code: [Select]

Long Beach class Fuel Harvester      200,000 tons       945 Crew       4,399.2 BP       TCS 4,000    TH 4,800    EM 0
1200 km/s    JR 2-25(C)      Armour 1-304       Shields 0-0       HTK 372      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 0
MSP 413    Max Repair 1124.2 MSP
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months   
Fuel Harvester: 40 modules producing 1,600,000 litres per annum

Peters-Turnbull JC200K Commercial Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 200500 tons    Distance 25k km     Squadron Size 2

Peters-Turnbull Commercial Magneto-plasma Drive  EP480.00 (10)    Power 4800    Fuel Use 5.05%    Signature 480    Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 12,580,000 Litres    Range 224.1 billion km (2161 days at full power)
Refuelling Capability: 50,000 litres per hour     Complete Refuel 251 hours

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

Each fleet of 8-ish ships is assigned to a separate sorium gas giant. They have standing orders set to 'if fuel tank is full then harvester transfer and return'. This requires at least one colony in each sorium harvesting system but once the harvesting fleet has been positioned at the gas giant the first time and standing orders are set you don't ever need to issue another order. The fleet will continuously cycle between the gas giant and the colony, transferring fuel to the colony, until the gas giant is completely depleted of sorium.