Fuel Harvester

[TMaekler (OP)]

Hi there,

is there a way to give a fuel harvester an automated order of duping 90% of its fuel on a specific colony? The automation seems to pick the closed colony - which is not generally the preferred one.

Thx.

[Havan_IronOak]

I don't think that there's a single automated conditional order that will do that.

I'm guessing that you wouldn't really want to though.

Why not build a tanker class vehicle with orders to
go to whatever body the harvester is at
refuel from harvester
move to (whatever planet you want - Earth maybe) offload 90% of it's fuel

and then set those orders up in a repeating loop

If one fuel tanker can't keep up you can build a bigger one or build more
If one fuel tanker is too big you can have it visit more than one fuel harvester

Would that accomplish what you want?

[Rich.h]

As above no the conditional for dumping fuel always chooses the nearest colony. The only two options are either make your harvesters with massive tanks and have them act as a fuel depot for transport ships etc. Or make a new colony right next to the sorium supply and use this as a fuel depot from where you again need transports for the fuel etc.

[TMaekler (OP)]

There are always more options to do something than one at first sees.  I designed my harvester with large fuel storage so it can travel back and forth.  But havn't thought on creating a special fuel shipping ship to do that part of the job.  Ah, well, this way it archives what I had planned to do.  Thanx :-)

[Havan_IronOak]

From what I've read over in Bureau of Ship Design board, a lot of people favor tugs for moving large vessels about. Especially when the large vessel stays on station a long time. The game kind of allows you to make real life style choices. Ever see the fleet of tugs that tow a North Sea Oil Platform into place?

I used to live in Manhattan and always saw the tugs moving large barges up and down the Hudson. Big ugly and slow but almost all engine and slow.

Of course with the slightly different physics at work here, I'm guessing that there will be some pretty speedy space tugs! Since they can be commercial class, it sounds like a great way to move military vessels about too when not actually in battle conditions.

[MarcAFK]

Tugs are great for harvesters, make a platform with no engines and an orbital habitat which costs several years factory production then tow it into place.
Never run out of fuel, or alternatively make your whole fleet max power thereby requiring several of these behemoths, so you can quickly run your gas giant out of sorium.

[Havan_IronOak]

Tugs are great for harvesters, make a platform with no engines and an orbital habitat which costs several years factory production then tow it into place.
Never run out of fuel, or alternatively make your whole fleet max power thereby requiring several of these behemoths, so you can quickly run your gas giant out of Sorium.

I'm guessing that a similar strategy goes for terra-forming platforms as well, no?

What about a strategy for an asteroid miner? It looks like there are a lot of low quantity but high accessibility minerals in my starting system. In many ways the materials harvesting tasks are like the fuel harvesting tasks.

Minerals harvesting seems to be      Get it out of the ground    Get it home    Go on to the next resource spot.
With fuel Harvesting its more like     Get it out of the ground    Get it processed Get it home    Go on to the next resource spot.

I'm wondering if a Mobile Sorium Mining Colony might be an economical alternative to a Mobile Sorium Harvesting facility

[Rich.h]

I'm guessing that a similar strategy goes for terra-forming platforms as well, no?

What about a strategy for an asteroid miner? It looks like there are a lot of low quantity but high accessibility minerals in my starting system. In many ways the materials harvesting tasks are like the fuel harvesting tasks.

Minerals harvesting seems to be      Get it out of the ground    Get it home    Go on to the next resource spot.
With fuel Harvesting its more like     Get it out of the ground    Get it processed Get it home    Go on to the next resource spot.

I'm wondering if a Mobile Sorium Mining Colony might be an economical alternative to a Mobile Sorium Harvesting facility

First up asteroids can be tricky with near zero G and hostile conditions they are generally only suited to automated mines, or you have to have a ship with mining modules or finally invest in underground infrastructure. Any one of these options is quite expensive with regards to how much mineral content and industry you need to devote to them, combined with what is generally a small amount of mineral resource when compared to a planet. My own opinion is that unless I see something such as 100k+ of a mineral that I happen to have both a shortage of and no other mine source for, then I leave them alone. I devote my efforts to planet based mining and auto mines for the really hostile planets, asteroids, comets and such I leave for civilian miners to work on and them simply buy the mineral output. I find that the wealth cost of buying the minerals is far cheaper than the industrial cost of doing it myself.

I would be careful with your idea of a mobile sorium colony as you could find yourself with a shortage of sorium quickly. It could be simply that I play games with larger ship sizes than most do, but often when I run a planet based refinery I find myself with lots of fuel and a shortage of sorium for industry. For this very reason I now only operate fuel refineries in orbit around gas giants, and all sorium mined at a planet is used for construction only. This also gives the bonus excuse of constructing magic million ton+ refineries that you can call "Mega Maid".

[TMaekler (OP)]

From what I've read over in Bureau of Ship Design board, a lot of people favor tugs for moving large vessels about.  Especially when the large vessel stays on station a long time.  The game kind of allows you to make real life style choices.  Ever see the fleet of tugs that tow a North Sea Oil Platform into place?

I used to live in Manhattan and always saw the tugs moving large barges up and down the Hudson.  Big ugly and slow but almost all engine and slow. 

Of course with the slightly different physics at work here, I'm guessing that there will be some pretty speedy space tugs! Since they can be commercial class, it sounds like a great way to move military vessels about too when not actually in battle conditions.

That is what is so great about this game.  You can find different ways of solving (logistical) problems - and that is the real fun to be able to ;-).
Havn't seen one of these (since I live in central Germany - so no large water bodies here) but I guess it is impressive.