Getting Sorium harvester to work

[Mikeck (OP)]

I searched but couldn't find an answer. Right now, I am on my iPhone so I can't post my design. Having said that, I tried to build a sorium harvester. I selected the harvester hull, added civilian engines and a recently researched solium harvester and a ton of fuel tanks. I even added some cargo holds as I wasn't sure where it stored the sorium. When I give it a mission to go to Uranus (listed as a gas giant...keep your jokes to yourself) I only get the standard "picket", "extended orbit", etc. there is no "harvest choice"...

So, how do I get it to harvest? I tried just orbiting but nothing happened.

[Rogtuok]

Just move it ther make sure sorium are present at the gas planet and it Will start automaticly.  No ned for Carro mods as it refines it strait away into fuel.

[Brian Neumann]

You do need to have done a planetary survey.  If there is any Sorium present then just by getting into orbit you will start to process the sorium directly into your fuel tanks.  Not all gas giants have sorium in them however.

Best of luck
Brian

[Mikeck (OP)]

Ok, so remove the cargo holds...got it. That's a lot of scrap metal! 2 70k ton ships

[Maharava]

I only just fought through this problem myself lol.  They'll refine the Sorium DIRECTLY INTO THE FUEL TANKS, so if you're at 100% fuel they do nothing.  Unload up to 90% of your fuel at a colony first, then give them a conditional order that when at 100%, unload and return to gas giants.  They'll then sit there, fill themselves up, and dump at the nearest colony

[Charlie Beeler]

I only just fought through this problem myself lol.  They'll refine the Sorium DIRECTLY INTO THE FUEL TANKS, so if you're at 100% fuel they do nothing.  Unload up to 90% of your fuel at a colony first, then give them a conditional order that when at 100%, unload and return to gas giants.  They'll then sit there, fill themselves up, and dump at the nearest colony

I commonly leave harvesters in place.  Tasking tankers to transport the refined fuel tends to work better for me.

[Maharava]

I commonly leave harvesters in place.  Tasking tankers to transport the refined fuel tends to work better for me.

...I spent TEN MINUTES trying to figure out the most efficient way, and never thought of that lol. I take my hat off to you sir

[Mikeck (OP)]

Well since I built them with 25000 tons of cargo space, can they transfer the sorium into their own cargo holds?

[Nightstar]

Nope. Fuel can't go in cargo, and harvesters don't mine any unrefined sorium.

[Saibot]

About to start my own fuel harvesting operation, wondering if there's any way to set which colony the tanker unloads at. Want to make sure everything goes to Earth and not some comet colony.

[joeclark77]

Something that wasn't mentioned on this thread yet: designate the ship as a "tanker" in ship design.  That allows you to set other ships to refuel at the sorium harvester fleet, and gives you the "unload 90% fuel" order.

In my most recent game, the best sorium access happens to be at Jupiter, so I simply unload my fuel at Ganymede instead of hauling it to Earth.  That doesn't require any tankers, doesn't require tractor-beam-equipped tugs to place the sorium harvesters, and doesn't incur significant downtime for the harvesters.  If I want fuel at Earth I'll need to use tankers but so far that isn't much of an issue as Earth is still refining mineral sorium.