Fuel consumption suggestion

[Drakale (OP)]

In my latest 6. 1 campaign I have hit a wall due to the new engine/fuel usage mechanics.  I simply do not have enough fuel production to fuel my warship for any length of time and the closer gas giants are very poor in Sorium.  I will admit it is my own fault for building a larger fleet than what my logistic could account for, but I feel some tweak would make the situation more manageable.

What I suggest is simply to improve the engine efficiency with lower ship speed.  Of course this would not be as effective as a dedicated commercial engine, but it would allow fleets to move around at cruise speed and when needed the could accelerate at combat speed(max speed).  A gas rich empire would have the luxury of zipping it's fleet around at max speed, while a gas poor one would move much more slowly while out of combat situation.

[Icecoon]

You can actually lower the speed of your ships on the task groups tab.
I don't know if it's incorporated yet but it would be nice that ships at certain speeds would burn less fuel. For instance the engine of the car is burns less fuel at 90 km/h (56 mph) than at 50 km/h (31 mph).

Edit: Don't mind the first sentence I'm tired.

[Drakale (OP)]

Yeah it's precisely what I meant  Sorry if I wasn't more clear

[bean]

Lowering the speed does not change range.  It decreases fuel consumption, but the range is solely determined by the fuel efficiency of the engine and the fuel fraction of the vessel.
I proposed something similar to this a month or so ago, and would definitely like to see some form of range scaling with speed.  A strict fluid interpretation would have drag (and thus, probably, fuel consumption) scaling with the square of speed.  I'm not sure that works terribly well, but some more complex function might be a good choice.

[Falcon]

Or ships could have secondary engines.
Let's say you could add a small but efficient engine to each of your vessels.  It might only be able to drive it at a few 100km/s, but it would eat up much less fuel then your fancy 200% power fuel guzzlers - kind of like normal engines and afterburners on fighters.

[alex_brunius]

Or ships could have secondary engines.
Let's say you could add a small but efficient engine to each of your vessels.  It might only be able to drive it at a few 100km/s, but it would eat up much less fuel then your fancy 200% power fuel guzzlers - kind of like normal engines and afterburners on fighters.

There is a reason this isn't very popular to do in reality (afterburner is just pumping more fuel into the same engine).

That's because carrying two separate engines would be a much bigger waste in terms off weight.

I like the original suggestion, doesn't have to be a monumental bonus in range when lowering speed, and certainly nowhere near what you would get if the engine was tuned for that Speed (EP).

But a bit on the way at least, most real ships have a cruise speed that's usually around 25 to 50% of their maximum speed and all have many times longer range at slower ships.

[Conscript Gary]

We could also go in the other direction, and allow ship engines to be designed with a turbo mode that increases power output at a greater fuel cost than if it had been designed for that output, along with some risk of engine failure over extended use/repeated loading. Could be interesting tactically, and while it was a bit before my time I've gathered that Starfire had a similar overcharged drive burnout mechanic

[ollobrains]

i find it easiest not to build any large ships except one hauler and one colony ship ( though do research engine tech and fuel efficency first) this is after my geo and wormhole explorer ships are out, military expansion is slowed a lot.  So far there are some balancing issues.  But getting sol mining and another fuel planet in a nearby system if youre lucky or in sol ( the civilian fuel harvestors are bugged they goto planet move to it at a snails pace but never get the fuel)  the other option is sending youre own fuel ship to saturn or jupiter.   Make sure its got lots of tanks and hope for some early sorium rich planets and also mining planets otherwise u will hit the crunch, u can always restart a new universe if youre inital seed is not so crash hot - part of the chalange though, other option is hope for an alien race and get trade

[Brian Neumann]

I would like to see some mechanism for ships moving at 1/2 speed getting some increase in fuel efficiency.  Something on the lines of 1/2 speed would save you 25% of fuel while 1/4 speed would give a 33% reduction.

Brian

[ollobrains]

does mining BP technology affect sorium production rates, might be an idea to research that up early as well to get faster outputs from any sorium mining sites u have.

But yeah a fuel efficency technology for slower speed could be an option or some tweaking for 6.2 given steve said we were getting it last weekend but its still not up maybe some last minute changes could be useful

[Brian Neumann]

does mining BP technology affect sorium production rates, might be an idea to research that up early as well to get faster outputs from any sorium mining sites u have.

But yeah a fuel efficency technology for slower speed could be an option or some tweaking for 6.2 given steve said we were getting it last weekend but its still not up maybe some last minute changes could be useful

Your mining rate determines the speed of fuel harvesters in gathering fuel.  Think of them being a combination mine and refinery.  It will mine sorium at your normal mining rate and then convert all of the raw sorium into fuel.  Your fuel refinery rate does not apply at all to the harvesters.

Brian

[metalax]

Your fuel refinery rate does not apply at all to the harvesters.

That would explain why my fuel harvesters have been so slow to fill their tanks when I've researched several levels into the fuel production techline.

[ollobrains]

theres another idea a ship fuel refinery technology

[alex_brunius]

We could also go in the other direction, and allow ship engines to be designed with a turbo mode that increases power output at a greater fuel cost than if it had been designed for that output, along with some risk of engine failure over extended use/repeated loading. Could be interesting tactically, and while it was a bit before my time I've gathered that Starfire had a similar overcharged drive burnout mechanic

That's harder to balance combatwise though since all ships get new higher top speeds.

[Icecoon]

I would like to see some mechanism for ships moving at 1/2 speed getting some increase in fuel efficiency.  Something on the lines of 1/2 speed would save you 25% of fuel while 1/4 speed would give a 33% reduction.

Brian

Yes, it's embarrassing when you find out that one of your survey ships does not have enough fuel to return home. I doesn't matters how fast or slow it will go, it will only reach one point in space.
Each ship has an optimal cruising speed in reality, so we only need a chart to define that.
For instance:
100% power = 100l per hour
75% = 67l per hour
50%= 43l per hour
25% = 23l per hour
and so on...