Conditional Orders Question

[Maltay (OP)]

I set a geo survey ship to refuel at nearest colony if fuel less than 50%.  However, the geo survey ship managed to run out of fuel ~300m km away from Earth.  Further, Earth is currently at the point in its orbit where it is closest to the geo survey ship.  How did this happen?

[83athom]

Please include these sets of data for an accurate answer; Design, Screenshot of conditional order. Though I feel I know the answer. Erik said what I was going to say. So the root of the problem is, probably, that your design doesn't have enough operational range built into it.

[Erik L]

If the ship uses, say 4% of its fuel in a 5 day increment. And at the end of the previous increment it had 50.1% or more fuel, then it would continue on its orders. At the next 5 day increment, it is under 50% fuel (46.1% to 49.9%) and the conditional order takes effect.

This is how that happens. Conditionals are not interrupts.

This "feature" gets more egregious when you are running longer increments. In shorter ones it rarely happens.

[Maltay (OP)]

Thank you, that makes perfect sense.  What is the best practice to avoid falling prey to this?  Especially for something like geo or grav surveys?

[83athom]

Several hundred billion kilometer operational range. Mine currently have ~500b km. So I set to either 10% or 20% on the refuel condition, this also helps cause it will refresh the crew back on a colony before they get too crabby from being away from home too long.

[Mastik]

If your survey craft are in different systems, park a Fuel tanker nearby.  Change your conditional too refuel at colony or tanker.

[hyramgraff]

Thank you, that makes perfect sense.  What is the best practice to avoid falling prey to this?  Especially for something like geo or grav surveys?

Did you survey ship stay in the same system the whole time?  My survey ships usually burn a small part of their fuel moving out to the system that they are surveying, so unless they're really far away from Sol, a conditional order at 40% will give the ship plenty to fuel to come home with.

[Sematary]

It all comes down to range. 83athom likes big ships and I am not surprised that such a long range was the solution that was come up with. I tend to go the same route just not to that scale. 20 or so billion is generally pretty good for a single solar system or at least that is what I have found. Parking tankers in the system if you are going out through jump gates also helps.

[83athom]

I like, big, ships and I cannot lie. You other brothers can't deny. That when a ship flies in with an itty bitty waste, and a big size in your face. You get sprung.

[boggo2300]

I like, big, ships and I cannot lie. You other brothers can't deny. That when a ship flies in with an itty bitty waste, and a big size in your face. You get sprung.

this made me cry

I must be white,  cos I actually like hordes of little ships  (I AM an ex Starfire player)

[Vandermeer]

Now I know why I like watermelons so much.

Also:

cos I actually like hordes of little ships  (I AM an ex Starfire player)

...that sounds horribly wrong in the context.

[boggo2300]

Now I know why I like watermelons so much.

Also:...that sounds horribly wrong in the context.

I think I can be quite proud that the context you refer to never occurred to me

[Vandermeer]

When you visit sites like 9gag long enough, your eyes eventually accustom to perceive every dark low-light situation.

[MarcAFK]

I generally find 100 billion is good for survey ships, but occasionally I'll make fighter sized disposable "probes" that have barely enough range to reach the Oort Cloud.
I don't really feel bad for the single "crew" inside when I delete it after it's out of fuel.

[Garfunkel]

Thank you, that makes perfect sense.  What is the best practice to avoid falling prey to this?  Especially for something like geo or grav surveys?

As other said, enough range and/or a tanker. Running 1-day or 5-day increments helps as well, instead of 30-day increments.

In Sol, you can get away with 10b km range. For extra-Solar surveys, 20b km range is absolute minimum and even then you want to have a tanker along.