Sorium Harvesting Station

[Sparhawk814 (OP)]

Possibly really stupid question here.   So I'm trying to setup a series of Fuel Harvesting/Tanker Refueling Stations around gas giants.   For RP reasons I'm trying to do this without engines and no armor so trying to avoid just making them a really big "ship".   The issue I'm having is that I've designated them as tankers and set there Min Fuel value to 0 but I cannot build them without fuel and even right after being built I can't get them to dump all the fuel they were built with on my Home Planet.

For comparison my actual Tankers are set to a low fuel minimum upon building and I can get them to execute a fuel transfer to colony order.

Anything I may be doing wrong?  When I get off work I can try and post some screens of my design and the event windows etc.

Thank you!

[Wieseltrupp]

remove the "Tanker" Tag for these ships.
Add a Refuelling Hub to the design and enough Fuel tanks to store 1-2 years of Fuel harvest
Design a Tanker with an Refuelling System (i do not know if this is needed for the following task) and set is as "Tanker", set a minimum fuel so it can reach the harvester, send it to the Harvester, Refuel from it, unload its fuel to your homeworld, cycle the moves. this will automate your fuel gathering process

[Hazard]

Do they have a Refueling System? Are you building them in a shipyard, and/or have you toggled the 'Structural Shell' button which turns them into a station that can be build with construction factories?

A Refueling Hub isn't necessary, it's entirely possible to have the Hub be an independent station that draws fuel from nearby harvester stations.

[Pedroig]

A refueling hub only allows ship (as many as you want at once) to refuel without transfer module installed.  It does not allow fuel transfer groundside.

[Sparhawk814 (OP)]

Thank you for the rapid responses!  I will try these on my next build in version 1. 31 when I get home tonight 

Do I need a refuelling system on my harvesters if I want them to be able to transfer fuel to a colony even if the colony has a spaceport, cargo handling system, etc?

I am treating the Harvesters as Stations so I have toggled No Armour (Structural Shell), this is on a save I play with instant build to Identify any issues so these stations are insta-built from the Misc Tab.

[SpikeTheHobbitMage]

This is my current gas miner orbital station:

Code: [Select]

Hosho class Gas Miner      742,547 tons       2,510 Crew       10,760.5 BP       TCS 14,851    TH 0    EM 0
1 km/s      No Armour       Shields 0-0     HTK 1333      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 0
MSP 9    Max Repair 2400 MSP
Kaigun-Ch?sa    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months   
Fuel Harvester: 250 modules producing 10,000,000 litres per annum
Refuelling Hub - Capable of refuelling multiple ships simultaneously

Fuel Capacity 12,000,000 Litres    Range N/A

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Space Station for construction purposes
It is flagged as a tanker with minimum fuel=0.

As Pedroig said, unloading directly to a colony requires a refuelling system.  There is an easy work-around:  Just have a tanker transfer the fuel before towing the station to the mining site.  As you need the tanker anyway, this is essentially free.

[skoormit]

...
As Pedroig said, unloading directly to a colony requires a refuelling system.  There is an easy work-around:  Just have a tanker transfer the fuel before towing the station to the mining site.  As you need the tanker anyway, this is essentially free.

It is free in terms of resources, but costs a bit of time and micromanagement.
It would be nice to have an option to build a ship and leave the fuel tanks empty.

[SpikeTheHobbitMage]

...
As Pedroig said, unloading directly to a colony requires a refuelling system.  There is an easy work-around:  Just have a tanker transfer the fuel before towing the station to the mining site.  As you need the tanker anyway, this is essentially free.

It is free in terms of resources, but costs a bit of time and micromanagement.
It would be nice to have an option to build a ship and leave the fuel tanks empty.

A bit, but only a small part of what is needed to set up a gas mining operation and that isn't something that comes up very often.  Frankly, activating an order template once per game year to unload the gas miner is more tedious.

I would say 'minimum fuel' rather than empty, but whatever.  We each have our own pet-peeves.  Cheers.

[Doren]

Have you tried to set minimum fuel to 1? I think 0 might be a no minimum setting so you are saying to fill it to brim

[snapto]

I am treating the Harvesters as Stations so I have toggled No Armour (Structural Shell), this is on a save I play with instant build to Identify any issues so these stations are insta-built from the Misc Tab.

I believe when you instabuild a tanker, it will generate with full tanks regardless of min setting. I don't know if this is wai for instant build.

[Father Tim]

Aurora does not expect you to give orders to Sturctural Shells, only to ships.  Building them with no armour severely limits your options for "unit A do this to/with/from unit B."

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Snapto is correct.  SM-mode instant build items come complete with full loads.

[SpikeTheHobbitMage]

Have you tried to set minimum fuel to 1? I think 0 might be a no minimum setting so you are saying to fill it to brim

Minimum 0 means minimum 0 but newly built ships always get refueled from the building colony and SM'd ships always get free fuel.

I am treating the Harvesters as Stations so I have toggled No Armour (Structural Shell), this is on a save I play with instant build to Identify any issues so these stations are insta-built from the Misc Tab.

I believe when you instabuild a tanker, it will generate with full tanks regardless of min setting. I don't know if this is wai for instant build.

This is WAI, since the only possible exceptions are gas miners and the support tanker(s) that will be assigned to them.  Every other ship, including tankers, wants to start fully fueled.

Aurora does not expect you to give orders to Sturctural Shells, only to ships.  Building them with no armour severely limits your options for "unit A do this to/with/from unit B."

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Snapto is correct.  SM-mode instant build items come complete with full loads.

It is component limited.  The 'Transfer Fuel to Colony' order requires a Fuel Handling System component.  Refueling Hubs don't count.  Armour, engines, and/or Flagging as a Tanker have no effect.