Posted by: formicae
« on: March 19, 2016, 10:28:23 AM »Quote from: 83athom link=topic=8450. msg88155#msg88155 date=1458358038
Detach before you jump. Because you are towing it combines the weight so you have a single 55,000 ton ship instead of 2 ~25,000 ones.That didn't seem to help.
Since adding a commercial engine did do the trick, and that combination (where the towed ship has a commercial engine--it does need fuel, though) can jump while linked, I suspect the actual check to see if a jump is possible with a commercial jump drive is whether the ship has commercial engines, rather than checking for the absence of military engines like the wiki and technobabble imply.
I've discovered some other interesting towing behavior, though, which I'm also not sure is a bug or works as intended. I made a ship to have low fuel consumption per unit time, using a 25 HS conventional engine:
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Freight Barge class Freight Barge 28 300 tons 142 Crew 340.4 BP TCS 566 TH 2 EM 0
3 km/s Armour 1-82 Shields 0-0 Sensors 1/1/0/0 Damage Control Rating 5 PPV 0
MSP 38 Max Repair 10 MSP
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months Spare Berths 0
Cargo 25000 Cargo Handling Multiplier 50
Stabilizing Engine (1) Power 1.5 Fuel Use 2.59% Signature 1.5 Exp 3%
Fuel Capacity 5 000 Litres Range 1.0 billion km (4021 days at full power)
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
I thought this would last for 11 years being towed around, burning just over a liter a day, but instead it lasts for only about a billion km before needing refueling. It seems like the towed ship uses fuel based on the distance it travels, not how much time it takes.
I think the next step is to try out a tug equipped with a military jump drive (though I'm not looking forward to the cost), attached to an engineless ship, to see whether that works.