My terraforming station is ready - help towing it out to Luna

[undercovergeek (OP)]

I have a 72k ton station ready to go - from reading the advice here I see it needs a tug to get out into space

What makes a tug a tug? I have the class ready but I don’t see anything that would immediately make it a tug

Presumably when done it’s a question of moving the tug to Luna just like you would infrastructure?

[bankshot]

You need to add a tractor beam module to make a ship a tug.  Then the tug fleet targets the terraformer fleet with "tractor specified ship" or "tractor any ship in the fleet" to initiate a tow.  Select your destination and "release tractored ships."

My tugs double as my tankers and backup supply ships.  Roughly 1000 HS of commercial engines, 200HS of fuel tanks, a large maintenance storage bay, one cargo shuttle, a refueling system, and a tractor beam - around 60K tons total. 

[Demonides]

It is worth remembering that the speed of a tugboat is determined by its total mass plus the towed vessel, so it is a good idea to add an artificial maximum mass when designing. This will allow you to simulate speed.

[nuclearslurpee]

It is worth remembering that the speed of a tugboat is determined by its total mass plus the towed vessel, so it is a good idea to add an artificial maximum mass when designing. This will allow you to simulate speed.

More important is the fuel load, since a tug uses more fuel when towing something heavy than the ship design screen suggests. You probably need about 2x to 5x as much fuel as shown to get the desired range, depending on how much larger your stations will be compared to your tugs.

[Demonides]

Code: [Select]

TUG 200k - Kingfisher - Mk2 class Tug      36 766 tons       276 Crew       1 390.5 BP       TCS 735    TH 4 000    EM 0
5439 km/s      Armour 1-98       Shields 0-0       HTK 89      Sensors 8/8/0/0      DCR 1-0      PPV 0
MSP 23    Max Repair 100 MSP
Tractor Beam     
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months   

Commercial Magneto-plasma Drive  EP400.00 (10)    Power 4000    Fuel Use 4.74%    Signature 400    Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 10 000 000 Litres    Range 1 032 billion km (2196 days at full power)

Commercial Active Missile Sensor AS6-R1 (1)     GPS 16     Range 6.4m km    MCR 574.5k km    Resolution 1
Commercial EM Sensor EM1.0-8.0 (1)     Sensitivity 8     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  22.4m km
Commercial Thermal Sensor TH1.0-8.0 (1)     Sensitivity 8     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  22.4m km

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Tug for auto-assignment purposes
I add 170k artifical cargo

Code: [Select]

TUG 200k - Kingfisher - Mk2 - Copy class Tug      213 187 tons       311 Crew       1 969.9 BP       TCS 4 264    TH 4 000    EM 0
938 km/s      Armour 1-317       Shields 0-0       HTK 97      Sensors 8/8/0/0      DCR 1-0      PPV 0
MSP 5    Max Repair 100 MSP
Cargo 175 000    Tractor Beam     
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months   

Commercial Magneto-plasma Drive  EP400.00 (10)    Power 4000    Fuel Use 4.74%    Signature 400    Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 10 000 000 Litres    Range 178 billion km (2196 days at full power)

Commercial Active Missile Sensor AS6-R1 (1)     GPS 16     Range 6.4m km    MCR 574.5k km    Resolution 1
Commercial EM Sensor EM1.0-8.0 (1)     Sensitivity 8     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  22.4m km
Commercial Thermal Sensor TH1.0-8.0 (1)     Sensitivity 8     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  22.4m km

This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a Freighter for auto-assignment purposes

[captainwolfer]

The way to calculate speed with towing a station is fairly simple: design the tug, and look at its speed and range.

For example, I have a tug that is exactly 50,000 tons, with a speed of 7200 km/s and range of 317.2 billion km
1. If I want to tow a station that is 500,000 tons, then I add the weight of the station and the weight of the tug together (550,000 tons in this case).
2. Divide the weight of the tug by the combined weight (so 50,000 / 550,000). In this case, it equals 1/11 (0.9091)
3. Multiply the speed and range of the tug by that result to get the towing speed and range: speed of 655 km/s and range of 28.83 billion km.

Edit: so your tug would have a speed of 1838 km/s and a range of 338 billion km, if your station is 72,000 tons

I think you can drop most of that fuel, unless you want to tow a 500,000 ton station 68 billion km in one go (and are willing to spend 5.8 years doing so)

[undercovergeek (OP)]

......and then i find out i have to research ship to ship tractor beam first - i love this game - thanks guys

is 72k quite modest then - it has 0.0012 terraforming rate with 3 modules on board - should this thing be massive?

[Demonides]

It is best to build as large as possible, because each subsequent terraforming module only adds a few days to the total construction time, the limit is the shipyard. The difference between 5 and 20 is only a month.

[nakorkren]

Worth noting since you're new to tugs: if you build your cargo/colony/troop/mining/terraforming/jump point stabilization ships as pods without engines or armor (i.e. as "space stations") and then tow them with tugs, then you get several benefits.

They can be built using industry, instead of at shipyards.
Your tugs will always be smaller than a purpose built ship with the cargo/etc capability built in, so your commercial shipyards don't need to be as big.
You don't need to retool your commercial shipyards for each class, you just tool once for the tug design.
When you get new engine tech, you build new tugs, without having to rebuild the cargo module (or scrap your existing cargo/colony ships to recover the module)
You can build extra cargo/colony/troop transport "pods" and keep them laying around. This makes your logistics fleet VERY flexible, as you can switch to moving all cargo, all colonists, all troops, etc just by tractoring the correct pod on each ship.

Only two downsides:
Slightly less efficient since you have to include a 500t tractor beam module, but that's miniscule compared to the mass of the tug/cargo pods
There's a little bit of micro involved when you want to switch over, since you have to tractor a new pod, but you only have to do that as often as you want to switch what type of thing you're carrying, so ultimately not that big a deal.