Aurora 4x

C# Aurora => General Discussion => Topic started by: Micro102 on May 16, 2020, 05:26:05 PM

Title: How to automate a fuel harvester?
Post by: Micro102 on May 16, 2020, 05:26:05 PM
So I made a fuel harvester, it has 5 million fuel capacity, I set it's minimum fuel to 1 million, and have tried both the "Harvester Transfer" and "Transfer fuel to colony" commands, but in both cases it only unloads about 5% of it's fuel and goes back to the gas giant.

Anyone know what i might be doing wrong?
Title: Re: How to automate a fuel harvester?
Post by: Shodan13 on May 16, 2020, 06:01:14 PM
You have to set the minimum fuel under misc tab in the class design window.
Title: Re: How to automate a fuel harvester?
Post by: Micro102 on May 16, 2020, 06:06:22 PM
Yes It's set to 1 million.

Also forgot to mention I'm still in 1.8. If that means anything.
Title: Re: How to automate a fuel harvester?
Post by: liveware on May 16, 2020, 08:10:18 PM
Here's what I do:

1. Build a fuel harvester. Make sure it has enough reserve fuel to make it to the harvest location. Also make sure its designated as a tanker and has a sorium harvester.

2. Order the ship to a gas giant (must be a gas giant) with sorium present.

3. Set up the following standing conditional order: if fuel tank is full, harvester transfer and return.

Harvester should now slowly fill up with sorium, and when full, drop it off at the nearest, then return to the sorium deposit it was at when it got full. Works well for me at least.
Title: Re: How to automate a fuel harvester?
Post by: Micro102 on May 16, 2020, 08:11:54 PM
Yeah I've done all of that. I'm just going to chalk this up to a bug, start a new game with the updates, and hope I don't encounter it again.
Title: Re: How to automate a fuel harvester?
Post by: Black on May 17, 2020, 01:36:59 AM
Yeah I've done all of that. I'm just going to chalk this up to a bug, start a new game with the updates, and hope I don't encounter it again.

Does the drop location have Refuelling Capability? Your colony needs space port or Refuelling Station to accept fuel.
Title: Re: How to automate a fuel harvester?
Post by: Micro102 on May 17, 2020, 02:03:17 AM
Yeah I've done all of that. I'm just going to chalk this up to a bug, start a new game with the updates, and hope I don't encounter it again.

Does the drop location have Refuelling Capability? Your colony needs space port or Refuelling Station to accept fuel.

Indeed, it was Earth. And it managed to unload a tiny amount so there was SOME capability.
Title: Re: How to automate a fuel harvester?
Post by: Black on May 17, 2020, 02:13:20 AM
In what format did you put the Minimum Fuel? Was it 1000000 without any commas or periods? Do you have decimal separator set to period?
Title: Re: How to automate a fuel harvester?
Post by: Micro102 on May 17, 2020, 03:23:15 PM
Yes it was actually! No commas or periods. Do I need those?
Title: Re: How to automate a fuel harvester?
Post by: Father Tim on May 17, 2020, 03:37:17 PM
Yes it was actually! No commas or periods. Do I need those?

No, you need to avoid those and all the headaches that come with them.
Title: Re: How to automate a fuel harvester?
Post by: Micro102 on May 17, 2020, 04:44:26 PM
O well, old game was deleted. Nothing that can be tried now. If I still have the problem I'll be back.
Title: Re: How to automate a fuel harvester?
Post by: consiefe on May 17, 2020, 08:46:39 PM
I tend to use 2x ultra large and 1x very large fuel storage on my tankers. I set up min fuel to 1m, no commas or periods. This way tanker uses 1x very large fuel storage and uses two others for shipment. I order it to refuel from stationary tankers and transfer fuel to colony. I always create an order template out of this and whenever I see x harvester is %90 full I use it. Thus the process becomes semi-automated.
Title: Re: How to automate a fuel harvester?
Post by: Micro102 on May 22, 2020, 01:38:49 AM
I'm back with the latest version, same problem. Doubt it's the same bug over 2 versions that no one else is experiencing, but I can't for the life of me figure out what's wrong. Can someone who has successfully gotten their harvester to automate tell me how they did it? Otherwise I'm just going to have to resort to space stations.
Title: Re: How to automate a fuel harvester?
Post by: davidr on May 22, 2020, 04:34:23 AM
I made a fleet of 6 Fuel Harvesters each with 25 Fuel harvester Modules , Engines and a Refuelling System , flagged as a Tanker. The Harvester design  had a minimum fuel flagged as 100000 and the Fleet was sent to Jupiter ( I used move then Picket )  Once there they began to mine and load fuel into their tanks. When I noticed this was happening I set the Primary Condition/Conditional Order to "Fuel Tanks Full" and " Harvester Transfer and Return" .

The Harvesters filled up ( not all equal amounts due to Ship Captain Bonuses not being equal ) and when
one ship had 100% fuel the fleet moved back to Earth , transferred fuel to the Colony approximately up to their reserved amount and then returned to Jupiter to commence the cycle again ( all ships in the fleet showing a small fuel figure in red ) . It worked for me and the fleet was then on auto pilot until I decided to suspend the mining and rest the Harvesters for a while.

Trust this helos.

DavidR
Title: Re: How to automate a fuel harvester?
Post by: consiefe on May 22, 2020, 06:43:38 AM
I'm back with the latest version, same problem. Doubt it's the same bug over 2 versions that no one else is experiencing, but I can't for the life of me figure out what's wrong. Can someone who has successfully gotten their harvester to automate tell me how they did it? Otherwise I'm just going to have to resort to space stations.

Before my current game, I used mobile harvesters. I used harvester transfer and return command and it was not a tricky thing. Harvesters got fuel from Saturn and with standing (conditional) order, they came back to Earth and dumped their fuel to colony then turned back to Saturn to get more without any interference from me.
Title: Re: How to automate a fuel harvester?
Post by: Micro102 on May 22, 2020, 12:55:43 PM
I made a fleet of 6 Fuel Harvesters each with 25 Fuel harvester Modules , Engines and a Refuelling System , flagged as a Tanker. The Harvester design  had a minimum fuel flagged as 100000 and the Fleet was sent to Jupiter ( I used move then Picket )  Once there they began to mine and load fuel into their tanks. When I noticed this was happening I set the Primary Condition/Conditional Order to "Fuel Tanks Full" and " Harvester Transfer and Return" .

The Harvesters filled up ( not all equal amounts due to Ship Captain Bonuses not being equal ) and when
one ship had 100% fuel the fleet moved back to Earth , transferred fuel to the Colony approximately up to their reserved amount and then returned to Jupiter to commence the cycle again ( all ships in the fleet showing a small fuel figure in red ) . It worked for me and the fleet was then on auto pilot until I decided to suspend the mining and rest the Harvesters for a while.

Trust this helos.

DavidR

The only difference I see is that you had a refueling system. I wasn't planning on using them to refuel ships but I'll try adding that next time I load up aurora.
Title: Re: How to automate a fuel harvester?
Post by: consiefe on May 22, 2020, 01:17:09 PM
I am pretty sure that refuelling system on tankers is mandatory to make them functioning. I think your problem was this all along.

Edit: Or for harvesters in this case, they are supposed to dump fuel to the colony using the refuelling system.
Title: Re: How to automate a fuel harvester?
Post by: Karsten on May 22, 2020, 02:09:57 PM
I have a similar problem. 
My Fuel harvester have a refuelign system.
Quote
FH-2030C class Fuel Harvester      73,171 tons       382 Crew       1,439. 5 BP       TCS 1,463    TH 1,563    EM 0
1067 km/s      Armour 1-155       Shields 0-0       HTK 176      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 0
MSP 12    Max Repair 43 MSP
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months   
Fuel Harvester: 21 modules producing 1,008,000 litres per annum

Commercial Ion Drive  EP156. 25-2040 (10)    Power 1562. 5    Fuel Use 5. 59%    Signature 156. 25    Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 5,000,000 Litres    Range 219. 9 billion km (2385 days at full power)
Refuelling Capability: 60,000 litres per hour     Complete Refuel 83 hours

CIWS-120-2025 (2x4)    Range 1000 km     TS: 12,000 km/s     ROF 5       
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

After one cycle the Primary Standing order changes from "Move to Gas Giant with Sorium" to No Order. 
This happens as soon as the Fleet reaches a Gas Giant and enters orbit.
Title: Re: How to automate a fuel harvester?
Post by: Micro102 on May 22, 2020, 03:25:39 PM
I have a similar problem. 
My Fuel harvester have a refuelign system.
Quote
FH-2030C class Fuel Harvester      73,171 tons       382 Crew       1,439. 5 BP       TCS 1,463    TH 1,563    EM 0
1067 km/s      Armour 1-155       Shields 0-0       HTK 176      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 0
MSP 12    Max Repair 43 MSP
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months   
Fuel Harvester: 21 modules producing 1,008,000 litres per annum

Commercial Ion Drive  EP156. 25-2040 (10)    Power 1562. 5    Fuel Use 5. 59%    Signature 156. 25    Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 5,000,000 Litres    Range 219. 9 billion km (2385 days at full power)
Refuelling Capability: 60,000 litres per hour     Complete Refuel 83 hours

CIWS-120-2025 (2x4)    Range 1000 km     TS: 12,000 km/s     ROF 5       
This design is classed as a Commercial Vessel for maintenance purposes

After one cycle the Primary Standing order changes from "Move to Gas Giant with Sorium" to No Order. 
This happens as soon as the Fleet reaches a Gas Giant and enters orbit.

I would assume that after, it reaches the gas giant, it slowly fills up with gas (keep track of this in the fleet management screen), and upon reaching 100% fuel, the conditional order of "fuel tanks full > harvest transfer and return" kicks in? Does that happen, or something different?
Title: Re: How to automate a fuel harvester?
Post by: consiefe on May 22, 2020, 04:06:19 PM
It does kick in.
Title: Re: How to automate a fuel harvester?
Post by: Micro102 on May 22, 2020, 06:18:10 PM
So it never goes back to the gas giant after dumping the gas?
Title: Re: How to automate a fuel harvester?
Post by: Micro102 on May 23, 2020, 03:33:55 PM
So I finally added the refueling system and that solved my problem. Thanks everyone.