Fuel Harvesters

[davidr (OP)]

Garfunkel ,

Thanks - that is going to be my next work around . I will try and let the Harvesters sit at Jupiter and send Tankers to refuel and move the fuel to Earth. The Harvesters are only 80,000 tons each , not having a Refuelling Hub only a refuelling System. If I have 3 FH ( at present )  in a Fleet around Jupiter how many Tankers could fuel up at once - would it be 1 per FH ( total 3 )  or 1 per Fleet ( total 1)?


DavidR

[Garfunkel]

It was trickier with VB6 because you only had the 90% of remaining fuel order, meaning that if you miscalculated, your tanker would get stranded between planets. With the absolute amounts that C# gives us in regards to tankers (the minimum fuel amount is liters, not percentage), you can calculate the amount of fuel the tanker needs in the worst-case scenario between Earth and Jupiter, put that number in as the minimum amount in the class design MISC window and then just leave the tanker doing it. I wouldn't give it more than 500 000 liters of capacity since your harvesters are small. Let it run for a few months and see whether your harvesters are empty or full - then either add harvesters or add another tanker.

[skoormit]

Option 6:  Build a giant structural shell that contains a refuelling hub and endless fuel tanks and deploy it with the harvester fleet.  Have all your harvesters unload to the shell, and your other ships fuel from the shell.

How do you make the harvesters unload to the shell?

It has to have the Refuelling Hub component to have the orders available, and it might not be possible with conditionals.  You may need to manually order the unloading every few years.

How do you manually order unloading?
I'm not trying to be obtuse, I just don't find any way to give a tanker an order to transfer fuel to another fleet.
I can only tell the other fleet to take fuel from the tanker, or I can merge the fleets.

[Father Tim]

Father Tim ,

Thanks but that option is not really suitable for myself - I do not cheat by using SM to magically construct massive installations or vessels

1) A refuelling Hub is 100,000 tons to be placed in a vessel which also requires other components

2) Shipyards commence at 10,000 tons and each 10,000 ton increase can take at least 18 months to complete so with other ancillaries required it would take a minimum of say 20 - 25 years years to build a large enough shipyard

A Structural Shell can be built by industry (factories) at any colony with a Spaceport, and moved (slowly) by any ship with a Tractor Beam (which can be on the ship, or on the SS).

[Father Tim]

Option 6:  Build a giant structural shell that contains a refuelling hub and endless fuel tanks and deploy it with the harvester fleet.  Have all your harvesters unload to the shell, and your other ships fuel from the shell.

How do you make the harvesters unload to the shell?

It has to have the Refuelling Hub component to have the orders available, and it might not be possible with conditionals.  You may need to manually order the unloading every few years.

How do you manually order unloading?
I'm not trying to be obtuse, I just don't find any way to give a tanker an order to transfer fuel to another fleet.
I can only tell the other fleet to take fuel from the tanker, or I can merge the fleets.

Then tell the SS fleet to refuel from the tanker (or tanker fleet).  The key thing is to have both fleets / all units in the same place.  It may be that orbital movement screws this up, in which case you'll need the underway replenishment tech.  Maybe it's not possible at all, and everyone needs to wait for the various 'SM Equalize' buttons to be implemented.