Father Tim ,
I really need the equalise fuel facility for my Fuel Harvesters. They are independent powered vessels which commute between the Gas Giant and the Colony when full of fuel. If I add vessels to the Harvester Fleet their Fuel levels are at different percentages and therefore I need the equalise fuel facility ( as in VB6 ) so that all vessels in the fleet can return to the colony at the same time with 100% fuel onboard. At present , as you state it is impossible to carry this out and is a micromanage nightmare.
I do hope Steve will be able to add this facility in the not too distant future.
DavidR
Option 1: Each time you add a vessel to the fleet, force the entire fleet to unload fuel (down to minimum) at the nearest colony. This will synchronize the whole fleet's tanks.
Option 2: Have each tanker in a separate fleet, using its own conditionals to "unload 90%" when full.
Option 3: Have new-built harvesters fill their tanks to full before leaving the shipyards. This will have them only harvest small amount of fuel until the whole fleet goes through an "unload 90%" cycle.
Option 4: Manually edit each newly-arrived harvester to steal half the fuel from a long-service harvester. This will waste less capacity.
Option 5: Similar to 2 above, but with four or five harvesters per fleet, to reduce the number of fleets you're dealing with. This is trading efficiency for micro-management.