Confused about harvesting sorium

[Antonin1957 (OP)]

Hello all!

I'm trying to harvest sorium at Saturn. I sent my harvester and left it at Saturn for 30 days. My intention was to then return it to Earth and deposit the sorium there. But there is no indication of how much the ship harvested. And now that I have ordered the ship back to Earth, it has run out of fuel and is drifting in space between Saturn and Jupiter.

How do you know your harvester is actually harvesting when it reaches its destination? During the month it was in Saturn orbit, nothing appeared under the "transported items" tab. Is sorium refined into fuel aboard the ship?

I have read several things about sorium harvesting here on the forum and in the wiki, but I'm still confused. I am looking for a *simple* way to harvest sorium and convert it into fuel. The simplest way possible.

I have copied my harvester design below.

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FH Turbor 002  (Turbor class Fuel Harvester)      77,576 tons       309 Crew       1,342 BP       TCS 1,552    TH 480    EM 0
309 km/s      Armour 1-162       Shields 0-0       HTK 114      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 1      PPV 0
Maint Life 0.21 Years     MSP 5,010    AFR 48143%    IFR 668.7%    1YR 23,742    5YR 356,123    Max Repair 200 MSP
Cargo 25,000    Cargo Shuttle Multiplier 4   
Lieutenant Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months    Morale Check Required   
Fuel Harvester: 16 modules producing 640,000 litres per annum
Maintenance Modules: 1 module(s) capable of supporting ships of 1,250 tons

Nuclear Pulse Engine  EP160.00 (3)    Power 480    Fuel Use 63.64%    Signature 160    Explosion 10%
Fuel Capacity 500,000 Litres    Range 1.8 billion km (68 days at full power)

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes
This design is classed as a i for auto-assignment purposes

[Andrew]

The processed fuel is placed in the fuel tanks so you need to have largely empty fuel tanks or all fuel is wasted. Your harvester will need to be set as a tanker, have a fuel transfer system and then sit in orbit with nearly empty tanks
The cargo shuttles are completely unneeded as is the cargo hold, the maintenace module is confusing unless you have some other reason for it, and that is probably what is making the harvester a military ship. Fuel harvesters should be commercial as that avoids them exploding from maintenance failure

I normally leave a group of harvesters around whichever gas giant has the most available sorium , then send out a tanker from Earth to collect the fuel at intervals when they get full tanks (you get a notification in the logs at 90% capacity)

My latest fuel harvester
Arbalest class Fuel Harvester      100,000 tons       520 Crew       1,954.9 BP       TCS 2,000    TH 2,500    EM 0
1250 km/s      Armour 1-191       Shields 0-0       HTK 213      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 1-0      PPV 0
MSP 12    Max Repair 156.3 MSP
Commander    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 3 months   
Fuel Harvester: 29 modules producing 1,856,000 litres per annum

Freund Turbines Commercial Ion Drive  EP625.00 (4)    Power 2500.0    Fuel Use 3.35%    Signature 625.00    Explosion 5%
Fuel Capacity 5,190,000 Litres    Range 278.5 billion km (2578 days at full power)
Refuelling Capability: 100,000 litres per hour     Complete Refuel 51 hours

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

Certainly not a perfect design but it works

[Barkhorn]

Just wanted to add that the maintenance module is unnecessary too.  That's for maintaining other ships, it doesn't maintain the ship it's on.  Self maintenance is all done by engineering spaces and maintenance supply storage.

[relmz32]

i would recommend marking fuel harvesters as tankers as well

[Black]

...the maintenance module is confusing unless you have some other reason for it, and that is probably what is making the harvester a military ship. Fuel harvesters should be commercial as that avoids them exploding from maintenance failure

Maintenance module is not military component. It is likely that the harvester has military engines and that is why it is marked as military vessel.


I personally prefer harvesters as space stations without engines, so I can also build them with construction factories. But that requires tug to move them to the gas giant.

[Andrew]

A harvester station is definetly more efficient, the engines on my harvester are largely wasted space. But it saves me managing tugs which I prefer to avoid so its player laziness putting engines on

[GodEmperor]

The processed fuel is placed in the fuel tanks so you need to have largely empty fuel tanks or all fuel is wasted.

Wouldnt fuel harvester just desposit the fuel on the planet? I had feeling it counts as additional fuel refineries the same way mining modules count as mines.

[Andrew]

No cannot deposit on the planet, it would need a colony and it is in orbit around a gas giant, so no colony. You can set up a colony on a moon and have them drop fuel off there when full but that requires automatic orders or manual orders and they need to move to that colony

[Steve Walmsley]

The processed fuel is placed in the fuel tanks so you need to have largely empty fuel tanks or all fuel is wasted.

Wouldnt fuel harvester just desposit the fuel on the planet? I had feeling it counts as additional fuel refineries the same way mining modules count as mines.

You cannot create colonies on gas giants or superjovians, as they don't have a solid surface. Another option is to have a tanker on constant cycled orders, refueling from the harvesters and then transferring the fuel to a nearby colony.

[Antonin1957 (OP)]

A harvester station is definetly more efficient, the engines on my harvester are largely wasted space. But it saves me managing tugs which I prefer to avoid so its player laziness putting engines on

I have not even thought about stations and tugs. At this point, the absolute simplest solution possible is what I'm looking for. 

[paolot]

Antonin, to understand if the harvester is working right, you can look at the Ship List tab, in the Naval Organization window.
There, you can see the fuel level stored in the ship(s).
If this value increases after some weeks the harvester is near the gas giant with Sorium, then the harvester is producing fuel and consuming Sorium.
You can also look at the level of Sorium of the planet: if it goes down, it is being used to produce fuel.

A couple of observations about the design of your ship.
1.
To transfer its fuel to a ship, the harvester must have a Refuelling System. You can research larger and large ones as Logistics topics.
2.
As it is a military ship, it has shorter Maint Life and Deployment Time than a commercial one.
Even more, in your design, these parameters are very short.
But, to fill the fuel tanks, this ship needs a bit more than 9 months (= 12*500k/640k).
Instead, those short parameters generate frequent maintenance problems, well in advance of 3 months, and the ship will risk to explode, if not serviced, and the tanks are far from being full.
So, you should keep the harvester a commercial vessel, i.e.: don't use a military engine, don't install neither active sensors nor large passive ones, and install an engineering space.

An example of my harvesting station:
FHS-01 Vasachl Harv St 001  (Vasachl Harv St class Fuel Harvester Station)      30,425 tons       130 Crew       543 BP       TCS 608    TH 0    EM 0
1 km/s      Armour 1-86       Shields 0-0       HTK 64      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 1-0      PPV 0
MSP 161    Max Repair 30 MSP
Centurion    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months   
Fuel Harvester: 10 modules producing 1,200,000 litres per annum

Fuel Capacity 4,000,000 Litres    Range N/A
Refuelling Capability: 50,000 litres per hour     Complete Refuel 80 hours

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

And an example of harvesting ship, jump capable too, so it can follow fleets around, if needed, and with small sensors, just to avoid surprises  :
FH-12 Gloo Harv 007  (Gloo Harv class Fuel Harvester)      39,161 tons       210 Crew       1,372.1 BP       TCS 783    TH 134    EM 0
1430 km/s    JR 3-50(C)      Armour 1-102       Shields 0-0       HTK 87      Sensors 18/18/0/0      DCR 1-0      PPV 0
MSP 21    Max Repair 280 MSP
Trierarch    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 24 months   
Fuel Harvester: 10 modules producing 1,200,000 litres per annum

JC40K Commercial Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 40000 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3

Commercial Inertial Fusion Drive  EP560.00 (2)    Power 1120    Fuel Use 0.86%    Signature 67.20    Explosion 4%
Fuel Capacity 3,000,000 Litres    Range 1,612.3 billion km (13049 days at full power)
Refuelling Capability: 200,000 litres per hour     Complete Refuel 15 hours

EM Sensor EM1.0-18.0 (20%) (1)     Sensitivity 18     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  33.5m km
Thermal Sensor TH1.0-18.0 (20%) (1)     Sensitivity 18     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  33.5m km

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

I am now prefering ships, because this frees my tankers to support fleets and planets around.
But this is just my personal taste, for the match I am playing now.

[Garfunkel]

The absolutely simplest design is a harvester ship so you don't need tugs. A commercial engine, harvesting modules and fuel tanks, plus most importantly - a fuel transfer system. Then after you build it, give it default orders to go to gas giant and unload fuel to colony when full. This way the ship will do its job automatically. It is not the most efficient way but it's simple and works.

[Antonin1957 (OP)]

The absolutely simplest design is a harvester ship so you don't need tugs. A commercial engine, harvesting modules and fuel tanks, plus most importantly - a fuel transfer system. Then after you build it, give it default orders to go to gas giant and unload fuel to colony when full. This way the ship will do its job automatically. It is not the most efficient way but it's simple and works.

I'm sorry, but I'm still confused. Is a "refueling system" the same thing as a "fuel transfer system"? I have "refuelling system" and "ordnance transfer system" in my list of available components, but I don't see "fuel transfer system."

I have been trying to set up a set of orders that will send the ship to Saturn, have it harvest sorium, bring it back to Earth when its tanks are full and dump all but 20% on Earth, and then return to Saturn to harvest some more. I'm confused about the "fuel transfer system" and the orders.

[Barkhorn]

Yes, you want a fuel transfer system refueling system.

As for the orders, you need two conditional orders.  One is "On 20% fuel, move to sorium source", the other is "On max fuel, unload fuel to colony".  That makes it totally automated and is simplest to set up.  Personally, I don't do it that way because:

1. I like to use factories to build my harvesters, so mine don't have engines.
2. Done like this, you don't have control over which colony they unload the fuel at.

I use stationary harvesters and have tankers ferry the fuel back and forth on repeating orders.

[skoormit]

Yes, you want a fuel transfer system.

It's called a Refuelling System.