Slitherine

...wouldn't it make more sense for the tanker to never give away more fuel than what it takes to get back to the closest refueling point? Problem I have run into is that my scout ran out of fuel and has a larger fuel capacity than my tanker itself. I moved the scout as close to a refueling station/planet as possible and sent a tanker. The distance to the refueling station was a very small amount: 1195 tons of fuel. The tanker joined up with the scout and promptly gave it every single ton of it's 33000 tons of fuel leaving it stranded instead. I understand about fueling before leaving a planet, but most tanker pilots I know, and I used to be one in the Navy, never give away the fuel it takes to get them safely back. Just sayin...

Can't be absolutely sure, but instead of refueling the ship, just put it in a fleet with the tanker and tell the fleet to move to the planet, I think that works.

The option to reserve fuel will be added.

...good news and just in time. My tanker crews were getting a little mutinous what with all the suicide runs!!

NightReaper wrote:...good news and just in time. My tanker crews were getting a little mutinous what with all the suicide runs!!

Who cares, they are stuck in the middle of nowhere anyway.

Will we have the option to put Refueling module and stellar energy converter on satellite later?

I would like to have resupply station!

I do like that idea

Ufnv wrote:The option to reserve fuel will be added.

I hope this is more detailed than just reserve the amount needed to reach closest colony. If I am trying to ferry 3 ships with 5000 range between two colonies that are 9000 apart, I may have to stop at 5000 from the original colony. I don't want to force the tanker to go to the distant colony before returning to its starting point. Please let me reserve an amount I specify. I would also like this to let me specify how much to give the other ships (or at least let me give them all the same amount). I don't want to run out of spare fuel after giving the first 2 ships their max and not have enough for the last one.

bobarossa wrote:

Ufnv wrote:The option to reserve fuel will be added.

I hope this is more detailed than just reserve the amount needed to reach closest colony. If I am trying to ferry 3 ships with 5000 range between two colonies that are 9000 apart, I may have to stop at 5000 from the original colony. I don't want to force the tanker to go to the distant colony before returning to its starting point. Please let me reserve an amount I specify. I would also like this to let me specify how much to give the other ships (or at least let me give them all the same amount). I don't want to run out of spare fuel after giving the first 2 ships their max and not have enough for the last one.

I do have to say this would be very helpful. I believe you need both options:
1) A quick refuel button as you have now. This keeps gameplay faster.
2) A custom refuel button.

Also refuel satellites would great - avoids the necessity to always expand just to get to your enemy.

Well, I see the patch didn't address the tanker issue. How did this even get out of beta this way? You have to micromanage the heck out of it or you get stranded tankers everywhere. Off course, I can't see how being able to refuel another ship requires an expensive module. Wouldn't it simply be a hose and a pump? I much prefer Aurora's method. You simply have an equalize fuel command in each fleet. With every ship using fuel at the same rate in PS, it would kill all micromanagement of fuel.

Tankers really are seriously hindered if they cannot extend the range of a fleet. Tankers travelling with a fleet in being should be able to keep those ships flying. You still will in general sacrifice fleet speed for range. Right now I rarely use them

Protagoras01 wrote:Tankers really are seriously hindered if they cannot extend the range of a fleet. Tankers travelling with a fleet in being should be able to keep those ships flying. You still will in general sacrifice fleet speed for range. Right now I rarely use them

Tankers operating with fleets work precisely as you would think. The tanker tops up other ships as needed and the overall fleet range is increased.

Tankers operating independently are.. um.. a little less useful, as has been outlined above. They'll happily strand themselves to refuel passing fleets.

As I mentioned in another thread, I would like to take the 'reserve X fuel' idea a bit further and have the ability to give a tanker/fleet a "Fuel Depot" command - it would top up passing fleets as much as possible until only enough reserve was left to reach the nearest colony. Once it hit that point it would go back and refuel itself, then return. Giving a manual movement command to the tanker/fleet would cancel the 'Fuel Depot' order.

Orion03 wrote:Can't be absolutely sure, but instead of refueling the ship, just put it in a fleet with the tanker and tell the fleet to move to the planet, I think that works.

It does not work. The tanker get stranded because it has zero fuel, and the other ships can't "give the fuel back".
Honestly, the entire fuel mechanic needs work in my opinion. I started a spiral galaxy and there are huge gaps in my empire that I can't cross with regular ships due to a couple planetless stars making the total trip over 10,000 units. There should be a way around this issue.

SilasOfBorg wrote:

Protagoras01 wrote:Tankers really are seriously hindered if they cannot extend the range of a fleet. Tankers travelling with a fleet in being should be able to keep those ships flying. You still will in general sacrifice fleet speed for range. Right now I rarely use them

Tankers operating with fleets work precisely as you would think. The tanker tops up other ships as needed and the overall fleet range is increased.

Tankers operating independently are.. um.. a little less useful, as has been outlined above. They'll happily strand themselves to refuel passing fleets.

As I mentioned in another thread, I would like to take the 'reserve X fuel' idea a bit further and have the ability to give a tanker/fleet a "Fuel Depot" command - it would top up passing fleets as much as possible until only enough reserve was left to reach the nearest colony. Once it hit that point it would go back and refuel itself, then return. Giving a manual movement command to the tanker/fleet would cancel the 'Fuel Depot' order.

Oh I have to go check that! Then all we need is a few more buttons, like maybe give all but 10,000 fuel or something. I do tend to give my tankers stellar converter also

A tanker without a Stellar fuel converter is naught but expendable space junk.