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[Shrugger]

I just started SS for the first time in months, picked my mods, began a new campaign, created my character, generated the sector, took a look around the interface and immediately closed the game again.

The immediately visible micromanagement hassle outweighed any desire to play.

So far, I identified one main reason:

Needing to keep constant track of fuel and supplies
You need them. Can't do without them. Core game mechanics. And fine, in and of themselves.
But if that's what most of my attention during campaign play will go to, I'd rather not even play.

Suggestions:
1) Non-ignorable warnings on reaching configurable thresholds (prompting to mothball ships, return to port, or risk going on)
2) Automatic refuel and resupply, again with configurable parameters (how much to keep in stock, at what maximum price to buy etc.) with warnings when the parameters cannot be met in the current station.

Thoughts?

[Megas]

Not to mention the campaign hazards that suck those resources away.  Hyperspace storms, get caught deep in one and your speed is sunk (even with Sustained Burn) and your supplies get eaten by that voracious monster.  If I do not get out of one soon enough, I just reload the game and reroll the dice.  Hitting Emergency Burn does not help if you got caught while Sustained Burn is on because it takes too long to transition from SB to EB.

That said, I probably could not be bothered by the game nagging at me, and I would probably ignore it.  If I run out of fuel or something, I will just shrug and reload the game.

[Midnight Kitsune]

How is managing two resources micromanagement heavy? I treat it like driving my car: Always check the fuel gauge and always make sure I have my supplies (wallet, phone, glasses) before rolling out

[AxleMC131]

Gotta agree with Midnight on this one. I personally detest micromanagement, and yet I have zero issues with how supplies and fuel work in Starsector.  Maybe I've played too much Kerbal Space Program where fuel being a valuable thing is simply second nature, or I've spent too long in early-game Minecraft trying to track down food and resources. But it's never bothered me.

In fact, I find Starsector's "consumables" gameplay quite interesting, especially with the advent of debris fields and salvaging etc. in 0.8, which make "surviving on the fringes" far more exciting.

Finally, if you're dedicating "most of your attention" to your supply/fuel situation? You might be trying too hard to be efficient. Not sure how in particular, but I think the best piece of advice I can give here (hopefully without sounding too dickish) is "lighten up a little".  Worst comes to worst you can go into the game's config and knock down how quickly your fleet eats fuel and supplies a few pegs.

[Shrugger]

Different strokes, eh? I don't savescum or change the rules; that kinda defeats the point for me.

I've been playing a little Star Traders: Frontiers a while back, which offers optional automatic refueling, and various M&B Warband mods, some of which offer automatic resupply. ST:F and some of the mods also had configurable price limits, or configurable details on what stocks to keep. In all those cases, I activated the automation and never looked back. When I later played different mods that did not have such features, my fun was sapped by the routine of going to town and buying food almost daily when on campaign.

Neither of those games have any sort of warning on running low though, and they will happily let you slam into a wall of "CONSEQUENCES NOW" while you were busy thinking about something else altogether.

It's pretty much the same for me in SS; sure managing the resources is no problem, and it serves important gameplay and balance purposes, but it's also just no fun. It's a hassle, a chore, a mindless keep-checking and clickety-click when necessary task. This would be the first thing I'd outsource to my officers.

[SCC]

I always assumed that learning how to handle supplies and fuel is a part of expertise in game. It's important to know how far, how long can you go without docking. I think that one convenience feature I'd like to see would be a "fuel range" equivalent for supplies; some indicator that tells me how many months and/or days can I last on my default maintenance (i.e. not recovering, but with Hyperion maintenance modifier).

[Shrugger]

Fuel is also much less of an issue than supplies because it ticks down at a much more constant pace, and only in hyperspace.

[intrinsic_parity]

For me, this is not an issue at all. I'm constantly going back to port to sell loot/buy weapons and ships anyway, so every time I land, I clear my cargo of what I don't want and buy supplies and fuel at the same time. I would already be opening the market tab to sell stuff and look for good weapons anyway so it's almost no additional work IMO. I just generally max out fuel (if possible) and I have a good sense of how many supplies I need to I just buy some and don't think about it too much. If you're spending a lot of time thinking about how much you need, you're putting in too much effort, just err on the side of too much. Worst case, you have to leave behind some metals after combat, nbd.

[Bastion.Systems]

Fuel is an issue only in the really early game before you get your first tanker or when going to expeditions (and I think these feel better when there is some planning involved), after that you earn enough fuel from just from battles.
Supplies work the opposite, you usually have a plenty in the early game while you have mostly low-tech/mid-tech ships, but scale up exponentially with high-tech/phase/carrier fleet.

Overall for most of the game only supplies matter and that's easy to manage, I even kinda wish that fuel had a little more use as the bigger tankers are mostly useless with the current fuel consumption.

[Megas]

When I bring my big clunker fleet (of two capitals and lots of cruisers) to fringe worlds and back, Prometheus is practically required to carry all of the fuel I need, and sometimes I bring two.  If I recover multiple large ships, my fuel needs grow on the return trip.

I do not use Navigation for fuel discount, Transverse Jump, or +5 SB because I cannot spare the points for that skill.

[Retry]

Overall for most of the game only supplies matter and that's easy to manage, I even kinda wish that fuel had a little more use as the bigger tankers are mostly useless with the current fuel consumption.

Hmm?  The only tankers I ever use is the Prometheus (and sometimes a mod-Phaeton from SWP or Dynasector or something, idk which mod at this point, because Mjolnir armed tanker), Drams really don't cut it for capital or even cruiser-heavy fleets.

[Deshara]

one way to think of this is that HotS, and most MOBAs, are really managing two resources (health and mana). Which players can do for a solid 20 minutes of intense gameplay -- but, SS isn't played for 20 minutes at a time. So while you (almost?) never need to pay close attention to either resource in SS's large scale, it is played for hours on end which can strain a player's supply of spoons (google spoon theory). And there's the combat, where you are required to track health and shields intensely, which the large scale gameplay is supposed to act as a break from but can alternatively be seen as a break from tracking supply drain -- which means the player never gets a break.

[Megas]

Not the mention the penalty for underestimating costs can be catastrophic.  Out of supplies?  You fleet begins to starve.  Out of fuel?  If you are in a bad place, you may drift for a long time.

It is like Angband.  You can mindlessly hold a move button down and mow down vermin for a long time, then all of a sudden, some out-of-depth heavy breather one-shots you at a bad time and it is game over/tombstone screen before you know it.

[Deshara]

it feels like, with player faction being implemented, that you should eventually be able to have a logistics officer in your fleet whose job is to take your freighter, tanker and an escort, automatically branch off on his own to hit a market and return with a resupply/refueling so that players who got to a certain point don't need to worry about maintaining fuel and supplies while in friendly space anymore