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Starsector 0.97a is out! (02/02/24); New blog post: Simulator Enhancements (03/13/24)

Author Topic: Generate fuel from a star's corona  (Read 3873 times)

Gothars

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Generate fuel from a star's corona
« on: August 20, 2017, 09:46:09 AM »

If you're away from home and out of gas, just park your fleet next to a sun and trade some CR for fuel. When you're stuck it would help as another option besides distress calls and scuttling your fleet. It would also make solar shielding more desirable. And I think the whole concept of gassing up at a star is hella cool.


I had the idea while thinking about whether this part of the latest blog-post would be doable in-game:

Quote
Battlegroup XIV, including elements of 200th Legion (disgraced after a series of mutinies while deployed against rebels), was cut off from the Gate Network at a transfer point in vicinity of Persean Sector. Enacts network failure protocol: most of the crew is put into emergency cryosleep, many units jury-rigged, and the ships make the hyperspace journey toward the closest civilized volume. Civilian ships and outposts encountered en-route are stripped of fuel and supplies. Many core fleet elements must be mothballed or abandoned.


circa c+48 - XIV Battlegroup arrives in Persean Sector

There is no way a big fleet could make a 48 year journey and secure enough fuel for it via piracy (in basically empty space!) along the way. It's more plausible that they had some reliable but slow way to replenish their antimatter reserves, and that much of the 48 years wasn't actual travel time, but time spent using that method.
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Drokkath

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Re: Generate fuel from a star's corona
« Reply #1 on: August 20, 2017, 12:33:38 PM »

I agree. That sure would be an interesting feature.
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Aeson

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Re: Generate fuel from a star's corona
« Reply #2 on: August 20, 2017, 02:28:26 PM »

Quote
There is no way a big fleet could make a 48 year journey and secure enough fuel for it via piracy (in basically empty space!) along the way. It's more plausible that they had some reliable but slow way to replenish their antimatter reserves, and that much of the 48 years wasn't actual travel time, but time spent using that method.
There could be high-efficiency longhaul hyperdrives, which are too slow to bother the player with but have significantly better fuel economy. Tankers, especially large tankers, might hold considerably more fuel in lore than they do in gameplay. There could be a way to cut off fuel feed to the hyperdrive and simply allow the ship to drift to the nearest massive body, which would be painfully slow but could reduce fuel consumption by up to ~50% if the stars are aligned nicely (granted, that's rather unlikely). The fleet could have been hitting places like Askonia and extorting large quantities of fuel along the way. The Domain might even have had supply depots set up in relatively remote areas just in case a fleet passing through ever needed anything, which might not have been sufficient for the entire battle group but could perhaps have been enough to let it scrape by after supplementing the resources through piracy. There are a lot of possible explanations that aren't "the fleet had a mobile antimatter fuel generator."

That being said, I do not particularly oppose having another way of obtaining fuel once you run out. I don't think sitting over a star and trading supplies/CR for fuel would be particularly interesting, however. I also feel like it'd be strange for the equipment for AM fuel production centers to be rare within the sector and yet so common that it can be found (albeit perhaps not in an economically-viable form) on any of the ships that the player might have in their fleet, though of course the game's lore is open to revision and it isn't a big deal to change a few lines of text.
« Last Edit: August 20, 2017, 02:34:27 PM by Aeson »
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DatonKallandor

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Re: Generate fuel from a star's corona
« Reply #3 on: August 20, 2017, 06:54:51 PM »

They abandoned a large part of their fleet to get farther on the fuel they had - what happens when you have a big fleet and try to get rid of ships? You end up with excess crew. Turn excess crew into fuel and you can go far!

But seriously, they must have spaced a whole load of people when they cut down the size of their fleet. Even the player isn't evil enough to do that.
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Drokkath

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Re: Generate fuel from a star's corona
« Reply #4 on: August 20, 2017, 07:35:53 PM »

..Even the player isn't evil enough to do that.

*ahem* I have done that sometimes as an evil character. :D
« Last Edit: August 20, 2017, 07:40:23 PM by Drokkath »
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FreedomFighter

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Re: Generate fuel from a star's corona
« Reply #5 on: August 21, 2017, 01:40:38 AM »

They abandoned a large part of their fleet to get farther on the fuel they had - what happens when you have a big fleet and try to get rid of ships? You end up with excess crew. Turn excess crew into fuel and you can go far!

But seriously, they must have spaced a whole load of people when they cut down the size of their fleet. Even the player isn't evil enough to do that.

This reminded me of Sunless Sea. . .turning people into fuel.
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AxleMC131

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Re: Generate fuel from a star's corona
« Reply #6 on: August 21, 2017, 02:57:38 AM »

I think this is a great idea, but perhaps it should require a certain hullmod? Maybe like Surveying Equipment, in that you can find it in markets or unlock it through player skills, but it doesn't seem like something you should inherently be able to do without some effort or modifications.
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Gotcha!

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Re: Generate fuel from a star's corona
« Reply #7 on: August 21, 2017, 06:26:35 AM »

This reminded me of Sunless Sea. . .turning people into fuel.

Well, I guess that's a way to motivate your employees: Work hard or be turned into a combustible liquid.
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xenoargh

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Re: Generate fuel from a star's corona
« Reply #8 on: August 21, 2017, 08:01:22 AM »

We've already had mods that allowed for this; there's nothing wrong with the concept of generating some fuel through various actions, per se.  I think that, long-term, the Outposts will largely make this issue moot; if you have a region where you're constantly traveling between the Core Worlds and the Rim... you'll build an Outpost, eventually, just to cut down costs.  Right now, Fuel is largely a one-shot resource that we're spending speculatively, in small amounts, early, until it's time to do big Bounties late-game.
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