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[Micro102]

I'm actually just realizing how insane the fuel reduction is with more advanced engines. I was being lazy and not updating my exploration ships.

[Lord Shonus]

It isn't just the more advanced engines. Each Fuel Efficiency tech is an extra 10% reduction from base, and you get a really hefty boost from larger engines. Meanwhile, boosting the output sends your consumption into the stratosphere.

[Micro102]

So this may because I'm still back in 1.8, but I don't seem to be able to make events pop up on my system map. I ticked the events box in the display tab but nothing happens.

Also, why is the game pausing every few days to tell me a civilian ship has failed to load installations from mars because there aren't any? It's starting to become incredibly annoying.

[Shooer]

So this may because I'm still back in 1.8, but I don't seem to be able to make events pop up on my system map. I ticked the events box in the display tab but nothing happens.

Also, why is the game pausing every few days to tell me a civilian ship has failed to load installations from mars because there aren't any? It's starting to become incredibly annoying.

Events on main screen wasn't a feature until 1.9.

Do/did you have orders for them to pick something up from Mars?

[Micro102]

Yet another reason to start over.

Do/did you have orders for them to pick something up from Mars?

Civilian ships. I have no control over them. And it's only Mars and only installations too. I'm guessing that mars is producing a tiny amount of infrastructure, then immediately population growing to the maximum before the ships can pick up the excess installations.

EDIT: My Fuel harvester doesn't seem to want to drop fuel off at my colony. I tried both the "Transfer Fuel to Colony" and "Harvester Transfer and Return" orders but the ship only transfers about 5% to the colony and then heads back to the gas giant. The minimum fuel for the ship is set to only 20%.

[Lord Shonus]

The "minimum fuel" is in liters, not percent. you might have an extra zero in there.

[Micro102]

Yes I know. I double checked for an extra 0.

[Rince Wind]

I didn't think about using civilians to transport the spaceport. Even though I use them for other stuff. Well, next time!

[Damiac]

I'm actually just realizing how insane the fuel reduction is with more advanced engines. I was being lazy and not updating my exploration ships.

The route to fuel efficiency is through larger engines with reduced power. Higher tech engines are no more efficient than lower tech, they just have more power for their size.  Fuel efficiency tech is nice but it's nowhere near as effective as making larger, less powerful engines.

The research for larger engine sizes and for lower engine power is pretty cheap. 

The reason for this is due to the way fuel efficiency is calculated. It's based on the engine power squared, so numbers under 100% rapidly reduce fuel use.

Base fuel use is 1 liter per engine power hour.  So a ship with an engine with 50 power, rated at 100% power, costs 50 liters of fuel per hour.

Take that same engine and give it 50% power, and it'll cost .25 liters per power hour.  50 units of power at that price comes out to 12.5 liters per hour.

It gets crazy as you go lower.  A 30% power engine costs you .09 liters per power hour. 

On top of that, larger engine sizes similarly get more and more efficient as they get larger.  Those efficiencies stack.  So you can easily have engines designed that take 3% of the fuel that a full power small engine would use for the same amount of power.

Fuel efficiency research is only giving you 10% better fuel efficiency at best. Of course, it stacks with the other reductions, so it's worthwhile, just realize in terms of reducing fuel use it's not going to have anywhere near the effect a lower powered engine would have.

There's a trade off of course. Large underpowered engines have a worse thrust to mass ratio, so even if you stack a bunch of them you're going to have a lower top speed. On top of that, large engines require more maintenance in military ships. It's still worth it to use them on your grav and geo scanners, you might need to add some msp storage to be able to maintain them though.

I tend to turn off fuel refining on planet first thing, and build some fuel harvesters to go sit on a gas giant.  I have a tanker with huge fuel tanks take a visit to the harvesters twice a year and bring it back to earth, using order delays. I think you could probably set up the conditions on the tanker to fully automate this instead of using a delay, but whatever it works.

[coleslaw35]

In regards to fuel use, I typically do conventional starts and build a whopping 5 fuel refineries from conventional industry. By the time I get to a tech level that is satisfying, research components, and build ships, I've got a big stockpile of fuel that my fuel-efficient ships (even military) only skim from.

Even going from x1 Engine Power down to x0.95 or x0.9 Engine Power makes a big difference in terms of fuel consumption. I tend to make my military engines pretty big, at about x0.9 or x0.95EP, and it certainly helps that I tend to dedicate lots of research to the decreased fuel consumption techs. Cuts down on a small amount of waste tonnage from excess fuel tanks and in the event that the ship is destroyed, I don't lose a couple million liters of fuel too. Alternatively, I can keep the extra fuel tanks and have a long-range vessel.

EDIT: Anyone recall if the rules for 500-1000 ton ships has changed? I thought I remembered something about it. Something about not having to build shipyards for them? I may just be misremembering/conflating two different things.

[AlStar]

Ships 500 tons and smaller are classified as fighters. They don't need a bridge component, and they're built by fighter factories on the planet surface.
Ships 1000 tons and smaller also don't need a bridge, but you'll need to build them in a shipyard (albeit a very small one).

[Shooer]

Below Ion and .7 fuel efficiency I also drop power on my military engines to 90% to save fuel.

[coleslaw35]

Ships 500 tons and smaller are classified as fighters. They don't need a bridge component, and they're built by fighter factories on the planet surface.
Ships 1000 tons and smaller also don't need a bridge, but you'll need to build them in a shipyard (albeit a very small one).

Ah, so then nothing changed after all and I was just misremembering. Thanks.

[Rince Wind]

Just designed my 1st navy in Aurora C#.

Any glaring oversights to see?
There will be tankers.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Jump capability will be delivered by 2 of these:
[codeHercules class Jump Destroyer Escort      14 995 tons       366 Crew       2 087.2 BP       TCS 300    TH 1 728    EM 1 650
5762 km/s    JR 3-50      Armour 5-54       Shields 55-440       HTK 95      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 25      PPV 14
Maint Life 4.48 Years     MSP 1 348    AFR 116%    IFR 1.6%    1YR 109    5YR 1 628    Max Repair 170.3 MSP
Magazine 374   
Fregattankapitan    Control Rating 2   BRG   AUX   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Morale Check Required   

Ek-Nyström J15000(3-50) Military Jump Drive     Max Ship Size 15000 tons    Distance 50k km     Squadron Size 3

Norberg & Henriksson Aeromarine Magneto-plasma Drive  EP288.00 (6)    Power 1728    Fuel Use 32.60%    Signature 288    Explosion 9%
Fuel Capacity 1 000 000 Litres    Range 36.8 billion km (73 days at full power)
Ugglas-Hansson Defence Technologies Epsilon S55 / R440 Shields (1)     Recharge Time 440 seconds (0.1 per second)

Norberg Ordnance Size 1 Missile Launcher (14)     Missile Size: 1    Rate of Fire 10
Holmgren Electronics Missile Fire Control FC24-R1 (2)     Range 24.3m km    Resolution 1
Nordin Ordnance Bataan AMM (370)    Speed: 26 800 km/s    End: 1.6m     Range: 2.6m km    WH: 1    Size: 1    TH: 196/117/58

Eliasson & Jonsson Electronics Active Search Sensor AS19-R1 (1)     GPS 105     Range 19.2m km    MCR 1.7m km    Resolution 1

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

This design is classed as a Military Vessel for maintenance purposes[/code]

Sensors are on 2 command ships:

Code: [Select]

Odysseus class Command Ship      10 094 tons       215 Crew       1 636 BP       TCS 202    TH 1 152    EM 3 300
5706 km/s      Armour 6-41       Shields 110-440       HTK 56      Sensors 11/11/0/0      DCR 7      PPV 5
Maint Life 3.22 Years     MSP 709    AFR 116%    IFR 1.6%    1YR 103    5YR 1 542    Max Repair 129.6 MSP
Magazine 185   
Kapitan zur See    Control Rating 2   BRG   FLG   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Morale Check Required   

Norberg & Henriksson Aeromarine Magneto-plasma Drive  EP288.00 (4)    Power 1152    Fuel Use 32.60%    Signature 288    Explosion 9%
Fuel Capacity 750 000 Litres    Range 41 billion km (83 days at full power)
Ugglas-Hansson Defence Technologies Epsilon S55 / R440 Shields (2)     Recharge Time 440 seconds (0.3 per second)

Norberg Ordnance Size 1 Missile Launcher (5)     Missile Size: 1    Rate of Fire 10
Holmgren Electronics Missile Fire Control FC24-R1 (1)     Range 24.3m km    Resolution 1
Nordin Ordnance Bataan AMM (185)    Speed: 26 800 km/s    End: 1.6m     Range: 2.6m km    WH: 1    Size: 1    TH: 196/117/58

Eliasson & Jonsson Electronics Active Search Sensor AS19-R1 (1)     GPS 105     Range 19.2m km    MCR 1.7m km    Resolution 1
Eliasson & Jonsson Electronics Active Search Sensor AS88-R100 (1)     GPS 10500     Range 89m km    Resolution 100
Nordström Sensor Systems EM Sensor EM1.0-11.0 (1)     Sensitivity 11     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  26.2m km
Nordström Sensor Systems Thermal Sensor TH1.0-11.0 (1)     Sensitivity 11     Detect Sig Strength 1000:  26.2m km

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s
The main punch will come from box launchers:

Code: [Select]

Dracon class Destroyer      14 947 tons       216 Crew       1 928.4 BP       TCS 299    TH 1 728    EM 1 650
5780 km/s      Armour 5-54       Shields 55-440       HTK 56      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 21      PPV 90
Maint Life 3.57 Years     MSP 887    AFR 162%    IFR 2.3%    1YR 107    5YR 1 609    Max Repair 129.6 MSP
Magazine 600   
Kapitan zur See    Control Rating 2   BRG   CIC   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Morale Check Required   

Norberg & Henriksson Aeromarine Magneto-plasma Drive  EP288.00 (6)    Power 1728    Fuel Use 32.60%    Signature 288    Explosion 9%
Fuel Capacity 750 000 Litres    Range 27.7 billion km (55 days at full power)
Ugglas-Hansson Defence Technologies Epsilon S55 / R440 Shields (1)     Recharge Time 440 seconds (0.1 per second)

Norberg Ordonance Size 6.00 Box Launcher (100)     Missile Size: 6    Hangar Reload 122 minutes    MF Reload 20 hours
Holmgren Electronics Missile Fire Control FC112-R100 (2)     Range 112.6m km    Resolution 100
Nordin Ordnance Brisbane Anti-Ship Missile (100)    Speed: 22 400 km/s    End: 35.7m     Range: 48m km    WH: 9    Size: 6    TH: 104/62/31

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

I shall have missile escorts and laser ones. The latter will be used if there isn't much coming our way and maybe to finish off stragglers.

Code: [Select]

Dionysus class Escort      9 972 tons       202 Crew       1 448.7 BP       TCS 199    TH 1 152    EM 0
5776 km/s      Armour 5-41       Shields 0-0       HTK 64      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 7      PPV 15
Maint Life 3.65 Years     MSP 681    AFR 106%    IFR 1.5%    1YR 79    5YR 1 186    Max Repair 129.6 MSP
Magazine 735   
Fregattankapitan    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Morale Check Required   

Norberg & Henriksson Aeromarine Magneto-plasma Drive  EP288.00 (4)    Power 1152    Fuel Use 32.60%    Signature 288    Explosion 9%
Fuel Capacity 750 000 Litres    Range 41.5 billion km (83 days at full power)

Norberg Ordnance Size 1 Missile Launcher (15)     Missile Size: 1    Rate of Fire 10
Holmgren Electronics Missile Fire Control FC24-R1 (3)     Range 24.3m km    Resolution 1
Nordin Ordnance Bataan AMM (735)    Speed: 26 800 km/s    End: 1.6m     Range: 2.6m km    WH: 1    Size: 1    TH: 196/117/58

Eliasson & Jonsson Electronics Active Search Sensor AS19-R1 (1)     GPS 105     Range 19.2m km    MCR 1.7m km    Resolution 1

Missile to hit chances are vs targets moving at 3000 km/s, 5000 km/s and 10,000 km/s

Code: [Select]

Zeus class Escort      9 983 tons       255 Crew       1 704 BP       TCS 200    TH 1 152    EM 0
5770 km/s      Armour 5-41       Shields 0-0       HTK 68      Sensors 0/0/0/0      DCR 9      PPV 45.54
Maint Life 4.27 Years     MSP 960    AFR 89%    IFR 1.2%    1YR 85    5YR 1 269    Max Repair 129.6 MSP
Fregattankapitan    Control Rating 1   BRG   
Intended Deployment Time: 12 months    Morale Check Required   

Norberg & Henriksson Aeromarine Magneto-plasma Drive  EP288.00 (4)    Power 1152    Fuel Use 32.60%    Signature 288    Explosion 9%
Fuel Capacity 750 000 Litres    Range 41.5 billion km (83 days at full power)

Quad Dahlberg & Arvidsson Precision Arms 10cm C3 Far Ultraviolet Laser Turret (3x4)    Range 64 000km     TS: 16000 km/s     Power 12-12     RM 50 000 km    ROF 5       
Vikström & Larsson Beam Fire Control R64-TS16000 (3)     Max Range: 64 000 km   TS: 16 000 km/s     84 69 53 38 22 6 0 0 0 0
Lindberg & Hellström Aero Engines Stellarator Fusion Reactor R6 (6)     Total Power Output 36    Exp 5%

Eliasson & Jonsson Electronics Active Search Sensor AS19-R1 (1)     GPS 105     Range 19.2m km    MCR 1.7m km    Resolution 1

It just seems like a lot of tonnage for the bang, I know I used to have smaller ships, even at this techlevel.

[AlStar]

Looks good to me - how are you planning on reloading the Dracon class Destroyers?
It'd also help to see the missiles they're planning to fire, to make sure your sensor ranges match up with ranges.