[GUIDE] How to use a Resupply ship (guide with images)

[GUIDE] How to use a Resupply ship (guide with images) (Full Version)

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Sirian -> [GUIDE] How to use a Resupply ship (guide with images) (6/24/2014 6:03:01 AM)
I thought I'd put together a guide for Resupply ships, since these days every other thread seems to contain questions about them. I have added some images, so you can see what's going on onscreen when using Resupply ships. I realized later, I have quite a lot of mods installed, so don't be scared if ships or symbols don't look like they do in your game. Namely I use all of Sirian's mods (what a surprise, yes...) parts of Martian's GEM and Das' Chrome mods. And I do hope I didn't forget anyone else. First things first: Resupply ships are mobile refuelling bases. They can fulfill other roles as well, but thats the one they were made for. [image]http://stephan.gestalter.at/dw_mod/guide/Image01.jpg[/image] Begin by designing a Resupply ship. To do so, you must first research Accelerated Construction in the Energy research tree. A Resupply ship needs to have gas extractors, docking ports and a cargo bay (see red box in image above) Everything else is optional. Don't save on cargo bays, you will need lots of fuel to refuel large fleets. The design shown in the image was created to be able to scare off small fleets so it has a lot of weapons and even fighter bays but weapons aren't really necessary. If I designed the same ship today I would probably reduce the weapons, put (far) more engines on it and more cargo bays. [image]http://stephan.gestalter.at/dw_mod/guide/Image02.jpg[/image] One of the most important things to do when using Resupply ships is: organizing your fleets. In this image you see my 2 Assault fleets and a little farther down two Logistics fleets. The logistic fleets contain one Resupply ship each. If you put your Resupply ship into your Assault fleet, these won't be able to refuel at the Resupply ship - which is their sole purpose. (Why is it so? Because a refuelling order will implicitly have the Resupply ship undeploy from its location which makes the rest of the fleet unable to refuel there, but we will get to that later) Note: The whole resupplying process also works if you do not put your Resupply ships in to a logistics fleet. I did it because it makes finding the ships easier. Finding a ship takes me longer than finding a fleet.. Resupply ship at a planet [image]http://stephan.gestalter.at/dw_mod/guide/Image03.jpg[/image] Look for a nice, cozy planet to deploy the resupply ship. "Deploying" means: Put the ship in orbit and "change it into a gas mining station". If the planet has a fuel resource, the ship will mine this resource(s). You can deploy a Resuplly ship at any planet, even rock planets. It is not necessary that the planet is "free", your ship can deploy next to an enemy gasmining station if necessary. Of course, your ship will only fill its cargo bays with fuel if it can mine this fuel at that planet. For now, we look for a gas giant planet with a fuel resource. After it is built, the Resupply ship's cargo hold is empty, so we need to fill it with hydrogen and/or Caslon - the two fuel options in the game. It is advised that you fill your Resupply ship prior to being deploed in a battle zone so you won't have embarrassig moments of not finding a fuel source in the battle zone or having fleets in need of refuelling but your Resupply ship is empty. This is a nice planet for filling a resupply ship. It has hydrogen as well as Caslon plus some Krypton we do not need. Send your ship there. [image]http://stephan.gestalter.at/dw_mod/guide/Image04.jpg[/image] You cannot deploy fleets, only individual ships. Even if the fleet only contains one single ship, you cannot issue the "deploy at..." order when having the fleet selected. So first select the fleet (left part of the image) then select the Resupply ship by clicking on the small icon. You will see a "not deployed" in the status bar of the ship. [image]http://stephan.gestalter.at/dw_mod/guide/Image05.jpg[/image] Now right click on the planet and select "deploy at planet". Then wait. Seriously. The next step is going to take some time. When right clicking the planet to initiate the deployment process, it might be necessary to press the Ctrl key when rightclicking to bring up the rightclick-contect-menu. [image]http://stephan.gestalter.at/dw_mod/guide/Image06.jpg[/image] The Resupply ship will eventually go to the planet, enter orbit and "deploy". Deploying and undeploying takes 30s, when deployment is finished, you can see the gasmining animation under the ship. See he arrow in image above. [image]http://stephan.gestalter.at/dw_mod/guide/Image07.jpg[/image] After a while, the cargo hold will fill up with hydrogen and Caslon. Half the cargo bay will be reserved for hydrogen and the other half for Caslon. Other gases will not be mined. Even if only one source is availlable, the cargohold will still be reserved for the other gas. (Tested that) [image]http://stephan.gestalter.at/dw_mod/guide/Image08.jpg[/image] To refuel a fleet: select a fleet and either: - right click on the Resupply ship and select "Refuell at [shipname]" or - just click the "refuel at nearest fuel source" icon (red circle) This icon will look a little differently if Das' chrome mod is not installed. It is possilbe that your fleet will ignore your Resupply ship and head to another fuel source (at the other side of the galaxy) This only happens if the Resupply ship has insufficient fuel to refuel the whole fleet. So be sure to give it enough cargo holds and fill it up before issuig refuelling orders. [image]http://stephan.gestalter.at/dw_mod/guide/Image09.jpg[/image] Your fleet approaching the Resupply ship. Resupply ship at a gas cloud images will follow as soon as I edit them In principle, this works exactly like deploying on a gas giant with a few small differences 1.) When right clicking the gas cloud to initiate the deployment process, it will probalby be necessary to press the Ctrl key when rightclicking to bring up the rightclick-contect-menu. This happened to me frequently when trying to deploy a filled up Resupply ship at a gas cloud. The standard "patrol" icon would not allow that. But pressing Ctrl when rightclicking solved the issue. You can deploy your ship at a cloud even if there already is a foreign gasmining station there. 2.) There are two distinct gas cloud objects that can confuse you. The first one is the system-class gas cloud object, it represents the gas cloud at starmap level. It is needed so you can see the gas cloud on the galaxy map. The other gas cloud object represents the gas cloud at planet level. You can only deploy at the latter gas cloud object. Since you can't see planet objects at galaxy-map zoom level, you must zoom in to be able to select and therefore deploy a resupply ship at the gas cloud (planet-level) To illustrate the object hierarchy: Solar System object (star on galaxy map - cannot deploy here) -> Planet 1 -> Planet 2 -> Planet 3 (Gas giant - can deploy here) Solar System object (gas cloud, white cross on the galaxy map - cannot deploy here) -> Gas clouds planetary object (can deploy here) A gas cloud could be described as a gas-cloud planet inside a gas-cloud solar system. [image]http://stephan.gestalter.at/dw_mod/guide/Image10.jpg[/image] In the image above you can see the gas clouds system object. If you are zoomed out on the galaxy map - see the mini map for reference - you can only interact with solar system type objects. As you can see you cannot deploy a Resupply ship at a gas clouds solar system type object, there is no option to do so in the right click menu. [image]http://stephan.gestalter.at/dw_mod/guide/Image11.jpg[/image] If you zoom in far enough to have the gas clouds planet type object visible - again see the mini map for reference - there is an option in the right click menu to deploy the Resupply ship. As always, you need to have the Resupply ship selected, not the fleet! [image]http://stephan.gestalter.at/dw_mod/guide/Image12.jpg[/image] Your resupply ship is deployed at a gas cloud. [image]http://stephan.gestalter.at/dw_mod/guide/Image13.jpg[/image] Ordering a fleet to refuel at a Resupply ship that is deployed at a gas cloud. So this is it, I hope to have been of assistance. If anyone feels the need to add more information or tips, don't restrain yourself!

Bingeling -> RE: [GUIDE] How to use a Resupply ship (guide with images) (6/24/2014 7:56:06 AM)
Nice work! You could mention that putting resupply ship in logistics fleets is a choice, not a necessity.

Sirian -> RE: [GUIDE] How to use a Resupply ship (guide with images) (6/24/2014 11:08:21 AM)
Good idea! I'll add a note.

Aeson -> RE: [GUIDE] How to use a Resupply ship (guide with images) (6/24/2014 12:00:47 PM)
I'd also add a suggestion that it's a bit better to have the Resupply Ship over a source that contains only the fuel that your fleets actually use, if your navy works on a single fuel source. After all, if your fleets only use Caslon but your Resupply Ship is half full of hydrogen, it's wasting a bit of its capacity. Also, ships in a fleet which contains a deployed Resupply Ship can refuel at that Resupply Ship, as they will automatically move to refuel at the nearest refueling point whenever their fuel stocks are low. They just cannot be ordered to refuel at that Resupply Ship, as that causes the Resupply Ship to undeploy. Issuing other orders to the fleet will also tend to cause the Resupply Ship to undeploy, so if you're going to include Resupply Ships in a fleet containing other vessels, I would suggest that the other vessels be intended as escorts for the Resupply Ship rather than having the Resupply Ship tacked on to a main fleet. Nevertheless, including a Resupply Ship in a main fleet isn't necessarily a bad idea, so long as you're not intending to set the Resupply Ship up as a semi-permanent fueling point, as if the Resupply Ship has cargo bays full of an appropriate fuel you can deploy the ship anywhere and allow your low-fuel ships to quickly top off.

Evrett -> RE: [GUIDE] How to use a Resupply ship (guide with images) (6/24/2014 6:22:43 PM)
Can you do one for gas clouds? Show more mining operation animations! Those are HOT awooga!

ehsumrell1 -> RE: [GUIDE] How to use a Resupply ship (guide with images) (6/24/2014 6:43:49 PM)
EXCELLENT illustrations Sirian....I applaud you! [:)] [sm=happy0065.gif]

Bingeling -> RE: [GUIDE] How to use a Resupply ship (guide with images) (6/24/2014 7:26:19 PM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Evrett Can you do one for gas clouds? Show more mining operation animations! Those are HOT awooga! A right (with cloud selected) and wrong (with system selected) for gas clouds would not hurt. People have been confused about this in the past.

Sirian -> RE: [GUIDE] How to use a Resupply ship (guide with images) (6/25/2014 5:24:12 AM)
quote: ORIGINAL: Aeson I'd also add a suggestion that it's a bit better to have the Resupply Ship over a source that contains only the fuel that your fleets actually use, if your navy works on a single fuel source. After all, if your fleets only use Caslon but your Resupply Ship is half full of hydrogen, it's wasting a bit of its capacity. I tested this yesterday, since I had a suspicion and the results were: Resupply ships reserve half of their cargo for hydrogen and half of their cargo for caslon, period. If you deploy your Resupply ship over a source that only supplies hydrogen it will fill its cargo hold to 50% with hydrogen. It doesn't matter how long you stay there, the limit is always the same. If you then move to a caslon source it will fill the other 50% with Caslon. So, you cannot waste your capacity as it doesn't get filled anyway. Unless I overlooked a customization option somewhere... @Evrett, Bingleing: I will do that. @ehsumrell1: Thank you!

Sirian -> RE: [GUIDE] How to use a Resupply ship (guide with images) (6/30/2014 6:05:45 AM)
Added a part describing the process to deploy a Resupply ship at a gas cloud.

Sleeeper -> RE: [GUIDE] How to use a Resupply ship (guide with images) (6/30/2014 6:39:40 AM)
Also it's good to set resupply ship on "Engage when attacked". This way it won't undeploy to chase some enemy.

ArrowRL201 -> RE: [GUIDE] How to use a Resupply ship (guide with images) (7/2/2014 7:50:23 PM)
So can resupply ships resupply fleets when they're not deployed, provided they have hydrogen/caslon in their stockpile?

Aeson -> RE: [GUIDE] How to use a Resupply ship (guide with images) (7/2/2014 9:27:21 PM)
No. Resupply ships must be deployed in order for other ships to dock with them, and it's only by docking with the resupply ship that a vessel can receive fuel from it. Keeping hydrogen or caslon in the cargo bays does allow you to refuel at any arbitrary location that you deploy the resupply ship at, however, and means that your ships might not have to wait (or won't need to wait as long) for the resupply ship to accumulate enough fuel for the fleet.

ArrowRL201 -> RE: [GUIDE] How to use a Resupply ship (guide with images) (7/2/2014 10:29:11 PM)
Okay, so what you're saying then is that it is possible to refuel a fleet from a resupply ship's stockpile by having it deploy at a site that has no hydrogen/caslon at it, such as a gas cloud that lacks either fuel resource?

Aeson -> RE: [GUIDE] How to use a Resupply ship (guide with images) (7/2/2014 11:32:11 PM)
In theory, yes. In practice, it may be a bit difficult to get the fleet to refuel at that resupply ship if the total fuel capacity of the fleet exceeds the amount of appropriate fuel carried by the resupply ship, even if the resupply ship carries enough fuel to top off the tanks of all the ships in the fleet.

Sirian -> RE: [GUIDE] How to use a Resupply ship (guide with images) (7/15/2014 6:10:22 AM)
Added some information about deploying at rock planets and pressing the Ctrl key while rightclicking in the deployment process.

Kilo181 -> RE: [GUIDE] How to use a Resupply ship (guide with images) (9/26/2014 12:48:41 AM)
Thanks for making this guide! It really cleared up my confusion about how to use resupply ships. Also,where do you see the total amount of fuel your fleet needs?

Aeson -> RE: [GUIDE] How to use a Resupply ship (guide with images) (9/26/2014 2:28:29 AM)
quote: Also,where do you see the total amount of fuel your fleet needs? You can see an estimate of the current fuel state of all the ships in the fleet (or, more accurately, all the ships in the fleet whose icons fit) in the lower left corner of the main screen when you have the fleet selected. This gives you a qualitative assessment of the fleet's fuel situation (e.g. the fleet's fuel tanks are about half dry), not a quantitative assessment (the fleet's fuel tanks contain 1987 fuel out of 3900 total). If you want to know the exact numbers, however, as far as I know you will need to go through and examine the fuel state of each ship in your fleet, and sum up the missing fuel or total fuel capacity. The estimate is how far up the side of the ship icon the little green vertical bar goes - all the way up is 100% full tanks, halfway up is approximately 50% full tanks, etc, for the ship associated with the green bar. If you're just looking to ensure an adequate amount of stored fuel in locations that your fleet will go when ordered to refuel, then you'll want to add up the total capacities, which is relatively easy if you keep all your designs within a given role on the same number of fuel cells, and even easier if you only use a single design within a fleet, as you can just go "well, my destroyers can carry 300 fuel and my cruisers can carry 600, and I have 3 cruisers and 7 destroyers in this fleet, so I need 3900 fuel at a depot before the fleet will choose to refuel there." If you're looking for the amount of fuel you'll need somewhere if you want to force a fleet to refuel at that point whether it wants to or not, then you'll need to either take the qualitative assessment of the fleet's fuel state as given by the fleet details in the lower left corner of the screen (my ships are all about half full of fuel, so I need about 2000 fuel if I want to top them off), or you'll need to go through each ship individually to see exactly how much fuel you require (my cruisers have 300, 271, and 335 fuel, and my destroyers have 115, 191, 187, 186, 179, 188, and 190 fuel, so I require 1758 fuel to fill my fleet's tanks) somewhere before you can force your fleet to top off there. This is a lot easier if you use a standard fleet setup in situations where you'd be supporting the fleet with a resupply ship, so for example perhaps all your assault fleets consist of 15 cruisers, all your raiding fleets consist of 10 destroyers, and all your main battle groups consist of 5 battleships, 2 carriers, and 15 cruisers. Then you can design your resupply ships so that 1 resupply ship carries enough fuel to completely refuel at least 1 of whichever of these fleets requires the most fuel (probably the main battle group), and preferably also has the docks to refuel all the ships simultaneously.

Hattori Hanzo -> RE: [GUIDE] How to use a Resupply ship (guide with images) (6/3/2016 2:00:16 PM)
very interesting guide [X(]

NephilimNexus -> RE: [GUIDE] How to use a Resupply ship (guide with images) (6/28/2016 4:21:31 AM)
Add construction yards and you can repair your combat ships at a Resupply Ship as well. Likewise, you can also Retire captured ships at such a Resupply Ship (and steal their tech!). Always be sure to fit a Long Range Sensor and enough solar panels to power it on your Resupply Ship as well.

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