None of my fuel tankers ever load fuel

[xerius65]

.... the ones i order manually to load fuel never refuel anything. ......

this game is so broken.

[APhoenixSoaring]

When you manually load fuel, do you reset them to automated again?

Mine do load fuel, however:
I agree fuel tankers could be significantly improved. Most of mine are idle, most of the time. Then if they are in fleets, they almost always arrive at a location near attack targets first, get attacked, and get driven off before the rest of the fleet arrives.

[frankycl]

Originally posted by xerius65:

.... the ones i order manually to load fuel never refuel anything. ......

this game is so broken.

No, it is not ! - You just don't know how it works (or you are experiencing an unknown/rare bug - but to confirm this we/The DEVs would need a save. ) !
In my games with 1.1.0.3 all fueltankers do what they are intended to do - independent if set on manual- or automatic-controll !
(However, it's a bit also the fault of the game/the DEVs that you don't know how it works, imho. )

What you need to know is the following:

1. Fuel (in the detail-window of ships/stations, etc.) is not the same as the resource Caslon - that is needed to be filled/transported in the cargo-sections of the fuel tankers.
Caslon is only converted into fuel by (correctly) refuleing other ships/stations - but NOT if you use the command "refuel at XY" !

2. Caslon is transfered to tankers by a) picking it up at mining-stations or b) mining for Caslon by the tankers themselves (independent if the tankers are set on auto or manual); - and you always need Caslon to refuel anything else !

3. You can refuel anything else be TRANSFERING Caslon to the target (where it gets converted into fuel) - so with manual controll the command for this is always "Transfer fuel to XY" - not "Refuel XY" ! (And this should always be the first (yellow) command when you have your tanker selected and hover with the mouse over the target you want to refuel.)

4. If you right-klick those targets from above the mission of the tanker should immediately change to "Transfer fuel to XY", but it can take a while to actually set an active course to this taget, because the game has to compute some things (like, e.g. the mission-target and speed of the target itself, etc.) - but after a short time it should speed up and try to advance to the target (which it only can, if the target is also set on manual - and waiting to be refuled, or doesn't have a mission to perform before the tanker can reach it (and it's additionally only possible if the target is not moving !).

5. If your tankers also have jumpdrives they will try to get to the target (or its mission-target) with hyper-jumps, but when they arrive at the location (where the target should be waiting for the refueling) it also takes a while for them to advance to the target (before the refueling), because on location-level they only use their normal engines. But when they are near the target the transfer/convert of Caslon from the tankers to fuel in the ships/stations, etc. should start immediately (and it always did/does this in my games - independent of automatic- or manual controll).

6. There are several settings that can influence this default game-mechanics (in the policy-settings and/or in the settings for manual-/automatic-controll of the targets for the refueling) and you'll have to set them all to manual/default if you want to do the refueling manually, too.

[APhoenixSoaring]

@Frankycyl: do your fuel tankers automatically refuel other ships after you set them (fuel tankers) to manual by giving them an order to load fuel at a gas giant and not change the ship automation back afterwards by changing the yellow M in the bottom left corner back to a blue A?

For my fuel tankers do refuel other ships while automated. I often feel they are not as busy as they could be, because they don't have enough ships to refuel, and when they have multiple ships close together, I wish the refuelling component could service more than one ship at once or be put on mining stations for this purpose.

[Ax4711]

Fuel tankers should always be on auto. The only thing I ever do with them manually is sending them to specific mines to "load fuel", then immediately switch back to auto, there's a hotkey for that. It's normal for them to idle and they are sometimes very stupid when assigned to combat fleets, but they do also save dry ships of all kinds.

[AlienGeek]

When on manual you can force them to mine fuel, will they ever do that while on auto ?

[frankycl]

Originally posted by APhoenixSoaring:

@Frankycyl: do your fuel tankers automatically refuel other ships after you set them (fuel tankers) to manual by giving them an order to load fuel at a gas giant and not change the ship automation back afterwards by changing the yellow M in the bottom left corner back to a blue A?

Don't know what you're aiming at with your question, but there is a policy-setting for this - so, I think it's depending on what setting you have set for this in general (and my manual tankers normally try to refuel other ships in need, when I set them to "Automatically Refuel Manual Ships" - yes (if this is what you meant).
However, I have'nt tested this in particular, so I can't say if they really do it always, or if they always do it as you would expect it.

Originally posted by APhoenixSoaring:

For my fuel tankers do refuel other ships while automated. I often feel they are not as busy as they could be, (...)

Well, "not as busy as they could be" depends on your expectations you have for their behavior in particular or for the game-mechanics in general - but in general I'd say it matches my expectations when the outcome (= refueled ships, etc. in time) is enough to keep the game going (in a fun-implying manner) and balanced.
(However, the exact mechanics might leave something to improve, too - but, like I said, I haven't tested this enough to be sure if it is this way or the other. )

Originally posted by APhoenixSoaring:

(...) I wish the refuelling component could service more than one ship at once or be put on mining stations for this purpose.

What do mean by this exactly - can you give an example ? (or what do want to achieve with this - in contrast to like it is now ?)

[frankycl]

Originally posted by AlienGeek:

When on manual you can force them to mine fuel, will they ever do that while on auto ?

Yes, they also do that on full-auto - I've witnessed it many times.

[Navy~]

in my opinion , tankers worked great in the first versions of the game. when ships without fuel would stop and wait for a fuel tanker and then continue to their destination. Its more time efficient.

Now tankers run after their target to refuel but the target would still continue its warp speed at very slow speed.

People didnt understand mechanics then, scream left and right now everythings broken.
"why does my ship keep not following my orders.. yaaarrghhh".

About the mining ability of a tanker, should it be able to mine? with these very low mining rates? in my opinion a tanker should resupply at your mining stations, and just carry it around. else the AI would constantly evaluate "should i mine"? "should i ressupply someone"? "should i retrofit" etc... doing exactly what you dont need them to do.

edit: Apparently now fuel tankers set on evade do not engage are engaging ships on their own. Troop transports too

edit2: Oh the fleet manager keeps asigning my fuel tanker as a picket ship with orders to engage.

[APhoenixSoaring]

Originally posted by frankycl:

Originally posted by APhoenixSoaring:

@Frankycyl: do your fuel tankers automatically refuel other ships after you set them (fuel tankers) to manual by giving them an order to load fuel at a gas giant and not change the ship automation back afterwards by changing the yellow M in the bottom left corner back to a blue A?

Don't know what you're aiming at with your question, but there is a policy-setting for this - so, I think it's depending on what setting you have set for this in general (and my manual tankers normally try to refuel other ships in need, when I set them to "Automatically Refuel Manual Ships" - yes (if this is what you meant).
However, I have'nt tested this in particular, so I can't say if they really do it always, or if the always do it as you would expect it. :cozybrawlhalla1:

Originally posted by APhoenixSoaring:

For my fuel tankers do refuel other ships while automated. I often feel they are not as busy as they could be, (...)

Well, "not as busy as they could be" depends on your expectations you have for their behavior in particular or for the game-mechanics in general - but in general I'd say it matches my expectations when the outcome (= refueled ships, etc. in time) is enough to keep the game going (in a fun-implying manner) and balanced. :happens:
(However, the exact mechanics might leave something to improve, too - but, like I said, I haven't tested this enough to be sure if it is this way or the other. :cozybrawlhalla1:)

Originally posted by APhoenixSoaring:

(...) I wish the refuelling component could service more than one ship at once or be put on mining stations for this purpose.

What do mean by this exactly - can you give an example ? (or what do want to achieve with this - in contrast to like it is now ?)

I reckon the tanker was on auto. After the order to load fuel occurred, the tanker would have been in manual.
The question is: did it get changed back to auto?

I would be surprised if manual tankers did automatically carry out missions to transfer fuel to other ships.

Not as busy: I have a lot more fuel tankers than there seems to be a need for. So many spend a long time idle.

Remote resupply: currently isn't it one fuel tanker, one ship being resupplied?
I would like to upgrade the remote resupply component for it to transfer fuel to more than one ship in range simultaneously.
You can put the remote resupply component on a mining station, but I'm not sure it gets used.

[frankycl]

Originally posted by APhoenixSoaring:

I reckon the tanker was on auto. After the order to load fuel occurred, the tanker would have been in manual.
The question is: did it get changed back to auto?

Do you mean the tankers from the OP ? - He never said something about "auto", so this is not a question for me.
I think he just didn't know how the game works and therefore meant that his tankers don't do what he manually told them to - or it might actually be a little bug he experienced (or - even more likely - he had'nt started a new game with the new Beta. - who knows (if he doesn't answer) ? ).

Originally posted by APhoenixSoaring:

I would be surprised if manual tankers did automatically carry out missions to transfer fuel to other ships.

Well, they only do it, if you had set them to this in the policy-setting and if they are idle/without other missions from you - so, it's more like a safety-/ helper-option in case you overlooked a ship, etc. that needs fuel, I think.

Originally posted by APhoenixSoaring:

Not as busy: I have a lot more fuel tankers than there seems to be a need for. So many spend a long time idle.

Well, I'd say if this is "right" or not depends a lot of the things you do with your other ships (and/or the (better) possibility to refuel at stations/colonies, etc.) an/or if you had constructed those tankers / the other ships manually or automatically (?).

Originally posted by APhoenixSoaring:

I would like to upgrade the remote resupply component for it to transfer fuel to more than one ship in range simultaneously.

Maybe this might work (technically) for manual refueling, but certainly is not this easy for the AI, because it would need to compute even more things (if not doubled the quantity) before deciding what/where to refuel anything - hence the ("waiting"-)process would even be much longer and the work for the CPU would be increased significantly (= even more performance-issues). - So, in general I don't think that this might improve much.

Originally posted by APhoenixSoaring:

You can put the remote resupply component on a mining station, but I'm not sure it gets used.

What do you mean - or where can you put this at those stations ?
As far as I know, you can only automate stock-levels or set them to manual - or is this what you mean by "remote resupply" ?

[APhoenixSoaring]

Originally posted by frankycl:

Originally posted by APhoenixSoaring:

I reckon the tanker was on auto. After the order to load fuel occurred, the tanker would have been in manual.
The question is: did it get changed back to auto?

1. Do you mean the tankers from the OP ? - He never said something about "auto", so this is not a question for me.
I think he just didn't know how the game works and therefore meant that his tankers don't do what he manually told them to - or it might actually be a little bug he experienced (or - even more likely - he had'nt started a new game with the new Beta. - who knows (if he doesn't answer) ? :cozybrawlhalla1:).

Originally posted by APhoenixSoaring:

I would be surprised if manual tankers did automatically carry out missions to transfer fuel to other ships.

2. Well, they only do it, if you had set them to this in the policy-setting and if they are idle/without other missions from you - so, it's more like a safety-/ helper-option in case you overlooked a ship, etc. that needs fuel, I think. :happens:

Originally posted by APhoenixSoaring:

Not as busy: I have a lot more fuel tankers than there seems to be a need for. So many spend a long time idle.

3. Well, I'd say if this is "right" or not depends a lot of the things you do with your other ships (and/or the (better) possibility to refuel at stations/colonies, etc.) an/or if you had constructed those tankers / the other ships manually or automatically (?).

Originally posted by APhoenixSoaring:

I would like to upgrade the remote resupply component for it to transfer fuel to more than one ship in range simultaneously.

4. Maybe this might work (technically) for manual refueling, but certainly is not this easy for the AI, because it would need to compute even more things (if not doubled the quantity) before deciding what/where to refuel anything - hence the ("waiting"-)process would even be much longer and the work for the CPU would be increased significantly (= even more performance-issues). - So, in general I don't think that this might improve much. :winter2019happygingerbread:

Originally posted by APhoenixSoaring:

You can put the remote resupply component on a mining station, but I'm not sure it gets used.

5. What do you mean - or where can you put this at those stations ?
As far as I know, you can only automate stock-levels or set them to manual - or is this what you mean by "remote resupply" ? :lunar2020thinkingtiger:

1. I think OP intends for their tankers to refuel ships.

Frequently, they do sit around idle for long periods of time.

2. so the answer to the question I asked you: "do your fuel tankers automatically refuel other ships after you set them (fuel tankers) to manual"
is yes.

3. The number of fuel tankers suggested to be built is much larger than the job demands for fuel tankers.

4. This is idle speculation.

5. I mean the remote fuel transfer component.