Fuel?

[Charlemagne]

I was under the impression when the game started that the ship needed fuel, and that fuel was Helium. But well into the game, I've never needed to refuel. Is fuel a thing or not? (Hopefully not that would be a chore).

[CurrySpirals]

You do not need to refuel, no.

[Chris]

It seems like the fuel mechanic got nerfed so that now your ship basically "auto-fuels" every time you land, even on deserted planets.
So fuel only matters for determining your maximum "in one go" jump path.

[ZombieHunter]

They removed it b/c play testers felt it was too tedious.

[bLaCkShAd0w]

It would be kind of gamebreaking, or at least change the way you play quite a lot.

*Lands on planet, realizes doesn't have enough aluminum for an he3 extractor. Can't fly back for resources. Delete save game*

Choices on travelling would matter a lot more.

[Vivio]

if you've ever played a game with a fuel mechanic you'd understand that it gets tedious really fast

[Redeyeflight]

Originally posted by Charlemagne:

I was under the impression when the game started that the ship needed fuel, and that fuel was Helium. But well into the game, I've never needed to refuel. Is fuel a thing or not? (Hopefully not that would be a chore).

This was probably one of the main reasons for outposts in the original design.
Having to build an outpost to gather He3 and refuel your ship.

I think they probably figured they wanted to sell the game to smooth brains, who would complain if they had to do math, or had any logistics to do at all.

Jokes kind of on them there. All the smooth brains are engaged in a smear campaign anyway.

I kind of say bring back all the survival elements that were originally planned, because the "Let's go Brandon" crowd Isn't biting anyway.

[Yoghurt shot]

Uranium in NMS. Here you only need fuel canisters..
You pee inside and your ship fly.

[ZombieHunter]

Originally posted by Redeyeflight:

Originally posted by Charlemagne:

I was under the impression when the game started that the ship needed fuel, and that fuel was Helium. But well into the game, I've never needed to refuel. Is fuel a thing or not? (Hopefully not that would be a chore).

This was probably one of the main reasons for outposts in the original design.
Having to build an outpost to gather He3 and refuel your ship.

I think they probably figured they wanted to sell the game to smooth brains, who would complain if they had to do math, or had any logistics to do at all.

Jokes kind of on them there. All the smooth brains are engaged in a smear campaign anyway.

I kind of say bring back all the survival elements that were originally planned, because the "Let's go Brandon" crowd Isn't biting anyway.

Making a game more accessible is not dumbing it down. That is a false equivalency. You can make a game complex yet also more accessible. The two are not dichotomous. Complex and inaccessible is a really bad combination.

X4 is extremely complex but slightly inaccessible due to the UI but the world is very accessible thanks to jump gates and fast travel mode.

Elite Dangerous is complex yet quite accessible due to the really good UI but quite inaccessible due to its own 'immersion' which really is code word for 'tedium'.

NMS is not very complex but also not very accessible due to the UI requiring a ton of clicking around and also the travel being extremely slow without using black holes. The space suit constantly nagging you about everything is also annoying which requires a bunch of menu clicks to fix which gets old fast.

Crusader Kings 2 is extremely complex and also quite inacessible due to the complicated UI that takes a lot of getting use to. Crusader Kings 3 fixed the UI while removing some of the complexity of CK2 which most were not happy with.

SF is moderately complex and moderately accessible due to the way the menus are. Some stuff requires too many clicks, IMO, and are not accessible enough. The world is very accessible b/c it is efficient and does not require tedium (sans planet surveying) to accomplish tasks. The fast travel portion does not affect the complexity of the outposts nor the complexity of quests and the stories therein.

[Charlemagne]

Well I would find fueling boring, and if making outposts was further required to get fuel it would be extra boring. Wisdom is not always in adding more but in knowing what to leave out. If the devs decided to drop that, I don't complain. But surely they will reintroduce it in Survival when that comes out

[Yoghurt shot]

Originally posted by Charlemagne:

Well I would find fueling boring, and if making outposts was further required to get fuel it would be extra boring. Wisdom is not always in adding more but in knowing what to leave out. If the devs decided to drop that, I don't complain. But surely they will reintroduce it in Survival when that comes out

Have you heard about solar and wind energy? So many survival games already allow to use them that your argument is a joke.

[Vivio]

solar and wind power in starfield is pretty overwhelmingly bad though it's not like empyrion where the sun can power your whole base with ease :D

[Dollop of Mayo]

Originally posted by Vivio:

if you've ever played a game with a fuel mechanic you'd understand that it gets tedious really fast

Agreed, it was a novel concept in StarBOUND (a Terraria in space game) at first, and after the first couple planets you either cheat to get a bunch of fuel or sigh and go back down into the mines if you're a purist

[abrahamnathir]

Yeah, I agree with Vivio Solar and wind power don't make much sense on a lot of the worlds or moons. Like worlds that are overcast constantly yet solar works somehow. Then with wind power it's running in freezing, acidic or corrosive atmospheres or biomes which would destroy or seize the motors.

[ImHelping]

Don't mistake it for "Casual players could not handle it", because the truth is more obvious.

They could not handle making it super obvious that the DEVS could not handle the responsibility of fuel, if you had to top up your tanks.

Even now, you can end up capturing a pirate ship with a 20+ listed jump range and... literally 50 fuel or some garbage, unable to make jumps to either pirate town or the red mile without fuel errors, only able to stop by cop scan country. Even with maxed out jump range and fuel economy skill.

"Hey if *supply name* mattered... how the ♥♥♥♥ would *faction name NPCs* even get to X in the first place? let alone manage return trip "

It isn't just about how it would be busywork that would only be rewarding if the content was worth the wait between jumps instead of childishly bragging you think visiting an MMO shop counter for repairs is survival gameplay.

It is because few things are as immersion shattering as realizing "Hey wait a minute, I am literally the only one paying any bills while the entire rest of the setting has to desperately cheat to avoid imploding"

Even great games with robust logistics models and economies/make half the game about your fleet logistics suffer this problem. And starfield sure as hell wouldn't compare there.

[Langkard]

Fuel was initially going to be a thing, but the devs decided that they didn't want to risk a situation in which a player might become stranded in space with no fuel. So, they removed it.