Managing fuel reserves...lesson nearly learnt the hard way!

Gagzila · Post by **Gagzila** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 3:03 pm

Hi All,

Was happily mining away in an asteroid file, thought randomly to check my fuel....4 UNITS LEFT!!

I cut all thrusters, open my nav map and find the nearest starport. It's 75k+ and I don't have enough fuel to make the jump! I very slowly and carefully aim my ship at the waypointed spaceport, disable IDS and afterburner up to around 1070 after which I've got about 1 fuel unit left...hopefully enough for some light manoeuvring if I need it once I call into port.

It turns out my aim was pretty good and after about 15 minutes of sailing through empty space I arrive and make a few minor thruster adjustments to arrive in the dock with 1 fuel unit still showing...PHEW! That was TOO close LOL

Lesson learnt...ALWAYS keep an eye on the fuel gauge and after that one and only low fuel audio alert it's probably best to head back soon after before you forget!

One quick question, does the tractor / mining beam use any energy or fuel itself?

Cheers,

Gagzila

Post by **Marvin** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 3:06 pm

The beam doesn't but if you're mining on a planet or turning the beam for faster mining, your thrusters keep firing ... and that uses fuel.

Capt_Caveman · Post by **Capt_Caveman** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 7:26 pm

if you ever run out, someone in MP will surely come to your aid.
just make sure you can slow down or stop before your empty. ( it's harder to locate and rescue a fast moving target )

Busch · Post by **Busch** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 8:34 pm

Oh, I don't know... matching intrinsics is pretty fun though (kybd "M" key). Full stops are great for F4 toggle fuel exchanges, but not necessarily a requirement. Done 'em on the fly when the "gaining" pilots' flight skills were a bit of a lack.

Gagzila · Post by **Gagzila** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 10:43 pm

If only I was playing MP

Sounds like you're fairly experienced at that sort of thing Busch

Cool so the beam doesn't use any energy at all, I thought it may have used a constant chunk out of your weapons energy or something. Yeah realised to "wiggle" so that it mines quicker I would be using small amounts of fuel and that collecting inside a planet's atmosphere would mean your going to use a lot more fuel to maintain flight.

I'm currently ironing out all the noobness as without thinking I tried to jump to a spaceport on the edge of an asteroid field with some asteroids pretty much sitting on the doorstep and my angle of entry ran me straight into one of these - BOOM! - facepalm....

Cheers,

Gagzila

Post by **Marvin** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 11:14 pm

Save often (Alt+F9).

Gagzila · Post by **Gagzila** » Tue Oct 02, 2012 11:30 pm

From post: 145802, Topic: tid=9840, author=Marvin wrote: Save often (Alt+F9).

THIS lesson learnt the hard way a few times now

Cheers

Busch · Post by **Busch** » Wed Oct 03, 2012 12:15 am

Yo G-Z! "Land" on the planet. It can be done easily enough. 'Bout 300-250 mps airspeed, so you don't "fall out of the sky", and slowing by reducing your throttle. Watch your altitude (AGL). As you draw near enough, the low altitude warning will sound off. You're getting closer and slower. Deploy your M/T beam (any flavor) and continue slowing with throttle control. Soon enough, you'll reach full stop, with a few bays starting to fill up with metalic commodities. Stay in IDS; at zero on the throttle, the IDS will keep you AGL at about the height/length/attentuation of your M/T beam (125-150 mtrs AGL). A fine way to mine a planet! You can also deploy a mining probe whilst planet-side, as well as in your favorite asteroid patch. The resourceful pilots' way to riches! Yeppers - saving early and saving often is Da Kine, Bra!

Oh yeah, almost forgot. Except for a few of the hard-wired constructors, like in Saph and Cerulean (which have an asteroid patch occluding some of the bays), you can pretty much line up on any of the cardinal compass points (that's 0/90/180/270) for entry to the constructor bays. Saph and Cerulean are both double noughts for entry. (Although, you can "sneak in the back way" for both. It's a bit much, though). Oh, and all carriers are 180-entry.

[Edited on 10-3-2012 by Busch]

[Edited on 10-3-2012 by Busch]

Post by **Marvin** » Wed Oct 03, 2012 12:57 am

About mining on planets: always save as soon as you've filled your cargo bays ... and before attempting to lift off.

Gagzila · Post by **Gagzila** » Wed Oct 03, 2012 1:06 am

From post: 145809, Topic: tid=9840, author=Busch wrote:Yo G-Z! "Land" on the planet. It can be done easily enough. 'Bout 300-250 mps airspeed, so you don't "fall out of the sky", and slowing by reducing your throttle. Watch your altitude (AGL). As you draw near enough, the low altitude warning will sound off. You're getting closer and slower. Deploy your M/T beam (any flavor) and continue slowing with throttle control. Soon enough, you'll reach full stop, with a few bays starting to fill up with metalic commodities. Stay in IDS; at zero on the throttle, the IDS will keep you AGL at about the height/length/attentuation of your M/T beam (125-150 mtrs AGL). A fine way to mine a planet! You can also deploy a mining probe whilst planet-side, as well as in your favorite asteroid patch. The resourceful pilots' way to riches! Yeppers - saving early and saving often is Da Kine, Bra!

Hi Busch,

Sorry but the above part of your post didn't make a real lot of sense to me. Was it in relation to running low on fuel or just an off topic way to land on a planet? Your method described, does this land you on the planet or allow you to hover in one spot while mining?

Marvin, yeah a couple of times my loading of quick saves in Saphire's atmosphere has seen me glitched onto the planet's surface where I'm on my side and have learnt to let the ship roll back onto it's base before attempting to take off, otherwise your wing clips and BOOM!

Cheers,

Gagzila

Post by **Marvin** » Wed Oct 03, 2012 2:29 am

If not your wing then your tail ... if you pull up too quickly while still close to the ground.

Busch · Post by **Busch** » Wed Oct 03, 2012 2:55 pm

Ya G. I've found the technique I've attempted to describe a real help in both landing and maintaining a hover. Though the M/T beam is NOT required to help you land, nor is it "required" to help you maintain a hover. It was a method I came up with early on in my "career" here, to help keep me from doing the lawn-dart thing. I've managed to polish my skills since. Getting low enough and slow enough, whilst the IDS is doing its' job, should be sufficient to assist in attainng the full-stop hover mode for mining. Practise, practise, practise! Is way you get to Carnegie Hall! (and survive planetfall)

-splosives- · Post by **-splosives-** » Wed Oct 03, 2012 3:41 pm

Use inertial forward and reverse instead of afterburner to save fuel. Check your controls what to know what keys they're bound to.
I replaced my controls for IDS up and down to inertial forward and reverse.
I almost never use IDS anyway.
The best way to fly is completely inertial using all your thrusters. It gives you more freedom of movement, you can go as fast as you want and it uses less fuel (There's still times when I use IDS, for example in atmosphere or to break to speed 0).

Gagzila · Post by **Gagzila** » Wed Oct 03, 2012 10:59 pm

Thanks Busch, will have to try it out...trying to skim along to mine and maintain altitude hasn't worked for me so far, have to keep going back up and make a good 6-8 passes before my cargo bays are full.

Splosives, yeah got my thrust up, left, down & right controls set to WASD, my roll left and right left on Q and E and thrust forward and reverse set to X & Z respectively which keeps them all quickly in reach of my left hand. Seems to work pretty good so far, if I end up using non-IDS flight more often to navigate then I might swap around up and down key binds for forward and reverse. Currently I have my joystick set for the normal flight axis with rotate left and right set to the twist control and so my other hand uses WASD to control inertial movement for manoeuvring in asteroid fields and lower speed scenarios.

Cheers,

Gagzila