Timsup2nothin wrote:I feel a need to put together a CLS jump fuel guide.
You probably already know and use the following, but since I use centralised depots for my wares, here it is just in case, and you're welcome to use it if applicable:
This whole topic started with the potential trickiness of selling ECs via CLS2, given the conflict between it being a tradeable ware and the jump fuel. I faced a similar problem selling ECs via CAG from a trade dock, too - selling out the ECs, thus draining the fuel reserve and stranding the traders, ie. a protected fuel reserve not dipped into for export purposes, yet integrated with it.) When using CLS2, I now have this approach (which is derived from your own "tank" concept.)
- Let's call the fuel tank "FUEL DEPOT", and the sellable EC store as "ENERGY WAREHOUSE"
- I dock both at the same station (I've been using a Free Argon Trading Station, which has 10 docking ports, and it's usually adequate - and when it isn't I have a dead-simple solution, which I'll cover at the end)
- I treat the two freighters as liquid tanks stacked on top of each other and linked, essentially (this metaphor may help explain the system)
- All energy buyers dump their ECs into the ENERGY WAREHOUSE
- All energy sellers draw their sale stock from ENERGY WAREHOUSE
- All CLS2 freighters refuel from FUEL DEPOT
- Both FUEL DEPOT and ENERGY WAREHOUSE run a CLS2 command to move full hold of EC to FUEL DEPOT (this is redundant - only one of them needs to have it, but I like to have them both running it, so that the transfer happens twice as frequently)
- What this essentially means is that the EC buyers are pouring their ECs into the WAREHOUSE, and from there it "drains" into the FUEL DEPOT until it's full. Any time a ship refuels and thus reduces the amount in DEPOT, ECs from WAREHOUSE "drain down" into it to refill it (assuming there's anything in WAREHOUSE.) It also means that the traders never try to sell fuel reserve - they only get to fill up their inventory from the "top" tank. In this way, the fuel reserve is not touched even though it is not separate from the EC in stock.
- Now, if the trading station gets overloaded with docked ships, it is possible for one of these storage ships to undock to make room, and then I've found that for some reason it doesn't always re-dock, even though it's trying to execute the "Move to [other_freighter]" step - easy solution: both FUEL DEPOT and ENERGY WAREHOUSE also have a "Fly to station" command, to remind them to re-dock if/when necessary (of course, if things are running smoothly, ships are flying in and out all the time and spending little time clogging up the parking lot.)
The above "daisy-chain" can be set up with any number of freighters, each "draining down" to the next, if a large enough fuel reserve becomes necessary. Also, multiple tanks like this allow a prioritised approach: The sellers that sell for the highest price (or perhaps have a high priority for some other reason, such as they serve important factories that must be kept running) get to pull stock from the "lowest" allowed tank (aka "Warehouse"), so they are the first to deliver wares when they are available. The lower priority sellers "drink" from the higher tanks, thus they get to deliver when there's abundant surplus, but are the first to reined in if/when stocks run low (which ideally shouldn't be happening often, if at all.) Note however that ALL freighters get refuelled from the "lowest" tank, the one that always has ECs in it, as jump fuel reliability is the top priority. [That being said, I can see scenarios where short-range, lower priority traders that can be allowed to sometimes "walk" to their customers may refuel from the second-"lowest" tank, though I've not needed to indulge such a contingency.]
I hope the above is of help to someone
____________________
| ENERGY WAREHOUSE | <---- In (EC buyers stock)
|___________________| ---> Out (EC sellers stock)
. . . . . |
. . . . . | (WAREHOUSE Unload to DEPOT and/or DEPOT Load from WAREHOUSE)
. . . . . V
____________
| FUEL DEPOT |
|___________| --> Refuel (All CLS2 traders served here)
(System "fills up" from the bottom up)
[EDIT]
It occurs to me that the above approach can also be used for any ware that is to be both used internally (say, by factories) and traded. For example, one could set up two ore "bin" freighters. The "lower" one, which is constantly being topped up from the other one, is used to keep factories running (internal industrial use), while exporters sell "off the top". For energy cells, one would set up a three-tier setup, with the bottom one for jumpdrive refuelling, the middle one for supplying one's own factories, and the uppermost one for trading.
. Fortunately at a scale of many freighters your approach should work OK. Thanks!