C-Ship Tasks

Assignment of Ships to Populations

In VB6 Aurora, ships such as terraformers or asteroid miners have to be assigned to populations in order to provide that population with any applicable production. This is because an empire may have multiple populations on the same world and the ships can only provide support to one of them. When a fleet reaches a population, the ships within it are automatically assigned. However, there are still situations (such as transferring between fleets) when this assignment is not always picked up. While the problem can easily be fixed by ordering the fleet to the population, it is not always obvious it needs to be fixed. This can lead to ships sitting idle in orbit.

In C# Aurora, the assignment to the population will be at the fleet level, rather than by ship, and the same auto-assignment will happen when a fleet moves to a population. However, when a population checks orbital space for any assigned fleets during production, it will automatically grab any unassigned fleets in orbit and assign them to itself. This should avoid any situations where ships remain idle. 05.10.2016

Load & Unload Cargo

In VB6 Aurora, ships load or unload cargo, colonists, etc. on arrival and then undergo a wait period before their next order (based on how long it takes for the load/unload process).

In C# Aurora, the wait period will take place first and then the cargo will be loaded or unloaded at the end. Because of this change, if the fleet abandons the order before it is complete, no transfer of cargo will have taken place. Date 02.10.2016

Refuelling

Basics

In C# Aurora, refuelling is no longer instant and ships without specialised equipment cannot exchange fuel in space. A ship can only refuel at a Spaceport, a Refuelling Station, a ship with a Refuelling System or a base with a Refuelling Hub.

A new technology line - Refuelling Systems - provides the basis of the rate of refuelling and allows ships to mount systems to refuel other ships. The baseline system (Refuelling System: 50,000 LPH) sets the racial refuelling rate at 50,000 litres per hour and allows the use of the first ship-mounted Refuelling System. There are ten further steps in the tech progression with the highest tech system allowing refuelling at 500,000 litres per hour.

Spaceports, Refuelling Stations or Refuelling Hubs will always use the highest tech refuelling rate and can refuel an unlimited number of ships simultaneously. However, the ships being refuelled must be stationary.

Spaceports have doubled in cost to 2400 BP but can now be moved by freighters. They are equal to four research facilities for transport purposes (or 80 factories). They retain their existing bonuses to loading and unloading cargo.

Refuelling Stations are a new installation with a cost of 1200 BP. They do not require workers and can be moved by freighters. They have a transport size equal to 10 factories. Essentially, they are a cut-down version of a spaceport intended to facilitate refuelling in forward areas, transferring fuel from the surface of a planet to the waiting ships. They have no bonuses for loading or unloading cargo.

A Refuelling Hub can be mounted on a ship. It is a commercial system with a research cost of 10,000 RP, build cost of 2400 BP and a size of 100,000 tons. In practical terms, this is likely to form part of a large, deep-space station, due to the size and cost, rather than being deployed on tankers that will accompany fleets

A Refuelling System is 500 tons and has a cost ranging from 10 BP to 100 BP, depending on the tech level. A ship with a Refuelling System can refuel a single ship at once, so will take some time to refuel a whole fleet, although this will improve with higher technology. At the early tech levels, the Refuelling System can only be used if both ships (tanker and target ship) are both stationary. Another new tech line, Underway Replenishment, allow the refuelling to take place while both ships are in the same fleet and underway. Priorities can be set for the refuelling order when multiple ships are involved. The first Underway Replenishment tech allows refuelling at 20% of the normal rate (2500 RP), rising to 100% with the highest tech (40,000 RP).

Refuelling order types will be adjusted to deal with the new requirements. Fuel will be transferred during each movement increment as time passes until the target ship has full tanks. I may add some other options regarding partially filling as well.

I will be adding some rules along the same lines regarding ordnance transfer. Date 20.07.2017

Refuelling Orders

With the new refuelling rules, I am changing how some of the refuelling orders work.

You can flag a tanker as being at one of three refuel statuses; None, Refuel Fleet or Refuel Sub-Fleet. When this flag is set to Refuel Fleet, the tanker will constantly refuel its own fleet as that fleet continues with normal orders (the refuel itself is not an order). Essentially, the tanker will keep the fleet's fuel tanks topped up. The rate of refuel will be based on the refuelling system of the tanker multiplied by the parent race's underway replenishment tech (unless the fleet is stationary). If the flag is set to Refuel Sub-Fleet, the tanker will follow the same rules as above but only for ships within the same sub-fleet (you can use this distinction to control which ships are refuelled within the fleet)

Each tanker class has a minimum fuel setting (in the class window) and will not refuel ships once it falls below that level. Each class & ship has a 'refuel priority', with higher numbers equalling higher priority. The tanker will refuel in descending order of ship priority, then by descending order of class priority. The tanker will automatically move to a second ship (or more) if there is sufficient time and fuel remaining in the sub-pulse.

The current 'Refuel Fleet' order has been replaced with 'Join & Refuel Fleet'. The fleet containing the tanker will become part of the target fleet and switch to a 'Refuel Fleet' status (if not already set).

A new 'Join & Refuel Sub-Fleet' order has been added. The fleet containing the tanker will become part of the target sub-fleet and switch to a 'Refuel Sub-Fleet' status (if not already set). A Join Sub-Fleet order has also been added for more general use.

A new 'Refuel from Refuelling Hub' order has been added. This order requires a second fleet containing at least one refuelling hub as the destination. On arrival, the fleet will be refuelled until all its tanks are fuel, or the refuelling hub runs out of fuel. All ships in the fleet will be refuelled, including tankers. Once completed, the fleet will move on to its next order. If the fleet containing the refuelling hub has any movement orders, the refuelling will not take place and the refuelling order will be marked as completed. Multiple hubs in the target fleet will not increase the rate of refuelling (a ship can only refuel from one hub at once) but they can all contribute fuel.

The existing 'Refuel from Colony' will remain but can only be used at colonies that have either a Spaceport or a Refuelling Station. On arrival, the fleet will be refuelled until all its tanks are fuel, or the colony runs out of fuel. All ships in the fleet will be refuelled, including tankers. Once completed, the fleet will move on to its next order. Multiple spaceports or refuelling stations at the colony will not increase the rate of refuelling.

The 'Unload 90% Fuel to Colony' order now becomes 'Transfer Fuel to Colony'. Any class designated as a tanker can transfer fuel to any colony with either a spaceport or a refuelling station. The transfer is done at the refuelling rate of the tanker. If multiple tankers are in the fleet, they can transfer fuel simultaneously. Note this means that more planning will be needed in this version of Aurora to ensure fleets can be refuelled at the frontier. It will no longer be possible to dump fuel on the nearest available rock. Colonies will require a spaceport or a refuelling station before they can support fleets. Alternatively, tankers can accompany fleets, or a deep space base with a refuelling hub can be established.

A new 'Transfer Fuel to Refuelling Hub' order has been added. Any class designated as a tanker can transfer fuel to any ship with a Refuelling Hub. The transfer is done at the refuelling rate of the tanker. If multiple tankers are in the fleet, they can transfer fuel simultaneously. Date 01.07.2018

Standard transits

by Fleets with Commercial and Military Ships

In VB6 Aurora, fleets that included at least one ship with military engines could only use military jump drives for standard transits, which meant you had to split out commercial-engined ships into a separate fleet and escort them with a commercial jump drive ship.

In C# Aurora, commercial-engined and military-engined ships are treated separately. So if you have a fleet with mixed engine types that also includes ships with commercial and military jump drives, it will still carry out a standard transit if the respective jump drives are large enough for the ships with the matching respective engine types. However, if any ship with either engine type can't jump, the whole fleet will fail to transit.

Squadron jumps are handled differently so I will cover that in a separate post. Date 06.10.2016