Fuel Collector OXP

History

The Navy wanted a way to give its pilots in witchspace a chance to leave witchspace, even when all their fuel had been used up. Fuel tanks were an option, however, each fuel tank takes up a missile pylon, something vitally needed for missiles when in the midst of a battle with the Thargoids. Navy brass turned to the DTP Design agency to develop, in cooperation with MIT, the Fuel Scoop Enhancer, a device MIT had worked on in the past.

After a year of research and field testing, the Fuel Collector, as it was now called, began being fitted to Navy ships. Recognising the value of such a device to all space-farers, it was not long before it was also released to the general public.

Originally the Navy also wanted the Fuel Collector to be able to scoop fuel from wrecked Thargoid ships, but field testing showed that the Thargoids are using a fuel solution that is twice as thin as that of normal vessels. Their technology seems to be able to use this thinned fuel, which also explains why they are able to jump twice as far as normal vessels without breaking the 7.0 ly usage barrier. Concentrating this fuel into normal fuel is a job for a refining plant - not something you can put on any normal ship.

So the Fuel Collector failed in meeting this design goal, however it works perfectly fine for ships that are not of Thargoid origin.

Function

• Gathers fuel from the thin solar wind in space.
• Collect unburnt fuel scattered around after a ship is destroyed.
• Hacks the computers of derelict or abandoned ships making them vent any remaining fuel into space so that it can be collected.

This is why some pilots have already started to rename the fuel collector the "soul collector". It is rumoured that some few unscrupulous characters might booby-trap their ships in case of such situations, but there is no hard evidence of this to date.

Theory

The theory was developed a couple of years before the .oxp was created:

Wel-el, the average deflector array consists of a pulse-chambered manotox field generator coupled to a tralaulax compensator which is in turn hooked up to a compendeux ionization distrupter to produce an inverse field harmonic which is subsequency transmitted by isodentrix field coils mounted at node points on the outer hull of a craft.

While the pulse-chambered manotox field generator is utilized to generate the necessary energy for shields, it is in fact the tralaulax compensator which is responsible for the creation of a specific field which can be channeled through the waveguides inside the ship to the isodentrix array (the field coils specifically) and from there converted back into a signal which is broadcast to the nearest node point, and linked via a complex series of frequency shifts producing a self-replicating harmonic feedback loop which acts like an energy barrier beyond the craft at a distance of no more than five meters in most circumstances, and no more than a kilometer at most - although with considerably less effectiveness.

Reversing the field output has two effects. First of all, it has an unfortunate tendency to make people sick to their stomachs on smaller craft due to the harmonic wave profile, and secondly, it makes my life a whole lot harder as I have to go back to watching ST:TNG to get in the right frame of mind to generate more tekbab.

RabidVixen (2005). This is a prime example of Handwavium.

Fuel Tweaks OXP

Fuel Tweaks takes these capabilities and adds extra (with new equipment), allowing sale of surplus collected fuel.

Requirements & Updates

Latest version of this OXP requires Oolite v1.74+. In the more recent versions of Oolite (v1.80 and later), Fuel Collector works less well in Interstellar Space. This is corrected by Interstellar Tweaks: the lack of a license precludes updating Fuel Collector itself.

Downloads

Most recent versions downloadable through the in-game Expansions Manager

Older versions:

• Fuel Collector V0.07 Beta Version.
• Fuel Collector V0.06 (for Oolite versions 1.70 - 1.73.4)

Links

• This OXP was devised by Frame. There is a thread here on the BB (2008).
• And an earlier one Fuel Scoops Enhancer (2007) by Commander McLane.

Appendix

From another 2007 thread:

Normal Space (interplanetary space)

• Status: working
• 60 seconds at worst conditions in normal space pr 0.1 ly of fuel, while player is at maximum speed... that's 70 minutes for a full 7.0 tank of fuel.
• About 30 seconds at best conditions, while player is at maximum speed... that's 35 mins for a full tank.

Speed intervals

• Over 100% the fuel collector will shut off
• 90%-100% best extraction speed
• 50% average extraction speed
• 20% worst extraction speed

The closer you are to the sun the better the extraction: however too close to the sun and the fuel collector will shut down to protect itself from damage....

---

DTP development on interstellar fuel extraction specifications

Interstellar space

• Status:working
• The fuel collector only works at maximum speed while in interstellar space as it needs maximum output from the engines to work since it collects some of the plasma ejected from the engines and uses this for fuel extraction.
• It will take roughly 4,2 minutes in interstellar space to collect 0.1 ly of fuel or roughly 42 min for 1.0 ly of fuel or 5 hours for a full tank of 7.0 ly of fuel.

It can take longer or be quicker depending on how much fuel it can scoop up.

Target Fuel Extraction

• Status: Working
• Originally the military also wanted the Fuel Collector to be able to scoop fuel from wrecked Thargoid ships, but field testing showed that the thargoids are using a fuel solution that is twice as thin as that of normal vessels.. their technology seems to be able to use this thinned fuel, witch also explains why they are able to jump twice as far as normal vessels without breaking the 7.0 ly usage barrier. Concentrating this fuel into normal fuel, is a job for a refining plant.. not something you can put on any normal ship...
• So the fuel collector failed in meeting this design goal, however it works perfectly fine for ships that are not of thargoid origin.. which is why allready some pilots have started to rename the fuel collector into the "soul collector". Rumours are that pirates already have a Fuel Collector. while no one can explain where they got it from...
• The fuel collector will on communication with the targeting device of the ship, determine when to activate the fuel-scoop, so that it can scoop up some of the fuel ejected and not destroyed from the explosion. you have to be relatively near for this to work under 2 clicks or 2000 meters. or else the fuel scoop will activate its safe-switch when it detects the target to be scooped is to far away.

However due to the fact that an explosion scatters the fuel all around, and how much of it escapes the explosion, the amount of fuel collected will be totally random.

You should never expect to see you get the full amount of the victim's fuel reserve. But should you however blow up a tanker... you probably will!!

Overall the fuel collector will shut down, once the player has a full tank, as the fuel collector works in conjunction with the fuel scoop: it will not work if the fuel scoop is damaged.

The miniaturised refinery apparatus inside the Fuel collector will, when adequate unrefined fuel is collected, refine and transfer 0.1 ly of fuel to the ship's tanks. The Fuel collector has only 0.09 ly of buffer room for any excess unrefined fuel: that will remain in the fuel collector.

Derelict ship fuel extraction

• Status: preliminary field testing is working... under development
• If the targeting computer detects a derelict ship, it will start to extract fuel from the ship in question by sending special commands to the ship's onboard computer. If successful the ship will start to vent its fuel: the player has to be less than 300 meters from the ship in question. Sometimes other pilots have boobytrapped their ship to self-detonate, if a computer infection is detected while no pilot is aboard. Such booby-trapping is however a time consuming effort, and many do not do it, while the most scurrilous of pirates do it so that the police cannot find their lairs.
• Military & police Computers have far too good a protection to be infected by the standard hacking software onboard civilian vessels.

Gameplay and Balance Indicator

The ability to harvest fuel in almost all circumstances makes the game much easier.