Fuel
Template:Confuse Fuel consumed by conventional ships consists of hydrogen, which is fed into a ship's Power Plant and fused into helium under high pressure and temperature, thereby generating the energy necessary to run shipboard systems and weapons. When a ship activates its Frame Shift Drive, a large quantity of fuel is consumed all at once at the moment a jump to hyperspace begins, after a brief charging period. Ships can replenish their fuel supply at stations with the Refueling service, or by skimming main sequence stars with a Fuel Scoop. The average price of fuel is roughly 50 CR per metric ton. Prices vary based on location as well as the supply and demand of hydrogen fuel at that location. Note that Fleet Carriers require an alternate fuel called Tritium to undertake hyperspace jumps.
Consumption
A ship consumes fuel continuously in propotion to its power needs any time it is not docked at a station, as it is necessary to power the ship's Thrusters, Sensors, Power Distributor, and Life Support. The pilot can deactivate these and other modules manually to reduce fuel consumption, but this results in reduced ship functionality, and a pilot without a working Life Support module will be forced to draw from the limited oxygen supply of their personal Remlok Suit, which will eventually be exhausted and result in the loss of the ship. During normal operation, a small amount of fuel proportionate to the demands placed on the ship's power plant is drawn continuously. Fuel consumption is constant in normal space and supercruise, with supercruise demanding fuel at a higher rate.
Fuel consumption is displayed on the ship's fuel indicator on the HUD. The number on the indicator shows the current fuel consumption per hour in tonnes. The two bars show remaining fuel; the thin, upper bar is the ship's fuel reserve, which is a one-tonne portion of fuel that is set aside to power modules, and the thick, lower bar is the amount of fuel remaining in the ship's Fuel Tank. When the fuel reserve is exhausted, it will automatically replenish itself from the Fuel Tank, but if there is no fuel remaining to draw on, the ship will destroy itself. A ship's Frame Shift Drive bypasses the reserve and draws directly from the Fuel Tank.
Fuel consumption for a hyperspace jump is determined by the ship's total mass, the class and type of FSD the ship has equipped, and the distance of the jump. Performing multiple shorter jumps consumes less total fuel than one long jump to the same destination. Hyperspace jumps consume large amounts of fuel at once.
Refuelling
Ship fuel can be replenished at any station that has a "Refuel" facility available. Stations that have the required facility can be found via the System Map.
A fuel scoop allows ships to refuel while in the proximity of certain classes of stars.
Players can refuel other ships using fuel transferrer limpet drones.
Stranded
It is vital for the commander of any ship to plan a route in advance even with a fuel scoop.
When a Commander's ship exhausts all of its fuel supplies, the Commander becomes stranded. In this case, the Commander could either contact an organisation/group (such as the Fuel Rats) or a friend who could transfer fuel, or choose to self-destruct.
Trivia
- Prior to version 1.1, fuel prices varied between ships for no apparent reason and larger ships had to pay up to 5,000 CR per ton or more for fuel.