Oolite Bulletins

Is it worth buying a reserve or auxiliary fuel tank?

Short answer: yes!

No, because they make the game too easy. They enable you to run away for longer than anything chasing you.
Yes, because they can prevent you from being stranded in witchspace without enough fuel left to jump out.

They are subtly different in that the Reserve tank gives an extra 1LY of fuel, which is more a useful safety margin than a real advantage and is not really much of a cheat. If even this seems too much, it is easy enough to reduce it to say 1/2 light year. This was the OXP as I developed it.
The auxiliary tank on the other hand, which gives an extra 3LY if fuel is much more of a cheat, and was added to the OXP during development as there is always a demand from some quarters for this type of thing, and as the user can choose, I leave it to Commanders' discretion as to which they use.
My advice is to stay with the Reserve tank as it is much more in keeping with the essence of the core game.

Smivs wrote:

If even this seems too much, it is easy enough to reduce it to say 1/2 light year.

<nods> This is what I use - a reserve of 0.5 ly is a tiny edge (and it only becomes available once the main tank is empty).

I don't use fuel tanks because they would make the game too easy, especially for couriers carrying important passengers or parcels: Some "bottlenecks" like Xeines in Sector 3 could be passed too easily by simply jumping out again when packs of pirates or assassins start attacking you (you'll always be able to survive the 15 seconds you need). 1 ly wouldn't help in my example, because Xeines is rather isolated from both directions, but 3 ly would (Maer to Xeines: 6 ly, Xeines to Edriuson: 4 ly). And there are probably bottlenecks where even 1 ly would be helpful.

For couriers, a 3ly reserve tank would indeed make the job far too easy... bad (not nearly as bad as drop-tanks though).

Put me into the "don't bother" fraction. - I try to ride piggy-back to save fuel, even when I was out on cargo contracts. With my current commander I haven't stranded in witchspace so far, so he doesn't know if it's a safeguard. (I have to admit I have installed the interstellar Help oxp for it for it feels less as a cheat to use a distress beacon/electronic thumb for me in this special case.)

There is an escape from interstellar space, Amah... but you gotta fight for it.

Cody wrote:

There is an escape from interstellar space, Amah... but you gotta fight for it.

Which is not survivable without (at least) an iron ass. Even then, maybe 1-2 warships can be taken down with lasers until shields are gone so fuel injectors may get damaged, limiting the available tactical options severely. Then there's no way but to drop a Q bomb, which is effective against thargoids, killing several more warships and needing some fuel. Assuming the player is alone. If he's not, then the maybe the bomb isn't needed anyway. Gives you time to regenerate shields somewhat for taking down the rest. Maybe that can work. But you gotta wait an indefinite time still until that trader opening a wormhole shows up.

So you can handle it like so: Restrict yourself to only use any extra fuel in case you are stranded in witchspace.

I've never used any extra fuel. I tend to hop a ride through any worm holes leading me in the right direction and I sometimes do a spot of star-skimming when I feel inclined but I have never felt the urge to increase my fuel storage capacity.

Yes I have the spare tank. Never had to use it. Same as Real Life I always have a spare gallon can in the boot, Never have had to use that either.
Mybe just having it negates the need to use it?
Thinking back the only time I ever ran out of fuel was the time before I kept a spare can.
Keeping a spare aint in any way cheating.
Using it constantly defeats the purpose of it being an emeregncy item.
If you really want to do big jumps just go into the code and give yourself a 4 digit tank.
I don't see that as cheating, just defeating the whole game play.

Remember it's your game, play it anyway that pleases you.

For example; I gave the Gertrude a higher top end but to keep my game play fair in my mind I reduced her manouverability.
If you can go as fast as a F1 your not cornnering like a mini

For me, the concept of carrying an extra tank of fuel is a logical one. So what if it holds 3LY - is it really a cheat or just something you would do irl. What it could do with is a balancing of some sort:

Q isn't all that volatile, you can carry literal buckets of it, so making you more likely to explode is not really a thing.

What about a weight issue? Currently the Aux tanks do not take up cargo space - what if they did?
OR what if they impacted on speed (due to the mass increase or external bulk)? I know that there is less of a friction issue in space, however mass vs gravitational influences is a thing.
Maybe even have it so that the added mass - not in the original designs for your ship - could actually increase the % chance of miss-jumps?