I continue to explore ideas for a High-Guard-based FFW campaign (which is going to require some modification of High Guard to suit the milieu assumptions, but that's a different issue). I'm looking now at refueling.
Under TCS, a squadron is streamlined if at least half its fuel tankage is in streamlined ships/boats, partially streamlined if at least half its fuel tankage is in partially streamlined ships/boats, unstreamlined otherwise. An unstreamlined squadron may refuel from a gas giant as long as 10% of its fuel tankage is in streamlined or partially streamlined ships/boats, from a world's water as long as 10% of its fuel tankage is in streamlined ships/boats.
Also in TCS, it takes 7 turns (140 minutes) for a streamlined or partially streamlined ship to scoop a full fuel tank from a gas giant, and 2 turns (40 minutes) to transfer the full load of fuel to another ship. Ergo, a streamlined or partially streamlined squadron can refuel from a gas giant in a little under 6 hours - two trips. An unstreamlined squadron with at least 10% of its fuel tankage in streamlined or partially streamlined ships/boats can refuel from a gas giant in a little under 30 hours - ten trips.
This is consistent with statements about refueling in AHL. Also in AHL, it takes twice as long (6 hours) for a streamlined or partially streamlined ship to scoop and transfer a full fuel tank from a the oceans of a water-bearing world. (Specifics not mentioned, but I'm figuring ~4 turns/80 minutes for the descent, ~8 turns/160 minutes for the scoop, ~4 turns/80 minutes for the ascent, 2 turns/40 minutes for the transfer - however it's mostly irrelevant).
Ergo, a streamlined squadron can refuel from a water-bearing world in a little under 12 hours. A partially streamlined or unstreamlined squadron with at least 10% of its fuel tankage in streamlined ships/boats can refuel from a water-bearing world in a little under 60 hours (2 1/2 days).
Fifth Frontier War permits an unstreamlined squadron to refuel from an ocean or gas giant in one week, presumably using boats or ships of the appropriate type. On the week-long turn basis, the fleet has a week (168 hours, 504 turns) to pull this off - 56 trips through the gas giant, 28 down to the water world and back. Ergo, with relief crews, an unstreamlined fleet ought to be able to refuel in a week given about 1.8% of tankage in streamlined/partially streamlined fuel scoopers at a gas giant and 3.6% for streamlined fuel scoopers at a water world. Ergo, if at least 4% of the squadron's tankage is in streamlined craft, it should be able to refuel pretty much anywhere, albeit at a slow rate.
A battle squadron of 8 200kt J4 DNs has about 100kt in fuel tankage. It needs streamlined support ships with ~4 kt in fuel tankage to meet that minimum. That can be satisfied by a mix of roughly 8kt of streamlined J4 auxiliary ships including escorts - maybe 6 to 8 streamlined destroyer-escorts. Ergo, we move to a 4-5% mark instead of TCS's 10% mark.
Now the fun part:
Given the plentiful supply of alternative hydrogen sources in any given system - ice asteroids, cometary bodies, ice-bearing outer system moons, Pluto-like ice-bearing Kuiper-belt dwarf planets and their moons 30-50 AU out - it may be advisable to allow all craft to refuel in one week at any system. It's in the form of hydrocarbon ices, but these can be processed to free the hydrogen, and a navy is certainly going to equip its ships for that alternative.
As any interstellar government is likely to know the orbital details of any known system's bodies - at least to the extent of picking out a few candidates for such refueling - finding such sources presents no problem. Hoowever, refueling from them would be more involved than simple scooping - frozen ices would have to be mined, then melted and their hydrogen component broken free of whatever chemical it was in. Warships could be expected to carry the necessary equipment, and purification plants would probably be able to handle melting the ices and breaking out the hydrogen, but merchants most likely would not unless someone's made a deliberate effort to purchase and install the equipment.
And then of course there's the starports. I've gotta give them some thought.
Say - for consistency's sake only - it takes a week for any ship equipped with a purification plant to mine ices and convert them into fuel; streamlining is irrelevant as the candidate bodies will have no atmosphere to speak of and little gravity. Ice moons and ice asteroids within a couple of days flight of a system's primary will be carefully watched; if the system has defenders, someone refueling from those sources may be engaged by the defenders before they can complete refueling. Cometary bodies and Kuiper dwarf planets are 4.5 to 7.5 billion kilometers out or more - roughly a week's flight at 4-6 G. These bodies can be jumped to directly or maneuvered to from the inner system in about a week, after which it takes another week to mine fuel.
So, a fleet seeking to avoid contact could do so by spending a week in the Kuiper belt of every system on the route; defenders could not reach him before he refueled and moved on. However, he would be slow, a likely strategic disadvantage. For game balance purposes, we will assume the adversaries have systemwide sensing capabilities sufficient to tell them that someone is out in the far reaches of the system (else the adversaries would be able to establish refueling bases wherever they wanted), but not sufficient to give them details of the force beyond a vague idea of numbers - a couple, a few, or many. They also have sufficient scouts and couriers scattered about to monitor their less settled systems and to report movements back to some nearby naval base.
Likewise, a fleet passing through a system with neither a gas giant nor a water world could spend a week refueling at whatever ice body was handy - again, it's slower, but it prevents the issue of fleets getting stranded when there are ample alternative hydrogen sources.
And, a defeated fleet without fuel for jump could disengage to the outer system, spending a week to get to the Kuiper belt, then spending another week refueling.
Under TCS, a squadron is streamlined if at least half its fuel tankage is in streamlined ships/boats, partially streamlined if at least half its fuel tankage is in partially streamlined ships/boats, unstreamlined otherwise. An unstreamlined squadron may refuel from a gas giant as long as 10% of its fuel tankage is in streamlined or partially streamlined ships/boats, from a world's water as long as 10% of its fuel tankage is in streamlined ships/boats.
Also in TCS, it takes 7 turns (140 minutes) for a streamlined or partially streamlined ship to scoop a full fuel tank from a gas giant, and 2 turns (40 minutes) to transfer the full load of fuel to another ship. Ergo, a streamlined or partially streamlined squadron can refuel from a gas giant in a little under 6 hours - two trips. An unstreamlined squadron with at least 10% of its fuel tankage in streamlined or partially streamlined ships/boats can refuel from a gas giant in a little under 30 hours - ten trips.
This is consistent with statements about refueling in AHL. Also in AHL, it takes twice as long (6 hours) for a streamlined or partially streamlined ship to scoop and transfer a full fuel tank from a the oceans of a water-bearing world. (Specifics not mentioned, but I'm figuring ~4 turns/80 minutes for the descent, ~8 turns/160 minutes for the scoop, ~4 turns/80 minutes for the ascent, 2 turns/40 minutes for the transfer - however it's mostly irrelevant).
Ergo, a streamlined squadron can refuel from a water-bearing world in a little under 12 hours. A partially streamlined or unstreamlined squadron with at least 10% of its fuel tankage in streamlined ships/boats can refuel from a water-bearing world in a little under 60 hours (2 1/2 days).
Fifth Frontier War permits an unstreamlined squadron to refuel from an ocean or gas giant in one week, presumably using boats or ships of the appropriate type. On the week-long turn basis, the fleet has a week (168 hours, 504 turns) to pull this off - 56 trips through the gas giant, 28 down to the water world and back. Ergo, with relief crews, an unstreamlined fleet ought to be able to refuel in a week given about 1.8% of tankage in streamlined/partially streamlined fuel scoopers at a gas giant and 3.6% for streamlined fuel scoopers at a water world. Ergo, if at least 4% of the squadron's tankage is in streamlined craft, it should be able to refuel pretty much anywhere, albeit at a slow rate.
A battle squadron of 8 200kt J4 DNs has about 100kt in fuel tankage. It needs streamlined support ships with ~4 kt in fuel tankage to meet that minimum. That can be satisfied by a mix of roughly 8kt of streamlined J4 auxiliary ships including escorts - maybe 6 to 8 streamlined destroyer-escorts. Ergo, we move to a 4-5% mark instead of TCS's 10% mark.
Now the fun part:
Given the plentiful supply of alternative hydrogen sources in any given system - ice asteroids, cometary bodies, ice-bearing outer system moons, Pluto-like ice-bearing Kuiper-belt dwarf planets and their moons 30-50 AU out - it may be advisable to allow all craft to refuel in one week at any system. It's in the form of hydrocarbon ices, but these can be processed to free the hydrogen, and a navy is certainly going to equip its ships for that alternative.
As any interstellar government is likely to know the orbital details of any known system's bodies - at least to the extent of picking out a few candidates for such refueling - finding such sources presents no problem. Hoowever, refueling from them would be more involved than simple scooping - frozen ices would have to be mined, then melted and their hydrogen component broken free of whatever chemical it was in. Warships could be expected to carry the necessary equipment, and purification plants would probably be able to handle melting the ices and breaking out the hydrogen, but merchants most likely would not unless someone's made a deliberate effort to purchase and install the equipment.
And then of course there's the starports. I've gotta give them some thought.
Say - for consistency's sake only - it takes a week for any ship equipped with a purification plant to mine ices and convert them into fuel; streamlining is irrelevant as the candidate bodies will have no atmosphere to speak of and little gravity. Ice moons and ice asteroids within a couple of days flight of a system's primary will be carefully watched; if the system has defenders, someone refueling from those sources may be engaged by the defenders before they can complete refueling. Cometary bodies and Kuiper dwarf planets are 4.5 to 7.5 billion kilometers out or more - roughly a week's flight at 4-6 G. These bodies can be jumped to directly or maneuvered to from the inner system in about a week, after which it takes another week to mine fuel.
So, a fleet seeking to avoid contact could do so by spending a week in the Kuiper belt of every system on the route; defenders could not reach him before he refueled and moved on. However, he would be slow, a likely strategic disadvantage. For game balance purposes, we will assume the adversaries have systemwide sensing capabilities sufficient to tell them that someone is out in the far reaches of the system (else the adversaries would be able to establish refueling bases wherever they wanted), but not sufficient to give them details of the force beyond a vague idea of numbers - a couple, a few, or many. They also have sufficient scouts and couriers scattered about to monitor their less settled systems and to report movements back to some nearby naval base.
Likewise, a fleet passing through a system with neither a gas giant nor a water world could spend a week refueling at whatever ice body was handy - again, it's slower, but it prevents the issue of fleets getting stranded when there are ample alternative hydrogen sources.
And, a defeated fleet without fuel for jump could disengage to the outer system, spending a week to get to the Kuiper belt, then spending another week refueling.