How do you rescue a stranded out of fuel ship in Aurora 4X?
In Aurora 4X, I've managed to build this Halifax class of ship with some internal fusion twin engine and geological survey equipment; I have a few of them which I all detached from any battle group. I've set them to survey the nearest body and to return to Earth when they have less than 20% fuel, so they've scattered all over the place and I'm getting feedback about mineral composition and availability. But this one ship is stranded far away from our solar system and its fuel resources are depleted, as the log shows. It's just a simple ship with a crew of 61; at the helm, Captain Pélissier, with an interest in xenology; in service for 5 years 10 months 15 days...
A surveying expedition has gone wrong. Saving 20% of fuel may not be enough when ordered to resupply directly from home (Earth). A more careful planning was required.
- How do you mount a rescue operation in such cases?
- Can I just re-purpose an existing ship and send it to share some fuel to enable the Halifax 006 a safe return home?
- Do I need to build a specific ship; do I need the salvage module? Is the only solution towing the ship back to earth with a ship to ship tractor beam?
- Where (how) would you set it so that the towing "destination" of such a ship would be the Halifax 006 ((how) do you make the Halifax 006 appear in the task group window as a location?)?
Best Answer
The first thing to do is to remove all outstanding orders the stranded ship has assigned as well as to reset its default/conditional orders to none (this allows for the out of fuel status to stop impeding with turn progression). Then pick a Task group with a ship with fuel to spare from the Task Groups window and just check... Task Groups, then select the group name the stranded ship belongs to from the Locations selection, then set the action to Move to. Allow some time for the ship/group you selected to reach its destination. Following that, in the Individual Units window, select the ship with the extra fuel; in the Miscellaneous tab you'll find a Manual Fuel Transfer widget (also a tractor link widget...) with a drop down from where to select the stranded ship and specify the amount of fuel you want to transfer. Transfer fuel as needed to the stranded ship to enable its safe return home (if you give it the order)!
Here the AM Razor Group, containing the AM Razor ship is tasked with moving to the Battle Task group (containing our stranded ship, now the Restigouche) for the rescue operation from the Task Groups window. Once the destination is reached, the Individual Units Details window is used to transfer fuel from the AM Razor to the Restigouche.
Pictures about "How do you rescue a stranded out of fuel ship in Aurora 4X?"
Aurora 4x Tutorial--#23 Refuel a Ship that Ran out of Fuel and Fuel Harvesting
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Images: Tom Fisk, Francesco Ungaro, ArtHouse Studio, Mitchell Luo