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Post by dragonkid11 on Dec 18, 2016 1:21:44 GMT
So, update 1.0.8 has come and I'm very happy about it.
DROPTANK!!!
We have been waiting for that since the launch of the game and it was well implemented.
It's in the propellant tank section if you can't find it.
But after testing it for a while, I can concluded that...
Droptank seems superior to fuel tanker at first sight.
Let's list out their pro and con.
Droptank +They can be straight up dumped once you are finished with them. +They are a lot easier to design than fuel tanker and you can just attach them in the build section +Very light compared to fuel tanker, higher fuel usage efficiency. +Cheap compared to fuel tanker, since you are only paying for the fuel. -You will need to put in droptank for EVERY SINGLE one of your ship if you want droptanks to be on them. -You cannot transfer fuel around like a fuel tanker...Unless one of your ship already has refueller installed.
Fuel tanker +They can be flexible, transferring fuel to all ships that required it instead of being single target like droptank -They are heavy as hell with addition weight like crew module, thruster and such. -They USE FUEL just to get to one place or another, wasting tons of fuel that could be used for the warship. -They are not expendable. (Unless you are a horrible admiral that abandon fuel tanker crew in deep space after expending them, you horrible pragmatic monster) -They are expensive due to crew module and such as well as wasting all those precious fuel.
So essentially, drop tank just seems to have more advantageous than fuel tanker as well as far higher fuel usage efficiency so your ship can have more delta-v per tonnage.
What do you think?
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Post by The Astronomer on Dec 18, 2016 1:34:16 GMT
Interesting. However, I think I don't think I can attach every single of my ships with drop tanks, so I still need tankers.
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Post by argonbalt on Dec 18, 2016 1:39:14 GMT
OH MY GOD I WAS SO HAPPY WHEN I SAW THEY WERE FINALLY ADDED! NOW ON TO A GLORIOUS GIANT JETS IN SPACE AGE!
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Post by newageofpower on Dec 18, 2016 1:43:22 GMT
Fuel tankers are more efficient than drop tanks. That being said, if you only need a small amount of extra fuel.... why not?
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Post by deskjetser on Dec 18, 2016 1:45:25 GMT
What about using drop tanks as a means of delivering drones and missiles to target intercepts without using any on board delta-v?
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Post by dragonkid11 on Dec 18, 2016 1:45:52 GMT
Fuel tankers are more efficient than drop tanks. That being said, if you only need a small amount of extra fuel.... why not? I'm not quite sure though, since fuel tanker need to burn their own fuel when the warship is maneuvering. Which waste quite a bit of fuel since they are also carrying additional weight like crew modules and such. Drop tank just get 100% used by the warship during burning.
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Post by lieste on Dec 18, 2016 1:54:25 GMT
Well, tankers have the option of rendezvousing with a warship - they certainly don't need to drop down into a hill sphere every time a fleet engages the enemy... while your drop tanks are carried or used/discarded.
Tankers can collect and distribute fuel to/from disabled warships, and can service depot and fleets... while reliance on drop tanks requires the fleet to go off station to resupply.
Tankers can also use low acceleration engines without compromising their effectiveness if they operate as a support fleet - warships must either continue using their high thrust engines, or carry both these and high efficiency ones at increased weight.
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Post by newageofpower on Dec 18, 2016 1:56:32 GMT
Fuel tankers are more efficient than drop tanks. That being said, if you only need a small amount of extra fuel.... why not? I'm not quite sure though, since fuel tanker need to burn their own fuel when the warship is maneuvering. Which waste quite a bit of fuel since they are also carrying additional weight like crew modules and such. Drop tank just get 100% used by the warship during burning. The issue is the "dead weight" of all the warship's combat systems burdens down the warship's dV, while a fuel tanker doesn't have that penalty. In situations where the 35 minimum crew is a bigger issue than the warship penalty, the drop tanks are superior; otherwise use fuel-ships.
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Post by The Astronomer on Dec 18, 2016 2:15:36 GMT
Also: Space junks
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Post by Dhan on Dec 18, 2016 5:46:53 GMT
The real question is... can it be weaponized?
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Post by David367th on Dec 18, 2016 5:52:42 GMT
The real question is... can it be weaponized? So instead of using TNT to obliterate an osmium shell, we could just fly at 10km/s and eject a bunch of osmium bombs filled with nitromethane? This will be interesting...
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Post by Dhan on Dec 18, 2016 5:58:10 GMT
That's my current plan yes. It's a bit finicky, but it may actually work in some capacity. Currently testing and I'm getting a couple of holes in the shape of the drop tanks on the target, as well as the hole the missile carrying them makes.
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Post by Dhan on Dec 18, 2016 6:32:52 GMT
Not sure what to make of this yet... but it's interesting. I used a ring of 20 of these on a missile. On this shot, the missile actually missed, but I released the tanks about 2 seconds before impact. The station is using the standard 3cm boron 1.5m graphite gel 3 cm borom armor setup or thereabouts. Edit: Here's a better shot. Redesigned the target station and took out the fuel tank to prevent it from spinning when hit. Also I'll stop derailing the thread now and take this over to the design thread.
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Post by jonen on Dec 18, 2016 8:12:49 GMT
Patch gives us droptanks for staging. Someone turns that into a proof of concept cluster missile payload inside 12 hours.
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Post by dragonkid11 on Dec 18, 2016 8:21:03 GMT
And I just suddenly have an idea for a module from this.
Droprack.
A droprack is an externally mounted one shot 'launcher'.
Droprack can be used as attachment module for drones, flare, missile and bombs.
Other modules like fuel tank can also be put on it, but the fuel tank will not be connected to the main craft without a refueller and generally act as a worse droptank if used that way.
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