[AP] CLS between TLs

[Irrehaare]

Hi!

Yet another CLS question:
I have TLs (2 at the moment)(let's call them STORAGE) where I store all weapons and shields and missiles I make. I want them drifting idly in sector. They are constantly supplied and filled.

There is another TL (let's call it TEMP) in which I want to have a bit of everything (example: 200 HEPT, 20 1GJ Shield, 1000 Thunderbolt and so on). It is docked into my Equipment Dock and filling it.

All TLs are in the same sector. How to set up a TS CLS to automatically and efficiently supply TEMP from STORAGE? So that he pickups only needed ware, deliver it to TEMP and than go back to leave anything else he carries in STORAGE?

[shanrak]

You can't send CLS to docked TLs that's just not possible. I'm also not sure what you are doing with the TEMP. Is it putting stuff into the EQ or taking things out?

If temp was flying around you can use the fill up to <amount> command to manage how many goes where. And then just proceed to storage to empty everything else.

If you simply want to keep the EQ stocked you don't need temp just set the EQ as the target and use dockware to manage the amount.

[Timsup2nothin]

First thing, the "can't send to docked TL" is just wrong. You might have to undock the TL to set it as a waypoint and then dock it, but the CLS will deliver to it just fine. strike that, brain fade, TLs at a dock are just like any other ship waypoint

Now, on to the problem at hand.

Waypoint storage 1
Load missile x up to 10
Load missile y up to 10
Load missile z up to 10
Load gun a up to 10
Load gun b up to 10
etc....

Adjust the numbers so your TS fills up and it has some of everything.

Waypoint storage 2
Same as the first one. Note that only stuff that storage 1 has run out of is going to get loaded here.

Waypoint Dock
Fly to station

Waypoint TEMP
Unload missile x up to 500 (or whatever)
etc

The numbers here are the amounts you want your TEMP to keep in stock.

This TS will keep itself full. When your dock sells and TEMP refills it the TS will refill the TEMP and go pick up from storage. It will make as many trips as it needs to for the TEMP to be restocked, then make sure it is fully loaded, then it will park at the dock and go on standby. If you leave out the fly to command it will go on standby floating around near one of you storage units. A TS full of weapons and missiles is a tempting target, so I figure you'd rather it was docked.


NOTE: All answers based on TC, but I've never heard that AP is any different in this regard.

[shanrak]

Wow I didn't know that part with the docked TLs that's awesome

[ancienthighway]

Just to expand on what Tim said, there's no need to undock a ship to set it as a waypoint.

An alternative:
You can purchase 6 Mistral Super Freighters for just over 9 mil credits giving you the same storage capacity as a Mammoth. Roughly 1/3 of the cost. Do not upgrade cargo hold. (You can buy a ship for less than the hold upgrade and get twice the storage.)

What you want on TEMP may be much less than the hold on the TL, requiring only 1 or 2 Mistral SFs. You can eliminate the "middle man CLS" by having the TEMP Mistrals run a CLS2 script to load directly from the TL, then dock at a convenient station. The scripts only execute when resupply is needed as opposed to the middle man approach which would run constantly. You even have the option of setting up multiple TEMP groups for the same price as one TL TEMP.

[Timsup2nothin]

I like using the TL to stock the dock myself because it only uses one docking slot. Plus if a ship restocks the dock with one ware and flies off it delays restocking of other wares if they get sold in the interim. I like that buffer just sitting there refilling the dock. It is true that if all you handle is some missiles and guns the TL is going to be excessive storage though.

I usually set up docks to handle pretty much everything, just to unload salvage on the cheap to NPCs if nothing else, and a TL to dump the salvage into and forget it is nice. Sometimes when you pick up those big loads of spilled freight the dock can't hold it all in one go.

[ancienthighway]

How is the dock being used? If it's to sell your manufactured armaments, then keeping a stocking ship docked at all times makes sense. If it's to equip your own ships, there is minimum impact of the stocking ship picking up the supplies.

I hate using TLs as warehouses. I find better use of them deploying stations or being a collection point for mobile mining operations.

Side note: I hope the OP picked up the Boron Equipment Dock. In AP it will house unlimited number of fighters, bombers, transports, and corvettes internally rather than on docking ports.

[Irrehaare]

Wow, that escalated quickly. Thanks! Now, one by one:

I'm also not sure what you are doing with the TEMP. Is it putting stuff into the EQ or taking things out?

If you simply want to keep the EQ stocked you don't need temp just set the EQ as the target and use dockware to manage the amount.

I want to have EQ always filled and TEMP filled to specified amounts, becouse that way I easily equip smaller ships in EQ and bigger ships by Freight Exchange with TEMP.

Timsup2nothin
That is the idea I came up at first, but it hurts how unefficient it is: instead of making one run to carry 10000 load of missiles TS will make 10-20 of them. I know that I can easily set up more of them, but it still will be inefficient and unconvinient if I happen to need more of some ware than is stored in TEMP at the moment. I hate 'inefficient' and 'unconvinient'.

ancienthighway
Idea of SF is nice, but:
-as a TEMP no option, since as I said earlier, I want it to be ONE ship with a bit of everything.
-as a STORAGE I'd have to rearrange a lot, since they can't be set as a target by CLS (or can they?) and there is a problem how to make them float idly when they are not doing anything (which could be solved by alternative of keeping them in EQ, which has unlimited docking of this size). It is also tempting to have them named by ware they store...

Anyway thanks, great thing to consider.

I like using the TL to stock the dock myself because it only uses one docking slot. Plus if a ship restocks the dock with one ware and flies off it delays restocking of other wares if they get sold in the interim. I like that buffer just sitting there refilling the dock. It is true that if all you handle is some missiles and guns the TL is going to be excessive storage though.

Exactly my thoughts. And missiles, weapons and shield are not excessive in case of my production or what I want.

How is the dock being used? If it's to sell your manufactured armaments, then keeping a stocking ship docked at all times makes sense. If it's to equip your own ships, there is minimum impact of the stocking ship picking up the supplies.

Equip ships. And I want stuff to be easliy accessible.

Side note: I hope the OP picked up the Boron Equipment Dock. In AP it will house unlimited number of fighters, bombers, transports, and corvettes internally rather than on docking ports.

BINGO! Yes, I did, and that's why I'll consider using SFs.

Another question: If I used SF as STORAGE (instead of TLs) and set waypoints:
1. Load in headquarters (where stuff could be delivered from factories, they are in the same sector);
2. Fly to station: EQ;
3. Unload up to <example: 1000 Thunderbolts> into TEMP;

Will it sit in EQ doing nothing until something it stores is delivered to HQ, go take it and come back with it, and keep filling TEMP to specified amount? Will SF stuck in HQ if filled to max?

[ancienthighway]

A couple things to consider:

Do you need to deliver armaments to the HQ before sending them to STORAGE? Think about having those transports take the armaments directly to the EQ Dock for transfer into TEMP, or even park STORAGE there and unload to it. Eliminate the possibly extra step and your added question at the end is moot.

An off the shelf stripped down Mistral SF will hold 666 Heavy Hammer Torpedos, which I believe is the biggest missile the player can build. Or 2,500 Thunderbolts using your example. If you don't want a stripped down ship, just add enough cargo space for shields, weapons, drones, and MDM if desired, keeping 10,000 storage.

I don't think you'll have a problem with needing to go with one ware per SF, but even if you went that route, you keep a capital docking clamp free and still have infinite modular storage. When you decide how much to hold in your TEMP, take into consideration how much of a given ware the EQ Dock will hold.

[Timsup2nothin]

Timsup2nothin
That is the idea I came up at first, but it hurts how unefficient it is: instead of making one run to carry 10000 load of missiles TS will make 10-20 of them. I know that I can easily set up more of them, but it still will be inefficient and unconvinient if I happen to need more of some ware than is stored in TEMP at the moment. I hate 'inefficient' and 'unconvinient'.

I think there is a point here...this is a maintenance system. If you start with an empty dock, nothing in your TEMP supply ship, and a bunch of stuff in the storage units it is going to take a bunch of trips, because maintaining the system is a lot different from the initial setup. If you use this for getting things set up to start with it is going to be a slow process.

For the initial setup I'd just fly the TEMP TL over by the STORAGE TL and fill it up manually.

[Irrehaare]

Big thanks to you guys. Here's how I'll make it:
-STOREAGE are Mistrals SF, each with designated wares and named by that. All production is sent to them. They also will keep feeding TEMP. If I will need more than one for some kind of ware, then STORAGE1 fills TEMP, STORAGE2 fills STORAGE1 and so on.
-TEMP is a TL that keeps a bit of everything, fills EQ and can be used to equip bigger ships/wings easily.

This way I'll have nice modular storage and in the future I can easily have custom fleet supply ships taking stuff from TEMP or EQ. I can also add new wares to whole system quite easily and everything should run nice and smooth...

Bonus: all those guys are not flying, so they are not taking any wage.

[TheDeliveryMan]

I usually use Demeters (Tanker), Dolphins and Dolphin Haulers for 2.8k (small), 4k (medium) and 8k (large) docked storages respectively. IIRC they provide much cheaper cargo space than Mistral SF.

[Timsup2nothin]

I usually use Demeters (Tanker), Dolphins and Dolphin Haulers for 2.8k (small), 4k (medium) and 8k (large) docked storages respectively. IIRC they provide much cheaper cargo space than Mistral SF.

I usually use stolen freighters, which are cheaper yet.

[Irrehaare]

I've set up everything. At the moment I'm using 5 mistral sf (torpedoes (M7M and M8), light equipment (M3-M6), heavy equipment (M7, M1, M2), Thunderbolts 2 freighters (I put them into all of my fighters, 12 Solano deals with almost anything). IMHO this storage costed me around 10 milion, which is nothing as a startup cost.

I'll see how it works and post results here for future players

[ancienthighway]

Great!

Now that you've got that sorted, here's my take on fighter outfitting. It does use CODEA, so you will be tagged as modified.

I like my PHQ in Light of Heart to the northwest of the EQ Dock. I've got a complex in sector that supplies all the materials for ship building. I'm constantly building the M3 of the day, Falcon Hauler or Nova Raider.

I group 4 newly built fighters into a wing, which is sent to the EQ dock (TC) , or the shipyard (AP), for upgrade and software. Make sure the EQ dock has a gun you can include. I go with a PAC which will eventually be the turret gun.

CODEA allows ships with at least one gun and a pilot to be assigned a Hanger: Interceptor, Assault, Escort, Salvage, Patrol, Scout and probably another one or two that I don't recall off the top of my head. Each Hanger can have a different preconfigured load of guns, missiles, ammunition and energy cells. After the wing is upgraded, it lands on a TM running CODEA with pilots waiting ship assignment, armaments to equip at least 4 fighters, and the preconfigured load for each Hanger.

Assign pilots to each fighter, add them to a Hanger, then with one button arm the fighters. Then disband the hanger and send the wing off to get a triplex scanner and jumpdrive if desired. Four fighters are now ready to be assigned to a carrier (any ship that has docking bays) and reassigned to the appropriate hanger.

A CLS2 trader is responsible for keeping the TM supplied. The TM would periodically have to hire pilot from a Military Outpost.

This isn't limited just to fighters. Have any bigger ship follow the TM, give it a pilot and a gun, assign it to the Carrier, Destroyer, Frigate, Corvette, or Bomber Hanger and equip them the same way. Only limitation if the cargo hold of the TM (or M7C or M1 if you are flush with cash).

[Irrehaare]

I'm already modified, I'm running with 41 mods at the moment. However I'm worried if CODEA will work together with my MARS...

We have some similarities: I've got my HQ in Player Sector, also with complex supplying it (and selling any surplus with nice profit). I'm making mostly Susanowa Prototypes and sometimes Aamons or other M3+. Solanos are used to protect TLs and one M7C carries a wing of them.

However, so far I've been doing everything manually (equiping one figter once in a while is not so bad after all). So thanks, I'll think about it.

[ancienthighway]

MARS and CODEA work well together.

[Triaxx2]

If you're equipping capitals, Shrike's make excellent "Command ships". They can defend themselves, and have cargo bay enough to equip capitals, while also being able to be supplied by fighter size craft if you're getting goods from stations that TL's can't park at.

Me, rather than shuffle through an HQ, I park a TL, typically either an Atomsphere Lifter, or Mammoth at each end of my transfer route. Then I take a fast TL, either an Elephant or Ryu and have that act as a CLS ship running between the two ends. Then have TS running from the end point ships to the destinations.

This style of shipping works well for Terran sectors. Since there aren't jump gates you want large amounts of cargo moved, so having an Elephant moving from sector to sector refilling Mammoth's is more efficient than a bunch of TS continually running from the Asteroid Belt. And each sector has Mistrals and Angels running goods around delivering goods from the Mammoth's to the various stations. I typically do two Elephants. One coming from the commonwealth, with energy cells from Akeela's Beacon, and one that goes around the various Terran sectors, redistributing goods among the Mammoths.