Fueling Station

[PsiTraveller]

There could be good RP and adventure hooks running a fueling waystation. In the module it is for pirates to make the shift between mains, but there is an economic need for such a waystation.

What do you think a good price for fuel would be? You have to figure the cost of getting fuel there, and getting the tanker BACK to the original system. That will add a cost to the fuel bill.

Another option is they have corralled a ice ball and got it into deep space. The owners can sell off the fuel for a good price.

 

[Rikki Tikki Traveller]

I would say double priced, at a minimum.

Maybe Cr.200 for Unrefined (raw off the tanker) and Cr.1500 or 2000 for Refined (OH, you want us to REFINE IT!)

I would assume they have a Deep Space Object, that is why they are there. Trying to do all the refueling via tankers is almost impossible and would certainly drive costs up 5 maybe 10 fold.

Maybe it isn't so much a pirate thing now, but a business-sophont that will sell fuel to anyone, at his price, no questions asked. OH, did I mention that the DSO has a bomb buried on it and if you try to take it away from me, I will blow it up into pieces so small you won't even be able to cool your drink with the leftovers????

 

[PsiTraveller]

A DSO is the easiest way to go. A military post would be a target for raids or takeover. It is too much of a logistical threat to leave alone.

A megaCorp may want to set up shop to get as much profit from travelling ships as possible, their own ships would get a staff discount of course, giving them an economic edge.

And lastly there is the independent Oortling community selling off the comet pieces in exhcange for everything they need.

Heart of the Comet ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heart_of_the_Comet ) offers a cool vision of a comet as slow ship.


I am trying to think of a way to make an ice ship with a J Drive, power plant and bridge. Connect to a massive iceteroid and Jump to empty space. You would use a percentage of the asteroid moving it, but then you could have the ice in an empty parsec ready to act as fuel tank for the ships coming behind. Heavy moving service. The military would use them to set up Deep Space FARPs and raiding bases. MegaCorps would use them to set up straightline trade routes to high value areas.

 

[phavoc]

Pricing the fuel wouldn't necessarily be a straight line cost model. If it benefitted society they might pick up the costs through subsidies because they benefit from trade.

We also don't have the new rules, but shipping massive quantities of fuel would go by cheap, large freighters, so the cost could be spread across many thousands of tons of fuel.

And any fuel shipped would be purely unrefined, with refining Taki g place on the station as needed. Or by the ships tanking up using on board fuel processors.

 

[PsiTraveller]

edited to correct mistake I made in location. SW of Theev is the better choice.

Well we can figure the minimum costs to ship a tank of anything, ice, water, Hydrogen to a location in deep space. The fuel cost is 10% of the total hull times the number of parsecs moved. A 1000 ton ship may get away with about 200 tons of space for operational needs leaving 800 tons of space for cargo and fuel.

Assuming a J2 to get to the middle of a gap. To use the Sindal sector a good location would be hex 2016 as Belisknar posted. This would allow Imperial shipping to leave Realgar, jump to Vume, then to the Fuel depot, then to Salif, to Number One and they are on the Florian Main.

To get from Vume to hex 2016 is going to cost 200 tons of fuel to get there, and 200 to get back. This leaves 400 tons of fuel that could be left there to fuel subsequent ships. This could be boosted by drop tanks but as a minimum shipping capacity 400 tons for a 1000 ton ship is what you can expect.

So the 400 tons of fuel have cost 400 tons of fuel to get there, plus mortgage, maintenance and pay on the ship to move it there. You can use unrefined fuel cost as a base, but it shows the customers better be willing to pay big money to fill their tanks.

The advantage of course for merchants in Realgar is to get to Number One port the old way took 13 jumps (Chalchiutlicue,Prime, Hradus, Hex, Imisaa, Fist, Lilgan, Exocet, Blue, Torpol, Oghma, Thebus, Number One.)

Vs the New Way

Realgar to Vume, Fuel Depot, Salif, Number One. 4 jumps saving 2 months of travel time and umpteen thousand credits in time and fuel. Even if the trading ships are force to Pay 3000 Credits a ton for refined fuel (why sell unrefined if you are the only gas station in the parsec.) it is still a savings.

I agree the various systems closest to the Fuel Hex may chip in and send ships to the Depot. Vume, Theev, Homestead and Salif all have gas giants or icy core planets or belts. Iceballs are possible.

A fueling station in 2016 would have the wealth of the Florian league passing through it to get to Imperial space faster. 2016 is better than my earlier post about hex 1915 because the 2016 hex allows 5 planets with gast giants and asteroid belts to supply the base as opposed to 4 systems at the 1915 location.

 

[phavoc]

It would be easier to have the fueling station located on a big chunk of ice drifting between star systems. Discovered long ago (or maybe even moved there) and used, forgotten, then re-discovered by some crotchety old man in a survey ship and now he runs an independent station open to all with the credits.

But no blasters. No blasters.

 

[Bar-en]

The best option would be a rogue Jovian body, perhaps even a Super Jovian.

By the way, how do Cartesian directions get used on a subsector map?

 

[phavoc]

If you've got a gas giant it won't be secret for long. Not to mention that there'd be no feasible way for pirates to control it because it's simply TOO big to stop people from taking whatever fuel they want.

In order to control the fuel and charge those kinds of prices, not to mention keeping it a "secret", you have to have something that's small and basically invisible in the vastness of space. It's much easier to hide an iceball 10-20km across than it is to hide a gas giant. You'd have to be extremely lucky to emerge from jump and be able to pick up a small planetoid. So that means somebody needs to share the location with you. Plus there's nobody nearby with a decent navy to go take the nest of pirates and raiders who use it.

I wonder how much, if any, legitimate shipping goes through there? Wouldn't you be at risk for being hijacked just showing up? The only thing I can think of is that people treat it like animals treat watering holes - it's kind of neutral ground and most are wary of each other, but still tolerate if you don't try to attack them.