Supply Sattelite Strategy

[LintMan]

I think that the way resupply works in a fleet is that it adds up all the supply contained by the fleet, and then it divides that by the total supply _capacity_ of the fleet, and every ship gets that percentage of supplies. In other words, if you have 10000 supply currently amongst all your ships, and your fleet has a total capacity of 40000, then each ship will be filled to 1/4 of its capacity.

For example if you have a fleet with 2 ships: one at 0/4000 and the other at 4000/12000. I think it will end up with the ships at 1000/4000 and 3000/4000.

But if you had a fleet with two ships: one at 0/4000 and one at 4000/4000, you'll end up with both ships at 2000/4000.

I haven't directly tested my hypothesis, but that seems to be how it works from what I've seen.

I think the reason you see your fleet resupply more quickly when the sats have larger storage is because they initially have a greater amount of supply to distribute when your fleet pulls up. In other words, if each sat is filled with 4000 supply when your fleet pulls up, it will fill your ships more quickly than if each sat has only 1000 supply. Of course, that's assuming that the sats have time to refill in between fleet arrivals.

But there seems to be an easier way to set up a remote resupply area... Create a space yard ship that moves with your fleet, and have it stop and build a cheapie base wherever you need a resupply area. The base doesn't need to have anything in it but the crew stuff (so maint is dirt cheap), but it will still have endless supplies so when your fleet joins it, it will be completely refueled 100%. And for just a little more cost, you can put some defenses on the refueling base, and it is self-defending. It'll take a few turns to build the base, but the space yard ship can stay behind to build it (and catch up later, or when the fleet comes back to refuel) while your fleet continues its conquest in the next system.