Introduction

It takes a special CMDR to want to be a Fuel Rat. Fuel Rats fight against the galaxy’s greatest foes: Time, instancing, distance, and the countdown as a CMDR’s cabin atmosphere runs out. We need CMDRs who are enthusiastic, disciplined, and willing to go way above and beyond the normal call of duty. If we can possibly save a client, we will.

The Fuel Rats is strictly non-PvP. Our only enemy is instancing. As a fuel rat you will use skill and speed to get to clients, and advanced evasion tactics to manoeuvre around obstacles. Refuel, don’t provoke or get provoked.

If you’re our kind of CMDR, we’ll welcome your assistance.

Before you sign up, think about whether you’re willing to:

• Cooperate as part of a team, to do great things

• Lead when leadership is needed

• Follow when following is the right thing to do

• Do whatever it takes to rescue clients

• Generally be a cheerful, funny, helpful, Fuel Rat

About the Fuel Rats and Our Ethos

"Give a man a fuel limpet, he jumps for a day, teach a man how to fuel scoop they jump for a lifetime"

- CMDR Datalink

The Fuel Rats are a more or less flatly structured collective of equals. By necessity, there is SOME form of management in the form of the Ops Team and the Overseers, but by and large, the Mischief operates by means of unity towards a common goal. Disagreements are worked out by listening to each other, suggesting solutions, and (hopefully) deciding collectively what to do. The “collective” is a team, sharing a common goal. Military units have to resort to hierarchical command-structures in order to get people to do the right thing in a situation where disagreement is fostered by political pressure.  In the Fuel Rats we prefer to expect people to do the right thing. If someone doesn’t fit in, they’ll get polite suggestions to find another hobby than Fuel Ratting.

Even though we are leaderless, we are a collective; the actions of each individual reflect on how others perceive the collective. Every one of us makes all the Fuel Rats collective look good. Which also means that if one of us is misbehaving, they make all of us look bad. If one Fuel Rat feels another is making the collective look bad, your starting move should be: “Hey, please think how your behavior reflects on the collective.”

We are The Good Guys and first and foremost our job – our only job – is to save stranded pilots quickly, courteously, and professionally. Some of us are fairly serious role-players. By all means, role-play if you like. Or not. If one of your fellow Rats is role-playing, it’s probably nice if you play along.

Since the game hasn’t got a very good fee-structure or means of exchanging wealth, we talk a lot about charging a 100t of platinum, an arm, or a liver. If you want to work something out or role-play something with a rescuee, have fun.

Please do not mix other game-play with your Fuel Ratting; while you’re out on a rescue, you represent the lot of us. If you decide to get creative, just be thoughtful.

The Fuel Rats are not a war guild. Yes, we’ll equip good shields, fast ships, even guns to protect ourselves and our clients from NPCs, but you'll never see a Rat-pack go to war against other CMDRs. After all, many of the Rats are on different sides and factions. When we’re being Fuel Rats, we’re all on one side: The Fuel Rats. Otherwise… it gets complicated.

Suggested Ship Loadouts

In truth, any ship can be made to serve as a Ratting ship, although the nature of our service often leads to certain types of ships being preferred. The most frequent ship to be found in the hands of Rats are the Asp Explorer (The RAsp) and the Anaconda (Rataconda), due to their superior jump range and flexible modules.

There are a few things that come as a bare minimum to enable your ship to refuel another though:

• Jump Range: Because Rats are assigned based on how quickly they can reach a client, maximizing jump range is a good idea.  We highly recommend a minimum 20Ly jump range before going on rescues or requesting a drill.
• Cargo Hold: Limpets need space to be stored in, so you need a cargo hold with enough storage space (1t per limpet).  It's recommended that a minimum of 8 limpets are carried.  Most Rats carry 12-16 limpets.  Remember that too many limpets will lower your jump range.
• Fuel Scoop: Our clients often end up in inhabited space, and every limpet you give to the client takes 1T of fuel out of your tank.  Without a fuel scoop … you will soon find yourself in serious trouble.
• Limpets: All nice and well, yet without limpets, all your shiny ship would be very, very useless. Don’t forget to resupply your stock through [ADVANCED MAINTENANCE → RESTOCK] at a station’s menu. You should carry at least 8 limpets, better are even more, but not too many. T9 vessels, for example, can be very fuel hungry – ten limpets might just be enough to get such a client to the next station.
• Fuel Transfer Limpet Controller: This is what programs, launches and guides the limpets on their way to the client.
• Extra fuel tanks are optional and depend mainly on the class of your Ratship. Note that increased fuel capacity reduces plottable jump range.
• Weapons are not required. You are free to take them with you, of course, yet they reduce your jump range, and Rats usually like to run rather than stand and fight, and thus invest in stronger defensive mechanisms or speed anyway. We usually do not run into trouble from other CMDRs through rescues, yet it happens (very, very seldom).  It's more likely that you'll run into an NPC attempting to take cargo or claim a bounty.

IRC and Communications

IRC is our communications backbone, and where all our rescue activity takes place. Although we have a presence on both Reddit, the Elite: Dangerous forums, Discord and various other media, 99.9% of our rescues happen on IRC, with the other media mostly serving to help get our clients to IRC.

Our IRC network is irc.fuelrats.com, which is served by two servers; one in the EU and one in the US (irc.eu.fuelrats.com and irc.us.fuelrats.com). Clients are primarily connected to the US server, falling back to the EU server if the US server should, for some reason, be down. Clients connect using a customized KiwiIRC web client, which presents them with a form requesting important information, such as their commander name, their platform (PC, Xbox or PS4), their location, and their O2 status. Once they fill out the form, they are connected to our IRC server, and sent to the rescue channel, #fuelrats. 

Once the client is connected, our trusty IRC Bot, MechaSqueak, is notified of the new case and triggers a R atsignal, a word that most Rats have set up as a highlight to warn them of new cases. From there, a rat currently holding the role of Dispatcher handles the case workflow.

Primarily, the client communicates with the Dispatcher, and the rats communicate with Dispatch in the IRC channel. Once assigned on a case and winged up with the client, the rats can freely communicate directly with the client through in-game text or voice chat.

While on a case, your primary task is getting to the client as quickly as possible, which usually means you will spend most of your time enroute on the "jump-honk-scoop-jump" cycle. During this time, you will also receive friend and wing invites from the client, which you need to report receipt of back to Dispatch. Most rats do this while in witchspace between systems.

Identifying the client

It’s a good idea to include the client name or case number (NOT system name) in all of your messages, particularly when multiple cases are ongoing. Some dispatchers have preferences on whether they want report by client name or case number; they will most likely inform you about which.

Reporting jumps

Once you know a client’s (hopefully correct) system, if you are available to perform the rescue report the number of jumps to dispatch, along with any pertinent info.  “5j”, “ship change + 4j”, "restock + 3j" are all concise ways of doing this.  

If you report jumps, it is implied that you are willing to perform the rescue and it’s good to assume you will be assigned (e.g. start jumping immediately) until you hear otherwise.  Don’t call jumps if you don’t want the rescue.

It’s important to wait until someone has communicated with the client to !prep them before calling jumps.   This way the IRC channel doesn’t get clogged with communication that can potentially confuse the client who is unfamiliar with IRC or our procedures.  It’s critical to quickly get information on Code Red clients so that they can log out and rats can be organized for the rescue.

It’s also a good idea to add the client’s IRC nickname or case number after your call, such as “5j clientname” or "5j case #2" so that dispatch knows which client you’re calling jumps for.  This is important when multiple cases are being run in the channel at the same time and multiple people are talking at the same time.

Your status updates

• If you’re interdicted or other mishaps happen, let dispatch know.
• Also update dispatch periodically on your remaining jumps, usually this can be bundled into another update to keep traffic down  (“3j, FR+”)

Client status updates

• Let dispatch know when you’ve accepted a wing request (WR) or friend request (FR) from the client.  “WR+” or “FR+ client” are examples of this.
• If you haven’t received a request and a reasonable amount of time has passed, notify dispatch of that as well (e.g. “FR- client”).  This can also serve as a subtle way to remind dispatch to instruct the client to send friend/wing requests if they forgot to do so.

• Do not reverse-FR or message clients who immediately leave IRC

  We do not send reverse FRs or send XBL/PSN messages to clients who send a ratsignal and then immediately disconnect and do not return. The client may have changed their mind, or in extremis, it may even be someone using someone else's CMDR name. If they require help, they will reconnect.

  Beyond that, if the client has communicated previously and hasn't clearly indicated they no longer need assistance, Dispatch may instruct rats to attempt reverse FRs if it's probable the client still wants help.

  • Since Code Red clients are logged out, you won’t receive a Wing Request until after they log in.  This is normal and there’s no need to report WR- while you’re still en route.
• If the client says they have friended/winged you but you haven’t received the request, notify right away in case they friended or invited the wrong person.  

• Once a client has friended you, it’s possible to check galmap to confirm they’re in the system they reported.  Alert dispatch with the correct location as soon as possible.
  • Since Code Red clients are logged out, this can’t be done until you’re already in (hopefully the correct) system
• Let dispatch know if you can/cannot see the client’s Wing Beacon (BC) once in their target system and wing
• Always drop to clients with nav-lock engaged on first try.
  

When you drop out of Supercruise at the client’s location, there’s two options to take based on whether you see the client or not.  (Sometimes you won’t, because instancing issues):

If you see the client:

1. Target the client and begin your fuel transfer FIRST (especially on a Code Red).  Targeting the client from the Navigation panel can save precious seconds while turning your ship around.  If you’re running a high rated limpet controller you may not even have to turn around before launching your limpet as you can target the client through the navigation panel’s contact list.
2. Update dispatch on your status.  Only report successful fueling after you hear “Fuel Transfer Complete”

It’s important to do these steps in this order, because a client may have only seconds of Emergency Oxygen left.  Dispatch can wait.

If you don’t:

1. Tell dispatch ASAP.  “Inst-” or “Instance-” is fine.
2. Have a look at the distance to the signal. Lightseconds (ls) point towards client in exclusion zone (EZ), kilometers (km) towards regular instancing-issues. Let dispatch know, too.
   

 Bearing and Distance

On a CR-rescue or when client is very far away from star, it can be necessary that the rats get a bearing and distance to the wing-signal before client logs out to main-menu.

1. Bring wing-signal of client to the center of your HUD. You can check if it's dead-center by rotating your ship along it's stern-bow-axis. Don't move the controls until you are in position of client.
2. Check the distance to client and to the star so you can get into position of client by calculating the correct distance from star after the wing-signal has gone.

Code Red  Rescues

Code Red (CR) rescues are those when a client is on emergency oxygen, or a few other special cases at the discretion of the dispatcher.

In the case of a CR, we have the client logout to the main menu after telling us their location.  This prevents the client from running down their oxygen timer.  On CR cases multiple rats are always assigned if available.  The client then stays in the main menu until all rats assigned to his case have arrived in the system he was reported to be in. Once the rats are in the system the client will login, and invite the rats to a wing.  If the client is far away, notify dispatch immediately and they will have the client logout again if enough time is available.  If instancing issues arise during a CR then Dispatch will advise the rats and client which maneuver to try next.  

It’s important to keep in mind that on CR cases every login/logout by the client reduces the remaining O2 timer.  Each time a client logs out while on life support, they have a 15 second timer (similar to trying to log out while your ship is in danger/combat), and it takes time to send wing invites and turn the wing beacon on.  Managing the remaining O2 timer versus the time needed to travel to the client and initiate the rescue is key to a successful CR case.

What does being CR mean for the client?

Directly, it means they have no fuel in their main or reserve tank. This means they cannot power any of their modules, including:

• Life support, which means they have a limited supply of oxygen, shown by a timer counting down. When this reaches 0, they will explode;
• Frameshift drive, which means they cannot jump to another system or even supercruise;
• Thrusters, which means they cannot move in normal space;
• Shields, which mean the wing HUD will display red circles around their wing icon to other players in their wing.