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About the Fuel Rats and Our Ethos

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. Our collective is more like the communes of the ancient Greek philosophers Aristotle and Epicurus: they did not need government or leaders because they were basically in agreement about what needed to be done. 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, but it’s hugely unlikely that a Rat-pack will go to war. 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:

• Cargo Hold: Limpets need space to be stored in, so you need a cargo hold with enough storage space (1t per limpet).
• Fuel Scoop: Our clients often end up in inhabited space. Even there, scooping fuel can be tricky, yet 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 [RESTOCK] at a station’s menu. You should carry at least 10 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 through rescues, yet it happens (very, very seldom).