Testing - Fuel and Operational Range in Custom Battles

[Panzergraf]

I did some highly scientific testing regarding fuel and range in Custom Battles:

Common knowledge has been that Operational Range doesn't matter in Custom Battles, that it's purely a campaign thing. And for what it's worth, Operational Range and Fuel does seem to be working as intended in the Campaign, at least for the most part.

However; the tooltips in the Ship Builder doesn't tell you ANYTHING about how Operational Range works in Custom Battles!

How much fuel do you burn just "getting to the battle"?

Can you run out of fuel during the battle?

Personally, I believed that if you had the range slider set to minimum, there was an RNG mechanic or perhaps a bug that some times caused your ships to spawn in with Low Fuel. Let's put that to the test!

In my first round of test I had 4 ships:

1 BB, range slider maxed out, but still with a max range of only 5000km

1 BC, range slider set to minimum, but with an operational range of a whopping 44,000km

1 CA, control, maxed range slider, 90,000km range (expected: OK, not Low Fuel)

1 CL, control, minimum range slider, 3000km range (expected: Low Fuel)

In all 5 attempts:

BB, Low Fuel

BC, OK

CA, OK

CL, Low Fuel

Conclusion: it is the actual Range in km that matters, not the position of the Range Slider. Results were very consistent, suggesting no bugs or RNG in play.

 

Second round of tests:

How many kilometers worth of range is needed to not start the battle with Low Fuel?

Can you run out of fuel during the battle?

Adjusting the range of the BB, it soon became clear that 6000km was the breaking point. Or 5800km to be more exact. Going into battle with an Operational Range of 5840km resulted in the BB running low on fuel during the battle after 5 minutes. With the range increased to 7000km, the fuel reserves lasted 1 hour in game before the ship ran low on fuel.

Working hypothesis:

A ship "burns" through 5800km worth of range just getting to the battle, and during the battle it "burns" 1000km every in game hour.

 

Other potential factors:

For my tests, year was set to 1942, and starting range was set to maximum. I'm not sure if the year matters. Do you "need" more range in later years than, for example, in 1890 where ships typically have very low operational range? Does speed increase fuel consumed before and during the battle? That will have to be tested further.

Final Conclusion:

I feel it's safe to conclude that Operational Range does matter in custom battles, and its effects are consistent enough that I don't think it's a bug, but an actual feature.

What we really do need is a tooltip in the Ship Designer that tells us exactly what Range means in the context of Custom Battles!