An Idea

[leonidos]

it will turn every ship into a small playerbase that needs constant refueling and staffing to work, anyone who has refueled a base can tell you it's not fun.

Basically, this. You also have to account the cargo holds of the different ships, decay/consumption rate for the ships... and don't get me started on how you're gonna balance large ships that (iRP) should have crews to operate. Some have some EXTREMELY small holds, like in the 20's or something (Arrow), while capital ships usually have holds not more than 2000, since if they had anymore they'd be used for cargoships anyway.

If, using current cargo hold sizes and current mechanics, the consequences would be:

LF: while most have holds averaging 40, you also have to take into account the Armor, which already takes out a CHUNK of space. Not only that, but already-limited space would then limit the time you'll be able to fly (which makes sense, logically, but would make LF's near-useless as long-range space exploration vessels, and you'd need a fuel hauler for long-range trips. This would make LF's unpopular vessels to fly, only useful for fleet battles, blablabla...

Other Fighter-classes: Similar to the LF-issues, except probably not so much, since they've probably got bigger holds to spare. Still the same problem of needing a hauler for long-range travel. Best for fleet battles, blablabla...

Capitals: Let's take a Liberty Dreadnought with a crew of 200 as an example. That thing has 1600 Raw Cargo Space. The 200 Crew alone puts it at 1400. We'll assume we're using a CAU8, the nice stuff, which takes out 300 units, which leaves around 1100. Sounds like a big enough number, right? Now then, let's tally it... IF 1 crew = 1 food/water/oxygen/consumer goods (they count as toilet paper, etc.), 200 Crew would need 800 units of supplies for ONE CYCLE. That leaves only 300 units for tractoring whatever else you need... that is, if you're comfortable with only consuming one cycle. How would you determine the Cycle duration? Ten Hours? Twelve? A Server Restart? A Month? (IRL, each Cargo Unit for once cycle would be enough to supply a single person for 1 month) So let's say you put the cycle at Ten Hours. What would happen to iRP long-range missions out in the Omicrons (against the Order, duh)? What would happen if you ran out of supplies when the cycle ends? Kill the Crew? What happens when you have less than 200 Crew to operate it? Is there a skeleton-crew variable? What if the current is lower than the skeleton-crew variable? Does it affect handling of the dready? (that would need some serious FLHooking). Or would the ship simply not... function? That would mean if you didn't have enough crew, you'd be STUCK in the middle of space, calling out to any passers-by, or (forbid) [Admin]s to beam you to the nearest base.

... Oh yeah... I almost forgot, the 300 units you have left? You said about the fuel... So let's say you need about 200 units of fuel to keep the ship running for a single 10-hour cycle. Now you only have 100 units to spare. Dayum, that's so little cargo space left.



So yeah. While it would make sense to have some fuel, you've got to consider the math, the balancing, the time the players would have to spend calculating the contingencies to fly your precious little ship.

Sheesh, man. Not even EvE uses a fuel economy. And that game was ****ing hardcore-realism as you could get, WITHOUT introducing the mathematics and complexities of true space-flight.


TL;DR
Fuelancer. Mathlancer. Do you really want?

I think you didn't read the whole thing because some of your questions are already have answers in first post. Anyway Oxygen and water are available in everywhere and as i suggested without crew it will act as 10% power core.
Why do you think there are so many zoner bases and other independent bases?
For Supplying to everyone my friend