NPR fleet readiness and recovery

Readiness state and design baselines

This page follows the government fleets of a Standard NPR from measured readiness to recovery orders. It explains why a fleet seeks fuel, repairs, ammunition or a carrier, which destinations qualify, and how tanker assignments replenish the colonies that support the fleets. The examples use synthetic inputs. Comparisons, rounding and the order of the checks are given exactly as the game applies them.

Ship readiness and recovery covers physical damage, maintenance and repair. Movement and logistics covers routes, order execution, hangar operations and physical transfers. Civilian economy and autonomous logistics covers company decisions. A government tanker can use a civilian harvester as a fuel source without taking over that company’s policy. Naval administration explains command membership and command bonuses. These are separate from the key element of the AI’s operational group. Broad combat target planning, special-faction strategy and orbital-industry allocation are outside this page.

The game keeps several related ratings rather than one readiness percentage. Each ship has a role capability, a fuel readiness, a system readiness and a missile ordnance status. Fleets combine the last three and separately derive a mission availability. The readiness refresh rates every ship first, then every fleet. The ship list a fleet uses here is a copy of every ship in the fleet, ships embarked in its carriers included. Carried ships are not left out.

State	Values in order	Main use on this page
Role capability	Incapable 0, Severely Degraded 1, Degraded 2, Lightly Degraded 3, Fully Capable 4	Key element check for mission availability
Fuel readiness	Empty 0, Critical 1, Low 2, Sufficient 3	Fuel recovery queue
System readiness	Inoperable 0, Severely Degraded 1, Lightly Degraded 2, Fully Operational 3	Yard recovery queue
Missile ordnance status	Empty 0, Low 1, Partially Loaded 2, Reload Not Needed 3, Not Applicable 4	Reload queue. Not Applicable ships are left out of missile averages
Mission availability	Unavailable 1, Available 2, Mission Capable 3	Strategic deployment selection

Design values and live capacity are not interchangeable. The ship fuel penalty compares fuel against the nominal class fuel capacity (FCT_ShipClass.FuelCapacity). The engine penalty compares the ship’s effective maximum speed, truncated to a whole number, against the nominal class speed (FCT_ShipClass.MaxSpeed). Component checks use undamaged component capacity with commander bonuses not applied. The fleet fuel shortfall and the tanker half-full tests use live fleet fuel capacity instead. Live fleet fuel capacity is the sum of undamaged fuel storage capacity over every ship assigned to this fleet, truncated to a whole number. Current fleet fuel sums the fuel (FCT_Ship.Fuel) of the ships held in the fleet’s own ship list.

Ship fuel and system ratings

Each refresh of a ship’s role capability first resets role capability to Fully Capable, system readiness to Fully Operational and missile status to Not Applicable. The armour penalty runs next when the ship has armour damage, then the engine penalty when it has damaged components. The fuel check and the checks for the ship’s automated class come after them.

Fuel readiness is not reset at the start of the refresh. A class with a nominal fuel capacity of 0 leaves the fuel check before the fuel reset, so the ship keeps its previous fuel rating. A harvester (the automated Harvester design, DIM_AutomatedClassDesign ID 6) with positive capacity is reset to Sufficient and the fuel check ends there.

For an ordinary ship with positive capacity, let T(p) be the class fuel capacity x p, truncated toward zero to a whole number. The game compares the ship’s fuel, which can hold fractions, against T(p).

First matching condition	Fuel rating	Role consequence
Fuel equals 0	Empty	Incapable
Fuel below T(0.2)	Critical	limit to Severely Degraded
Fuel below T(0.3)	Low	limit to Degraded
Fuel below T(0.4)	Sufficient	limit to Lightly Degraded
Otherwise	Sufficient	no fuel penalty

A ship between the 30% and 40% marks can therefore lose role capability without its fleet entering the fuel recovery queue. A fuel value exactly at a mark falls into the less severe rating because every comparison is strict. Tankers (the automated Tanker design, DIM_AutomatedClassDesign ID 45) follow their own rule. Fuel below T(0.1) gives Low. Only when that test fails does the game test fuel below T(0.05) for Critical. For a nonnegative class capacity the second test can never pass. At zero fuel a tanker gets Low when T(0.1) is positive. A positive class capacity below 10 instead leaves it Sufficient, because both truncated thresholds are 0. Tanker fuel penalties do not reduce role capability.

System readiness measures selected damage. It does not measure maintenance supplies or crew morale directly.

Armour damage ratio is the sum of the ship’s armour damage (FCT_ArmourDamage.Damage) divided by the product of class armour width and armour thickness (FCT_ShipClass.ArmourWidth and ArmourThickness). For a class whose NoArmour flag is not 1, a ratio strictly above 0.2 limits system readiness to Lightly Degraded, above 0.4 to Severely Degraded and above 0.6 to Inoperable. A ratio of exactly 0.2 gets no armour downgrade.
When the ship has damaged components and its effective speed, as a whole number, differs from the class speed, the speed ratio decides. Above 75% gives role Lightly Degraded and systems Severely Degraded. At 50% or more gives Degraded and Severely Degraded. Above 25% gives Severely Degraded and Inoperable. Anything lower sets role Incapable and systems Inoperable.
Weapon roles compare undamaged and nominal counts of the role’s weapons and fire controls. Beam roles count beam weapons and beam fire controls. Missile roles count missile launchers and missile fire controls. A fully intact set ends the check at once. Otherwise zero surviving weapons or zero surviving fire controls gives Incapable and Inoperable. Any lost fire control caps role at Lightly Degraded and systems at Severely Degraded. The surviving weapon fraction then applies. Below 25% sets role Incapable and systems Inoperable. Below 50% limits role to Severely Degraded and sets systems Inoperable. Below 75% limits role to Degraded and systems to Severely Degraded. Below 100% limits role and systems to Lightly Degraded.
Scouts compare surviving active, thermal and EM sensor counts with the design. Below 30% sets Incapable and Inoperable. Below 60% limits role to Severely Degraded and sets systems Inoperable. Any smaller loss limits role to Degraded and systems to Severely Degraded.

The automated class decides which essential components matter. Freighters need live cargo holds and cargo shuttle bays. Colony ships and liners need colonist or passenger capacity plus cargo shuttle bays. Terraformers, harvesters, geological and gravitational survey ships, troop transports, construction ships, salvagers and orbital miners each need live capacity of their own module (terraforming modules, sorium harvesters, geological or gravitational survey sensors, troop transport bays, jump point stabilisation modules, salvage modules or orbital mining modules). Zero capacity sets role Incapable and systems Inoperable. Carriers apply the hangar deck penalty, which uses the same 25%, 50%, 75% and 100% steps as the weapon fraction, counted on the class’s first hangar deck type. Jump warships, jump tenders, , beam dreadnoughts and battle carriers always test live jump drive capacity. Other carriers test it when the class has a jump rating above 0 (FCT_ShipClass.JumpRating). Zero jump drive capacity limits role to Degraded and sets systems to Severely Degraded. Some of these checks set the system rating outright instead of taking the lower of the two ratings, so an earlier, worse system rating can be overwritten. These are class-specific checks, not a universal health percentage over all components.

Ship ammunition ratings

The missile check starts at Reload Not Needed. It ends there at once for an automated design without a missile type (DIM_AutomatedClassDesign.MissileType 0). Otherwise it finds the smallest configured missile size among the class’s non-decoy ordnance templates (FCT_ClassOrdnanceTemplate), or 0 when there are none. Let A be the free normal magazine space and L the loaded ordnance size, the sum of missile size x amount over everything loaded, decoys included. A is the remaining free normal magazine space, the ship’s live normal magazine capacity minus the size of loaded non-decoy missiles. It is not total magazine capacity.

The first matching rule applies:

A is below the smallest configured non-decoy size. The status stays Reload Not Needed, even before the game looks at whether L is 0.
L equals 0. Empty, and role is limited to Incapable.
L is above A x 0.5. Partially Loaded, with no role penalty.
L is above A x 0.3. Partially Loaded, with role limited to Lightly Degraded.
Otherwise Low. Role is limited to Degraded when L is above a low-ordnance threshold x 0.15, else to Severely Degraded.

The low-ordnance threshold starts at 0 and nothing ever sets it. Any positive L that reaches the Low rule therefore takes Degraded. These comparisons follow the free-space formula, not percentages of the design loadout. The class loadout template is used later, as a separate measure, for the fleet’s reload shortfalls (see reload destinations).

Fleet aggregation and mission availability

For fuel and systems the game sums the numeric ship ratings and divides by the number of ships. A zero sum gives Empty fuel or Inoperable systems and sets mission availability to Unavailable. Otherwise an average above 2.5 gives Sufficient or Fully Operational. Above 1.5 gives Low or Lightly Degraded. Everything else gives Critical or Severely Degraded. These are unweighted means of categories. Fuel volume, hull size and damage carry no weight.

Missile averages count only ships whose status is not Not Applicable. With no such ships the fleet’s missile status stays Not Applicable. Otherwise:

A total of 0 gives the fleet Empty.
When the fleet holds applicable key element ships and their total is 0, the fleet gets Empty and mission availability Unavailable.
Otherwise an average of exactly 3 gives Reload Not Needed, above 1.5 gives Partially Loaded and anything lower gives Low. A key element average of 1.5 or less then caps the result at Low. A further cap at Partially Loaded for a key element average of 2.5 or less can never apply with ordinary statuses. Any such key ship already keeps the fleet average from being exactly 3.

The first zero-total rule does not set Unavailable, and it is tested before the key element rule. A fleet whose ammunition is all empty therefore keeps its availability, while a fleet with an empty key element and loaded other ships becomes Unavailable.

The key element is the first element of the race’s operational group template marked as key (FCT_RaceOperationalGroupElements.KeyElement). Ships match it by automated design (AutomatedDesignID). It is not the fleet commander, the largest ship or a command headquarters. When the group has no key element, the final step sets Available even if fuel or systems just set Unavailable. With a key element, the final step stops at once when availability is already Unavailable. Otherwise a zero sum of the key ships’ role capability ratings gives Available, and any positive sum gives Mission Capable. A fleet is mission capable without every key ship being Fully Capable and without the planned number of key ships being present.

Mission availability is not reset when the recalculation starts. For a fleet with a key element, an earlier Unavailable can therefore survive after its fuel and systems recover, because the final step stops before it rates key ship capability again. The fuel, system and missile ratings still refresh before that stop. This is a quirk of the stored rating. It does not mean that recovery cannot physically restore the ship.

Strategic cadence and assignment order

NPR AI processing is always on, and no window or option turns it off. Before each time increment the game runs the strategic planner for every NPR . That run is not forced and receives the increment’s length as elapsed time. The construction-cycle strategic update runs it again as a forced run with 0 elapsed seconds. A run that is not forced enters the main assignment block only when systems with recent hostile ships exist and more than 10,000 seconds have passed since the last threat response. A forced run enters it directly. An increment longer than 10,000 seconds does not by itself enter this recovery block. It can trigger the later per-system redeployment pass. The NPR strategic planning page lists the same clocks.

Recent means hostile ship contacts updated strictly less than five days (432,000 seconds) ago. The hostile STO population exclusions also use the contacts under five days old. At the start of each run, every fleet clears its reservation for system assignment, copies its avoid danger setting from its operational group (DIM_OperationalGroup.AvoidDanger) and refreshes the destination of its last order. The main block refreshes readiness at most once per run. The step that moves fleets out of systems disconnected from the capital’s valued network can run its own readiness refresh of those fleets. The main block does not count that refresh and runs its own. The game takes the race’s fleets, ships and populations at the start of the run and works from those lists throughout.

For Standard NPRs, combat, system, scouting and survey assignments come before recovery and can set a fleet’s redeploy flag (FCT_Fleet.RedeployOrderGiven). The recovery steps then run in this order:

Loaded tankers deliver fuel.
Low-fuel tankers collect fuel.
Orbital defence fleets (DIM_OperationalGroup.MainFunction 4) try a local ammunition order.
Fuel-deficient fleets seek colonies.
Damaged fleets seek shipyard colonies.
Ordnance-deficient fleets seek reload colonies.

only Standard NPRs run the shipyard step. Fuel therefore wins over repairs and reloading for a fleet that the fuel step assigns. A fleet that is already redeploying is also left out of these steps. This is a fixed order of priority, not a combined recovery score. Monthly industry assignments and six-monthly expansion follow under their own strict time gates, more than 2,592,000 seconds (30 days) and more than 15,552,000 seconds (180 days) since their last run. They are not prerequisites for the recovery steps.

Fuel recovery destinations and reservations

Candidates are fleets whose fuel readiness is not Sufficient, whose redeploy flag is clear and which belong to no shipping line. They are sorted by ascending fuel rating, so Empty comes first. Fighter squadron groups (Missile Fighter Squadron and Beam Fighter Squadron, DIM_OperationalGroup IDs 84 and 85) are first offered a return to their carriers. Those that receive a return order leave the list. Refuelling colonies must be in the race’s population list, have positive refuelling capacity (from a Spaceport or Refuelling Station, DIM_PlanetaryInstallation.MassRefuelling) and a positive fuel stockpile (FCT_Population.FuelStockpile), and must not sit on a body with a recent hostile STO population. Each eligible colony’s reserved fuel figure is reset to its actual stockpile.

Only the first remaining deficient fleet is then considered, even when its search fails. Its shortfall is live fleet fuel capacity, as a whole number, minus current fleet fuel. The shortfall is not clamped here. A local colony must be in the same system and hold a reserved fuel figure strictly greater than that shortfall. The nearest colony by travel distance, using Lagrange points, wins. Local selection does not require automatic refuelling. On success the fleet’s orders are cleared, a Refuel and Resupply from Colony order is queued, the redeploy flag is set and the full shortfall is subtracted from the colony’s reserved figure.

When no local colony qualifies, the game records the shortfall and starts a route search for a refuelling colony. In each system the search visits, the colony must also have refuelling capacity and automatic refuelling turned on (FCT_Population.AutoRefuel). For a positive shortfall the reserved figure must be greater than the shortfall, otherwise actual stock must be above 0. The search looks at every population the race has in that system rather than the filtered local list. When it finds a destination, the game appends a Refuel and Resupply from Colony order, sets the redeploy flag and subtracts the shortfall. Local and remote selection therefore treat automatic refuelling differently. The remote search does not repeat the hostile-STO body filter. Positive-shortfall searches normally inherit that exclusion through which colonies had their reserved figure filled, because the main block sets every colony’s reserved figure to 0 before the assignments.

Reservations change only these reserved figures, not the fuel stockpile. They do not move or hold back any fuel. They are rebuilt on a later assignment pass, and this step considers at most the first remaining fleet that reaches its destination search. A fighter squadron whose carrier return fails stays in that queue. The order also takes on maintenance supplies even though the selection test looks only at fuel. Transfer rates, maintenance supply availability and partial loading belong to colony fuel and maintenance transfers.

Repair destinations and first-fleet limits

Repair candidates are fleets whose system readiness is below Lightly Degraded and that are not already redeploying, sorted by ascending system rating. A fleet at Lightly Degraded does not ask for a yard through this step. Fighter squadrons first try a carrier return. Yard candidates are shipyards of the same race that belong to a population, excluding bodies with a recent hostile STO population.

For each remaining fleet the game finds the largest ship by class size (FCT_ShipClass.Size) whose own system rating is below Fully Operational. That ship sets the required yard capacity and the yard type, commercial when its class is commercial (FCT_ShipClass.Commercial) and naval otherwise. The fleet average that triggers the search is therefore separate from the hull that sets the yard requirements. A mixed fleet is not checked against the yard type of every damaged hull. A local yard needs the matching type (FCT_Shipyard.SYType) and a capacity of at least the required size (FCT_Shipyard.Capacity). The nearest colony by travel distance, using Lagrange points, wins. Slipway occupancy, available repair supplies and class tooling play no part in this choice.

A local success clears orders and queues Refuel and Resupply from Colony. No repair task is queued here. Repairs then happen through the mechanisms described in armour, yards and other recovery paths. When no local yard qualifies, the game starts a route search for a shipyard colony and then appends the same refuel and resupply order. That search matches system, yard type and capacity but does not repeat the local owner and STO filters. The step stops after either a local success or this first route attempt, failure included. Empty fleets and fleets with no individually damaged ship are skipped before that stop.

Reload destinations and failed searches

Candidates are fleets whose missile status is below Reload Not Needed and whose redeploy flag is clear, sorted Empty, Low, Partially Loaded. Missile fighter squadrons first try a carrier return. Sources need positive ordnance transfer capacity (from a Spaceport or Ordnance Transfer Station, DIM_PlanetaryInstallation.MassOrdnanceTransfer), a nonempty ordnance stockpile and no recent hostile STO population on their body. The game sets each source’s available stock to a copy of its actual stock entries. A nonempty stockpile does not prove a positive count or the missile type the fleet needs.

For each fleet, only the template and loaded ordnance of ships still in that fleet are summed. For each configured missile type:

shortfall of a type = sum of class template amounts - sum of loaded amounts, with the template amounts from FCT_ClassOrdnanceTemplate.Amount and the loaded amounts from FCT_ShipWeapon.Amount.

Positive shortfalls are kept and ordered by descending count, not by missile size. A mobile fleet chooses a colony in the same system that holds at least half the shortfall of the type being considered. The largest available stock of that type wins, with no distance sort. One type passing this test is enough. The colony does not need to cover every type or the whole shortfall. Odd shortfalls use fractional division. A shortfall of 5 divided by 2.0 is 2.5, so the colony needs at least 3 whole rounds.

Orbital Missile Base and Orbital Defences groups (DIM_OperationalGroup IDs 20 and 4) instead need a colony at exactly the same coordinates that stocks the needed type. They do not need the half-shortfall stock. When none is found for the first shortfall considered, the game sets their redeploy flag and stops for that fleet without queuing any movement. This also keeps the fleet out of the empty-ammunition fallback below.

When local selection fails in the strategic run, the game records the full shortfall list and the source colonies, then starts a route search for a reload colony. In each system visited, the search checks the shortfalls in their existing order and accepts the first type with at least half its shortage available. Its stock sort does not use arrival coordinates. A failed remote attempt ends this fleet’s shortage checks, and the step can then try the next fleet. The local reload pass run by the per-system AI makes no remote search and goes on to later shortage types instead. Unlike repairs and refuelling, reloading has no one-fleet-per-run limit.

On success the game clears orders for a local colony, or appends to the route already queued for a remote one, then queues Load Ordnance from Colony and sets the redeploy flag. The reservation then subtracts every shortage type present at that colony, clamping availability at 0, even though selection needed only one half-shortfall match. Actual stocks do not change until the order executes. Finally, fleets with Empty status that are still unassigned detach each of their Empty ships into a new Ramming Force fleet (DIM_OperationalGroup ID 27). When there are no eligible source colonies at all, the step ends earlier and skips that fallback entirely.

Orbital defence fleets (main function 4) have an earlier, separate local reload pass. It needs a ship of a missile design whose free normal magazine space is strictly greater than the smallest configured missile size, then a colony of the same race in the same system at exactly the same position with ordnance transfer capacity and a nonempty ordnance stockpile. When a missile-design ship with no ordnance templates is reached first, the space test fails at once for the whole fleet. This pass appends a Load Ordnance from Colony order without clearing orders, reserving stock or setting the redeploy flag.

Fighter return to carriers

The fuel and repair steps offer a return to both beam and missile fighter squadron groups. The reload step offers it to missile fighters. When the race has active ship-launched salvos whose missiles have engines (FCT_MissileType.MSPEngine above 0) and any of them came from a ship of the squadron, the return order is Move to Location instead of Land on Assigned Mothership / Squadron. This avoids the landing order while those salvos are in flight. It is not a separate timer.

The assigned motherships of the squadron’s ships (FCT_Ship.AssignedMSID) that are in the fighters’ current system are the first carrier candidates. When there is exactly one candidate ship or exactly one candidate carrier fleet, the fighter fleet clears its orders, queues the return to the first candidate’s fleet and sets the redeploy flag. Free hangar capacity is not checked first. The landing order performs the physical checks described in carriers, parasites and hangar transfers.

With several candidate carrier fleets the outcome is easy to misread. It groups the fighters by their current mothership (FCT_Ship.MothershipID) rather than their assigned one. It moves the matching ships into new fleets named after each carrier with the word Strikegroup added, but it queues the return orders on the original fighter fleet. The game’s own list of the squadron’s ships is not shortened by those moves, so the later check for an empty squadron cannot succeed just because the real fleet has emptied. The game then clears the assigned mothership of every ship in that copy.

The game then turns to fallback carriers, all ships in the same system whose class main function is Carrier (FCT_ShipClass.MainFunction 1). The search has no explicit same-race test. Beam fighters need a carrier class with a magazine capacity of 0 (FCT_ShipClass.MagazineCapacity), missile fighters a positive one. Carriers are sorted by direct distance. An attempt to sort the fighters by size has no effect. For each carrier the game takes the available assigned hangar capacity as a budget and picks the fighters that fit. It takes each picked fighter out of the squadron while it is still going through that squadron, and the game does not allow that. The step fails as soon as the first fitting fighter has been picked, before the later assignment and transfer can run. The game shows the error Function #3858, and the return for that squadron ends there. Earlier changes, such as the cleared mothership assignments and any fleets already created, are not rolled back. This fallback does not reliably complete a reassignment.

Tanker delivery and collection choices

The government tanker steps take fleets of the same race whose operational group main function is Tanker (DIM_OperationalGroup.MainFunction 14) and whose redeploy flag is clear. They do not need empty orders or any particular mission availability. Fuel comparisons use live fleet capacity. A fleet exactly half full enters neither tanker list.

Loaded tankers, above 50% of capacity, choose among colonies with positive refuelling capacity from the first nonempty band across the race:

Fuel stockpile below 5,000,000.
If none, below 10,000,000.
If none, below 20,000,000.
If none, all refuelling colonies, well-stocked ones included.

A colony in the tanker’s own system within the chosen band wins in the order the race’s populations are listed, not by distance or lowest stock. The tanker clears orders, queues Transfer Fuel to Colony and sets the redeploy flag. Otherwise the colony the fewest jumps away wins. A successful route to that colony’s system sets the redeploy flag but queues only the system transit, with no fuel transfer order at the end. Local delivery is chosen on a later pass. No delivery reservation removes a colony from its band, so several tankers can choose the same colony. These steps do not apply the hostile-STO body exclusion of the recovery steps or require automatic refuelling.

Low-fuel tankers, below 50%, consider idle fuel harvesters of the same race, fleets with no orders and above 50% fuel. A source may be a fleet whose operational group main function is Harvester (19) or a civilian fuel harvester fleet (FCT_Fleet.CivilianFunction 3). Collection priority is:

A local idle harvester, the nearest by direct distance, with the greatest fuel fraction breaking ties. The tanker clears orders, queues Refuel from Stationary Tankers and sets the redeploy flag.
A harvester in another system, the fewest jumps away. When the route to its system succeeds, the redeploy flag is set and this tanker’s search ends.
A local colony with positive refuelling capacity and stock above 20,000,000, the first in list order. The tanker clears orders, queues Refuel from Colony and sets the redeploy flag.
Such a colony the fewest jumps away. The tanker routes to its system and sets the redeploy flag on success.

Even a remote harvester is therefore preferred over a well-stocked local colony when its route succeeds. When the chosen remote harvester cannot be reached, the game tries colonies, not the next harvester. A failed remote colony route does not try a second colony either. The lists of sources are fixed at the start of the step, with no per-tanker fuel reservation or reduced forecast, so several tankers can pursue the same harvester. Selecting a harvester does not prove that its undamaged refuelling equipment and spare fuel allow the physical transfer. That transfer is described in tankers, supply ships and stationary support.

Routes snapshots and reassignment

The automatic route search used by recovery explores adjacent known systems one jump layer at a time and returns the first system that holds a usable destination. Fewest jumps and listing order dominate. It is not a search for the shortest total travel time. It does not look at the starting system, which is why each step has its own local selection. The search clears every system’s stored route steps, then builds new paths. Unstabilised jump points are not forced in, but a fleet that can make an unstabilised transit itself still uses them, so they are not banned outright. Route rules in general are covered in destinations, interception and route planning.

A fleet set to avoid danger leaves out dangerous adjacent systems, rated as in system danger ratings. NPR fleets also need a valid NPR destination. A system with value None is left out unless the fleet is allowed valueless destinations or is a diplomatic fleet. Terraformer fleets also need at least Medium value in this search. The separate avoid alien systems filter applies only to non-NPR fleets. A successful search queues Standard Transit orders and normally clears earlier orders first. A failed search leaves existing orders in place. These recovery searches do not log a no-destination event.

When the search checks a system for a repair, refuel or reload destination, it passes the X coordinate of the arrival jump point as both the X and the Y of the arrival point. Repair and refuel choices sort colonies by distance from that point, so they can use the wrong arrival Y and pick a colony that is not the nearest to the real arrival point. The reload search receives the same coordinates but does not use them.

The redeploy flag survives while orders remain. The start-of-run refresh clears it only when the fleet has no orders, and otherwise records the system of the last order. Once movement removes all completed orders, the game also clears the flag and the redeploy target. It clears the valueless destination allowance too, unless the fleet is outside the connected valued network. A recovery order is consequently a continuing commitment and is not discarded at the next strategic run. In turn, these recovery steps can replace orders a fleet already has when its redeploy flag is clear.

The fixed lists matter when recovery creates or moves fleets. The run’s fleet list is not rebuilt after fighter splits or Ramming Force detachments, and readiness is not recalculated after each assignment. Later steps see the current flags and the current state of the fleets in those earlier lists. Near the end of the run, the rejoin pass takes a fresh list of fleets. A fleet whose rejoin target fleet is in the same system clears its orders, queues Join Fleet and sets the redeploy flag. Its target clears its orders and moves toward the nearest rejoining fleet. This can replace orders chosen earlier in the same run.

Persistence and transient caches

A save stores each fleet’s operational group (FCT_Fleet.NPROperationalGroupID) and, for NPR fleets, the redeploy flag (FCT_Fleet.RedeployOrderGiven). A load creates fresh fleet AI state for each NPR fleet and restores the flag. Loading an NPR ship likewise creates fresh ship AI state. Actual ship fuel, damage, supplies and loaded ammunition, fleet membership, carrier assignments and move order progress are stored separately. See ship processing and persistence and movement persistence.

The AI ratings, key capability averages, the cached target of the last order, the temporary refuel, yard and ordnance search inputs and the colonies’ fuel and ammunition reservation figures are derived runtime state. None of them is a saved recovery job. Fresh fleet AI state starts fuel and systems at their top ratings, Sufficient and Fully Operational, and missiles at Reload Not Needed. Mission availability has no starting rating and holds 0, which matches none of the three ratings, until the first refresh. Fresh ship AI state also starts at defaults (Fully Capable, Sufficient, Fully Operational and Not Applicable) until recalculation. The race planner’s threat response, monthly and six-monthly timestamps are runtime values, and the save and load paths do not restore them. Loading a saved redeploy flag is therefore separate from restoring the complete AI state.

Worked examples

Synthetic case	Literal result
Ordinary class fuel capacity 1,001, fuel 200	T(0.2) is 200, so the Critical test fails. T(0.3) is 300, so Low. At fuel 300 the rating is Sufficient with role Lightly Degraded.
Tanker nominal fuel 1,000, fuel 0	Below 100 sets Low. The below-50 Critical test is not reached. This tanker rule applies no Empty fuel role penalty.
Two ships with fuel ratings Empty and Sufficient	Mean 1.5 gives fleet Critical, whichever ship holds more fuel or is larger.
Two ships with systems Severely Degraded and Fully Operational	Mean 2 gives fleet Lightly Degraded. This fleet does not enter the yard queue, which needs below Lightly Degraded.
Normal magazine 100 size points, smallest configured non-decoy size 5, loaded ordinary size 40	A is 60 and L is 40. L is above 30, so Partially Loaded without role penalty. With 20 loaded, A is 80 and L is not above 24, so Low and Degraded.
Fleet shortfall 1,000 litres, local stock exactly 1,000 litres	The strict stock-above-shortfall test rejects it. Stock 1,001 qualifies. The reservation leaves a reserved figure of 1 litre, while actual colony stock stays 1,001 until transfer.
Reload shortage 9 rounds of type A and 4 of type B, local colony has 5 A and no B	A passes the half-shortfall test. The fleet is sent there. The reservation clamps A’s availability to 0 without creating B or guaranteeing a complete load.
Colonies hold 4,000,000 and 6,000,000 fuel, a tanker above 50% is in the 6,000,000 colony’s system	The nonempty below-5,000,000 band leaves out the local colony. The tanker heads for the 4,000,000 colony’s system.
Low tanker has a local colony with 30,000,000 fuel and a reachable remote loaded harvester	The remote harvester route is tried before the local colony. A successful route queues system travel, and local collection is chosen later.
First Critical-fuel fleet has no reachable destination, second Low-fuel fleet is next to a stocked colony	This refuel step stops after the first fleet’s failed search. The second fleet is not considered in that run.

Concept map

Readiness state and design baselines, the rating scales and design versus live capacity.
Ship fuel and system ratings, fuel thresholds, armour, engine, weapon, sensor and class checks.
Ship ammunition ratings, the free magazine space test behind missile status.
Fleet aggregation and mission availability, fleet means, the key element and the mission capable rating.
Strategic cadence and assignment order, the run gates and the fixed recovery order.
Fuel recovery destinations and reservations, refuelling colonies and reserved fuel figures.
Repair destinations and first-fleet limits, yard choice by the largest damaged hull.
Reload destinations and failed searches, ordnance shortfalls, reservations and the ramming fallback.
Fighter return to carriers, carrier return, strikegroup splits and the failing fallback.
Tanker delivery and collection choices, stockpile bands and harvester priority.
Routes snapshots and reassignment, route search, the redeploy flag and the rejoin pass.
Persistence and transient caches, what a save keeps and what a load rebuilds.
NPR strategic planning, the clocks and planner that run these steps.
NPR race generation, the operational groups and key elements of NPR fleets.
NPR tactical and system behaviour, the per-system AI that runs the local reload pass.
NPR colony and economic AI, the yard and ordnance production that supplies recovery.
Ship readiness and recovery, the physical repair that follows a yard order.
Fleet recovery lifecycle, the full path from damage to renewed mission eligibility.
Colony fuel and maintenance transfers, what a refuel and resupply order transfers.
Tankers, supply ships and stationary support, the physical tanker and harvester transfers.
Carriers, parasites and hangar transfers, the landing checks behind fighter returns.
Route planning, the jump route rules the recovery search shares.
Jump point network, jump distance used to rank remote sources.
System danger ratings, the danger test behind avoid danger routing.
Fleet organisation, squadrons, detachment and new fleets created here.
Logistics interruption and reservations, how replaced orders and reservations behave.
Naval administration, command membership, separate from the key element.
Civilian economy, the civilian harvesters tankers may draw on.
Shipyard development, the yard types and capacity the repair step matches.
Game time and state refresh, the increment and construction cycle that start each run.

Resources

Related community documentation and developer posts. These may describe a different game version.

Steve Walmsley: non-player race fuel and mission-capable status (C# launch documentation)