neat. I can see this used as external fuel tank to extend range for combat ships. (ditch before combat)

I like how at the end you're like: If anyone can come up with a possible justification for this crackhead idea then please let me know... I couldn't.

With a large enough fuel reserve, it takes only seconds to refuel. There is also the issue with the tanks technically being a subgrid and will effect the way the ship handles. Much like what was going on with my worker bee when I was streaming the Guard Dog development for you. I had to turn my gyro power way down to maintain control of the ship when I had something locked to the maglock

This is basically how I do battery swops on some of my large grid ships and smaller stations or defense installations. But with a button to lock/unlock the connector and to switch recharge on/off on the battery module itself.

I've seen people use Ice O2gens ands O2 engines over batteries in smaller builds because of the slow reload time of batteries, so for those it could actually make a bit of sense.

I'd say one way would also be having two fuel sources, one being the main detachable, high capacity tanks; and the second being a small aux tank permanently on the ship. So the ship itself can move and maneuver onto the stand-by main tank by itself. Maybe someone could come up with a neat-o design involving hinge heads, timers and maybe sensors

I could see this being externally mounted and automated...probably PCU-expensive, but automated, and may work great from a logistical standpoint on servers that limit O2/H2 generators so long as the ship carries her own supply of fuel for positioning. Use merge blocks, the connectors, and event controllers to trigger actions on the tanks themselves so that they automatically connect/disconnect from the ship, ie when the ship connects to merge block A, merge block B disconnects (is powered off) from whatever it's attached to while prompting connectors to dock with the ship, then if merge block B is (powered on then) reattached to whatever it was attached to previously, merge block A and mounted connectors disconnect from the ship. A good pilot and great engineer could use this to hot-swap tanks, rotating out the emptied fuel tanks from the ship for a filled one that the ship can reconnect to. The tanks won't even need their own power supply so long as they stay connected to one grid with power...and even then without any power, merge blocks will still work so long as they're on.

The way I see it, is that the larger the ship, the larger the relative size of a component it needs to be for modular systems to be worth it. For example, on a small rover you might find it worth the hassle to add a detachable battery pack so that you don't have to wait to recharge all your batteries. On a large rover, however, it makes more sense to have swappable sections that are fully capable of operating a specific task, like swapping an entire section that handles mining and processing for an entire section that handles hydrogen production. So long story short: Small vehicle, small modules big vehicle, big modules

You could grind down the little tug and use the PCU to make the fuel tank a tanker ship. Hydrogen flows quickly from one tank to another, so you'd be done much, much faster.

I think a connector merge block combo wil be better

Having a single point of failure for explosive fuel tanks seems like a bad idea. I did however have a similar design in mind for warheads, using the jump drive to remove the protective armour just prior to impact.

It has It’s Uses Gotta Love Modularity Good Logistic Mechanic aswell Adorable Vibe

only swappable module I ever really used is jump drives. You can make a small self powered/charging module. After you jump you undock it and leave it parked and let it rechange on its own while you go do what you need to do. Its not practical on pvp servers. But solo play or on a server with friends it is nice to have since they are a little costly and sizable so not every ship wants all that on board. Slap a survival kit on it for a respawn point.

I could see this as better than refueling Tanks if 1. the tanks are not connected to all other hydrogen stuff, with isolated lines or 2. The refueling ship is far to large or small to be applicable, requiring a massive transport for multiple stations or ships. Seems neat, but would definitely be difficult to do outside of a player run RP setting imo, as contacts could cause them to blow up, and AI stations would run out of the hydrogen (I think?)

For refuelling H2 it is better (in my opinion) to just use the stockpile function of the tank (it takes 30 sec to refuel). but for a battery pack, the option of just swapping the batteries would make sense since they take 15 min to recharge

for batteries it works best, they take eternity to recharge

I've seen several tanker and freighter designs on the workshop that use modular fuel cells or cargo containers that can be detached, or at least *look* like they could be detached, but I think this kind of hot-swapping isn't terribly practical when the transfer rate of conveyors is so fast. personally, I prefer better armor coverage to weird niche functionality, but I am amateur at best when it comes to ship building.

Interesting idea, my only concern is the connector is a fragile piece and if that breaks you lose all power in the vehicle

Why not have a grid merge block wirh the connector so that it can be a bit more stable? That’s how i like to design every connection i make if it happens to be the same grid type

Batteries. Can leave a set charging when you leave and come back to charged battery pack.

some time ago i try to do something like that with battery on compact railgun machine

maybe if you had a ship with different kinds of thrusters you could swap the kinds of fuel storage you want to prioritize? ie you have atmo and hydrogen thrusters so you could have one made of batteries to swap in

jsut do it with jumpdrives and have them charging in a station, so you never run out of jump drivge charge]#

This particular design doesn't make it very practical, but I can easily picture a refueling station with auxiliary detachable fuel tanks ready to go that you can dock with and attach at a moment's notice. Of course, transferring hydrogen from one tank to another is pretty quick to begin with, but beyond a certain H2 capacity, with the right design a tank-swap COULD be practical.

Detachable fuel tank for long range assault operation

You could make it with an AI. You park at base and your Fuel Tanks will be changed.

faster to connect and put your tanks on stockpile

cuterst no, ever.

I just love how you are so resistant to admitting this is useless so you just say it can have practical uses and then immediately after say its not practical. Also the thing you have in bottom left corner just twitches randomly which looks horrendous.