resupply ships & gas extractor Questions

[assassinsat]

for a long time i thought if i assign a resupply ship to a fleet and if it had enough fuel capacity it will simply refuel the ships. But after reading the galactopedia i found that they need to be specifically deployed at gas giants.

So my questions are these
1. How do automated resupply ships work. I have seen many ai built ones standing idly around space ports.
2. If i assign one to a fleet and automate the fleet will it be used when the fleet is low on fuel? So far this was not what i saw.the fleets always travel to other bases or ports.
3. I deployed one manually at a gas giant and ordered one of my fleets to refuel at it. Around 20 ships were there. When i checked a bit laater some were refueld and some not. I ordered again and this time they went to the ship but did not refuel. And some resupply ships tend to undeploy on their own even under manual control. Are these bugs?

Regarding gas extractors, i like to design multi purpose ships. So i designed a cruiser for long range scouting. It was complete with stealth cloaks, lr scanners, and a hell lot of weapons. Since there was space left i debated on adding more weapons or fuel cells. Then i had a brilliant idea (or a very stupid idea) to remove a few fuel cells bringing up more space, add more weapons and finally to complete the design by adding by adding a gas extractor. My idea was to make the ship mine its own fuel. If it can do that, who cares how far it is from my refuelling stations. It can refuel wherever it wants. I built 3 of them, took them for a run and after destroying several pirate bases they needed to refuel. So i looked for a hydrogen gas giant, found one and ordered to extract (the mine icon appeared and they got mission mine villaceya I). But in a few secs they started to return to a base as if i've given a refuelling order even though they still had the original mine order displayed. I stopped them and gave the order again.but they left again. Why is this?? Can't military ships extract their own fuel? And i didn't put any cargo bays on them. Is that the prob? Sorry for the long post. Thanks

[Dracus]

Really the only use I see for these is to take them to enemy zones and deploy so that you can maintain a fleet in the area. If I use them, it is when I am forcing control over a system that I can not yet take due to not enough troops. it is easier to keep the enemy from building bases and ships if you can keep your fleet on station after cleaning out all orbiting objects.

[assassinsat]

yeah good point. after i learned about the deploy mechanic thats what i thought as well. but my problem is that just deploying one and asking a fleet to refuel at them just doesn't seem to work. and i don't know what the issue is.