Does "Veils" actually affect ship speed?

[kalirion]

What makes a ship faster - engine of veils?

[Captain Dickärd]

Engine. Veils is stealth.

If you're feeling slow there's an item sold somewhere that makes it impossible to blow engines on the speed boost.

[Skinny Pete]

Avid Suppressor.

Best value in game. Note, you need an aft slot for it. You can just spam F to your heart's content and zip around like a speedboat, at the mere cost of burning pure money for fuel.

[kalirion]

Heh, like I'm ever gonna be able to afford a ship with an aft slot.

[kalirion]

An a different note - are more powerful engines actually less efficient? When I finally upgraded to the 1500 power engine the fuel consumption went way up. Does it actually take almost twice as much fuel as the starting 800 power engine to get from point A to point B? Are engineers the only way to increase fuel efficiency even a little bit?

[Elitewrecker PT]

This has been a matter of debate, the usual conclusion is: there are only three worthwhile engines, the starter one, and the two officer questline engines (both also have an efficiency bonus if I recall correctly).

[kalirion]

Does that mean Engineers who raise engine power (Maybe's Daughter, for example) should not be "equipped"? Or does +Engine Power from officers not increase fuel usage?

On a related note, do Officers count towards supply usage just like Crew?

[Wlerin]

Originally posted by kalirion:

An a different note - are more powerful engines actually less efficient? When I finally upgraded to the 1500 power engine the fuel consumption went way up. Does it actually take almost twice as much fuel as the starting 800 power engine to get from point A to point B?

Fuel consumption is linear based on engine power, so the 1500 power engine will consume 87.5% more fuel over the same period of operation. But you should also be going about 20% faster, so it should only be about 56% more fuel? I think? The speed difference with higher power engines is a tiny bit higher on bigger ships.

Originally posted by kalirion:

Does that mean Engineers who raise engine power (Maybe's Daughter, for example) should not be "equipped"? Or does +Engine Power from officers not increase fuel usage?

It does, but a small amount of extra power is useful, as would be upgrading to the 1000 or 1500 power storebought engines (but no higher). It does cost a lot more fuel, but you're also saving on supplies and terror reduction costs.

On a related note, do Officers count towards supply usage just like Crew?

No.

Originally posted by Elitewrecker PT:

This has been a matter of debate, the usual conclusion is: there are only three worthwhile engines, the starter one, and the two officer questline engines (both also have an efficiency bonus if I recall correctly).

Not sure why the serpentine would be any more worthwhile than the 1000 or 1500 engines. It doesn't give *that* much efficiency (in fact it gives none if you're also Full Powering everywhere). I guess the stats are nice.

The other questline engine though...

[kalirion]

Wait, near twice as much engine power only makes you go 20% faster? What kind of logic is that?

1500 engine costing 56% more fuel going from point A to point B... even if it saves 20% on Supplies that hardly seems worth it. I can see swapping the engine in when there's a need to run away or something, but otherwise huh?

[Wlerin]

Originally posted by kalirion:

Wait, near twice as much engine power only makes you go 20% faster? What kind of logic is that?

1500 engine costing 56% more fuel going from point A to point B... even if it saves 20% on Supplies that hardly seems worth it. I can see swapping the engine in when there's a need to run away or something, but otherwise huh?

It gets even worse when you realise Full Power is a +75% speed increase for only double the fuel consumption (and nullified fuel efficiency + chance of explosion if not using the avid suppressor). But do note that supplies are twice as expensive as Fuel, and on large ships with high crew can be consumed much faster. Terror is also a concern.

There is a sort of game logic to the low speeds though, as you'll discover if you ever get the 5000 power engine (not the 3500 power one that costs 5000 echoes). You need Something Awaits You in port to do anything worthwhile at most ports, so if you arrive before you get it you end up waiting around twiddling your thumbs and wasting supplies/terror.

Sunless Skies does this better by tracking visits to each port individually, but I doubt Sunless Sea is ever going to change.

[kalirion]

So it's pointless to upgrade the engine until I purchase at least the Corvette?

Would the 1500 engine make the Corvette as fast as the starter engine does the starter ship?

[Wlerin]

I never tested anything smaller than a Frigate, but the 1500 engine does make the Merchant Cruiser as fast as (slightly faster than) the Frigate with an 800 engine based on the tests I did run.

[Skinny Pete]

Originally posted by Wlerin:

The speed difference with higher power engines is a tiny bit higher on bigger ships.

Emphasis on tiny and nearly unnoticeable.

Meanwhile, the fuel consumption increase is definitely noticeable and absurd.

There are some equations around for both speed and fuel efficiency, but they really do amount in practicality to don't bother with engines (or at least buying engines in shops) at all. Buy one of the middling engines if it makes you feel better but it won't make much difference.

[Nyota Mwuaji]

if you want to improve fuel, there are a few things you can do. First is shut off the light. it drains fuel like a man from the desert drains a water bucket.

[Captain Dickärd]

I always get the engine from the guy that can't sleep, use him as an officer for his efficiency, and then travel via sub. i'm pretty sure the sub map is abbreviated and lets you travel a tiny bit faster.
With the added speed I dont worry about terror in the game that much, and that makes it worth for me.

[YetiChow]

Originally posted by Captain Dickärd:

I always get the engine from the guy that can't sleep, use him as an officer for his efficiency, and then travel via sub. i'm pretty sure the sub map is abbreviated and lets you travel a tiny bit faster.
With the added speed I dont worry about terror in the game that much, and that makes it worth for me.

Technically the zub map is smaller because of the hemmed-in edges, but the distances between points aren't collapsed or anything like that to compensate; so you won't have any less distance to travel -- it's just a tiny (teeny, tiny, in fact negligible even) distance less if you wanted to do a full edge-to-edge run.

You may be able to save some travel distance by zailing underneath small obstacles (e.g. lightships, fungal pads in the Sea of Lillies, or not having to avoid some common "route blocking" surface enemies); but there's the same chance that you'll have further to divert around the Unterzee ports or enemies. Even the landmasses of the surface ports are commonly larger in the zub map, since you have to take into account the parts which you could normally zail over.

On the other hand, it definitely can be faster to travel as a zub if you make use of currents, which frequently take you past the places you'll want to go anyway. There are other benefits too (free fuel and such), so it often makes sense to travel via zub wherever possible.