Travel speed

[Shad1902]

Ok, I understand that in combat, the bigger the ship, the slower the speed, which makes sense. A battlecruiser isn't a light fighter ;)

Now on the map. All I can see is my distance in AU to the target. I'd like to have some estimation on how many days it will take to arrive at my destination.

As far as I understand, every failed skill-check (even saved with talents) adds travel time. But does the ship size impact on travel speed ? If not, how mays days / turns would it take to travel 10AU ?
We have a time estimation for a lot of things, repair, doctor, wormhole-jumps etc....but not for space travel.

thanks in advance.

[darion-neclador]

It's roughly (speed) in AU per week. It's somewhat of an inverse curve that dips around speed 20 or so. The wiki has some benchmarks, iirc. Also travel events the to cause extra time loss during travel so it's not always easy to predict how long you will travel for exactly.

[Shad1902]

so, a scout cutter, with a speed of 27, would make 27AU per week / 10 turns ? (if everything goes right and no failed skill-checks).

[darion-neclador]

more like 25 or so probably.

[Murion]

You would think that in a Game where time seems very relevant for Missions it would be easier to figure out how much time it takes to get to a certain location.

[Gilmoy]

I'm pleasantly surprised at the speed of my 9000 Chaser engine.
It's "only" speed 10, but it moves on the map well enough.

+ 18-19 AU in 1.0 weeks, in ideal conditions
High-level crew, tranquil quadrant (low danger, no rumor), infrequent tests, 0 saves needed

+ 17 AU in 1.1 week.days, in worst-possible conditions
Cael Reach (danger 13) with Xeno Fleet (molon labe, mu-ha-ha), failed (and saved) 3 of 4

I've downgraded Xeno Fleet and upgraded Pirate Fleet to be on the same tier.
Both are one tier down from Radiation Storm, which is still the worst rumor for skill tests.
Nonetheless, this is near the zenith of demanding skill tests, and I'm squeezing out ~1.5x my speed in AU per week.

A 3400 Traveler (speed 29) does go about twice as fast on the map (~30 AU per 1.0 week), but speed 10 is still playable. This encourages me to try the speed-9 jumbo cargo ship for RTG pong, where you sell two different RTGs to each others' contacts

N.B. ST:F can't tell you up-front how many days a travel leg will take, because your speed varies with every leg, and even within a single leg. So the UI could only ever give you estimated times, and it would almost always be wrong. That's probably not worth baking into the UI as a primary UI element.

[darion-neclador]

Originally posted by Gilmoy:

I'm pleasantly surprised at the speed of my 9000 Chaser engine.
It's "only" speed 10, but it moves on the map well enough.

+ 18-19 AU in 1.0 weeks, in ideal conditions
High-level crew, tranquil quadrant (low danger, no rumor), infrequent tests, 0 saves needed

+ 17 AU in 1.1 week.days, in worst-possible conditions
Cael Reach (danger 13) with Xeno Fleet (molon labe, mu-ha-ha), failed (and saved) 3 of 4

You sure about that cuz according to andrew you should make roughly 12 AU per Week with a Speed 10 engine.

[Gilmoy]

Yes. Rows 1830 and 1831 from my 'void' tab in Excel :)

229.25.4 Cael Reach.Cadar Prime, flying 17 AU to ...
229.26.5 Nastradom. Failed-and-saved 1 of 1 pilot, 2 of 3 ship ops

That's 17 AU in 1.1 weeks, in Cael Reach, during a Xeno Fleet rumor.
Sword Battlecruiser, 9000 Chaser engine, speed 10 agility 10.

My impression is that, on very long travel legs, you can build up momentum until something stops you. A saved skill check doesn't always stop you. With the bonus momentum, you can somewhat exceed the general rule of 12 AU per week for speed 10. This works for small ships, too: my Juror Class with the 3400 Traveler (speed 29) sometimes flew 29 AU in 5 days, which is on pace for ~40 AU in 1.0 week.

- ship encounter stops you cold
- failed skill test (that hits your ship) stops you
- high-frequency testing probably disrupts your momentum, which amounts to slowing you down

So your speed over one leg of travel could look like a sawtooth function, as you constantly build up a bit of momentum and lose it to an interruption. In the rare case that nothing stops you, it's just one big tooth, which looks monotone

I have just as many examples of the other end of the scale, where I took 3 days to fly 6 AU. Averaged over all of my travels (hah, that would be an interesting post-mortem analysis task), 12 AU per week is probably correct.

[climbingeastofwinter]

Yea, I'm not entirely sure of it myself, but I've been playing a speed 30 scout cutter with an explorer captain (who starts with a trait that reduces travel time further), and I've flow clear across Fifth Pass in a single turn on more than one occasion.

[Trese Brothers]

Ship Mass does not impact travel time, only Engine Speed.

https://startraders.gamepedia.com/Speed

[Tuidjy]

A while ago, I ran some tests, using saving and restoring.

With a speed 24 engine I ran a 24 inter-planetery segment 30+ times in danger rating 6.

I had results from 6 Turns to 13 Turns.

You'd think that Blue (skill check passed) Green (saving talent used) and Red (failure) events would be distinctly different from each other, but that was not the case - some of the best runs had two Red events in them and scrolled a lot, and some were nearly event free: 4-6 events.

I decided that travel time is too random to try to predict.

It seems that smaller ships are faster. Beyond that, I consider it uncontrollable.

If someone plays at difficulties that allow saving late in the game, he may want to run the same tests with a high dice ship (mine was a junker) It may be dififerent with fewer events....

[Trese Brothers]

Thanks for the feedback! The Great to see other having a more consistent experience with it. "Flying across the Fifth Pass in a single turn on more than one occasion" sounds like a 30 Speed ship to me!

[JimmysTheBestCop]

Originally posted by Murion:

You would think that in a Game where time seems very relevant for Missions it would be easier to figure out how much time it takes to get to a certain location.

To me at least time isn't important I almost never pay attention to anything having to with time passing.

If you are solely a mission runner and are accepting 1-2 handfuls of missions at a time I guess it night be an issue from time to time if there are dozens of jumps involved.

I have very few hardcore mission running play throughs.

[Shad1902]

Originally posted by JimmysTheBestCop:

Originally posted by Murion:

You would think that in a Game where time seems very relevant for Missions it would be easier to figure out how much time it takes to get to a certain location.

To me at least time isn't important I almost never pay attention to anything having to with time passing.

If you are solely a mission runner and are accepting 1-2 handfuls of missions at a time I guess it night be an issue from time to time if there are dozens of jumps involved.

I have very few hardcore mission running play throughs.

Even for a trader, time is important, as it means you can gain more money per time with a faster vessel over a larger one. Because time also makes the game progress / harder, time management is still important.

That's the reason I like to start with the Longbolt (even though it`s a spy ship) and swap the sensor array and signal array with cargo space. It gives me a fast ship, with decent cargo hold, which can also run from unfortunate encounters, and do the Kessel run in less than 12 parsecs.

[darion-neclador]

Originally posted by Shad1902:

Even for a trader, time is important, as it means you can gain more money per time with a faster vessel over a larger one. Because time also makes the game progress / harder, time management is still important.

Yeah nope, running at half the speed with 3 times the cargo is strictly better :D .

[JimmysTheBestCop]

I think a lot of new players or players that are prone to over analyze games put way to much emphasis on time management and time passing in STF. Now if agonizing over these fine details brings an individual player enjoyment then more power to them.

If your not one of those players time can easily not be agonized over. I've played since day 1. Hundred and hundreds of hours over dozens and dozens of play throughs. I've thought about time passing almost never.

It doesn't enhance my gameplay or my enjoyment so need for to think about it. While others if you get enjoyment out of it then by all means go for it.

I just wanted to point out for most people time is not necessarily a big deal in the game especially for average player on normal. But for all the players that like to take notes, agonize over details, power game, min/max, self imposed restrictions, or whatever other game play method that brings them enjoyment then go for it.

I could careless how fast my ship is traveling or how many turns I am passing. I never even look at the turn counter lol. Again that's just me but I'm sure the average normal player probably doesn't care all that much about time.