6E. Movement

4. Planet Information Sub-Menu

10. Misc. Information Sub-Menu

6F. Ship Combat

5. Starbase Information Sub-Menu

11. Strategy and Strategy Guides

6G. Ship Hull List

6. Ship Information Sub-Menu

12. Add-on Information

6H. Ship Hulls by Race

6I. Special Abilities and FCs

6J. Ship Hulls by Hull and Race

STARSHIP MOVEMENT:

There are several ways in which a Ship can move in VGA Planets.

The Regular Way:

Yep, that's right. Ships have Engines. And those Engines propel the Ship through space.

You knew that though, didn't you?

Ships require Neutronium (fuel) to power their Engines.

The Amount of fuel required to move a Ship is determinate upon the Ship's Mass, the tech

level of the Engines, the speed at which the Ship will travel, and the distance to be travelled.

The Mass of the Ship is the sum of its Hull Mass, Components Masses, Cargo Mass, and Fuel Mass.

The more Massive the Ship, the more fuel it takes to move it.

Ships with more than 89% damage (except Lizard (Race2) Ships) are unable to move.

Ships without fuel cannot move and cannot attack or be attacked.

The distance (in light years) a Ship will travel in a turn increases as a square of its warp factor.

Speed

Normal Distance Traveled

Gravitonic Ship Movement

Warp factor 1

1 light year

2 light years

Warp factor 2

4 light years

8 light years

Warp factor 3

9 light years

18 light years

Warp factor 4

16 light years

32 light years

Warp factor 5

25 light years

50 light years

Warp factor 6

36 light years

72 light years

Warp factor 7

49 light years

98 light years

Warp factor 8

64 light years

128 light years

Warp factor 9

81 light years

162 light years

Three Ships are equipped with Gravitonic Accelerators:

44 BR4 GUNSHIP

45 BR4 KAYE CLASS TORPEDO BOAT

46 METEOR CLASS BLOCKADE RUNNER

These three Ship Hulls travel twice the normal distance at no extra fuel cost.

When you move a Ship, you set a Waypoint (destination) and choose a warp speed for the Ship to

move. The faster the speed, the farther the Ship will travel in one turn.

A Waypoint can be any point in space. It can be a Planet, or it can be set to Intercept another Ship.

Your ETA (Estimated Time of Arrival) is the number of turns it will take to travel to the selected Waypoint at the currently

selected warp speed.

Ships complete their movement when the Host program runs, not when you do your turn. You will

see the results of the Ship movement after the Host program runs and you receive a new RST file.

The formula for normal movement follows:

Normal_x = rnd(warp^2/(way_x^2 + way_y^2) * way_x) - .5

Normal_y = rnd(warp^2/(way_x^2 + way_y^2) * way_y) - .5

NOTE: These formulas are correct for approximately 90% of movements

Alternatively:

First, determine the ship's major direction. Put quite simply, see if it set to move more in the east or west (X)

direction, or more north or south (Y). If the waypoint of a ship, relative to it's current position, is 50 lightyears

south and 40 lightyears west the major direction is south. The minor direction is south.

The distance travelled in this major direction is

INT [ (warp^2 * major direction) / sqr (major direction^2 + minor direction^2) + 0.5]

The distance travelled in the minor direction is

INT [ movement in major direction * (minor direction / major direction) + 0.5 ]

Last but not least, add or subtract (movement south and west leads to coordinates with a lower X and Y value)

the lightyears calculated from the ship's current coordinates.

Note: The INT function rounds a number down to the nearest integer. INT (5.99) = 5 and INT (-2.99) = -3

Fuel Cost:

The exact fuelconsumption calculations in Host 3.22.026 are as follows:

The distance from your current location to your waypoint is calculated and then rounded down to the nearest integer:

distance = INT [SQR ( (Xwaypoint-Xship)^2 + (Ywaypoint-Yship)^2 ) ]

The maximum length of movement is determined by your warpsetting:

maxtravel = warp^2 (gravitonic accelerators: maxtravel = warp^2 * 2)

If the distance to your waypoint is longer than the maximum travel (based on your warpsetting), you'll only travel the

maximum distance allowed by your warpsetting. The following formula is then used to calculate the amount of fuel burned:

fueluse = INT [fuelfactor * (TRUNC (mass/10) ) / 10000 ]

(note: "fuelfactor" in this formula is a value based on the engine's specs and the warpsetting, for default values see table below)

If the distance to your waypoint is shorter than or equal to the maximum travel based on your warpsetting, the following

formula is used:

fueluse = TRUNC [fuelfactor * ( TRUNC (mass/10) ) * ( (TRUNC(distance) / maxtravel) / 10000 ) ]

(note: "fuelfactor" in this formula is a value based on the engine's specs and the warpsetting , for default values see table below)

In case the fuel needed for your travel is more than you have onboard, you only move as much of the journey as your fuel allows:

movement = distance to waypoint * (fuel onboard / fueluse)

Or in plain English: you move a fraction of your desired distance, equal to the fraction of fuel you have compared to the fuel

you'd need for the entire desired distance.

Fuelconsumption while towing another ship

As c

integer before being processed. The same happens with the mass of towed ships. The difference between having for

instance 299 kilotons of cargo on a ship and towing a ship with a total mass of 299 kilotons is as follows: On a ship

with 299 kilotons of cargo, the mass of the cargo is first added to the ship's mass, then the total is divided by ten

(effectively adding 29.9 from the cargo) and then that total is truncated. When towing a ship of 299 kilotons, that ship's

mass is first divided by 10, then truncated and only then added to the towing ship's mass - effectively only

adding 29 kilotons.

Default engine specs / values for "fuelfactor":

Eng Slot

Warp Factor

100

800

2700

6400

12500

21600

34300

51200

72900

100

430

2700

6400

12500

21600

34300

51200

72900

100

425

970

5400

12500

21600

34300

51200

72900

100

415

940

1700

7500

11600

24300

31200

72900

100

415

940

1700

2600

10500

14300

23450

72900

100

415

940

1700

2600

3733

12300

21450

72900

100

415

940

1700

2600

3733

5300

19450

42900

100

400

900

1600

2500

3600

5000

7000

42900

100

400

900

1600

2500

3600

4900

6400

8100

The above table differs from the more commonly known "fuel burned per kiloton per lightyear travelled" tables.

When you divide the values above by warp^2 for each cell, you'll get the 'more commonly known values.

Movement Without Fuel:

If this HConfig setting is set to YES, then a Ship without fuel can move a very short distance that is

determined by the Ship's mass.

Towing:

A Ship with multiple Engines can tow another Ship. That means that the other Ship will travel with the

towing Ship, while expending no fuel to do so. (because the towing Ship expends enough fuel for both Ships)

Towing is a Ship Mission and it allows Ships with two or more Engines to tow another ship.

There are several reasons to tow Ships:

To take an enemy Ship to your Starbase and force it to surrender.

To conserve fuel on the Ship being towed.

To protect the towed Ship from Minefields. (A Ship under tow cannot be hit by Mines)

A Ship with a Gravitonic Accelerator moves twice as far as normal and therfore, can tow

larger Capital War Ships into combat situations much faster.

To pull an unsuspecting enemy Ship away from safety and into the attack range of your Capital Ships.

I'm sure there are more reasons, but I just cannot think of them right now. :)

Ships with one Engine cannot tow another Ship (Hconfig).

A Ship with one Engine can always be towed by a ship with two or more Engines

A Ship trying to break tow will do so if its warp factor is higher and it’s Waypoint is set to more than one turns movement rate.

Two Ships trying to tow each other will cancel each other out unless one has a higher warp setting, in which case that

Ship will win and successfully tow the other.

A 'losing' Ship will be towed and its mission gets reset from 'Tow X Ship' to 'Tow' .

If a Ship trys to tow and fails, its warp speed is reset to 0.

If a Ship has less than 25 KT of fuel, it will not be able to break tow.

The towing Ship will expend fuel based on the Mass of both Ships involved. (the towing Ship and the towed Ship).

Hyperjumping:

Several Ship Hulls are equipped with a Hyperdrive.

HULL SLOT 51 (B200 CLASS PROBE)

HULL SLOT 77 (PL 21 PROBE)

HULL SLOT 87 (FALCON CLASS ESCORT)

These Ships can Jump 350 light years by expending 50 KT of fuel simply by setting their Friendly Code to HYP.

The Ship must set a Waypoint at least 21 light years away and set Warp Speed to at least 1.

Ship jumps 350 light years and burns 50 KT of fuel.

Hyperjumping Ship cannot have Mission set to Intercept and cannot be towing or towed.

Hyperjumping Ship will avoid Minefields.

After Hyperjumping, the Ship will have a Speed of 0 and no Waypoint set.

A Hyperjumping Ship can specifically set a Waypoint between 340 and 360 light years. The Ship will jump to that exact Waypoint.

The formula for Hyperjump movement follows:

final_x = ERND(x+350*dx/ERND(sqrt(dx^2+dy^2)))

final_y = ERND(y+350*dy/ERND(sqrt(dx^2+dy^2)))

NOTE: ERND() is a rounding function which rounds normally to the nearest integer, except when the number to be

rounded ends in exactly 0.5. Then, it rounds to the nearest even number, e.g. 8.5 rounds to 8 and 9.5 rounds to 10.

The innermost ERND() can be just a simple RND() (round to nearest integer) since the square root of an integer will

never end in 0.5.

Chunneling:

One Ship Hull has a Chunnel Device installed within it.

HULL SLOT 56 (FIRE CLOUD CLASS CRUISER)

This Ship can initiate a Chunnel and move to another Ship of this same type.

The moving Ship must set its Friendly Code to the ID # of the target Ship.

Both the moving Ship and the target Ship must have Speed set to 0.

Chunneling Ship must have at least 50 KT of fuel. Chunneling burns 50 KT of fuel. Target Ship must have at least 1 KT of fuel.

If a Chunneler is being towed, it cannot Chunnel. However, if the towing ship runs out of fuel, the Chunneler can Chunnel

that same turn. A Chunneler cannot tow another Ship while Chunneling.

The range is minimum 100 light years and maximum 5000 light years. (Misprint - actually the minimum is 10 light years)

All other Ships at same location as Chunneler are pulled through also. Enemy Ships can also 'Chunnel' if:

They are cloaked OR They have no fuel OR Their Speed is 0 OR They have same FC as Chunneling Ship.

All Chunneling Ships have no shields after Chunneling. All Cloaked Chunnelers remain Cloaked.

Warp Wells:

Planets exert gravity and any Ship within 3 light years of a Planet will be pulled to the Planet's location.

Ships doing an exact Hyperjump that end up within 3 LY of a Planet will not be affected by the Warp Well.

Ships with a Warp Speed of 1 will not be affected by the Warp Well.

A Ship Intercepting another Ship that is not affected by the Warp Well will also not be affected.

This has been changed by Host 3.22.043. Now Intercepting Ships are affected by Warp Wells if their warp speed is greater than 1.

Ion Storms:

This isn't the type of travelling you want to engage in.

Ion storms come in different varieties. By varieties, I mean strength. The stronger the Ion Storm, the more dangerous

the Storm is.

Ships will be caught up in an Ion Storm and will move along with it if the Storm is powerful enough.