Warp travel

Warp is faster-than-light movement through hyperspace. It crosses sectors much faster than impulse, changes which ship systems can operate, and consumes neutron flux.

Commands and course

Use WARP to request warp speed and, optionally, a new heading. A ship needs warp capability, and speed and course change over subsequent movement updates rather than instantly. The command page covers syntax, accepted speed limits, heading forms, and version-specific handling of an omitted heading. See Rotation and headings for how a ship turns.

Distance per movement update

Warp speed N is stored internally as N × 1,000. As described in Impulse travel, each movement update advances the ship by:

coordinate distance = internal speed / 65,000
displayed distance  = internal speed × 10,000 / 65,000

For warp speed N, this reduces to:

displayed distance = N × 2,000 / 13
                   ≈ N × 153.846

Commanded speed	Displayed distance per movement update	Updates to cross 10,000 units
Warp 1	approximately 153.85	65
Warp 5	approximately 769.23	13
Warp 10	approximately 1,538.46	6.5
Warp 30	approximately 4,615.38	approximately 2.17
Warp 65	exactly 10,000	1

The crossing figures assume a cardinal heading, a full sector width, and a ship already holding steady speed. Acceleration, rotation, the starting position within a sector, and diagonal travel across sector boundaries affect the observed result. Diagonal headings divide movement between the X and Y axes without changing the total straight-line distance.

The movement scheduler processes a given ship on one of three sub-passes. These figures are distances per update of that ship, not per global callback.

Entering hyperspace

Crossing from impulse into warp changes the ship's combat state:

• Inbound torpedoes lose their track.
• Standard phasers give way to hyper-phasers when the installed system can operate at warp.
• Missiles can pursue targets through hyperspace.
• Shields, cloaking, ordinary decoy use, and torpedo launching are unavailable.

The ship returns to normal space when it decelerates below warp 1.

Flux consumption

Classic GE and ge-next account for warp propulsion differently.

Classic GE

Exactly warp 1 has no ongoing movement cost in classic because propulsion energy is deducted only when internal speed is greater than 1,000. Above warp 1, movement costs a flat 10 flux units per movement update regardless of actual warp speed. Acceleration costs another 120 units per acceleration update once the ship is already in the warp range. Classic restores one flux unit on each ship-state update.

If the active pile drops below 5,000 units, a periodic state check loads a pod when one is available. Above warp 1, the ship requests a stop after movement leaves less than 3,000 units. Classic's direct energy deductions can also produce the wrapped display described in Classic bug: Flux subtraction underflow.

ge-next

While holding speed or accelerating toward the requested speed, ge-next charges warp N + 10 units per movement update. Warp 1 therefore costs 11, warp 5 costs 15, and warp 30 costs 40. Acceleration toward or within warp costs another 120 units per acceleration update. A ship actively decelerating does not pay the ongoing movement charge for those deceleration updates. ge-next restores two units on each ship-state update.

ge-next checks the full required cost before accelerating or moving. It loads a flux pod on demand when one is available; otherwise the requested target speed becomes zero and the ship decelerates at twice its normal acceleration rate. It does not resume the former target speed automatically after energy becomes available. Warp 1 is therefore no longer a fuel-free cruising speed. See Flux and Impulse travel#Flux for the broader energy model.

Overspeed

Overspeed was introduced in classic Galactic Empire 3.1b, released July 4, 1993. Before that version, requested warp speed was capped at the ship class's rated maximum. Version 3.1b allowed a drive to be pushed up to roughly 50 percent beyond its rating at the risk of damage.

A ship class's configured maximum warp is its safe cruising speed, not necessarily the fastest speed the command accepts. With an undamaged engine, both classic GE and ge-next normally allow requests up to the class maximum plus half of it (roughly 150 percent; integer limits are rounded down). Traveling above the safe speed risks permanent engine degradation until maintenance repairs it.

Classic GE

Classic checks overspeed only while the ship is above its current safe maximum and is not trying to decelerate. Each movement update has a random chance to advance a warning counter. The chance rises as the actual speed moves farther above the safe maximum: the random denominator begins near 60 just above the limit and becomes smaller as the excess increases.

The first five successful checks produce progressively more urgent warnings. A sixth successful check before the ship slows destroys the warp drive, sets its maximum to zero, orders the ship to stop, and adds hull damage.

If the ship slows or begins decelerating after receiving warnings, classic applies the accumulated result all at once. It divides the current maximum warp by the warning count and then clears the counter. One warning therefore produces no numerical reduction, two warnings cut maximum warp in half, three reduce it to one third, and so on. Maintenance restores the class maximum.

ge-next

ge-next replaces the warning-counter divisor with a persistent overspeed-damage accumulator. On every applicable movement update, it measures how far the ship is above its current safe maximum and adds a random amount based on that percentage. A reinforced neutron core reduces the possible addition by approximately half.

The safe maximum is recalculated from the class maximum and the accumulated damage:

current safe maximum = class maximum × (1 - overspeed damage / 10,000)

The displayed maximum is an integer, so visible reductions occur in whole warp levels even though damage accumulates more gradually. Unlike classic, degradation can take effect while the ship is still traveling at overspeed; it is not deferred until the ship slows.

As the safe maximum falls, the same actual speed becomes increasingly excessive and degradation accelerates. The engine is destroyed if its calculated safe maximum falls below warp 1 or if actual speed reaches at least 110 percent above the already-degraded safe maximum. Maintenance clears the accumulated overspeed damage and restores the class maximum.

See also

• Warp command
• Impulse travel
• Rotation and headings
• Galactic perimeter
• Flux

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