Movement
In Galactic Empire, ships can travel at impulse and warp. Warp 1 is the speed of light, which is 153.846153 (10000÷65) parsecs per centock. Impulse 1 is 1% of this speed, or 1.538461 parsecs per centock.[1]
Since a parsec is the smallest unit of distance in the game, all speeds that are not multiples of 13 will round up and round down as necessary. For example, since impulse 50 is 76.923076 parsecs/centock, a ship traveling at impulse 50 will travel 77 parsecs almost every centock, and occasionally 76 parsecs/centock.
Impulse
Main article: impulse
At impulse speed, ships are able to raise shields, deploy decoys, use standard phasers, and fire (and be hit by) torpedoes.
Example speeds:
IMP 1 = 1-2 parsecs / centock
IMP 13 = 20 parsecs / centock
IMP 15 = 23-24 parsecs / centock
IMP 50 = 76-77 parsecs / centock
IMP 65 = 100 parsecs / centock
IMP 99 = 152-153 parsecs / centock
Warp
Main article: warp
At warp speed, shields, decoys, and torpedoes cannot be used, and torpedoes cannot hit the player. Phasers switch to hyperphasers.
Example speeds:
WAR 1 = 153-154 parsecs / centock
WAR 5 = 769-770 parsecs / centock
WAR 10 = 1538-1539 parsecs / centock
WAR 13 = 2000 parsecs / centock
WAR 20 = 3076-3077 parsecs / centock
WAR 50 = 7692-7693 parsecs / centock
WAR 65 = 10000 parsecs / centock
WAR 75 = 11538-11539 parsecs / centock
Hyperwarp
In order to keep CPU ships close to human players, combative CPU ships that are (by default, this can be adjusted) more than 25 sectors away from a human player they are pursuing will travel at "hyperwarp," which is 20 times the normal CPU ship's speed. They will drop back down to normal speeds when they are within 10 sectors. Much like all warp values over (TO DO), these values are not displayed correctly when a ship is scanned (they are supposed to read "Hyper")[2].
- ↑ GEFUNCS.C lines 648-649: ptr->coord.xcoord = ptr->coord.xcoord + ((ptr->speed * sin(degtorad(ptr->heading)))/65000.0); ptr->coord.ycoord = ptr->coord.ycoord - ((ptr->speed * cos(degtorad(ptr->heading)))/65000.0);
- ↑ GEREADME.DOC#08/06/94 Release 3.2e