Moving faster in TC/AP

[Bill Huntington]

This is for newer pilots. Have you done missions with a time limit and been sooo close? Here some ways to move faster and finish those missions.

Docking Computer: This will cut 4 km off the distance travelled.

Strafing: Strafing adds something like 70 kpm to the ship's speed. With two keys held down at same time it can 120 kpm or so, the double strafe. You put the target in a corner of the screen and aim your bow at the middle of the screen. That would be the top left corner for the keys 'WA'. The slower ships get the most benefit, the fastest ships get almost none.

The Screen Inset Box: You can speed things up if another sector is involved. Put that ship in the Right or Left small screen. Then observe it in that small screen while you are in another sector. The program always keeps itself up to date in your sector. Then it cycles through all the other sectors in a certain order. If a sector is on the small screen, it gets priority too, faster than it would in a que with all the other sectors. It will get its mission done faster.

Good luck, Pilots!

[ancienthighway]

Using TMs to pick up and return fighters on those abandoned ship missioins.

Using a TM with a M5 carrying a jump drive to jump bigger ships to the appropriate sector.

Using an M6 with tractor beam to tow any ship flying slower than 80 m/s.

If in AP, using a Griffon to carry a TS or TP to the target station.

[RAVEN.myst]

Sorry, a Griffon can't carry transports - it's the Boron Guppy and the Paranid Ariadne that can do that (and the Kyoto, of course, but if you have one of those, you're probably not spending much time returning TPs/TSs for missions)

To add to the topic's options:
Also, once it can be afforded, the Turbo Booster Mk.1, available from Split equipment docks. Costs close to 2kk for the small ship variant, increases speed by 50% (M6s) to 150% (fighters), consumes energy cells while running, limited boost time but EXTREMELY helpful when under the gun for a mission.

[Sirrobert]

With a TM you can bring along an additional fighter with jumpdrive. Transfer the extra jumpdrive to the salvaged ship, jump both you and that ship to destination, and transfer the additional jumpdrive back to the extra fighter

[ancienthighway]

Sorry, a Griffon can't carry transports

I knew Griffon didn't seem right. It's not even a fishy name.

[Allan F]

Sorry, a Griffon can't carry transports - it's the Boron Guppy and the Paranid Ariadne that can do that (and the Kyoto, of course, but if you have one of those, you're probably not spending much time returning TPs/TSs for missions)

To add to the topic's options:
Also, once it can be afforded, the Turbo Booster Mk.1, available from Split equipment docks. Costs close to 2kk for the small ship variant, increases speed by 50% (M6s) to 150% (fighters), consumes energy cells while running, limited boost time but EXTREMELY helpful when under the gun for a mission.

If you activate the Turbo Booster and immediatly activate SETA, you get a much longer boost to your top speed. You just can't turn or you'll drop out of SETA.

[ancienthighway]

It's possible to restart the turbo boost with no delay just as it runs out. Pause to long and the cooldown period kicks in.

[RAVEN.myst]

It's possible to restart the turbo boost with no delay just as it runs out. Pause to long and the cooldown period kicks in.

This (besides sounding horribly exploitively "cheaty") actually depends on whether you're playing TC or AP, as the cooldowns are handled differently - in TC you have a flat cooldown rate regardless of burn duration, whereas in AP the cooldown period is proportional to the duration of the boost preceding it, AND conversely the subsequently available burn time is proportional to how long the booster has been cooling down - basically it simulates rising and falling engine temperature, and has the side-effect that you can, by default, restart the booster immediately regardless, but the amount of available boost time will not have had time to build back up yet, so it's more or less pointless except for "cancelling" an accidental deactivation.