Transport Engine Tests for Profitsss

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Silphion
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu, 12. Nov 09, 01:55
x4

Transport Engine Tests for Profitsss

Post by Silphion » Thu, 13. Jan 22, 02:55

Hi!

I was bored, and wanted to know what the best engines for merchant ships would be.

Like most folks, I usually slapped on some Argon travel engines and called it good. But then I started realizing that Terran engines have a massive advantage in accelleration and release (they go ZOOM instantly). I wondered if Teladi engines did the same thing. A little bit of data-digging suggested they do (shorter travel charge, attack, and release times).

Naturally, this required SCIENCE. So I started a custom game with 15 Mercury Vanguards. Each loaded with a mk3 allround/combat/travel engine of each race. Set up a scout to layout some satellites and waypoints, and thus the race was to begin!

Game Engine 4.20; Vanilla (no mods). The starting point was Trinity Sanctum VII, a good 3000 klicks NW of the ALI Wharf. They lined up abreast of the waypoint (random order), and pointed their noses towards the ALI wharf. The game was paused, and the following orders were given:
1.) Dock at ALI Wharf in Trinity Sanctum VIII [short hop]
2.) Dock at the PAR Trading Station in Pious Mists II [gate travel + highway]
3.) Return to Waypoint [start] at Trinity Sanctum VIII [long hop]

I then threw myself to another area on the highway loop to keep the entire race OOS, and unpaused. Turned on SETA and watched the show.

The combat engine ships, reliably, all took the lead right at the start. And that's where their lead ended. The last to leave the starting waypoint was the Teladi Travel Engine. The first to arrive at the ALI Wharf was the Teladi Travel Engine.
* From then on, the Teladi Travel Engine and Terran Travel Engine would be neck-and-neck throughout the race, with the Teladis squeaking out a win at the very end of each and every leg.
* Following them were the Argon, Paranid, and Split travel engines. Though the Split Travel engine was beaten by the Terran All-Round Engine
* The next group to finish each leg was the All Round Engines came in next, Terran, [Split Travel], Teladi, Argon, Paranid.
* The ships with Combat Engines arrived in relatively the same order: Terran, Argon, Teladi, Paranid, Split
* And finally, Split All-Round Engine dead last. I'm not sure what was happening here, but it was always at the rear of the pack in every leg of the race.

Some follow-up tests were done, and observations made:
* The split combat Mk4 made no appreciable difference in ranking compared to the mk3. Though it did arrive sooner in the time-attacks.
* In short same-sector hops, the Terran Travel Engine dominated the race.
* With the race repeated with my ship in Trinity Sanctum VIII (thus, making the 1st and last leg of the race entirely in-sector), the Terran Engines were head of the pack in each of the categories by a considerable margin. Asteroid Dodging gave their acceleration and deceleration a massive edge.

I have not performed a test without highways, but given the large leads each of the ships had against one another, but given the leads stayed consistent between gates, highways, and hops--I doubt it makes too much a difference. The accelleration at the start of each Gate consistently puts the terran and teladi's faster acceleration at play.

And so, I'll be slapping them lizard engines on each of my ships from here on out.

But if it comes to large engines? It's going to be Terran engines, every time. Check out Allectus's video on YouTube "X4 Cradle of Humanity: Large Engine Travel Mode Drag Race" to see why.

Enjoy! I hope this post will be useful as the science was fun to me.
--Silphion

Biggtex
Posts: 20
Joined: Fri, 1. Feb 13, 18:47
x4

Re: Transport Engine Tests for Profitsss

Post by Biggtex » Thu, 13. Jan 22, 03:25

Thank you for the science.
Interesting results.

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