Can you improve Speed and Agility values

[slayernz]

Okay, so we know that ships all have a starting value for speed and

Speed:
Slow = Sails < Hull
Medium = Sails between 1 and 2x Hull value
Fast = Sails > 2x Hull

Agility
Slow = Engines < Hull
Medium = Engines between 1 and 2x Hull value
Quick = Engines > 2x Hull

So my question is ... if you have your stock-standard Sword Class
ships, you have:
Hull = 17
Engines = 24 (Agility = "Medium")
Sails = 34 (Speed = "Fast").

Would your Agility change from "Medium" to "Fast" if you got the Ancient engines upgrade and the Titan components upgrade? You'll effectively have Engines = 35.

At first blush, yes, you would now have a ship that is classified "Quick, Fast" instead of "Medium, Fast", but is that "Medium" label something that takes on more importance than the actual calculations? Would you technically be outmaneuvered if you flew against a ship that natively had hull = 17, Engines and Sails = 34?

I guess the analogy would be strapping rocket engines onto a VW Beetle might get you raw speed fast, but it's gonna handle like crap and you'll probably end up plowing into a cliff rather than taking corners like you're on rails.

It'd be good to know all the same though - do you buy a ship that you can pimp out to get past the "Medium" tag, or do you really hunt down those ships that are classed "Quick, Fast" from the outset?

[mordechai]

Jul 31, 2011 7:43:37 GMT -5 slayernz said:

I guess the analogy would be strapping rocket engines onto a VW Beetle might get you raw speed fast, but it's gonna handle like crap and you'll probably end up plowing into a cliff rather than taking corners like you're on rails.

While I don't know the in game answer, from an engineering standpoint it shouldn't matter. In space, being a near frictionless, micro gravity environment, total mass should be the only deciding issue. To give some perspective, for solar sails to work each one would probably be at least several km². On that scale, the difference in profile of a VW versus a 747 wouldn't make enough of a difference to matter.

[pholklorr]

What do speed and agility affect? I know i saw a rumor that said that slow vehicles use less fuel. But i want to know more specifics about these 2 stats. Thanks!