Planetarion Forums

Robsch · 9 Mar 2006, 09:49

Someone attacking me had a fleet there eta1 at my planet with speed eta8.
I sent at him fleets that were eta 8 and eta 9 then. So its clear from the calculation that his fleet has eta 1 + eta 8 = eta 9 at his planet so should come in the same tick as my second fleet. Just that it didnt but came in together with my first fleet. How can that be?

Phil^ · 9 Mar 2006, 10:08

You order a launch eta 9, the fleet actually moves and appears at eta8, and returns eta 8 after landing

all fleets move on the tick, not straight after being ordered to

Robsch · 9 Mar 2006, 10:38

yes, but how is that an answer to my question?

Thex · 9 Mar 2006, 13:41

Fleets appear to travel, fight and then travel again all in the same tick.

I noticed on a couple of in gal defences recently. The fleet will be ETA 1, then when it ticks it takes part in action and is ETA 4 from home (not ETA 5 from home).

Tomkat · 9 Mar 2006, 13:57

It confuses me sometimes too. Easy way to work it out is to look in your news:

Hostile
Save 1000 We have detected an open jumpgate from xxx, located at x:x:x. The fleet will approach our system in tick 1008 and appears to have roughly 750 ships.

So it appeared at 1000 and lands at 1008. So we have an ETA of 8 there.

So on 1008 it will be ETA 8 back.

So he gets home (assuming he lands) on 1016 (which is 1008 + 8).

That's how I do it anyway - it's a lot less confusing.

XelNaga · 9 Mar 2006, 16:12

http://pirate.planetarion.com/showthread.php?t=189942

It's just wrong. A mistake. But everyone is used to it.

Thex · 9 Mar 2006, 17:16

Quote:

Originally Posted by XelNaga

http://pirate.planetarion.com/showthread.php?t=189942

It's just wrong. A mistake. But everyone is used to it.

Robsch's problems is not to do with launch times - it's to do with the turn around time at his planet.

Robsch · 9 Mar 2006, 18:01

Quote:

Fleets appear to travel, fight and then travel again all in the same tick.

I noticed on a couple of in gal defences recently. The fleet will be ETA 1, then when it ticks it takes part in action and is ETA 4 from home (not ETA 5 from home).

I see. Well would be a point mentioning in the manual at least.

Guess they have an energy drink before the battle that speeds them up...

Wandows · 9 Mar 2006, 18:35

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thex

Fleets appear to travel, fight and then travel again all in the same tick.

I noticed on a couple of in gal defences recently. The fleet will be ETA 1, then when it ticks it takes part in action and is ETA 4 from home (not ETA 5 from home).

Thats nothing new and works the same as normal launches, you order a launch with eta 5 defence, but the target won't actually see the ships untill they are eta 4 (which is once they set flight to the designated target). In effect the ships take 4 hours to land on the target and will have the same eta back (obviously).

The only earlier bug that was there had to do with planet tick order afaik. If you'd land on the target planet before your planet ticked you would get the normal eta back (visible flying eta, launch eta -1), after that your own planet would tick and again 1 eta would be removed from your flight time home (ticking your fleet twice in 1 tick). But afaik they fixed that 1 or 2 rounds ago, dunno for sure though.

Thex · 10 Mar 2006, 12:41

I only noticed it this round because I'm watching for and trying to carry out, fleet catching.

But it means it appears it is not the same travel outward time as travel back time and that's what people need to know - whether it's a bug or not. I don't actually think it's the same as a normal launch as a normal launch gives the impression of ships moving at the end of a tick and this gives the impression of ships moving at the beginning of a tick. You need to know that if you are planning on landing someone returning from your planet.

Paddy · 10 Mar 2006, 14:22

The way I think of it is that the first tick of the launch eta is the pilots getting ready to take off. This accounts for the X minutes until the tick and they actually launch on the tick. This effectively means the actual traveltime is one tick less than it says (and this is implied by the news) and hence the time to travel back is actually the same is it is to travel to the target.

Envious · 11 Mar 2006, 15:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Wandows

Thats nothing new and works the same as normal launches, you order a launch with eta 5 defence, but the target won't actually see the ships untill they are eta 4 (which is once they set flight to the designated target). In effect the ships take 4 hours to land on the target and will have the same eta back (obviously).

Well the explanation is wrong.
To understand this, you need to make clear what is a tick. Tick is used in PA for 2 different things:
a) the instance of a tick happening, at the hour when ships move and resources are given.
b) the time between 2 ticks.

So if you look at a), it really takes the fleet 5 ticks to travel from one planet to the other ingal. This is also reflected in the fact that your ships must be home when you order a launch.
In contrast, when they arrive, they immediately get a tick of return travel after combat. As was pointed out before, that specific tick makes the fleet travel (to arrive at target), fight, and travel back. So they actually take 1 tick less on return. It's not a real bug tho, as it behaves exactly like specified, just the specification is not logical.