[Solatar]

When playing missions where shields are turned off, fighters seem to have an extra m/s of speed. The Apollo goes 66 m/s instead of 65, for example. It's nothing major, but having ships go 79 m/s and stuff makes my pseudoOCD go crazy.   Is this something I should create an account and Mantis?  Or am I crazy and nobody else has noticed it.

[Kszyhu]

Is it always one additional meter per second? When the shields are disabled in mission, their energy (from ETS) is distributed to guns and engines, which grants (among other things) some extra top speed.

[Aardwolf]

Is it the same as turning off the shield power?

[Dragon]

I think it's a perfectly normal behavior from transfering shield energy to weapons and engines.

[Reprobator]

And it doesn"t sound weird cannonically speaking, i mean when gta add shield capability to fighters i don't think they changed whatever produce energy on fighters

[Solatar]

I'm afraid I wasn't clear.  The Apollo has a top speed, but during missions where there are no shields, this top speed is higher (as a result of no shield energy).

For however many years I've played the game, this top speed has been 65. Now when shields are disabled, this speed goes up to 66. Similarly, every other fighter's "no shields top speed" is 1 m/s higher than it would be with a retail .exe.  I'm no coder, but I was speculating that it may have had something to do with somebody going in and optimizing some code, resulting in the computer rounding something differently.

[Aardwolf]

Maybe it's just a rounding issue when it's displaying it?

[Solatar]

Regardless of the reason, has anyone else noticed this?

[Qent]

Are you saying that this is a difference between FS1 and the port? (And I only use FS2 Open, so I can't say I have noticed anything.)

[Solatar]

It's a difference between any recent SCP (running the port, or heck, any ship with shields off) release and any old SCP or retail FS2 release.

Maybe I should take some screenshots of the velocity indicator...I'm being as clear as I can be.

[Commander Zane]

It's a display thing, sometimes it reads one m/s higher, sometimes one m/s lower than the listed top speed, been like that since FreeSpace ever came into existance.

[chief1983]

Actually I've never noticed this before but have seen it all over the place tonight.  It seems to especially be doing it for my wingmen when they are in formation with me.  I'll be going top speed, and they're listed as going one or two m/s faster than me.   Oddly we do have shields though, so they shouldn't have any extra energy to spend on engines.

[Nuke]

ive noticed this for years. top speed changes from the velocity in the table at 1/3 power (or in the middle) to the overclock speed at full. but without the shield bar taking up 1/3 it goes up to 1/2. engine power also seems to operate on somewhat of a curve as well. ive never actually bothered to look at the exact formula in the code.

first thing you should do is look at the table and look at the maximum forward speed and the overclock speed. subtract the former from the latter times 1.5. this should be the total range of speed increase from lowest to highest power setting. though there mey be somewhat of a curve involved.

you could also load a game without the the shields, dump all power into weapons, and then check the max speed at each step to full power, do the same in a mission with shields. graph out the results and post em. my bet is the curves will be the same (only difference being the initial setting). or just have a coder look up the ets formula for engines.

[chief1983]

I was saying that my ships all have shields though.  They're equipped identically to me, and yet somehow going 1-2 m/s faster than I am at full energy with balanced power.  So they may have adjusted their energy to engines to add on a little speed boost, in order to catch up to me.  It just seemed odd.

[Fury]

So they may have adjusted their energy to engines to add on a little speed boost, in order to catch up to me.  It just seemed odd.

Unless you're talking multi I've never seen any proof AI is actually capable of of adjusting power levels.

[chief1983]

Then there's an issue with the speed display, because identical fighters should not be going faster than me when I'm at full throttle if they didn't adjust power.

[Sushi]

So they may have adjusted their energy to engines to add on a little speed boost, in order to catch up to me.  It just seemed odd.

Unless you're talking multi I've never seen any proof AI is actually capable of of adjusting power levels.

Really? Because I've noticed that when fighters follow waypoints, they tend to divert some extra power to engines. This shows up in missions where you're following another wing as that wing follows waypoints, and you have to either use afterburners or divert your own engine power to keep up...

I have no idea if this matches retail or not, but it's been the case for quite some time...

[Spoon]

So they may have adjusted their energy to engines to add on a little speed boost, in order to catch up to me.  It just seemed odd.

Unless you're talking multi I've never seen any proof AI is actually capable of of adjusting power levels.

Really? Because I've noticed that when fighters follow waypoints, they tend to divert some extra power to engines. This shows up in missions where you're following another wing as that wing follows waypoints, and you have to either use afterburners or divert your own engine power to keep up...

I have no idea if this matches retail or not, but it's been the case for quite some time...

Yup, noticed this a lot as well. A.I adjusts engine power when following waypoints.
Which is just fine if you ask me.

[Fury]

Interesting, haven't really paid attention to waypoint speeds as AI still tends to drop much behind in speed chase to a waypoint.