(C7) Non-Combat Warp Movement


Movement at Warp speeds

The Warp Speed formula is going to use the cube simply because it's easy to calculate.
In short, whatever speed your ship can go in normal allocation it can still effectively fight.
Once you desire to go beyond that (i.e. go into warp beyond what your computers can calculate as far as a fight) you follow the procedure below (this is what I call "Going into Warp"):
 
1. Your new speed for each turn is your speed from last turn plus whatever movement you place into it (positive or negative) up to your ship's rated maximum speed (calculated below). To slow down you simply apply negative movement (notice it could take many turns to secure from warp speed--trying to stop immediately is an automatic breakdown, which may be worth it depending on circumstances). If you drop below your maximum energy plotted speed for Star Fleet Battles you are considered to be secured from warp and can resume operations normally. Note that unlike SFB it is not possible to go into warp in reverse beyond what you can normally allocate.
 
2. Only deflectors (minimum shields) may be raised. Your ship is not any harder to hit (beyond the fact that you're moving so fast) and there is no "damage multiplier" for high warp speeds.
 
3. Any movement based operations dependent on SFB do not function (i.e. positron flywheel does not work, no EM/HETs, etc.). All ships may turn 1 hex side per game turn regardless of its turn mode or impulse engine status.
 
4. Everything is done as if under passive fire control as far as weapons are concerned. This in effect doubles the range to each target which you're firing at. This assumes you are paying for fire control. If not, quadruple the range for each target.
 
5. Tractor Beams automatically force a breakdown roll for both units involved. Assuming the link is not broken, use the regular rules as far a calculating a pseudo-speed, etc. Thus it is possible to "warp tractor tow" something. Breakdown rolls are not made if one of the following cases exists:
(a) Both units are moving slower than warp 4.
(b) The tractored unit is willing to be tractored, in this case only the tractoring unit must roll. If the tractored unit ever changes its mind, it must roll as soon as it starts to anti-tractor.
(c) Both units are moving at the same warp factor, or within 60 speed. Of course both must be moving in the same direction as well, and if one of them turns and accelerates, both must roll for breakdown.
(d) Both units tractor each other, in this case, one breakdown roll is made for both at the worse breakdown rating. If failed, both breakdown and tumble at maximum allocated speed with no tractor links.
(e) One of the units is immobile, in this case, the mobile (assumed to be moving in warp) unit must roll for breakdown and will stop in either case unless the tractor is broken.
Both units may accelerate or decelerate in warp if connected in a tractor beam. A pseudo-max safe speed is calculated based on their movement costs. If one unit accelerates and one decelerates, or if both turn in different directions (and both have warp movement) a new breakdown roll must be made. Multi-tractor engagements are done on an individual basis with the following exception: if a non-warp unit tractors two other units, the two other units are considered to be tractored to each other for the above rulings, as well as to the central unit. (for breakdown purposes, not for movement and figuring a psuedo-speed).
 
6. Deceleration due to damage is based on the following formula:
(# of turns moving at warp) x (maximum allocated speed) = max current speed
If the current speed is more than the max current speed, it must be lowered to that amount. If the difference is more than the ship could decelerate by in one turn, the ship automatically breaks down. If not, the ship must roll for a breakdown.
 
7. Breaking down in warp speed lowers the ship's speed to zero, unless it tumbles by (C6.55), in which case the speed is equal to its maximum allocated speed. After that the ship must roll for breakdown everytime it attempts high warp speed until it reaches a star base where repairs can be made (which will also repair the loss of the breakdown rating).
 
8. Transwarp units moving at speeds beyond warp 10 are considered "cloaked" as far as lock-ons and weapons fire, but not for actual scanners. The transwarp vessel itself can still fire, under penalty of 4, but at triple (or sextuple) the range.
 
9. Ultrawarp units in any case are not subject to any of the effects above, with the exception of 3.
 
10. Movement must be done in a linear fashion for warp units, i.e. a ship moving at warp 6 (speed 216) would move 6 times every impulse plus whenever 24 moves in addition. Transwarp units may move up to one-third of its movement (round up) each impulse, as long as its total movement over the turn is its actual speed, i.e. a ship moving at transwarp 6 can move 60-50-60-40-6 and then 27 impulses at no movement, as long as the total is still 216. Ultrawarp units may move any number of hexes in an impulse as long as its total movement is its actual speed. Neither Transwarp or Ultrawarp movement per impulse has to be plotted, but note that the faster units move first (in order of impulse movement).
 
11. Movement beyond warp 10 (presumably by transwarp means) done in a single impulse "jumps" terrain-- i.e. the ship does not really exist in the interval in between the start and end positions. An example of this is the Andromedan displacement device which creates a somewhat stable warp 15 "bubble" for 1/8th of an impulse.
 
The following table gives the warp scale:
Warp
Speed (TOS)
Warp Speed (TNG) SFB Speed # hexes moved / impulse
(32 imp system)
Time to travel
100 L.Y. hex *
Examples
Warp 0 Warp 0 0 0 - Natural Events,Atomic Missile
Warp 1 Warp 1 1-7 0 1 year Laser,Shuttle
Warp 2 Warp 1 8-26 0 45 days S/M Drone,Shuttle w/packs
Warp 3 Warp 1.5 27-63 0-1 14 days F Drone,Plasma Torpedo
Warp 4 Warp 2 64-124 2-3 6 days Space Dragon
Warp 5 Warp 2.5 125-215 4-5 3 days Probe (not fired as weapon)
Warp 6 Warp 3 216-342 6-10 1.5 days Transporter beam,Anti-drone
Warp 7 Warp 3.5 343-511 11-15 1 day Tractor beam
Warp 8 Warp 4 512-728 16-22 18 hours Mauler, Probe (as a weapon)
Warp 9 Warp 4.5 729-999 23-31 12 hours Photon(std/ovl),Web Caster/Snare
Warp 10 Warp 5 1000-1330 31-41 8 hours Disruptor,PPD,Hellbore,SFG beam
Warp 11 Warp 5.5 1331-1727 41-52 6 hours TR beam,Fusion beam,Photon(prox)
Warp 12 Warp 6 1728-2196 52-68 5 hours Plasma Bolt
Warp 13 Warp 6.5 2197-2743 68-85 4 hours Direct-fire Hellbore
Warp 14 Warp 7 2744-3374 85-105 3 hours std Subspace Communications
Warp 15 Warp 7.5 3375-4095 105-127 2 hours DD(actual displacement)
Warp 16 Warp 8 4096-4912 128-153 1 hour Enterprise-D maximum safe speed
Warp 17 Warp 8.5 4913-5831 153-182 50 min DD(the actual beam at others)
Warp 18 Warp 9 5832-6858 182-214 40 min Phaser(any),regular Sensors
Warp 19 Warp 9.5 6859-7999 214-249 30 min 1X Subspace Communications
Warp 20 Warp 9.75 8000-9260 250-289 20 min 2X TWarp Subspace Communications
Warp 21 Warp 9.87 9261-10647 289-332 10 min Special or 2X Sensors,Scanners
Warp 22 Warp 9.93 10648-12166 332-380 9 min 3X Sensors,3X Scanners
Warp 23 Warp 9.96 12167-13823 380-431 8 min 3X Borg maximum safe speed
Warp 24 Warp 9.98 13824-15624 432-488 7 min 3X Special UWarp Communications
Warp X>24 Warp 10-2^(18-X) X^3 X^3/32 - [for general calculations]
* Factors in "relativistic" effects (time compression).
 
A ship's maximum rated speed is based on its number of warp boxes available and the ship's race and technoloy level:
  Technology Level
Ship's race early std 1X 2X 3X
R01.General x1--x2 x1--x4 x1--x6 x2--x9 x3--x14
R02.Federation x5 x8 x12 x18 x27
R03.Klingon x5 x7 x11 x16 (x24)
R04.Romulan (x1) x3--x5 x10 x20 (x30)
R05.Kzinti x4 x7 x10 x15 (x23)
R06.Gorn x3 x4 x7 x11 (x17)
R07.Tholian (x1980) x2080 x2188 x2296 (x2412)
R08.Orion x10 x15 x18 x23 (x29)
R09.Hydran x4 x6 x9 x13 (x19)
R10.Andromedan (x442) x445 (x447) (x449) (x452)
R11.Lyran x4 x6 x9 x14 (x21)
R12.WYN (x7) x10 x15 x22 (x28)
R13.ISC x5 x9 x14 x20 (x27)
R14.LDR (x4) x6 x9 (x13) (x20)
R91.Frax (x4) x8 (x12) (x18) (x26)
Ferengi (x5) (x10) x20 x40 (x60)
Hoshan x2 (x4) (x8) (x16) (x24)
Zeator x1 (x2) (x4) (x8) (x16)
Cardassian (x3) x5 x10 x15 (x20)
Borg (x2) (x3) (x4) (x5) x6
[Romulan "std" is as follows: old WB,SN=x3; Klingon trade=x4; new designs=x5]
 
To find a ship's maximum safe speed, multiply the number of warp boxes available by the multiplier above.
Emergency speed is 2 warp factors higher (take the cube root, add two, and cube it back again to get SFB emergency) and absolute maximum is at 4 warp factors higher.
This is for normal and 1X ships, others have slightly different warp factor differences:
Technology Safe Emergency Absolute Max
early by table above +1 factor +3 factors
std or 1X by table above +2 factors +4 factors
2X by table above +3 factors +5 factors
3X by table above +4 factors +6 factors
 
[3X ships may move 2 factors beyond "safe" with only a 1 in 216 (three "6"'s rolled in a row) chance of engine damage, as listed below in 2.]
 
EXAMPLES: A Federation CX (1X modified CC), which has 40 warp engine boxes, has the following maximum speeds: Safe=40x12=480 (Warp 7), Emer=949 (Warp 9), and Absolute=1655 (Warp 11). It takes the ship 12 turns to reach its safe speed, 12 turns beyond that to reach its emergency speed, and 18 turns beyond that to reach its absolute maximum speed (total 42 turns), assuming it doesn't take warp damage as its accelerating (which is very unlikely, as can be seen below).
A Klingon E-3 escort (std technology), with 10 warp boxes, has the following maximum speeds: Safe=10x7=70 (warp 4) in 7 turns, Emer=229 (warp 6) in 23 turns, and Absolute=535 (warp 8) in 54 turns.
 
It is very important to notice that movement cost does not factor in anywhere in figuring out a ship's maximum speed. Thus a small ship with 12 boxes of warp moves at the same maximum warp speed as a large ship with 12 boxes of warp (assuming the same multiplier). Their acceleration and deceleration, however, could be a vastly different story, as that is their maximum allocated speed, which is their warp boxes available divided by their movement cost.
 
Note that Orions could double their engines to accelerate or decelerate faster in a warp field, but at the cost of reducing their maximum speeds (from damage).
 
The results of moving faster than your rated maximum safe speed is as follows:
1. MOVEMENT UP TO AND INCLUDING MAXIMUM SAFE SPEED: no adverse effects.
2. MOVEMENT OVER MAXIMUM SAFE SPEED UP TO EMERGENCY SPEED: each turn, roll one die for each warp engine (grouping of warp boxes, not for each box). If the result is "6", two points of damage are scored: one on that engine, and one randomly by the DAC. Note that this will lower its maximum speed ratings. No ship could possibly move this fast for more than approxiamately an hour due to fuel restrictions (not calculated in SFB).
3. MOVEMENT OVER EMERGENCY SPEED UP TO MAXIMUM SPEED: each turn, roll one die for each warp engine (grouping of warp boxes, not for each box). If the result is within the breakdown rating of the ship (a "6" being always damage), 1d6 points of damage are scored on the engine, 2 points of damage are scored by the DAC, and 1 excess damage hit is scored. If there are no excess damage boxes to hit by this damage, the ship immediately explodes. A ship cannot normally move faster than its maximum speed. (If it were able to reach it without damage, it could not accelerate past that limit).
4. MOVEMENT OVER MAXIMUM SPEED: Each turn roll for a normal breakdown. After each turn, the speed of the ship is lowered to its maximum speed (or 0 if it had a breakdown) plus whatever force is acting on it. (This can be the only case as a ship can never accelerate beyond its absolute maximum speed, so it is presumed that something [such as a black hole] is making it move faster). Beyond that, there is no damage to the ship in question. Note that this type of movement is actually in most cases safer than moving under your own power at high speeds. This rule is also used when the ship is not accelerating but something else is moving it, and is used in place of 2 and 3.