Can I get the formulas for ETE calculation?
I would like to have them for both sublight and hyperspeed.
I tried reverse engineering the hyperspace formula from the Nav Comp, but couldn't...

I had the intention to create a much more complex and complete navigation computer, but it would be pointless to even start it without those formulas. And I couldn't find them in the rules.

From what I've found out with hyper travel with a person with no piloting skills to move one grid in hyper is the following:

HS 1: 2 hours
HS 2: 1 hour
HS 4: 30 minutes
HS 8: 15 minutes

Each point in your piloting skill gives you a -5% to your travel time.

Sublight on the other hand, I haven't really figured out how long it takes to move one grid in system yet, since I rarely pay attention to my sublight times.

I really need the exact formula for what I want to do...
Using the NavComp and a hipothetical travel from 0,0 to 500,0 I came out with the following formula:
T = 2 * (L - (25 * S)) / H
Where:
T is the time in hours
L is the lenght of the trip (500 in this case)
S is the skill level in piloting
H is the hyperspeed of the ship

It worked more or less accurately: In most cases the result was perfect, but in some others, the formula offered a result up to 2,5 hours shorter than the navigation computer. I assumed that this may be due to rounding of partial results.

However, when I tried with a different path (diagonal) I used Pythagoras to calculate the lenght of the trip. The result was disastrous: The formula's result was much, much higher than the actual result given by the nav comp.

So I really need to know the exact formula for this to work...

The thing with diagonal travel is that it take the same time to move one grid diagonally as it does on a straight line. So going from 500,500 to -500,-500 takes amount of time as it takes to go from -500,0 to 500,0. So the most you can travel is 1,000 grids in one trip.

EDIT: This little quirk works with all types of travel too. It's not just limited to sublight.

You cannot have the exact formula other than figuring it out yourself. It's really not hard, other people have been able to do it before.

"...it take the same time to move one grid diagonally as it does on a straight line..."
I would have never though of it... my mind is too logic...
I'll keep trying to figure it out then.

"...other people have been able to do it before."
I wouldn't complain if they decided to post their findings here ;P It would same me a lot of time...

I had the same problem of trying to figure it out from the nav computer file. I would find one formula that worked for certain coords and then they wouldn't for others.

The amount of time it takes to move one "square" with the skill in piloting at 0 and at hyperspeed 1 is 7200 seconds.

This number decreases according to a certain formula as you increase the skill or the speed. I was able to come up with an estimate of this formula. Which result must always be a multiple of 18 seconds.
However, it seems to ramdomly round up or down. This is what I'm trying to figure out now...

Once you have the amount of seconds it takes for you to move 1 square, you just multiply by the total length of your trip.

Ok, this is the best I could come up with:

T = 18 * RoundUp( (400-S*20) / H)

T = travel time in seconds for 1 square
S = piloting skill
H = hyperspeed

It works in all cases except the following:
S = 2 and H = 3
S = 2 and H = 6
S = 2 and H = 12

In each of these cases, the value given by the formula is 18 seconds smaller than the actual travel times (which are: 2160, 1080 and 540 respectively).

There seems to be a round up in a partial result that I can't find. And as the mathematical properties give me virtually endless possibilities. Well, I doubt I'll ever be able to find it...

If anyone has any idea, please post.

Umm, is it even possible to discern a 18 second time difference, when the time is calculated every 3 minutes or so? In which case, it would seem that that equation would be fine, even for those values.

again, the piloting skills gives you a -5% reduction in your travel time for each level of piloting you have. So a skill of 3 will shorten your trip by 15% of the base travel time to that destination. Now I don't have the formula that is used to get hyperspace travel times down, but I do know that each time you double the hyperspeed it cuts the time down by half.

But through playing around with the Nav Comp it tells you what those base times are for yourself, so you can try to work out that formula yourself.

HS1 = 2 hours (120 minutes)
HS2 = 1 hour (60 mintunes)
HS3 = 41 minutes
HS4 = 30 minutes
HS5 = 25 minutes
HS6 = 21 minutes
HS7 = 18 minutes
HS8 = 15 minutes

Now unless you are playing with a modded ship, you won't need anything faster then that.

BTW, when you multiply by the total lenght of your trip, and divide by 60 to convert it to minutes, I'm almost sure you have to round up all the times.

But really haven't tried much.

Ellias:

Remember that you have to multiply by the lenght of your trip. As Ralic stated, the longest possible trip is 1000 squares, so you would have a difference of 5 hours.
In a trip that lasts several days, this error is relatively low, but it interferes with some of the features that I would like to add to the program I want to create.

Ralic:

I haven't noticed that the fastests ships have a speed of 8... lol
Your times are true for a 1 square travel, but in long travels, the multiplication by the total number of squares would make it inaccurate. The correct times would be:
HS1 = 120
HS2 = 60
HS3 = 40,2
HS4 = 30
HS5 = 24
HS6 = 20,1
HS7 = 17,4
HS8 = 15
About the piloting skill, the 5% is more or less accurate. As the actual formula does some misterious rounding, this won't allways work.

I didn't test it due to lack of time, but I think this is the exact formula for hyperspace travel:

T=RoundUp[(RoundUp(400/H))*3/10*L*(1-S/20)]

edit: Time in minutes.

I tried that one and it didn't work...
But I already found a very nice way to calculate it:

1) T = 18 * RoundUp( (400-S*20) / H)

2) If S=2 and H=3 or 6 (or 12)
You must add 18 to the result.

3) Multiply T by the lenght of your trip. (Remembering that moving 1 square diagonally is the same as moving horizontally or vertically)

T is in seconds. It may seem a little complicated, but everything is quite easy to convert into programming code.

Now I'm trying to figure out a formula for sublight travel.
This is much more difficult, since there is no NavComp to compare. I can only compare with the travel interface...

The nav comp actually is not completely accurate to begin with. I recall seeing one ETA when using the navcomp, and having a completely different, albeit lower, ETA when I actually conducted the hyperjump. Differences varied from minutes to nearly half a day, depending on location (yes, all updated coordinates and skill considered).

Just something you may want to keep in mind.