Starship Speeds

http://galactic-voyage.com/Star%20Wars-Ships-Index.htm

I've found this site that says how fast a warship moves at sublight speed, and wondered how legitimate it was. I don't recall subspace speed mentioned in EGVV, so can anyone confirm if other places like WEG or WOTC give it?

MGLT, that is abbreviation for mega light-years?

Here are some samples of what I'm talking about. So a Carrack is as fast as an X-wing???

Impstar 60 MGLT
Lancer 17 MGLT
Carrack Cruiser 100 MGLT
Corellian Corvette 20 MGLT
Nebulon-B 40 MGLT
SSD 40 MGLT
Gallofree transport 20 MGLT
Dreadnought 12 MGLT
Strike Cruiser 16 MGLT
Corellian Gunship 30 MGLT
Star Galleon 10 MGLT
Interdictor 20 MGLT

 

So a Carrack is as fast as an X-wing???

Dude, that sounds wrong.
If XWA's speeds are any indication (and I know how to edit the "shiplist.txt" file in the game to allow you to play as ANY ship in skirmish mode, INCLUDING a Carrack cruiser), X-wings are definately faster than Carracks.

Edit - I looked in my WEG sourcebook library, and starships and starfighters DO appear to have a sublight-speed rating, designated as "Space". For example, an A-wing has a Space rating of "12", an X-wing has a rating of "8", and a TIE Fighter has a rating of "10".
According to the Thrawn Trilogy Sourcebook, under the stats for a Carrack cruiser, they have a Space rating of "4".

I dunno if that means anything to you.

 

MGLT are the speeds given to starships in the TIE Fighter and X-Wing computer games.


I believe entirely in associating the games with canon, but one thing that does not fit in well is the speeds. The ships are painfully slow in-game when compared to what we see in the movies.

EDIT: Carracks are meant to be rather fast, but whether one could move as fast as a fighter the size of an X-Wing is doubtful.

At least according to SW physics

 

WEG gave movement codes according to game distances. The distances being essentially spaces to be traveled, which could be worked out with graph paper. A X-wing's sublight movement code being 8 for normal movement during a turn. However, you had four speeds to choose from. Cautious, Cruising, High, and All-Out. Crusing is the normal movement code, so a X-wing moving at crusing speeds in the WEG game would move 8 spaces. Cautious would result in a starship moving at half it's crusing speed, and if the crusing speed is an odd number, you'd round up. A X-wing moving cautiously moves 4 spaces, but, intrestingly enough, so does a Y-wing because it's sublight speed in the WEG game is 7 (and half of seven is 3.5). At high speed, a ship moves twice as fast as it does at cruising speed. So a X-wing would therefore move 16 spaces. And all-out is four times cruising speed, which would result in a X-wing moving 32 spaces in one turn.

However, an atmosphere movement code would also be given for any ship large enough to enter planetary atmosphere, this number was divided into two, the first spaces a ship could move in atmosphere, the second being it's actual cruising speed. For a X-wing this code would be 365; 1,050 kmh.

 

I used to know the exact mathematical conversion formula for converting MGLT (MegaLights) to km/hr.
But 100MGLT for a Carrack cruiser sounds wrong. Real wrong. Like.. off-by-a-factor-of-ten wrong.

 

Well, unless there is a point in one of the games where you see a Carrack and a X-wing both moving at 100 MGLT, side-by-side and neither gaining ground on the other, then think of it like what I said about using graph paper to plot movement for RPG. Only take the kind of graph paper where you have several little squares inside the big squares. Make the big squares starfighter movement and the little squares capship movement. Thus, depending on how many little squares there are in the big squares, you'll see how much faster a X-wing moves at 100 MGLT compared to a Carrack because you're actually looking at scaling the difference in actual speeds.

I know, it's a terrible example, but it's the only thing I can come up with to explain away the two moving at the same rate. Starfighters should be faster than capital ships, which is why they seem to be able to catch up to capital ships faster than other capital ships do. So if we figure that capital scale MGLT is half starfighter scale MGLT, then my example would work.

 

But that doesn't work, because 1 MGLT is 1 MGLT. That's like saying that a bullet travelling at 100 miles an hour is different from a Ferarri travelling 100 miles an hour. Quite literally, "size matters not".
If a Carrack is going 100MGLT, and an X-wing is going 100MGLT, they're both travelling at the same speed... and that's most likely wrong. I know X-wings are faster than Carrack cruisers in XWA, and the WEG material says X-wings are faster than Carrack cruisers.

Don't make me re-edit XWA to let me play as a Carrack cruiser...
Seriously, it's a lot of work, and I don't want to do it if I don't have to.

You know, this whole debate has come about over a fan-website that Excellence mentioned, which isn't canon. I'd like to see the site's citations for where their data is coming from, because it makes no sense.

 

Like I said, it was a terrible example and I was just trying to come up with a way to make it possible for the two to travel at 100MGLT without it being wrong.

 

Well, we've got two scenarios, then:

1. The 100MGLT figure for the Carrack cruiser is wrong
2. A Carrack cruiser can go as fast as an X-wing.

I lean more towards the former.

In fact... lemme check out my XWA Strategy Guide and see what stats it gives for a Carrack cruiser...

Edit - it lists the top speed (with ELS - Energy/Laser/Shield system, for those of you who don't know XvT-pilot-speak - at even, instead of more power diverted to other systems) as 20MGLT. So... if you devote more power to engines, I bet I could milk a Carrack cruiser for maybe... 30, possibly 35MGLT. Then again, if I drop all power into an X-wing's engines, I can jack that thing up to about 120MGLT.

 

I think that a Carrack cruiser being able to match the speed of an X-wing is extremely dodgy...

 

From what I can recall in XWA (which one of my friends is borrowing so I can't check) Carrack cruisers do not go as fast as the X-wing.

Maybe it's Imperial Propoganda?

Maybe it's a protoype cruiser?

Maybe it's a typo?

Maybe it means hyperspace speeds? Although MGLT suggests otherwise.

 

So . . .

Those stats I supplied for the warships in my first post . . . are they just fan stats or do they come from legit sources like WOTC, CTD and WEG?

I've found other sites, and sometimes the numbers differ.

 

Star Wars: The Essential Guide To Vehicles And Vessels:

Damorian Manufacturing Carrack-Class Light Cruiser:

"At 350 meters long, Carracks are considered light crusiers, but they are quite heavily armed. The standard Imperial weapon configuration includes ten heavy turbolasers, twenty ion cannons, and five tractor-beam projestors. This weaponry gives the Carrack sufficient power to engage most Rebel capital starships. The Carrack can also be refitted wih twenty laser cannons to replace ion cannons, making the ship an excellent antistarfighter crusier."

"A major drawback of the Carrack is that it has no hangar bay. Instead, small external racks carry a mere five TIE fighters for courier or recon duty. The Carrack must rely on other ships or planetary bases for TIE support. However, the ship has powerful sublight engines that GIVE IT THE SPEED OF AN X-WING FIGHTER, making it one of the fastest crusiers in the Imperial fleet"

That was word-for-word people.

However, it does say that it "makes it one of the fastest crusiers in the Imperial fleet". Love to see what THE fastest crusier is.

 

Hm, that's still really weird.
The website pulled the "100MGLT" statistic right out of thin air, though, most likely to correlate with the "speed of an X-wing" bit - it certainly ain't true if you actually PLAY XWA, no matter what you do, I am positive of that.

 

EGTVV came out pre-XWA, IIRC. I'd think XWA was slower for purposes of gameplay in this case...

"A video game has to take an interactive approach that favors gameplay."-starwars.com

If you needed an explanation continuity wise, I'd think something was wrong with the carrack's subspace engines in XWA, which made them easier for Ace Azzameen to fight. Either that or there are two different models of Carrack cruisers, with some that have been modified with faster subspace engines.

 

perhaps given the EGVV statement that a carrack can go as fast as an x-wing should be taken in a particular context...

a x-wing's cruising speed = carrack's all out speed ???

(or in video game terms... a carrack with everything thrown into engines might go as fast as an x-wing with Lasers and Shields at "holding" status)

or perhaps if a carrack was chasing an x-wing on a particular vector, the x-wing goes a certain speed, but doesn't cover as much ground because it keeps juking to avoid the carrack's guns. (the carrack's path is shorter because it is traveling in a more or less straight line while the x-wing is dodging all over the place with off-path travel)

 

If you needed an explanation continuity wise, I'd think something was wrong with the carrack's subspace engines in XWA, which made them easier for Ace Azzameen to fight.

..so the engines on Carrack cruisers were operating at 20% capacity (XWA strategy guide lists top speed with ELS set evenly as "20MGLT" - 20% of an X-wing's 100MGLT speed with ELS at identical settings) EVERY time you fought them? That's unlikely.

Either that or there are two different models of Carrack cruisers, with some that have been modified with faster subspace engines.

That makes a lot more sense.

(or in video game terms... a carrack with everything thrown into engines might go as fast as an x-wing with Lasers and Shields at "holding" status)

Like I said, if I maxed out a Carrack in XWA, I could milk it for maybe 35MGLT. Of course, like Val said, the ones in XWA might be "different" Carrack cruisers.

Then again, also like Val said, we have to take certain things in XWA with a grain of salt, such as:
- distances
- starship sizes (which definately are NOT to scale with the fighters)
- speeds (for all craft) - I don't mean relative speeds (such as how fast an X-wing goes in relation to an A-wing, because that can be figured proportionately), but ACTUAL speeds.

or perhaps if a carrack was chasing an x-wing on a particular vector, the x-wing goes a certain speed, but doesn't cover as much ground because it keeps juking to avoid the carrack's guns. (the carrack's path is shorter because it is traveling in a more or less straight line while the x-wing is dodging all over the place with off-path travel)

That doesn't work for the same reason Knight1192's example from earlier doesn't work - speed is speed. Speed is the absolute magnitude distance covered in an amount of time. If an X-wing is going 100MGLT around and around in circles and covers no actual "distance", it still was going 100MGLT. An X-wing going 100MGLT in circles is going the same speed as a Carrack cruiser going 100MGLT in a straight line... and that's unlikely.

 

well i didn't say it was a very good explanation...

speed is speed. maybe they omitted a few words in the sentence like "as fast as an x-wing made out of cheese" or "as fast as an x-wing piloted by threepio who can't find the throttle"

ok im stretching.

 

LOL. Reminds me of a story when my father got in a debate with one of *my* friends over who's car was faster (they were staging a fake "drag-race" for a commercial my friend was filming for a class), my father's '97 Pontiac Firebird against my friend's '01 Ford F-250 (the F-250 was supposed to "win"). My father said, "Mike, just so you're aware, my car goes faster in PARK with the handbrake engaged than yours does at top speed, going downhill"

 

Maybe the first Carracks were that fast, but were deemed too expensive, so subsequent models went at a more normal speed. We all know how the Empire loves to save on the cash, with their disposable fighters and all.

 

That is possible too, .

 

I guess that just makes you wonder why Thrawn, allegedly "exiled" to the outer regions, would have a bunch of super-fast Carracks out in the tail-end of space.

 

perhaps he knew about their limited production run and snapped them up quick through procurement before they started making the lame carracks.

"and i even like the color"
"the keys are in the ignition, your Chissness"

 

"and i even like the color"
"the keys are in the ignition, your Chissness"

LOL.

"The 'Imperial White' really brings out my eyes"
"Sir, any color brings out your eyes"