How long does it take to turn around? And how much of a circle do you make? Using my trusty F-FF (turn class 2) as a subject and an immobile Klingon as a reference point, I made several 180 degree turns at various speeds. Time is in seconds, and radius is in "squares", with fractions being estimated. The Game Speed setting is "5", which equates to one game turn every sixty seconds.

Speed _ Time _ Radius
_ 05 ___ 70 ____ 3.5
_ 10 ___ 35 ____ 3.5
_ 15 ___ 35 ____ 4.8
_ 20 ___ 35 ____ 7.0
_ 25 ___ 35 ____ 9.0
_ 30 ___ 35 ___ 12.5

What this tells me is that there is no point in slowing down to turn if you want to change facing as quickly as possible, and that once you are at speed ten there is also no point in going any faster if your only consideration is to change facing. However, going faster than speed ten also increases the radius, which may be undesirable.

OK, for those who asked for a further test for turning performance with a larger ship, here it is...

This time I used an F-CA (turn class 4) as a subject and the immobile Klingon as a reference point, I made several 180 degree turns at various speeds. Time is in seconds, and radius is in "squares", with fractions being estimated. The Game Speed setting is "5", which equates to one game turn every sixty seconds.

Speed _ Time _ Radius
_ 05 ___ 70 ____ 3.5
_ 10 ___ 40 ____ 4.2
_ 15 ___ 40 ____ 6.5
_ 20 ___ 40 ____ 8.5
_ 25 ___ 40 ___ 10.5
_ 30 ___ 40 ___ 12.5

We see that for the Turn Class 4 ship, the values at speed=5 are the same. At speed=10 the CA takes five seconds longer to complete the half-circle and the radius is larger. This trend continues until speed=30, where the time is still the same 40 seconds, five seconds longer than the FF, but the radius is the same as the FF. So, while we have not tested all classes, we might deduce that at speeds near five the turning performance is the same. As the speed increases to 10 we that a larger turn class results in a slower turning rate and a larger radius. And perhaps approaching speed thirty, the radius tops out at 12.5 units.

Back to the Files page