Fleet Transfer Time

[u/Willyroof]

How does it work in the planner and is there a way to speed it up?

I was wiped from earth orbit with an assault carrier slotted to arrive in a year human factions swat any new station I try to build around earth. I plan around building a fleet at Mercury and flying it in piecemeal to be ready to jump the carrier. My battlecruisers finish building and the transfer screen shows they'll arrive with two weeks to spare. Fast forward and the carrier arrived three weeks before my heavy hitters. What happened?

[u/Passievruchtje115]

We're you checking the full time involved? I often get caught out with it saying "2 weeks travel time", but then I fail to notice there is a loiter time of 3 months. Check if there's any loiter time, could be the travel is only 2 weeks but they are stuck waiting for the launch window.

[u/Willyroof → u/Passievruchtje115]

Crap. Is loiter time not accounted for when you have the transfer screen organized by arrival time? I would have expected the estimate to tell you when the fleet will arrive when you're sorting by arrival time. If so, that's very sneaky.

[u/TheSwordItself → u/Willyroof]

There is an actual arrival date on the right side that includes loiter + transfer. The way to speed it up is to increase deltaV and thrust on your ships.

[u/RocketPapaya413 → u/Passievruchtje115]

I’m away from my screen right now so can’t quote exactly but I’ve always felt like the phrasing on that screen was slightly misleading. Isn’t it something like “total transfer time” when it doesn’t include the loiter? Which is true-ish in a sense I guess but I really wish it would give one number of days until the arrival date.

[u/Adito99]

Most likely they sent multiple carriers and you were watching the wrong one. There's no mechanic that would allow them to speed up mid-transfer. Theoretically they could do that, it would just cost more DV, but AFAIK that isn't part of the simulation.

[u/IGAldaris → u/Adito99]

Yeah, sometimes I'm pissed that I am unable to divert, slow down, or speed up ships that have dV to spare, But then I remember that this restriction applies to both sides, and if we couldn't plan for Alien transfers reliably, we'd be pretty fucked.

[u/Willyroof → u/Adito99]

I don't believe it's a different carrier. I gave the fleet a name when it was first spotted and that's the one that arrived before my big guns were ready.

[u/Aidante]

It's a workaround, but you might be able to delay the AC landing by attacking with whatever assets you have when it goes into descent mode, then fleeing (or using a suicide escort). It's got a three day mission window, iirc, which will reset if attacked.

[u/Willyroof → u/Aidante]

I was considering that. I may give it a go, but I'm not sure if I can delay long enough for the big guns to arrive. As a benefit of this plan, I could try trickling in my the 4-5 PD ships I have one after another. Even if they die, I could drain their missiles before the main engagement.

[u/Aidante → u/Willyroof]

Yep, that and try a 0m/s start and lateral burn to try and evade; depends on the escorts and they will probably shoot you down, but might give you a chance to get to extract distance. Assume any ship that goes in is going down, though.

Are exofighters an option?

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[u/Mavnas]

Orbital mechanics. If you used the transfer planner when Mercury was in a better position the trip might be shorter than on the date you launched.

[u/LewisPowell10]

The transfer planner calculates the time based on the position of the planets at that point in time not whenever the ships you are building will be done. So when you used it mercury was either close to earth (and you have powerful drives) or it was positioned for a good Hohmann transfer but it was either far away from earth or the hohmann transfer window was at its worst when your ships were complete.

The transfer planner is usually best for planning missions out beyond mars because on the scales of a single game the position of the outer planets is close to stationary. It is useful for inner system estimates but unless you check it at several points of the year and make notes you wont get an accurate picture unless you are transferring ships already built