Active navigation is performed from the Starship Interface Pane. References below are to the starmap and the Movement tab of the starship interface.
The Location is your current position. If your starship is in orbit around a planet the name of the planet is shown next to the word location. If your starship is between planets your position will read "Deep Space". When your starship is between planets but at the same location as another starship, the location will read the name of the other starship.
The Waypoint is that point in space to which your starship has set a course to travel. The waypoint shows up on the navigation map at the end of a line running from your current location. Use the arrow keys or the mouse to set a new waypoint. If you set your waypoint on an object such as a planet or a starship, it will be circled. If your fuel is inadequate for the trip, the line will turn orange.
Additional waypoints can be set after the first by holding down a [shift] key while selecting a location on the starmap. Arrow keys cannot be used to initially select an additional waypoint, but can be used to fine-tune the destination once it has been established. Care should be taken with navigational hazards and planetary warp wells.
Distance is the number of light-years to your current waypoint.
Speed is your current warp factor. The number of light-years a starship will travel in a turn increases as a square of your warp factor. (Some Privateer-built starships have a Gravitonic Accelerator, allowing faster than normal travel. For more details, see below.)
Under "Arrival" is the estimated time of arrival of the starship at the final waypoint in game turns. This is, again, an estimate; it's based on your speed and the course distance. While it is almost always correct, small rounding errors do crop up from time to time.
Fuel Needed is an estimate of the amount of fuel the starship will need to travel to its destination. This amount is based on the starship's total mass and warp factor as well as the type of engines installed. Tech one engines (Stardrive 1) are very inefficient, wasting increasing amounts of fuel as speed increases above warp factor one. Tech six engines, likewise, are only fuel efficient at speeds up to warp factor 6. The fuel needed estimate has numerous errors in it. These are described here.
There are three starships in the game that have Gravitonic Accelerators. These are the Meteor Class Blockade Runner, the BR4 Gun Boat and the BR5 Kaye Class Torpedo Boat. These three starships travel at twice the rate of a normal starship. At warp factor 9 these starships will travel 162 light-years in one turn.
In addition, there exists a class of small hyperjumping starships. These starships can move either normally or, by burning 50 KT fuel and selecting the appropriate Friendly Code (HYP or a variation), can move approximately 350 light-years in a single turn.
Finally, there are a few starships in the Cyborg construction inventory that can create a Warp Chunnel, a stable wormhole that permits near-instantaneous transit of entire fleets from point to point across the cluster.
| Maximum Distance Traveled per Turn | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Speed | Normal Engines | Gravitonic Engines |
Normal Engines (accelerated)
Horwasp only |
| Warp 1 | 1 light-year | 2 light-years | N/A |
| Warp 2 | 4 light-years | 8 light-years | N/A |
| Warp 3 | 9 light-years | 18 light-years | 14 light-years |
| Warp 4 | 16 light-years | 32 light-years | N/A |
| Warp 5 | 25 light-years | 50 light-years | N/A |
| Warp 6 | 36 light-years | 72 light-years | 54 light-years |
| Warp 7 | 49 light-years | 98 light-years | 74 light-years |
| Warp 8 | 64 light-years | 128 light-years | N/A |
| Warp 9 | 81 light-years | 162 light-years | 122 light-years |