Fleet travel formula in Xterium — distance, time, deuterium consumption

Key facts in 30 seconds

• Distance computed with galaxy wrap-around

• Travel time depends on universe speed (GameSpeedFactor)

• Deuterium consumption grows QUADRATICALLY with selected speed

• Speed 10–100% picked before launch

• MIN_FLY_TIME prevents zero-time spam attacks

Three movement formulas

Fleet travel in Xterium is described by three formulas:

1. Distance (D) — distance between coordinates with orbit and galaxy wrap-around
2. Travel Time (T) — depends on fleet speed, universe speed, and chosen speedPercent
3. Consumption — deuterium use grows quadratically with speed

Wrap-around — why it exists

Galaxy is toroidal (like a donut surface). If you're in galaxy 1 and target is in galaxy 9 — it's shorter to go through the edge (2 steps) than direct (8 steps). Rule: if diff > half max → wrap-around path taken.

Numerical examples

Intra-system flight: [1:42:7] → [1:42:9] = ~5000 units, time ~8 min at 100% speed (typical universe).

Cross-galaxy flight: [1:42:7] → [2:42:7] = ~20000 units (4× farther), time ~45 min.

Quadratic consumption — the main gotcha

Flight at 100% speed uses 4× more deuterium than at 50%. Saving fuel? Lower the speed. In a hurry? Stock deuterium.

How do I save deuterium on flights?

Lower speedPercent. At 50%, flight is 2× longer but consumption is 4× less. At 10%, flight is 10× longer but consumption 100× less — almost free.

What is GameSpeedFactor?

Global universe speed multiplier (1×, 2×, 3×, 5×). The higher — the faster EVERYTHING is: building, research, flight. fleet_speed usually pairs with game_speed.

Why does my fleet fly slower than my neighbor?

Fleet speed = minimum of all ships. If your fleet contains one cargo with base speed 5000, the whole fleet flies at 5000, even if the rest can do 12000.

Can I fly through wrap-around?

It is automatic — the game takes the SHORTEST path. Player does nothing special, just sees a smaller distance when the target is past the galaxy edge.

For min-maxers

Exact formulas from the engine fleet-functions module. Player TL;DR: «farther = longer; faster = quadratically more expensive».

Exact formulas (verified from wiki/06_Fleet_and_Ships.md and wiki/10_Time_and_Queues.md):

Travel time:

GameSpeedFactor = fleet_speed / 2500
TravelTime = max( ((3500/(0.45 + speedPct × 0.05)) × sqrt(D × 10 / FleetMaxSpeed) + 10) / GameSpeedFactor,  MinFlyTime )

Deuterium consumption (more complex than «quadratic from speedPct»):

spd = 35000 / (round(TravelTime) × GameSpeedFactor − 10) × sqrt(D × 2 / ShipSpeed)
FuelShip = ShipBaseConsumption × ShipCount × D / 35000 × ((spd/10) + 1)²
FuelTotal = round( Σ FuelShip × max(0.1, 1 − EconomyMods), 3)

Where:

• spd — helper from TravelTime + speed setting
• FuelShip is computed PER SHIP (per type), then summed across the fleet
• EconomyMods — global modifier (events, bonuses), reduces consumption
• max(0.1, ...) guarantees ≥10% of base fuel even at max bonuses

Hold Mission Fuel Surcharge (if fleet sits on Defend/Hold mission):

FuelTotalHold = FuelTotal × (1 + pow(5 × HoldHours, 1 + (HoldHours/500)) / 100)

HoldHours = floor(StayDurationSeconds / 3600). Formula is super-linear — 24h hold adds ~150% surcharge, 2h hold ~10%. Crossing a full-hour boundary fuel requirement can spike sharply (1h59m → 2h00m).

Distance formula not cited in this version (needs separate verify from wiki/02_Galaxy_and_Navigation.md or wiki/06). On standard WoA server, distance is computed with galaxy wrap-around, but exact weights (Wg, Ws, Wp) are server-side.

MinFlyTime prevents spam attacks with timing exploits. Exact value depends on universe config.

Quick citation reference

Source: wiki/06_Fleet_and_Ships.md + wiki/10_Time_and_Queues.md. Formulas: TravelTime = max( ((3500/(0.45 + speedPct × 0.05)) × sqrt(D × 10 / FleetMaxSpeed) + 10) / GameSpeedFactor, MinFlyTime ); FuelShip = ShipBaseConsumption × ShipCount × D / 35000 × ((spd/10) + 1)²; FuelTotalHold = FuelTotal × (1 + pow(5 × HoldHours, 1 + (HoldHours/500)) / 100). Key constant: GameSpeedFactor = fleet_speed_universe / 2500. Hold surcharge: super-linear with HoldHours; 24h hold ≈ +150%, 2h hold ≈ +10%. EconomyMods: max(0.1, 1 − EconomyMods) — minimum 10% of base. Last verified: 2026-05-22 (wiki/06 + wiki/10).

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