Talk:Skyranger
Truncation
Mathematically, the Skyranger shouldn't be able to stay out for 3 days at a time. It just goes through its fuel too fast. (Ironic that I say that with a Skyranger, eh?) However, after just trying it for myself, the skyranger netted a whole 10 extra hours. I think it has something to do with truncation versus full decimal precision. I patrolled a Skyranger on top of my base in a new game, then waited until the "low fuel notice". This came 82 hours later. Doing the math in reverse: Staying in the air 82 hours means it is draining fuel 492 times, every 10 minutes. Assuming the tank becomes empty, it is then losing .203% of its fuel tank every 10 minutes, travelling at half speed. At full speed, this becomes .406% of its fuel tank every 10 minutes.
Methinks that the game truncates the value of the fuel ratio (whole tank/amount consumed per 10 mins) and this means that the terran fueled crafts will probably have slightly longer ranges.
The Skyranger can indeed stay up in the air for 3 days straight, but only if it's out on patrol and if it's near your base. The further you travel, the higher your craft's bingo points for returning to base (4% on my last test).
I decided to do another test of how long the Skyranger can stay up in continuous travel. After running a test by constantly setting waypoints on the opposite sides of the globe after arriving at each waypoint, I was able to force the Skyranger to empty its tank in a single day. Not an exact 24 hours, but within the same day. That's still quite a lot of air time!
So your air time really depends on how hard you're pushing the Sykranger and how far you're going.
- NKF
Ah, found where the truncation's occuring - it explains why the Skyranger stays in the air longer than its fuel seems to suggest.
A Skyranger travelling at max speed is going 760 knots. This means a fuel consumption rate of 7.6, which is then truncated to 7. A Skyranger patrolling is going 380 knots. This means a fuel consumption rate of 3.8, which is then truncated to 3. Max fly time at this consumption rate is 3 days, 11h, 20m.
A similar thing likely happens with the Interceptor. I'll edit the skyranger and 'ceptor later. -Cobalt