FTL crew speed measurements

Summary of results

Crew are slowed slightly by doors (open or closed). To an even smaller extent, they appear to be slowed by changes in direction. Here are the speeds for a Human:

Description Tiles per second Seconds per tile Fastest No doors 2.28 0.438 Slowest A maze of doors 2.17 0.460

Possibly as a result of this, the game’s description of crew speeds (and Mantis Pheromones) are not quite accurate in “real-world” conditions. The following times are from tests running around the Mantis C:

Speed vs. human Seconds per tile Tiles per second Human 1 0.46 2.19 Engi 1 0.46 2.19 Slug 1 0.46 2.19 Zoltan 1 0.46 2.19 Mantis 1.18 0.39 2.59 Rock 0.51 0.89 1.12 Crystal 0.81 0.56 1.78 Lanius 0.85 0.53 1.86

Mantis Pheromones gave about a 23% boost here, not the advertised 25%.

Test methods and data

“Realistic” tests (Mantis C)

These tests used Mantis C, running circles from Piloting –> Shields –> Teleporter –> Piloting. Each test was 10 laps, so 240 tiles total movement.

I used timer software with stop/start bound to the FTL pause buttons. Crew movement was continuous with no diversions, pausing only at the end of lap 10. Mantis Pheromones were sold before starting (except when testing the augment itself).

I took the mean of only 3 measurements for each race, since the results were always extremely close. The small difference in timing is explained by small differences in pausing at the end of the last lap.

Human Engi Slug Zoltan Mantis Rock Crystal Lanius 1 109.51 109.37 109.67 109.57 92.84 213.34 135.08 128.38 2 109.59 109.65 109.64 109.57 92.86 213.46 135.08 128.55 3 109.51 109.59 109.60 109.54 92.83 213.53 135.07 128.68

Because the first four races are so extremely close, I pooled their results when calculating the mean and derived values. It would be silly to say that Slugs are 99.91% as fast as Humans.

Human, Engi, Slug, Zoltan Mantis Rock Crystal Lanius Mean time 109.5675 92.8433 213.4433 135.0767 128.5367

For Mantis Pheromones, I only did 3 tests with a Human:

1 2 3 Mean 89.08 88.97 89.15 89.0667

“Synthetic” tests

I recorded these on video (main, extra). These tests used custom layouts and Humans only (no Pheromones). Each scenario was tested twice (once in each direction).

Description Number of tiles Time Tiles per second Horizontal movement with few doors or direction changes 149 65.45, 65.48 2.28 As above, but with lots of doors 149 68.08, 67.79 2.19 As above, but with the doors open 149 68.08, 67.96 2.19 “Maze” with constant changes of direction (and doors) 149 68.50, 68.54 2.17 Vertical movement with few doors or direction changes 149 65.46, 65.68 2.27 Pure diagonal movement, no doors 12.73 5.60, 5.55 2.28 “Diagonal” movement across square rooms 71.43* 32.15, 32.22 2.22

* 30 diagonal movements and 29 straight movements. A diagonal movement should be √2 tiles distance (about 1.41).