Lorean Class Temporal Lance
The Lorean Temporal Lance is a campaign-only ship at Planets.nu. It was designed by Darth Balls, the champion of the Gemini war.
Comments
The main ability of the Lorean is its Temporal Lance ability. This allows the Lorean to disappear from the map and then re-appear far away, 10-26 turns later. The Lorean is also a valid chunnel target, which means that chunnel-capable ships like the Firecloud can chunnel to it. This makes the Lorean a potentially dangerous weapon that can travel deep behind enemy lines and then have a Firecloud chunnel to it with a big fleet.
To initiate the Temporal Lance ability, you must use the interface in the regular way that you would set a chunnel, i.e. you must have a chunnel target like a Firecloud and set your friendly code to match its ID#. The temporal lance ability will then travel in the direction of the target Firecloud, and then continue to move past it. Unlike a normal chunnel, you must set a warp speed above 0. The warp speed will determine how far your ship will travel. Your distance traveled will be roughly the Lorean's (warp_speed^2 * 10) ly beyond the chunnel target. E.g. if you travel at warp 9, you will travel 810 ly past the target Firecloud (in the same direction you were traveling toward the Firecloud). You will not arrive exactly at the expected destination, but within a certain radius of it (perhaps within 20 ly).
The Lorean can use its temporal lance and carry other ships with it. But since those ships will disappear and be unusable for many turns, it is usually better to wait for the Lorean to appear at its destination, and then chunnel to it later with a Firecloud.
Other players will receive a notification before a Lorean re-appears in normal space at its destination, at least 1 turn beforehand.
Built by
Hull specs
| Name | Tech | Beams | T/F | En | MC | Dur | Tri | Mol | Mass | Cargo | Fuel | Crew | Abilities | Adv |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lorean Class Temporal Lance | 7 | 8 | 6/0 | 2 | 1280 | 184 | 20 | 590 | 325 | 200 | 360 | 489 | TempL, ChunT | 35 |
Notes
While the Lorean and any ships traveling with it will stay on the scoreboard when they "disappear" during transit, they will not be contributing to the ship limit. Therefore, during this time, additional regular ship builds are possible if the ship count goes below 500.
If you travel at warp 1, it will take 10 turns. If you travel at warp 9, it will take 26 turns. The number of turns your travel takes goes up by 2 ly per warp factor. The in-game interface will tell you how long it will take to get to your destination, but it will not show your approximate destination.
Addons
This ship design is exclusive to Campaign Mode.
External Links
Link to Announcement of the ship and explanation of its abilities.
Help page for Temporal Lance at Planets.nu
Emperor Starships page at Planets.nu
A game where Loreans were used extensively. See turns #71, #73 and #75 for Temporal Lance initiation.
