| Written by Jlhorner1974:
How to Compute Jump Pod Accuracy
Step 1: Start with a base chance of 0%. If the chosen destination is direcly on a star, then stop right here -- the chance of success is 0% (placing the cursor on a star always results in an automatic failure -- such a jump will always miss the target site). Otherwise, continue to the next step.
Step 2: For each star system near the destination point, look up the distance of that star from the destination point and add its accuracy bonus from the table below to the base chance. To determine the distance, do NOT use the distance formula. Simply determine the shortest number of 1-coordinate moves in any direction (up, down, left, right, or diagonally) needed to travel from the destination point to the star. The closer the star is to the destination, the more it increases the chance of success. (If you look at the coordinates on a grid, stars of the same "value" will form concentric squares around the destination point -- see diagram below, where "x" is the chosen destination point.)
Distance Chart
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777777777777777
766666666666667
765555555555567
765444444444567
765433333334567
765432222234567
765432111234567
7654321x1234567
765432111234567
765432222234567
765433333334567
765444444444567
765555555555567
766666666666667
777777777777777
Jump Pod accuracy bonuses
Star is 1 square away: +20%
Star is 2 squares away: +15%
Star is 3 squares away: +10%
Star is 4 squares away: +5%
Star is 5 squares away: +2%
Star is 6 squares away: +1%
Star is 7 squares away: +1%
Star is 8 or more squares away: +0%
Step 3: If the final value obtained in step 2 is less than 10%, use a minimum value of 10%. (As long as the destination point is not on top of a star, any jump has at least a 10% chance of success, even if there are no stars nearby). Otherwise, if the final value from step 2 is greater than 95%, use a maximum value of 95% (no jump may have greater than a 95% chance of success).
Notes:
- The chance of success is not influenced in any way by nebula or the distance jumped.
Here are some examples:
(34, 72)
34, 71 -> 1 square = 20%
35, 73 -> 1 square = 20%
34, 74 -> 2 squares = 15%
34, 69 -> 3 squares = 10%
29, 74 -> 5 squares = 2%
28, 79 -> 7 squares = 1%
---------------------------
Total = 68%
(133, 6)
132, 6 -> 1 square = 20%
133, 7 -> 1 square = 20%
131, 5 -> 2 squares = 15%
131, 7 -> 2 squares = 15%
136, 3 -> 3 squares = 10%
--------------------------
Total = 80%
Puzzles
Riddle 1: Assuming Starflight 2 did not cap the maximum chance of Jump Pod success at 95%, what specific X/Y coordinate pair in the Leghk Sector gives the highest chance of success as a Jump Pod destination, and what would the chance of success be there, according to the above formula? (There are actually two answers I will accept as correct here, for two different reasons. Can you find them both?)
Riddle 2: What specific X/Y coordinate pair is the closest point to the anomaly that will give you at least a 50% chance of success as a jump pod destination? What is the chance of success at the destination point you chose?
Riddle 3: What specific X/Y coordinate pair is the closest point to the Halls of Memory that will give you at least a 50% chance of success as a jump pod destination? What is the chance of success at the destination point you chose?
Riddle 4: You are out of money, have only 17 cubic meters of Shyneum left, and your ship's hold is bursting with Livelong. What specific X/Y coordinate pair is the best destination for you to choose for a Jump Pod to in this case? What is the chance of success at the destination point you chose?
Riddle 5: You activated your Jump Pod and just as the starmap came up, your cat jumped onto your keyboard and chose the destination for you! You did not see the destination point, but you were able to see that the jump had a 60% chance of success. Luckily the jump succeeded, but the cat's tail is still blocking the coordinates showing where you are. You can see three stars completely visible on your main viewscreen. Before you can react, your scanners detect an unidentified object. Where are you, and who did you most likely just encounter?
Answers
Riddle 1: The highest possible percentage for any given point of a successful jump is at the coordinates 127, 139, with an uncapped possibility of 110%. You have to be in the past; this point is in association with the Six Yellow Stones.
There are several places near the Six Yellow Stones where you can get over 100%, but 127, 139 is the best you can get (4*20 + 2*15 = 110%).
In the present, the highest percentage is 96%, at the coordinates 105, 74, in association with the Topaz Constellation (?).
This is one of the only places on the map I know of where a total of 7 stars contribute to the formula. There is a flux node right under your destination at 105, 74 but this does not affect the accuracy -- in the game, when you make the jump to 105, 74, you are shunted off to a neighboring unoccupied space so that you don't land directly on the flux. The success is indeed 96% (4*20 + 1*15 + 1*5 + 1*1 = 96%)
Riddle 2: The closest X,Y coordinate pair with at least a 50% chance of success closest to the Anomaly (coordinates 244, 149) is at 244, 162, near the Draffa Bastii cluster. The probability there is exactly 50%. You have a little better odds at 242, 163 (75%).
I thought people might miss this one because the other stars in that cluster do not show up on the starmap and can be easy to miss. The answer I was thinking of was 242, 163 at 75% (3*20 + 1*15 = 75%) but as I phrased the question, 241, 162 is the best answer. I think most people would agree though that moving up one coordinate to 242, 163 is worth getting the extra 25% on your success chance.
Riddle 3: The Halls of Memory (131, 219) are in an isolated system; really, the closest stellar group is the Nathrachch cluster, and the nearest point that offers 50% odds is at 181, 196. This is considering a direct jump, of course, not one close to the line of fluxes that bring you up there.
In the vein of the last question, if you move over to 182, 196, you gain an extra 6% for a total chance of(2*20 + 1*10 + 1*5 + 1*1 = 56%). Again, the extra 1 coordinate move to gain another 6% on your chance is worth it.
Riddle 4: Since you've got Livelong, you need to head to a Humna Humna world. Fortunately, there is one in the Nga-Seng Cluster at 202, 105. A jump to the coordinates 201, 106 has an 85% chance of success, the highest you'll find close to a Humna Humna system.
I think the first impulse if you were looking at the starmap would be to choose 202, 106 which touches three stars instead of just the two, but mathematically 201, 106 is better because it brings several of the other stars closer, and this is more than enough to offset the tradeoff of losing that third adjacent system. The success chance is indeed (2*20 + 2*15 * 1*10 + 1*5 = 85%).
Riddle 5: There are exactly 25 coordinate sets that come out with a 60% chance of success exactly. Of those, only one set matches up fairly close to three stars; the coordinates are 11, 204. The ship you met up with is likely Dweenle (in fact, I think the captain is Screedodumbisto) since that's their territory, although there are a few Spemin lurking around the nearby nebula.
It is also possible to reason this out. The fact that you can see three stars completely in your view screen really means that your destination is touching three stars (or very close to it). This narrows down the list of possibilities by quite a bit, but the second piece of information is needed to determine which of the possible locations is the correct one. Since the chance of success is 60% and you are touching three stars, it must mean that there are no other stars near you except for the three that you see (if there were other stars, the chance of success would be higher than 60%). Looking at a starmap, there is only one place in the sector where there is a cluster of three stars touching each other, with no other stars nearby, where you can touch all three, (thus getting the 3*20 = 60% chance of success). Therefore, you must be at 11, 204. Since this is in Dweenle space, and 12, 205 contains a Dweenle homeworld, you have most likely encountered the Dweenle.
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