Ships & Modules

I apologize if this topic has been beaten to death. I looked and was not successful at seeing any previous posts about this (I'm sure someone will link one). I have what I believe to be a simple question.

I have been told that you can hit a AB or MWD and align faster to warp then if you just warp. However, when I look at my align time without the AB or MWD on my ship the align time is approximately 3 seconds when I have them on the ship it increases to almost 5.

I know that using PYFA (or any other fitting tool) most likely won't give me the align time for a maneuver like this. So I was wondering if this holds true. (I have also heard that it's no longer valid.)

EDIT: Spelling

Prop mods actually slow down your move into warp, because it takes about the same amount of time to speed up to the 80 or 90% speed needed to warp, but you align more slowly. Might even take longer to hit that max speed, I don't know. But yeah, don't use props, they slow you down getting into warp.

Unless you're using a cloak. But that's a different technique entirely.

with MWD i use it on Slow BS and Orca for example the align warp time can be long, but once you pulse the MWD and the cycle ends not only does it start your warp you dont have to be fully aligned try it out works everytime

As others have stated, though it may not be quite clear to some...

This MWD trick doesn't work for the average ship just cruising around an asteroid belt, and especially when you're orbiting a target in combat.

The trick works best if you're hauling a bunch of crap in your Orca, and trying to warp gate to gate quicker.

As someone above mentioned, use an MWD instead of an AB. Technically, an AB can work in a lot of cases. But the more you train the AB skills, the longer the cycle time lasts. This cuts down on Cap expense, but makes the 10sec trick into 15sec.

The trick involves turning on the MWD and then immediately turning it off. MWD cycle is 10sec long. During that time, your max speed is greatly increased, as is your acceleration rate from 0 to "max". During that 10sec cycle time, your Orca (or other large craft like a BS) will be rapidly accelerating toward that new higher "max" speed.

At the end of the 10 sec cycle time, the MWD cuts off. Your "max" speed drops back down to normal, but you've already accelerated to a much greater speed. Ships go into warp when they are A) properly aligned, and B) traveling at 75% of their "max" speed. Since your max just dropped dramatically, you are that much closer to max than you would have been with 10 sec of standard acceleration.

The reason this trick doesn't work in any given situation, aside from gate to gate... is the "properly aligned" aspect. Emerging from a stargate, you are at a complete standstill. So aligning in any given direction takes very little time or effort. By the time you have accelerated to speed, you will warp. If you were moving some given direction before warping, it would take that much more time and effort to get aligned before warping.

I was looking at fitting a transport, specifically the cloaky ones. So I wasn't sure if it be worth it. I was going to use it for ninja looting wrecks from gankers in High sec. I could possibly align some what if I can get good timing and angles but there is no guarantee.

The effect of an MWD or AB to adjust align time is generally to make your align time equal to your module's cycle time.
Most of the time that means the 10 seconds of the MWD's cycle and it's almost never worth using an AB because of the very long cycle times of such modules. Similarly you aren't going to gain a benefit (again in general) if your align time is already below the 10 second cycle of an MWD.

For cloaky haulers however you're not looking at the same effect but the MWD-Cloak trick (and of course the ability to burn hard towards the edge of a bubble).

You pretty much explained it but I think a couple things need clarifying.

To enter warp, your ship's velocity needs to be aligned with where you are going to warp, and it needs to be 75% of its maximum.

Note that your true "direction of travel" does not always match what you see in the client. This is especially true for large ships aligning into warp from a stop. When you align to warp from a standstill, the only thing you are waiting for is for your velocity to reach 75% of its maximum. Your ship can be pointing in any direction from a stop, but as soon as you start aligning your direction of travel is instantly the direction of your warp destination.

This is why it looks like your ship is moving backwards when you align from a stop towards a destination behind you; the client is drawing your ship spinning around with all its pretty engine graphics but that's all just eye candy. Your ship is already moving in the direction of warp.

So #3 is true ONLY when you are warping from a stop. Otherwise, if you are already moving you also have to wait for your ship's vector to match your intended warp destination. The only factors that can affect that are your ship's inertia modifier and its mass. Since prop mods, when activated, increase your ship's mass you will turn slower with them on and it will take you longer to align in the direction of warp.

When you activate a prop mod and then align from a stop, you are already pointed in the direction of travel so this is moot. Your ship will still accelerate towards its maximum velocity at a SLOWER RATE than if you didn't use the prop mod because of the added mass, but if you let the prop mod cycle only once, your maximum velocity drops instantly back to its normal value. With most ships battleship-sized and smaller, once you complete one cycle of MWD your ship's velocity will be greater than 75% of its maximum without the prop mod. Since you were already pointing in the direction of warp (you always were from a stop, remember) you instantly enter warp.