EotH Retreat Time

[Grimnak]

I've always wondered why the EotH gets a significantly reduced retreat timer (10 to 5 seconds).  I have a feeling it is for no specific reason other than the fact that the EotH is the "third" faction, and since the Consortium was the third in FoC, that section was hard coded.

[Corey]

It's not hardcoded. I haven't played the base game for like 7 years but I'm pretty sure the zann Consortium had the same time as the other two factions.

The Empire of the Hand has lower times because they had very extensive maps and military intel, ostensibly superior to any other group. We've represented better knowledge of travel routes with taking less time to calculate the jumps.

[Grimnak]

I can confirm that the Zann Consortium had a five second retreat.  It never did make much sense that pirates using outdated technology had the benefit, but thank you for elaborating on their advanced technology.

[Slornie]

Corey beat me to it. This was going to be my response:

Longer (theoretical) answer: Much EotH technology is derived from or shared with the Chiss Ascendancy's CEDF alongside various Imperial and other allied technologies.  Small Chiss vessels like the Nssis-class Clawcraft were not routinely fitted with navicomputers and instead relied on a unique system of hyperspace beacons (and beacon ships) to calculate hyperspace jump co-ordinates from known parameters.  The EotH don't rely on beacons for navigation because of their access to Imperial technology like navicomputers, but they re-purposed the Chiss beacon system to provide near-instantaneous escape vectors which were essential in the dangerous extremities of the frontier that they patrolled and explored.

I think Corey's is neater.