Who can do this?
Owners and co-authors with rights create means of transport, edit them, move them to the trash and restore them. Guests only see a character’s means of transport if you share the “Transport means” group.
Means of transport and travel times
With means of transport and travel speeds, Illumentis checks whether a character can reach the destination in time.
What is it for?
If a character is in the port city in chapter three and already in the capital two days later, the reader wonders: how did they get there so fast? Illumentis can check that for you. For this it needs the distance between the places and the speed of the character.
You set the speed as a means of transport: a name, a distance per world-time unit and a unit of measurement. Note that the speed applies per world-time unit, not per hour. Every character gets a default means of transport. For a single journey, you can override it in the scene. You can also mark a scene as an instant journey, for example for a portal.
The distance comes from a travel time you entered between two locations, or from shared map pins and the scale of the map. If information is missing, the engine makes no statement.
How it works
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In the project, choose the “Transport means” section and then “New transport means”.
What you see afterwards: A dialog asks for name, speed and unit.
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Enter the name, the “Speed” as a distance per world-time unit and the “Unit”.
What you see afterwards: The means of transport appears in the list.
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Assign the default means of transport to a character on their detail page.
What you see afterwards: The engine calculates with this speed for that character.
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On the detail page of a location, under “Travel times”, enter travel times to other locations, or pin locations on maps with a matching scale.
What you see afterwards: The engine now knows a distance or travel time.
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If needed, choose a different means of transport in the time settings of a scene or mark an “Instant travel”.
What you see afterwards: The change applies only to that one journey.
Your data
Means of transport belong to the project and are backed up and exported with it. One in the trash is kept for 30 days.
Limits
By default, a project can hold at most 8 means of transport unless the project owner has a studio subscription. The operators can change these values; Illumentis tells you the value currently in effect in the app once you reach the limit. New projects start with six preset ones, which count toward the limit. The engine calculates each route with one means of transport. If neither the character nor the scene has one set, it makes no statement. An instant journey switches off the distance check for that scene.
Frequently asked questions
Which means of transport are preset?
In the real world: on foot, horse/bicycle, car, ship, airplane and helicopter. In fantasy, sci-fi and mixed worlds: on foot, horse, ship, dragon, spaceship and magic (unbound). You can adjust the values and create more.
In what order does the engine use its information?
First the instant journey of the target scene, then a travel time you entered between the locations, then the estimate from shared map pins with the means of transport of the scene or the character. If there is no shared map either, it tries a chain across connected maps. Without information, it reports nothing.
What are links for?
In the “Links” section, you connect a means of transport with a faction or a rule, for example with the magic that makes the transport possible.