Specifically about vehicles like the Manticore, what does the “range” statistic do?
For air vehicles it’s the distance you travel across the world map in a single move. Which doesn’t mean a whole lot without any fuel mechanic anymore.
The only effect this can potentially have is airships with higher range will have a better chance at reaching POI’s that are past some of your scan ranges… ie. The anu’s blimp airship may be able to reach places the manticore cannot.
And those with higher range need less waypoints to reach destination which is many jumps away. Of course because of vehicle speed it doesn’t mean they will be faster at destination even with lower number of “jumps”.
it doesn’t only cover ship movement, it also covers scanning range. anu blimps may be slow as hell but they have huge range of both movement and…oddly enough…extremely long range scanners to find new spots (or with upgrades find lairs/citadels)
unless they changed that in the last 2 patches.