Propulsion Overhaul Idea

[Hardmodebot]

Propulsion Overhaul Idea

Using engines and thrusters require fuel instead of power, in the form of Hydrogen and Oxygen.

• Hydrogen and Oxygen can be stored in your Cargo Bay, and is created by breaking down Ice in manufacturing, or purchased from NPC factions from a shipyard (or a new Fuel Station?). Players could competitively undercut NPC prices with their owned fuel stations/fuel ships.
• NPC fuel stations and shipyards would provide free emergency fuel rations if you have a very low supply, however this will not last very long and has a faction wide cooldown to prevent misuse.
• Asteroid fields could spawn Ice Asteroids in all difficulties, and Ice can be harvested from them through typical mining methods.
• Deeper difficulty would spawn denser asteroids, providing Dense or Super Dense Ice, providing considerably more Hydrogen and Oxygen per volume when broken down in manufacturing. Ideally players exploring in more dangerous sectors of space would have to rely on player fuel production to maintain flight rather than NPC faction supply.
• Fuel usage depends on the size and material of the engines, with increases in size and material type requiring exponentially more fuel. This makes smaller ships much more economical with the fuel to thrust ratios, but having the ability to effectively fly a large vessel becomes incredibly impressive.
• Hyperspace Drives would also need a flat amount of fuel in addition to their power requirement, with the amount dependent on the the volume of Hyperspace Cores, material used, and distance intended to travel. The reason for this would be to promote more local exploration until fuel sources can be secured for long distance travel, and creates a risk of using too much fuel if you try to venture out too far.

A balance to power production may be needed, as engines no longer require power with this idea. To resolve this:

• Engines could replace a large chunk of current power needs power by producing power while fuel is being consumed, forcing specific power needs on the ship to require engine produced power. In addition to active use of the engines for movement, a smaller and stable amount of fuel would be used over time to generate power. The amount of power produced and fuel consumed would also depend on increases in size and material of the engine.
• Power generators, solar panels, and batteries could be prioritized to specific systems, such as life support. This would allow a stranded ship to remain on life support with generator power until a refuel can be secured.

With this idea in mind, engines could be available to build on stations, but changed to only be power production instead of thrust. This would mean players would need to set up a fuel delivery system, or a player faction dedicated to fuel production and delivery could arise, where manual/automated deliveries could be set up using player or NPC commanded ships.

All in all, I think this would create several benefits but also has some concerns:

• Mitigate the ease in which players can rush to top end ships/materials, as not having the fuel infrastructure to support it would be ill-advised.
• Promote player driven manufacturing, could be given as an introductory way for players to get into mining and manufacturing, but also have a high ceiling of usefulness at any level of gameplay due to the need for fuel.
• Balancing could be an issue till a good middle ground could be sorted out, too little fuel available in the universe would be frustrating, while too much would make this entire concept an exercise in meaningless cargo space usage.
• Could impact single player negatively if player driven production is too time-consuming, could have a setting in game creation to limit fuel costs on NPC factions to make it less intrusive in single player.
• This new market flow of Hydrogen and Oxygen could allow for expansion of other under-developed industries in the game in the future, such as colony expansion, food production, and manufacturing.
   

Edited July 4, 2021 by Hardmodebot