(original message by Mr. Pea#4115 , just posting it on the forums because they didn't know how)
A large thruster which consumes minuscule amounts of a special propellant, and lots of power to move medium to small ships over long distances. It will be completely modular so people can adapt it to their needs. I dunno how to balance so ima leave lots of stuff open for dev ideas and just suggest concepts.
-It would have a long (10-30 min) warmup time, in which its thrust is increasing logarithmically to a powerful maximum.
-You can use different materials and alloys in the positive and negative grids which affects its thrust and support needs. That is based on conductivity and thermal properties of the material used. The max thrust which can be achieved will vary by an order of magnitude or two if you use xhalium or charodium, for example. This means a thruster that uses xhalium over say, charodium will; -be much more expensive -produce much more thrust -be much more fragile and complex. -Fuel types also matter, and different prop types will behave differently and are better with some materials. This could create some unexpected consequences if you switch prop types or grid materials and don’t know if they work good together or not. -These differences will be very noticeable, and will heavily affect how the thruster works, if it works with the material you selected at all.
-be much more expensive
-produce much more thrust
-be much more fragile and complex.
-Fuel types also matter, and different prop types will behave differently and are better with some materials. This could create some unexpected consequences if you switch prop types or grid materials and don’t know if they work good together or not.
-These differences will be very noticeable, and will heavily affect how the thruster works, if it works with the material you selected at all.
-it is built and mounted like a triangle thruster, except you need to stack its parts and use special edge mounts to support everything, to prevent them from getting too big.
-Dunno how ima work this in so attached image is one I found on google for how IRL ones work.
Solar arrays (big, folding ones, bigger than your ship) would both look good and be a practical power source.
TLDR; It is, in essence, a variation of the plasma thruster but intended for much longer journeys where power and time are plentiful. It is a complex mid-late game engine with lots of variables that affect its performance.
A large thruster which consumes minuscule amounts of a special propellant, and lots of power to move medium to small ships over long distances. It will be completely modular so people can adapt it to their needs. I dunno how to balance so ima leave lots of stuff open for dev ideas and just suggest concepts.
-It would have a long (10-30 min) warmup time, in which its thrust is increasing logarithmically to a powerful maximum.
-You can use different materials and alloys in the positive and negative grids which affects its thrust and support needs. That is based on conductivity and thermal properties of the material used. The max thrust which can be achieved will vary by an order of magnitude or two if you use xhalium or charodium, for example. This means a thruster that uses xhalium over say, charodium will; -be much more expensive -produce much more thrust -be much more fragile and complex. -Fuel types also matter, and different prop types will behave differently and are better with some materials. This could create some unexpected consequences if you switch prop types or grid materials and don’t know if they work good together or not. -These differences will be very noticeable, and will heavily affect how the thruster works, if it works with the material you selected at all.
-be much more expensive
-produce much more thrust
-be much more fragile and complex.
-Fuel types also matter, and different prop types will behave differently and are better with some materials. This could create some unexpected consequences if you switch prop types or grid materials and don’t know if they work good together or not.
-These differences will be very noticeable, and will heavily affect how the thruster works, if it works with the material you selected at all.
-it is built and mounted like a triangle thruster, except you need to stack its parts and use special edge mounts to support everything, to prevent them from getting too big.
-Dunno how ima work this in so attached image is one I found on google for how IRL ones work.
Solar arrays (big, folding ones, bigger than your ship) would both look good and be a practical power source.
TLDR; It is, in essence, a variation of the plasma thruster but intended for much longer journeys where power and time are plentiful. It is a complex mid-late game engine with lots of variables that affect its performance.
