Warp Drives

Joined
Aug 12, 2019
Messages
10
#1
I already know that, last time i heard at least, the devs plan on making warp gates for ships to go through at some point. However, what if we were allowed to mount a warp drive onto a ship of our choosing and to either use it traverse around the system, or enter/escape combat.

Disclaimer: a majority of this is just me spit balling and thinking out loud, just hoping for a dev or some people to expand on it if they feel like they have something that will improve this suggestion.

How i believe that it should work is that:
1. the warp drive should use up any and all power in your ship, so for a certain amount of time (up to the devs on times btw, but i will give examples) lets say maybe 15 seconds, your ship will reroute all power into the warp drive, thus making you a sitting duck.
2. you should be able to choose how far you can jump, and example will be with SE and how it's Jump Drive is able to either pick a GPS target, or do a blind jump at a chosen distance. But, in SB, depending on how far you jump, that determines how much power you use to warp, and your power supply will also determine how FAR you will be able to jump. So large ships will be able to go medium distances at a decent rate due to their high power output, but small ships would have to do short bursts due to their low power output.
3. If you use too much power, I.E you use the last drop of power in your ship, the ship should stall depending on how much power you used up, as well as how fast your power generation is. So for large ships with huge energy storage, they will be able to warp large distances, but they can easily become sitting ducks if they use up all of their power and require time to restart (maybe like, 45 seconds in best case, 3 mins worst case). However, smaller ships like interceptors will go short distances, but will be able to recover sooner due to the small need for power, only really needing power for weapons and flight systems (best case 15 seconds, worst case 1 min recovery time)
Now of course warp gates are said to be something to be looked at by the devs, however i feel that having the Warp Gates as a safe alternative that wont practically fry your ship would be good. i see the mountable warp drives as a risk and reward kind of block. The risk is that you could be subjected to suppresive fire due to your systems needing a reboot. But, the reward is to get into combat or escape combat at a quick pace.
Looks wise, i would really like it if there was some sort of "rip" around the location where the warp drive is arriving to, sorta like what Elite Dangerous has for Capital Ships
Throw away note: its not need but, sounds included for full dramatic effect for larger scale ships if possible.

TL : DR Have a warp drive that has a decent amount of down sides, but be somewhat useful for entry or retreat from battles, the former of which giving you a dramatic entrance
 

Talla

Learned-to-sprint endo
Joined
Aug 11, 2019
Messages
21
#3
Uploading consciousness between conveniently placed bodies is one of the core mechanics of the game.
Pretty sure space travel is intended to be long and laborious.

The need for labor fosters economic exchanges.

EDIT: On the other side, travel being too time-consuming won't be appropriate for those who can't play for extended periods of time.
I get the feeling Starbase is going to a very time-consuming game, where players with time on their hands will rule the galaxy.
Like any MMO really.

Speaking on the immersion/aesthetic side of things, warping would be very nice.
 
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Joined
Aug 12, 2019
Messages
10
#4
Uploading consciousness between conveniently placed bodies is one of the core mechanics of the game.
Pretty sure space travel is intended to be long and laborious.
while that is a viable way to move around, it isn't good when it comes to combat or transporting cargo. Uploading your consciousness just means that you would be loosing your inventory, and/or possibly loose the ship that you spent hours or days on, but you could have made it out alive with your inventory and ship if you used the Warp drive to escape.

Side Note: i would like to add that the Warp Drive, although it takes you to places quickly, it would not be equal or more efficient that just moving around with normal transportation with thrusters. it will just make it so that you get to a place sooner, but in tern possibly using up all of your energy. Think of it as just a quick "overdrive" or "burst" of speed that could be used in an emergency/need to get somewhere sooner.

Pretty sure space travel is intended to be long and laborious.

The need for labor fosters economic exchanges.

EDIT: On the other side, travel being too time-consuming won't be appropriate for those who can't play for extended periods of time.
I get the feeling Starbase is going to a very time-consuming game, where players with time on their hands will rule the galaxy.
Like any MMO really.
Well yeah, but one thing i just realized i should have mentioned was that the Warp Drive would not be something you can create within a day. it would require a lot of time and resources to build, even to go as far as to need multiple people to build within a timely manner. So only player/players who have already spent time designing a ship to handle the basic reinforcements of normal space travel, and then the added energy requirements, only to then spend more time on crafting and gathering the resources needed. I feel that it would be more of a reward for people who put in the many hours to build a ship to reliably use the Warp Drive.
 

Captain-General Kitten

Learned-to-sprint endo
Joined
Sep 20, 2019
Messages
24
#5
Uploading consciousness between conveniently placed bodies is one of the core mechanics of the game.
Pretty sure space travel is intended to be long and laborious.

It might be handy for when you could transfer to bodies inside your ship to man multiple functions at once. and easy defense but otherwise it is kinda a waste
 
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