Reduce fuel consumption rate

[Aeneas137]

repost from the old repo:

Fix the fuel consumption problem--way too fast. Also, in the original game the ship ONLY uses fuel in hyperspace so let's make sure fuel isn't used in-system (or not as much). The player shouldn't be so easily frustrated by running out of fuel.

Also, should we just remove fuel usage when landing on planets? It sort of discourages the player from exploring if fuel cost is too high. Or just reduce it quite a bit?

[Aeneas137]

If we want to be technical/scientific about it, Endurium (fuel) is probably only used by the reactor. What kind of reactor is in the ship? We can guess: nuclear fusion / mass conversion is most likely. the hyperspace engine and "impulse" (relativity) engine are separate. what is the diff between a laser--class 1 vs class 5? it's not the beam power but the capacitor density. capacitors have to recharge, pulling energy from the reactor. that is what slows down lasers. missiles are about reloading time and warhead. all of these systems including the relativity engine draw power. so the ship really should also have a REACTOR, class 1-5. So, if player buys a level 5 laser but has a level 1 reactor, it will only get off 1 shot about every 30 seconds. just food for thought. so much in sci-fi misunderstands the engineering.

[Aeneas137]

At any rate, fuel use should be much reduced. original design idea was to make a class 1 engine painfully slow and inefficient. that's good in theory but bad for gameplay. a level 1 engine should let the player compete with level 1 pirate and alien ships on acceleration and maneuvering. I sped them up in the engine specs so the ship isn't so painfully slow. it was so bad that I didn't even want to play after a few minutes. no, the higher class engines shouldn't just go faster, they should use LESS ENERGY. (and if we don't add the reactor to the game, we can simulate it by adjusting the other ship systems).