zrisher
commented
8 years ago I love all those ideas. We need to distill them into exactly what thruster blocks we should offer, which is a subset of all the available realistic ones that is required for nice and balanced gameplay.
So here I'm summarizing your comments and my understanding to come up with a simple list of suggestions, let me know your thoughts:
- Existing thrusters remain Ion Thrusters, which have their max thrust significantly reduced, along with their power consumption (slightly). These will mostly be used for maneuvering and position, not for primary thrust except on very small ships.
- We introduce a new block that generates hydrogen by consuming ice.
- We introduce a new block that stores hydrogen - Hydrogen Tank. It is large and explosive.
- We allow hydrogen to move through conveyor networks.
- We introduce nuclear thermal thrusters. These are significantly more powerful than ion thrusters with pretty much zero power consumption, but they consume hydrogen. These are probably the best general-purpose thruster available.
- We introduce Magnetoplasmadynamic Thrusters which consume a little bit of power and significantly less hydrogen. These are more efficient than nuclear thermal thrusters but with less total thrust. Better suited to heavy ships.
- We introduce liquid fuel rocket engines, which are used when you need a ton of thrust. They aren't as efficient as the other alternatives in hydrogen consumption.
- We introduce solid fuel rocket engines, which are mostly used as boosters in on-off situations when you need a ton of thrust fast and reliably, i.e. taking off from a planet or escaping from danger. They are one-time-use. What materials should these require to build?
drNovikov
The admin asked me to share my ideas on fuel mechanics on GitHub, so here I am.
I always admired Kerbal's fuel. I feel somewhat uncomfortable with Space Engineer's thrusters that consume just electricity from uranium or solar panels. They just don't seem right.
There are things like NASA's NERVA or Soviet RD-0410. They use nuclear fission to heat liquid hydrogen which then gets expelled from a nozzle and provides impulse. Electricity from nuclear of solar source could be used to electrolyze water. Oxygen goes for breathing, and hydrogen -- for propulsion.
Bimodal nuclear thermal propulsion could act as a source of heat for propulsion, and as a source of electricity at the same time, which leads to the following idea: for the sake of simplicity let's assume all the existing reactors capable of acting bimodally, and all the existing thrusters being parts of such bimodal propulsion systems. So, we need to add hydrogen tanks (explosive when they get hit maybe).
Another plausible propulsion system that uses electricity and hydrogen (or other stuff, xenon, etc) is MPDT (magnetoplasmadynamic thruster). The newest experimental MPDTs are pretty poweful, although, nowhere nearly as powerful as the old good chemical rocket engines. The principle remains the same: we use water to get hydrogen, and electricity to produce plasma and expel it.
Yet another source of propulsion is chemistry. Hydrogen or methane burning in a regular jet engine. Solid fuel burning in boosters. Peroxyde-based fuels used in RCS propulsion.
We could use hydrogen/oxygen thrusters for maximum thrust at the cost of precious storage space and high fuel consumption (but almost no electricity required), and MPD/NERVA thrusters for lower consumption of hydrogen.
Speaking of boosters, I'd like to suggest a subsystem (there is already 1 booster mod on the workshop): craftable boosters that come in different lengths and shapes, and consume all the solid fuel built in them. They cannot be turned off when ignited, and they should require rebuilding. Would be very useful for taking off planets, boosting away from danger, or chasing an enemy. Or for player-made torpedoes. They should provide high impulse without loading the reactor or taking space like chemical jets and fuel storages.