Maybe require one or many intact loops, but each after the first adds 5% power drain). You can build redundant (2 nacelles) and pay more or build cheap and suffer critical hits.
Damaged loops don't contribute to charge capacity and when a loop breaks, you suffer charge = charge * newCap / oldCap.
If your chargeCap drops below what your ship requires, you can't jump.
But the boundary boxes might add more issues. Alignment for example.
do not enforce something on peoples which try to re-play a movie with different warp mechanics.
I like the loops. I admit freely that I'm a shameless trek geek, and the fictional physics from that universe makes the most sense to me... But what I'd like to see in Star-made is generic versatile and customizable so that people can create whatever effect makes sense to them.
Ok, this just seems obnoxious to ask, seeing as they've just handed us the biggest gift in the game development cycle so far... Well what the hell..
Hey
@Calbiri (addressing you as a face of the dev team).
I wonder if we couldn't (in the long run) have a FTL system that is structured like our weapons system where we can combine subsystems to create all sorts of special effects and modified functions.
Jump + Damage pulse + Power Drain + blue : Activates A blue EMP pulse as you jump, to disable pursuers.
Jump + Damage beam + red : Projects a Babylon-5-esque Jump-window ahead of the ship before it jumps.
Jump + AMC: Reduces your power requirements, but also reduces your maximum jump distance.
Jump + Push pulse: Preceeds your arrival with a powerful push pulse to clear away asteroids. Costs more energy. Good for survey craft.
Gate + Damage beam: projects Projects a Babylon-5-esque Jump-window within the gate.
Either mechanism + repair beam: provides a few seconds invulnerability and intangibility on exit... in case you warp into something.
Either mechanism + BobbyAI: provides intelligent collision-free re-entry, and prevents jumps into stars and planets.
Hyperspace drive? Maybe something to determine whether you are moving the entity, or the whole sector.