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This is part of an old idea I had for stealth, modified to fit the new power system.
Remove stabilizers from the current ship building process. This suggestion can do the same thing, as far as limiting the size of systems and promoting interiors, without benefiting any particular shape.
Take the block count of a ship and determine the surface area to volume ratio of a cube equal in block count. The sa:v will then determine the max reactor output a ship can handle efficiently (call it a heat mechanic if you like.) Once this "softcap" is reached, additional reactor blocks reduce the efficiency of the reactor. A player could squeeze more power out of their ship, up to a "hardcap" which would be the point where placing any more blocks would reduce efficiency enough so that the total output would be reduced.
If a player goes too far above the hardcap, the reactor will begin taking damage. This will effectively cap reactor size and energy output based on the "size" of the ship. This could be used by schine to essentially limit systems to around a certain percentage of a ship's total block count through the energy draw of ship systems, like they are trying to do now with the new power system.
This ratio could then be utilized to either increase or decrease the output per reactor block relative to ship size. Smaller ships have more surface area to volume than larger ships and one could say; excess heat is more easily dissipated through the ship with the higher surface area, thus allowing more efficient operation of the reactor and in turn requiring relatively fewer blocks to reach max output. Shine could also flip that around and make volume the determining factor if they like, giving the edge to larger ships instead.
This however wont arbitrarily force interiors on anyone. Players can build a ship with an interior or a more compact ship with no interior, just as they can now with power 2.0. As long as two ships have the same block count, even though their dimensions could be drastically different, they should be as closely matched as possible, interior or no. Which, I believe, was one of the reasons behind the power overhaul (could be wrong.) It really is too early to worry about interiors though imo but this suggestion could potentially help during transition when they do have a reason for existing.
Remove stabilizers from the current ship building process. This suggestion can do the same thing, as far as limiting the size of systems and promoting interiors, without benefiting any particular shape.
Take the block count of a ship and determine the surface area to volume ratio of a cube equal in block count. The sa:v will then determine the max reactor output a ship can handle efficiently (call it a heat mechanic if you like.) Once this "softcap" is reached, additional reactor blocks reduce the efficiency of the reactor. A player could squeeze more power out of their ship, up to a "hardcap" which would be the point where placing any more blocks would reduce efficiency enough so that the total output would be reduced.
If a player goes too far above the hardcap, the reactor will begin taking damage. This will effectively cap reactor size and energy output based on the "size" of the ship. This could be used by schine to essentially limit systems to around a certain percentage of a ship's total block count through the energy draw of ship systems, like they are trying to do now with the new power system.
You could use block count and algorithms to achieve essentially the same effect. I went with the sa:v ratio because it's relatable and gives a nice curve as block count increases. It's fairly easy to understand and could be used as a meta thing (reactor heat radiating through the hull and whatnot.
It could be some other geometric shape but we deal with cubes every day and using the sa:v of the ship itself would be a mistake. Depending on how it affects power generation, players would attempt to minimize their ship's suface area and maximize it's volume, or vice versa, which would end with spherical/cube or 2D/plate ships being most effective respectively. If a cube's sa:v is substituted for the actual sa:v of a ship, all ship shapes would then be equal.
It could be some other geometric shape but we deal with cubes every day and using the sa:v of the ship itself would be a mistake. Depending on how it affects power generation, players would attempt to minimize their ship's suface area and maximize it's volume, or vice versa, which would end with spherical/cube or 2D/plate ships being most effective respectively. If a cube's sa:v is substituted for the actual sa:v of a ship, all ship shapes would then be equal.
This ratio could then be utilized to either increase or decrease the output per reactor block relative to ship size. Smaller ships have more surface area to volume than larger ships and one could say; excess heat is more easily dissipated through the ship with the higher surface area, thus allowing more efficient operation of the reactor and in turn requiring relatively fewer blocks to reach max output. Shine could also flip that around and make volume the determining factor if they like, giving the edge to larger ships instead.
This however wont arbitrarily force interiors on anyone. Players can build a ship with an interior or a more compact ship with no interior, just as they can now with power 2.0. As long as two ships have the same block count, even though their dimensions could be drastically different, they should be as closely matched as possible, interior or no. Which, I believe, was one of the reasons behind the power overhaul (could be wrong.) It really is too early to worry about interiors though imo but this suggestion could potentially help during transition when they do have a reason for existing.
Make them a capital ship/station only item and allow them to extend the efficiency range of the reactor. Basically permitting a player to build a larger than normal reactor without the efficiency fall off happening as soon. Cap ships and stations, imo, should be more dangerous block for block, this could aid in that. Unless of course they have a different energy system in mind for capitals, in that case ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
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