Ship Upkeep/Fuel System

[Seraphis]

I've seen a lot of posts referring to larger ships being way too powerful, and was thinking of ways to combat this....

How about having a fuel system for ships above a certain mass? They would have to consume a certain element in order to remain fully functional.

The element would probably have to be constantly spawning in random places, and could be mined - or there could be continuous 'reserves' that could be tapped into via a special block under a factions control. Of course this would change the game massively as factions would seek to claim control of the reserves for their own factions use - could start wars between factions if they were greedy.

Of course this could change the game economy also, as the fuel could be bought and sold and it would encourage trade.

Or another possible nerf could be the use of coolant/oxygen/particular elements to maintain shields/etc.

I realise this could be a massive game changer - just putting it out there!

OORRRR this could be a different game mode, as I can understand having to constantly get fuel could be a chore to some people....so maybe like a hardcore mode? :P

 

[therimmer96]

 

[Sunkin351]

If you dont mind, I would like to expand on your idea... Matter Anti-Matter fuel system... as matter is anything really, you could mine any asteroid/planet as a fuel source... As how to get the anti-matter, I will leave that up for debate.

 

[Valiant70]

I've thought out fuel and its effects on the game rather thoroughly. You may be interested in this (also linked in my new signature): http://starmadedock.net/threads/a-m...nd-various-play-styles.5130/page-3#post-90619

My position on the matter is, any fuel mechanic must be configurable into many different possibilities to facilitate different play styles.

I like that you mentioned coolant, as that gave me an idea for another suggestion.

 

[Seraphis]

Sunkin I like that idea! Maybe even the rarity of the 'matter' will determine it's properties like how explosive it is (how fast it can make a vessel) or how it burns (longevity) or maybe even perks like boosts to power or shields or something...

Valiant I couldn't agree more with what you've said! I think a fuel system like you've described would be perfect, and it should be an option server side whether it is on/off/restricted. I don't think the fuel should be a finite resource though, but just enough to keep things moving and to potentially start some tasty battles

 

[jorgekorke]

Not that popular, hehehe. I'd made a image with " Mixed Suggestion - You aren't the first to suggest this idea nor will you be the last, however this has already created a lot of flaming and rage "

 

[Sunkin351]

Sunkin I like that idea! Maybe even the rarity of the 'matter' will determine it's properties like how explosive it is (how fast it can make a vessel) or how it burns (longevity) or maybe even perks like boosts to power or shields or something...

Valiant I couldn't agree more with what you've said! I think a fuel system like you've described would be perfect, and it should be an option server side whether it is on/off/restricted. I don't think the fuel should be a finite resource though, but just enough to keep things moving and to potentially start some tasty battles

Good thinking! Perhaps it can depend on what the matter is, (crystal, ore, or mineral) That can define its basic qualities... and then what kind of crystal, ore of mineral to determine exact characteristics they would have in the matter Anti-matter reaction. I want to give "Rock" some use though... you know the useless rock you get from planets? Maybe it should be the basic fuel type.... no extraordinary properties. Also, if the fuel is in capsule form, it would enhance its properties, due to it being refined.

 

[Auriga_Nexus]

I like the idea of tying fuel into the ship/station's power generation system. I.E. instead of having the one kind of power generator system, we have three.

The current reactors we have we could change to "mini-reactors" for use with smaller ships - they would provide a flat rate of power with no adjacency bonus, and the amount of power each block provides would decrease relative to ship mass on a logarithmic scale, meaning that past a certain ship size mini-reactors are effectively useless. This is so players first starting out don't have to worry about finding fuel if they are just making a small pod-like ship to get around.

The second kind would be a fueled reactor - it would consume fuel which would be a craftable meta-item, it would have its own storage space or else be linked to a storage block. It would generate a large amount of power but only if it has fuel available. Furthermore it could be shut off via logic or ship settings, so as to conserve fuel in situations when the ship isn't using that much power, or automatically stop burning fuel when the ship's power caps are full.

The third kind would be a solar reactor - it would have to be mounted on the exterior of a ship or station and would only function in systems with a star. The power it generates would vary depending on the size of the array in two dimensions, as well as its distance and orientation relative to the system's star. This could be used to build stations that won't need fuel.

In addition we could also make a second kind of thruster - it would provide much more thrust than a normal thruster but would use fuel instead of power. It can also be turned on and off same as fueled reactors - the idea would be to have normal thrusters that use power but no fuel, have them available as cruise engines, then the fueled thrusters can be turned on and provide a much greater thrust and agility at the cost of fuel usage, useful for combat scenarios where you want the ship to move quickly.

Finally, we could have two kinds of ways to make fuel - the first would be via normal factories using capsule materials, the second would be a "material synthesizer" that makes fuel from nothing but requires massive amounts of power to do so (i.e requires more power than it can provide via a fueled reactor so as to prevent players from gaming the system by using a fuel synth on their ship. We could also limit fuel synth blocks to be station-only to encourage the construction of fuel stations)

 

[NeonSturm]

instead of having the one kind of power generator system, we have three.
The current reactors we have we could change to "mini-reactors" for use with smaller ships - they would provide a flat rate of power
The second kind would be a fueled reactor
The third kind would be a solar reactor
In addition we could also make a second kind of thruster - it would provide much more thrust but would use fuel.
Finally, we could have two kinds of ways to make fuel - factories using capsules, "material synthesizer" fuel from nothing but requires massive amounts of power

That would be 4 new blocks and 1 item. (fuel reactor+thruster, solar panel and fuel synthie).

I have a better idea:

1. Solar power = Grow genetically mutated plants (= usage for plants).
2. Fuel = Grow other genetically mutated plants.
3. Fuel-driven thruster = All thrusters in the same 3x3x3 space as a Fuel plant, except you want different materials.
4. Fuel-driven reactors = All reactors in the same 3x3x3 space as a Solar plant.
   • Static : Plants will produce fuel and energy dependent of the light level on all 4 adjacent blocks if these get loaded.
   • Solar : Plant-Production rate is limited to mass^(2/3) = mass^(surface/mass)
   • Code : Plant-Production rate adds to the ships abilities to produce goods. The ship distributes these to storages which are connected to any plant (every [num connections]ticks).
5. Use overbalanced wheels to gain power on planets Build-an-overbalanced-wheel.7111 with the new rail rotation blocks.

5 new functions with 0 new blocks.


Also I think especially small ships should be encouraged to use fuel.

• They have a low volume compared to their surface (encourages usage in a sol-system.
• They can easily be supported by the fuel-regeneration of a bigger ship.
• They are expendables. Permanent supply with thrust or power should be more expensive.