Propulsion problems: help???

[kaekaze]

I am using a form of propulsion where every 100kt in ship size requires another engine per move. My ship sizes range from 10kt to 16mt. The problem is a 10kt ship needs 1kt engines where as a 16mt ship needs 10-100kt engines. Otherwise the large ships would require hundreds of the smaller engines.

Is there any work around for this?

[Atrocities]

Yes, you could use a mount based system.

You might try looking at what Captain Kwok has done with Space Food Empires.

Or possibly consider the STM - Mount based propulsion system. (by CK) There are others but I am not sure which mods though.

[Captain Kwok]

With such a wide range in ship sizes you'd be best to consider a mounted engine system - such as the one used in the Star Trek Mod. Decide on how many engines you want on the biggest ship and make engine components based on that decision, then use scale mounts to size down as necessary for the smaller ships.

A propulsion system like that used in my Space Food Empires mod would not be appropriate.

[NullAshton]

You could have 5kt engines that provide 1 movement point for a ship like an escort. That would fit on the tiny ships. However, it'll have a high speed.

[Suicide Junkie]

Perhaps you just need to Sanity check your ship sizes.

10kt vs 16000kt?
You're going to have a LOT of sizes that nobody will ever use, cluttering up your ship list.

The real question in my mind is why anybody would use a ship between 10 and 100 kt, when the mod includes unfathomably large ships.
Those sizes are usually reserved for fighters in the stock game, and you've scaled things up 10 times more than that.

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How to stretch the QNP scheme:
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The standard and mount QNP systems only work within a range of 10x to 100x size difference between the largest and smallest hulls just due to the rounding of integers.

You could extend the range a bit more with a hybrid QNP system.
Have the smallest 10x range (10kt to 100kt) use 1% size engine mounts with engines-per-move between 1 and 10. Then have the next 10x range (100kt to 1000kt) use 10% mounts with EPM between 1 and 10 again.
The top level of ship (1000kt-10Mt and up) would use 100% engine mounts with EMP again from 1 to 10, and possibly more if your ships are slow moving.
That would give you 1000x to 4000x difference between biggest and smallest depending on how far you push the EMP on the largest one.

[kaekaze]

Thanks guys. I never thought about using the mounts to DECREASE the size of a component. There are 16 main hull sizes(aside from colony ships etc.). Their hull sizes progress by the fibonachi sequence(10, 20, 30, 50, 80, etc.). As for how those ship sizes are used, leave tht to me.

[NullAshton]

Going for a natural mod? Why did you use the fibbonachi sequence?

[kaekaze]

Well originally it was just because I like the sequence, don't know why. But if you want a rationalization, how about this: technology builds on previous accomplishments, so does the fibbonachi sequence? Anyway, It always disturbed me that the smallest ship size availible to an empire wheighed 150000 tons. Now the smallest one avaiible is 10000 tons. Is this better? I'll find out soon I guess.

[Suicide Junkie]

Don't even bother to try and map SE units to real life units.

Everything is measured in Kt, just because http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

[Zereth]

Not to mention that it seems to be a measure of volume, not weight. (which raises the question of how a 20kt cargo bay module can hold 150kt of stuff...)

[Fyron]

It is nothing. It is just an arbitrary scale. kT does not mean volume, mass, weight, etc.

[kaekaze]

yeah yeah, but its always there you know? "kT" Just something that bugs me. I'm gonna see about that little cargo issue too. Thats one reason for enormous hull sizes.