Proposed Project For the Creation of a Warp Drive

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Darth Saber
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The initial idea for the warp drive is this:
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1.) Install the Drive.
2.) The drive is selectable by warp number (i.e - Warp Factor 1 = 100 ticks; Warp Factor 9 = 900 ticks)
3.) Press the invoke key "W."
4.) A beam fires in front of the ship, and a "&efStargateIn;" effect is created.
5.) The ship is drawn into the effect, and then jumps (warps) the selected number of clicks.
6.) The "&efStargateOut;" effect appears and the ship reappears after how ever many clicks was selected.

This is the idea of the warp drive; now to accomplish this, I think that this might be possible:

1.) Have a menu / dockscreen depicting the following:
"Ensign, lay in a course at: "
Warp Factor 1 = 100 ticks
Warp Factor 2 = 200 ticks
Warp Factor 3 = 300 ticks
Warp Factor 4 = 400 ticks
Warp Factor 5 = 500 ticks
Warp Factor 6 = 600 ticks
Warp Factor 7 = 700 ticks
Warp Factor 8 = 800 ticks
Warp Factor 9 = 900 ticks

Once a warp factor is chosen, the following message would appear:
"Aye aye captain; course laid in at warp factor (x)"

2.) The warp drive could be installed as a graviton weapon. A beam would fire from the front of the ship; after so many clicks the "&efStargateIn;" effect would appear. Simultaneously, using the configuration tolerance of NW Armories "Trebuchet" cannon, a very thin, almost indetectable bolt would fire, with a width of "0" or "1," and a growth / lifetime of "0" or "1." Were the recoil to be set at say, "200" or more, the ship would be appear to be drawn to the "gate," when in realtity it would be pushed there by the recoil.

3.) Then there would need to be a code created that would automatically jump the ship the previously selected number of clicks.

4.) Finally, the "&efStargateOut;" effect would be invoked, and the ship appears.

5. So the completed voyage would look something like this:

"You press the "W" key, and see a menu, and select your warp factor. "Aye aye captain; course laid in at warp factor (x)" is the reply as a beam of light shoots from the ship and a wormhole opens. The ship is drawn through the wormhole at an astonishing speed, disappearing, then reappering (x) ticks away. "Captain, we have arrived, sir." comes the message, and indeed you have.

I do not know how one could incorporate both weapons code and block code into one xml, but until it can be proven impossible there is hope. Anyhow, this is my idea of how to create a warp drive. I suppose that one could soup up an inertialess drive to unheard of proportions, but it would not have the same effect as the one which I describe above. I wanted to go for a look as true to the Star Trek movies' effects as possible.

Now I present it to you as a potential group project to which I invite all Transcendence modders to join in, if they will. It will be both frustrating and fun, with a vast sense of accomplishment if we can pull this off.
- Darth Saber :twisted:
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So... a selectable Transpace Jumpdrive? I can do that in about ten minutes with some dockscreen code.
[schilcote] It doesn't have to be good, it just has to not be "wow is that the only thing you could think of" bad
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Darth Saber
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With the graphics effects that I described above?
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Aury
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FYI, "gate in" and "gate out" use the exact same effect.
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WCSII
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As they said, it's already been done, but technically it isn't a "warp" drive, but an FTL Jumpdrive. Sometimes referred to as a Zero Point Jump drive. Missleadingly so, but nontheless.

No, a warp drive would be something such that it can equivalently "jump" to its desired speed, above .99c, then upon disengaging "drop" from its relativistic speeds to essentially neutral gear. Might need some "reverse thrusters" to slow down. Much like the braking system that was created and implemented.

The real trick in the game, to make a visual warp drive is how to display the ship and passing speeds of the surrounding environments. Otherwise, it'd probably use similar code to the "jumpdrive" engine to count distance and disengage after a certain period.
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Darth Saber
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WSCII: Perhaps there could be a way to make the playerships transparent during the trip through hyperspace, without the individual modders having to color their ships / masks to the "Alpha Channel."
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Transparent, or not, if there is still background, and objects within visual range, they would still need to be displayed as passing by rather quickly. While, I believe that up to a certain point, the game can follow, or track rather, I think once it hits some particular "speed" it just doesn't have the reference necessary to render objects as streaks rather than solid state matter.


With mod ships, yes you can alter the max speed value, even put it above .99c. You can hoist the thrust power such that you essentially have a couple of warp nacelles strapped to your craft. (the brakes do diddly above a certain max speed) But the thrust would have to be astronomically (game wise) high to get "instant warp speed" or greater, to test max FTL speeds and game rendering/tracking capacity. Not to mention that someone will have to remod the brakes mod to be able to reasonably stop the craft once it reaches top speeds.

It isn't a question of if the ship is "there" but rather or not the game can handle the visuals. Since technically, your ship doesn't leave the center of the screen, and the game tracks the environment movement around the player object.
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