Epstein Drives (Fusion Thrust) [TEST WIP]

Work in progress early draft of my Epstein Drives mod.

Values and functionality all subject to change.

Fully compatible with any vanilla build and any other mod.

Recommended to be used with a max speed mod. ----

Straight from Solomon Epstein himself, Epstein Labs is now proud to offer our new Epstein Drive fusion thruster.

The Epstein Drive will enable you to travel throughout your entire local solar system much more conveniently than with normal hydrogen thrust. Typically, hydrogen thrusters consume propellant at an enourmous rate, and you are extremely limited in your travel range by how much propellant you can carry.

Solomon Epstein was able to solve this dilemma by engineering a fusion thruster design that magnetically superaccelerates the exhaust plume of the fusion plasma it uses as propellant to a measurable fraction of the speed of light, creating an enourmous amount of thrust from a much smaller quantity of propellant than a typical hydrogen thruster. This allows for continuous acceleration from your starting point to your destination, rather than only burning at the start and finish of your voyage, resulting in weeks or months of travel time rather than years or decades.

Read the original story of its development here: http://www.syfy.com/theexpanse/drive/

---- The Epstein Drive is a hyper-efficient hydrogen thruster which consumes a large amount of electricity. Each thruster cone requires its own fusion plasma acceleration core block to function, which must be attached properly with conveyed hydrogen available, as well as an abundant power source.

I am currently working on integrating Cheetah's VASIMR scripts into the design, which will offer the thruster the ability to change its ISP mode. Ex: A higher-ISP mode will have lower total thrust output, whereas a higher-thrust mode will enable faster acceleration at the cost of a lower ISP (efficiency).

We are still tweaking and improving the current model, but have more sizes and types being designed in the lab. ----

::TO-DO::

-Smaller 5x5x5 cone for same 5x5x5 core -Smaller 3x3x3 core with its own cone sizes, which will also be available on small grids -Larger Donnager-class set for your biggest battlecruisers

-More tweaking to the thruster exhaust effect

-Heat build-up & damage mechanics for over-burning in max thrust modes -- overworked thrusters will become damaged -Core volatility based on damage -- core containment failure from block damage will cause damaged drives to explode

*What this means:* Once integrated, this will make the core functionally explosive when turned on and misused. It will be volatile and prone to exploding when taking damage or when run for too long at max burn.

Disclaimer: We do NOT recommend leaving your cores unarmored. We are not responsible for leaking, uncontained plasma destroying the rear half of your ship.

----

::Stats::

Peak Thruster Force: 250,000 KN Thruster type: Hydrogen Efficiency: [100] Min/Max Power Consumption: [10] / [1500] MW Flame Visibility Distance: 5000m

::Block Dimensions:: Thruster Core: 5x5x5 Thruster Large Cone: 7x7x6

Please feel free to provide feedback, especially that which is balance-related. Tell me what you think of the thrust output, block recipes, custom component recipes, and block masses.

**NOTE** As I am still working on the implementation of block requirements and custom scripting, please make sure you are still mating up the thruster core properly with the cone, even if right now the core is just a fancy, expensive, and heavy conveyor. It will be required to function properly later. The thruster core must be placed directly behind the cone so that the four power couplings mate up with each other.

---- All modeling and texturing credit goes to Vlack for his awesome design work on the Epstein models.

Credit to Cheetah for his VASIMR scripts which we are currently working on integrating with this mod.

Credit to Nukeguard for the custom thruster flame effect texture.

Credit to Darth Biomech for custom audio resources.

Credit to Ryan Dening and all the design staff at SyFy for bringing my favorite sci-fi series to life in such great, tasteful form, and for all the concept art available on the internet for inspiration.