Continuing the discussion from Balancing flight mechanics:
[quote=“Lomsor, post:54, topic:513”]
Well how about the 2010 “lithring up cooking pads” … that’s what I had in mind.[/quote]
They’re still rocket engines, specifically humongous ion engines. Here’s a picture of the NASA Evolutionary Xenon Thruster (NEXT) firing.
The movie 2010 used that look because it is what ion engines look like when firing.
I’ve rationalized the warp drive such that it is a field effect that permeates the ship. So there aren’t any localized thrusters and such to be damaged or destroyed. I’d probably favor something like glow strips that run across the hull in some nice aesthetic way, and glow more intensely at higher power levels. The sort of thing used in the Tron movies.
I only reference that for the glowy strips, not the aerodynamic shape. As far as I’m concerned, spaceships should be spheres.
Atmospheric ships are a different animal. They should be near-conventional aircraft. They should be aerodynamic, have engines that are tailored for the environment they’re flying in, have orbital capability, etc. It’s the ship that everyone wants to play with.
Imagine needing to fight in the atmosphere of a planet with a hazy, methane-rich atmosphere. You’d configure your fighters with liquid oxygen and methane-burning engines. The engines would magically be efficient jet engines at lower speeds, but capable of getting the ships to orbital velocities so they could get back to their carriers or some other retrieval boat. The amount of oxygen you can pack into your fighters determines the flight time. For game purposes, that could be either practically unlimited (a couple hours) or severely limited (ten minutes). In any case, you’d get rocket trails, smoke and flame, all that good stuff. The engine effects would be specific to the type of engine and the fuels that it burns.
The flight time might also be determined by the atmosphere in which you’re flying. Depending on what can be found in the atmosphere (or even the seas), flight time could be longer or shorter. In an atmosphere with neither fuel nor oxidizer, you’d have to carry both, restricting flight times.
Bodies without atmospheres would allow warp ships to fly right down to the surface.