Ship Engines and Containers - Customized

[Hirnsausen]

Hi, inspired by another interested thread I just read, I felt reminded for some good ideas that exist since some months, and add here my own suggestion.
Please add a LIKE or answer posting, to support these suggestions.

SHIP ENGINES

Shape
With regular honeycombs, a player can create a shape of his/her own liking, and then define it as "engine".  Once defined as "Engine", it becomes available as "Element to just that particular player (and to no one else directly).

Exhaust
There would be a new honeycomb type, the "Exhaust". Like other honeycombs, it can be shaped just the way the player likes. The player does not need to use Exhaust honeycombs, in this case it becomes an engine that uses other means than just burning some sort of fuel. However, if Exhaust honeycombs are added, they will produce a beam and glow during operation. The player can actually set a color, and glow and beam will then have that color. The player can set intensity and length of the exhaust beam, but there will be a maximum (s)he cannot pass. The glow is bright in the center and less bright but more colored towards the edges, whatever shape the exhaust area may have.

Engine Attributes
The over-all volume of the defined engine decides about its performance. If the volume is that of a Basic Space Engine S, its Newton value, fuel consumption, and hit points and mass (etc.) become the same. If the volume is that of a Basic Space Engine L, consequently those attributes equal to that regular engine. If the volume is somewhere in between, so are the values. If a custom engine surpasses any existing engine size, so do its values. However, from that moment on such an outsizing engine becomes easier to suffer damage from crash landings, collisions, or attacks. At one point, at extreme sizes, even turning around a ship too fast can temporarily cause disturbances inside the super-sized engine an block the operation for some minutes. The mass also reaches extremes and rather limits the use of such a ship. That would be the downside of creating outsizing engines - one would have to be extremely careful when landing and avoid battles.

Sub Types and Tech Package
Advanced, rare, basic, uncommon, military, navigation, etc. - those are sub types. And they could be applied to player-made custom engines, too. At the markets, players can purchase a "Tech Package" element of one of those types, and add it to the inside or outside of their custom engine during design or afterwards. This "Tech Package" then adds the additional performance attributes and production requirements to that otherwise basic custom engine, that equal them to the regular engine of that sub type. Plus the honeycombs needed. This way, custom engines are the same easy or expensive to be produced, to nil any advantage other than having a custom design.

Production
After having declared the final design as "Engine", that design becomes available as element schematic to that player. Only this particular player can manufacture that custom engine, as the schematic is connected to his avatar and cannot be sold or even given to any other player. The same types of parts and industry machines are needed as for the regular counterpart of that engine, the amount of parts however depending on the volume of the custom engine.

Ship Blueprints
Yes, the player can create a blueprint of a ship that uses his/her custom engines. Even better, the player can give or sell such BPs and the engines will work on such a ship that now another player owns. But they will cease to function if the owner of a copied ship tries to take out that custom element engine and places it in another ship. In the moment the engine is taken out, its functionality is destroyed. If the owner of the copied ship makes changes to that ship, I think the engine can continue to function as long as the mass of the ship don't differ by more than 5% from the mass of the original BP ship.

I hope I have covered here everything. If I forgot something or another forum user brings up something, I might add it here below THIS text.
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CONTAINERS

Using the same principles as for custom engines, I suggest the introduction of custom containers. This suggestion was posted originally by other forum members, I just wish to remind for this suggestion and propose using the same or similar mechanics as described above.

I hope I have covered here everything. If I forgot something or another forum user brings up something, I might add it here below THIS text.
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Edited March 23, 2022 by Hirnsausen