How in the world would an emdrive/quantum vacuum/voodoo magic thruster be balanced in KSP?

[jfull]

If the emdrive turns out to not be the result of a whole lot of experimental error, and it actually goes into real world use, would it ever be possible to add it to an official release of KSP without breaking the balance?

Granted, it wouldn't be too different from an ion engine aside from requiring no xenon, but still.

[CalculusWarrior]

Two things, power and verrrrrrrryyyyy low thrust. However, you can include a quantum vacuum thruster in your game right now, just download KSP Interstellar, it has the engines there.

[Dodgey]

Extremely low thrust and very high power requirements, aside from that real life isn't known for being balanced.

[problemecium]

What's been said: pitiful thrust like the real one has. Until on-rails propulsion becomes a thing, this will prevent anyone from bothering to use it out of sheer boredom.

[Temeter]

Extremely low thrust and very high power requirements, aside from that real life isn't known for being balanced.

Well, it kinda is: There is always a best thing for a very special purpose, and that purpose can be very specific. Which is similar to the decision making process what part to use in KSP.

[Scotius]

What? Small prototype at Eagleworks operates in Watts range, and produces thrust 20 times as powerful as top-shelf ion engines.

[Fel]

What? Small prototype at Eagleworks operates in Watts range, and produces thrust 20 times as powerful as top-shelf ion engines.

Theoretical power.

The issue of scale is a large one, if scaling up will increase thrust when you don't even know how it works is yet to be seen.

[Merinsan]

What's been said: pitiful thrust like the real one has. Until on-rails propulsion becomes a thing, this will prevent anyone from bothering to use it out of sheer boredom.

That was precisely the problem with Ion engines, until they got buffed.

I doubt squad would ever introduce these engines because of unlimited electricity you can have in KSP. In real life, there is no unlimited electricity - solar panels break down, RTGs have a limited fuel, etc. I can't see any way to balance these things without making them completely useless.

[Fel]

That was precisely the problem with Ion engines, until they got buffed.

I doubt squad would ever introduce these engines because of unlimited electricity you can have in KSP. In real life, there is no unlimited electricity - solar panels break down, RTGs have a limited fuel, etc. I can't see any way to balance these things without making them completely useless.

The problem is less about solar panels breaking and more about electric having no similarities to real physics. Such as the batteries, they're infinitely rechargeable, supply a constant voltage regardless of charge, are capable of unleashing any amount of power at a given moment, and charging is independent of the current and voltage being supplied. Reality just isn't like that. (Now yes, there are things you can do to mitigate this stuff, at the cost of more power, but w/e)

We also have the power-engineering related issues; everything should be consuming electricity. Pumps, engines, pods, transmitters; and the energy consumed should be proportional to usage; so if a pod is triggering maneuvering controls, it should be consuming more energy than if it is drifting through space.

Of course, this stuff will balance electric charge, but also add in more features that people probably don't want to think about.

[Dodgey]

Well, it kinda is: There is always a best thing for a very special purpose, and that purpose can be very specific. Which is similar to the decision making process what part to use in KSP.

If the EM drive can produce more thrust, with a better TWR by using less power than the best ion drive we have today than it is objectively better, no sense of balance there.

[panzer1b]

there is one way to make balance every OP engine, make it explode on use if used for more the 100ms.......

[Jarin]

Technology marches on. Honestly, I don't want to see early engines balanced against late. I prefer seeing some capability advancement without having to install something like KSPi.

[Temeter]

If the EM drive can produce more thrust, with a better TWR by using less power than the best ion drive we have today than it is objectively better, no sense of balance there.

It would just remodel the ranking of used engines. There won't ever be some magical engine blowing everything else out of the water. Yeah, maybe an EM drive would do that if we had it now in a sufficiently advanced version. We just don't, and there will be a bunch of alternatives in the future, as well as some unsolvable issue.

Take KSP: A nuke does indeed trump everything else in space-travel. However, it doesn't break the game and it isn't the only engine used.

Edited April 27, 2015 by Temeter

[blu3wolf]

A nuke pulse engine would trump everything else... Orion Drives anyone?

[BlazingAngel665]

A nuke pulse engine would trump everything else... Orion Drives anyone?

Not exactly, the Em drive can go forever theoretically. An Orion powered ship can only go as long as it has nukes to detonate. Also, by using superconductive materials on the Em drive we can get TWR's that approach sane values for point thrust maneuvers instead of duration maneuvers. If Em drives work, they may just be the best thing ever.

Side note, the internet is claiming that Em drives distort space time?

http://forum.nasaspaceflight.com/index.php?topic=36313.1860

if so, Em drive > literally everything since fire

[Corw]

Real life is not balanced. Eg. horses vs internal combustion engines. Completely obsoleted them.

[blu3wolf]

Well, it would still trump it in TWR XD

[Vasious]

If the EM drive can produce more thrust, with a better TWR by using less power than the best ion drive we have today than it is objectively better, no sense of balance there.

Yeah, so it would just be tech tree placement

[Random Tank]

How would it be balanced? It wouldn't. People can't agree if the Dawn Ion is OP or not; if this thruster is any better than it it's OP and any worse and it's gonna be useless.