Mod Idea: Counter Mass Drive (Advanced Electrical Part)

[Dewar]

My idea is for a single modded part that could significantly change endgame play: the Counter Mass Drive ( or CM Drive for short).

Quote

<From Google>

What is negative mass?

Negative mass is the hypothetical idea that matter can exist with mass of the opposite sign to the ordinary stuff. Instead of 2 kg, a lump of negative mass would be -2 kg. Nobody knows whether negative mass can exist but there have nevertheless been plenty of analyses to determine its properties.

Below is a mockup using my pathetic Microsoft paint skills:

The basic parameters of the modded part involved would be:

• Be able to extend a counter mass field around the ship (via a UI pop-up with tweakables i.e. radius/length)
• Objects inside of the field need their mass reduced to .001 or equivalent/all engines affected by the field should have their thrust reduced to 0 (an engine uses mass to propel itself forward, if said mass is within the field it shouldn't have the ability to produce thrust)
• Power usage should be extremely high and variable to the size of the field or negative mass needed (I.e. heavier objects need more power to reduce the weight)
• The weight of the drive itself should be quite considerable, perhaps 14 tons or more
• Atmospheric Usage should not be allowed or cost ridiculously more power (perhaps 10x or equivalent to make for interesting gameplay)
• It should unlock under the last tech node of electrical (I always felt something other than the 2.5m battery was needed there)

Imagine a ship with one of these installed orbiting kerbin; while turned off, mechjeb is telling you that you have a measly TWR of 0.13, 280 ∆v, and total vessel mass of 45 tons.  You switch the drive on and your power supplies start to sap down as the field extends around your ship. You watch as the mechjeb numbers change, a TWR of 8, 12000 ∆v, and total vessel mass of 2.5 (the exact weight of the solar panels and engine that extend beyond the field.

Obviously this would need a lot of tweaking for balance, as this could easily be a completely overpowered part.

Edit: An afterthought I had was that perhaps the field could simply reduce the mass by whatever percentage (80% of total mass for example) is deaned acceptable for balanced gameplay.

 

But I think this could make for some very interesting gameplay as, unlike an alcubierre drive, this still utilizes rocket motor engines. 

 

Alas, I'm not a modder. So for now I'll leave the concept here and hope that somebody, with more skills and knowhow than I, will pick this up.

I'm more than happy to spitball ideas and lend whatever help I can to any modders interested in the project.

 

Thanks for reading

- Dewar

Edited September 29, 2016 by Dewar

[Streetwind]

This is pretty much the core concept, and the source of the name, of the Mass Effect series of games. In their lore, humanity attained interstellar travel by discovering ancient jump gates that projected fields around starships that reduced their mass to near-nothing. This allowed incredible acceleration, and even removed the speed of light as a universal limit (somehow, I forget). Humanity later discovered and joined a galactic collective of sentient races that know how to build this technology and apply it to many different engineering problems.

[Dewar]

Believe it or not I've never played any of the mass effect games. I had the idea for this after reading the odyssey one novel series.

Sounds like some interesting lore though.

[Sresk]

I'm not sure how to go about modding this but a simpler way of implementing it would be to treat it like an inline procedural fairing or decoupler. Everthing inside the fairing or above the mass coupler gets edited.

[Dewar]

I was thinking exactly along the same lines and will attempt to design a part that will do just that. But as mentioned, I'm a newb to modding.

As a side note, I've just dove into modding ksp tonight. The system squad designed is much more intuitive than I thought. I'm currently adding the resource gold, a highly valuable resource found on most planets in tiny amounts. Also editing some storage tanks and drills for a semi-early on way to make early game money. I figure if you can get 10 tons of it back from minmus you deserve the million it'll give you.