Warp Engine Mechanics

Three components comprise the warp propulsion system: The gravimetric displacement generator (a.k.a. gravitic generator), the warp coil, and the warp engine. They don’t need to be combined into a single part, letting you mix and match as desired. The only fixed resource is WarpCapacity, which is used by the warp engine to go faster than light, and it's not a resource in the sense of Liquid Fuel and Oxidizer. The resources to produce WarpCapacity can be anything desired; for Blueshift parts though, they involve FusionPellets, ElectricCharge, Graviolium, and GravityWaves.

Gravimetric Generators (WBIModuleGeneratorFX): produce GravityWaves by consuming units of Graviolium per second and store at least one second of GravityWaves. GravityWaves are discharged when the generator is off. For Blueshift parts, 0.00004 units of Graviolium produces 1 unit of GravityWaves. They can be combined with Electric Charge creation or require a separate generator to produce Electric Charge.

Warp Coils (WBIWarpCoil): supply WarpCapacity, and optionally specifies the resources required to produce that WarpCapacity. There is no converter involved, just a part module that tells you how much WarpCapacity it has and what resources it needs for one second of operation. In Blueshift, 20 GravityWaves are required to produce 1 WarpCapacity for a 100-tonne ship. Warp coils are rated for the maximum amount of mass that they can move efficiently. In general, the larger the coil, the more mass that it can displace, but it also has a corresponding increase in resource requirements. Smaller coils don't need as many GravityWaves to produce the same WarpCapacity; a coil rated for 25 tonnes only needs 5 GravityWaves to produce 1 WarpCapaciy.

Warp Engines (WBIWarpEngine): propel a ship faster than light (light speed is defined as 299,792,458 m/sec). The engine itself only needs WarpCapacity, but the resources needed to generate WarpCapacity can vary. You can have multiple engines running at the same time but each engine must meet its minimum requirements.

Design Rules

• Warp coils are rated for tonnage efficiency ("displacement impulse"). Underpowered coils incur a speed penalty, while overpowered cores give a speed bonus. Note that if the Maintenance option is turned on, overpowered coils will wear out faster.
• Normally, as you go down in size categories (Size 3 -> Size 2/Mk2 -> Size 1 -> Size 0) the performance of a warp engine, warp core, or warp coil drops as well to 25% of the higher-up size category. But you can increase the performance if you also increase the cost. For every percent increase, multiply the unlock and purchase price by an equal percentage. For example, the S-2 Warp Core has 75% of the performance of the S-3 Warp Core instead of the normal 25%. We added 50% performance increase, so we multiply its base costs by 1.5.
• If you want lower-size category parts to have performance closer to the next size category up, simply increase the unlock and purchase cost by the desired performance increase. For instance, the Blueshift S-2 Warp Core should be rated for 25 tonnes, but it designed for 75 tonnes. It is now 75% of the capacity instead of the normal 25%, so its cost is 50% more.
• Ring-shaped warp coils are considered to be more efficient than coils of other shapes and sizes. One ring-shaped coil is equivalent to 10 of the individual coils for the size category.

Blueshift Specific Rules

• The Size 3 warp tech parts are the baseline standard. They're rated for 100 tonnes. Size 2/Mk2 parts are rated for 25 tonnes. A theoretical Size 1 warp engine/core would be rated for 12.5 tonnes.
• Warp coils punch above their weight; Size 2 coils are rated for 100 tonnes, and the Mk2 and Size 1 coils are rated for 25 tonnes. A theoretical Size 0 warp coil would rate at 12.5 tonnes.
• Warp cores, which lack the warp rings that engines do, cost 25% less than warp engines.
• Due to their versatility, the purchase price of a non-ring coil is: warp engine cost * 0.15, and the research price is 10x the purchase price. By contrast, the research price of a warp engine or ring-shaped warp coil is 5x the purchase price.
• The Mk2 Warp Ring is equal to 12 Mk2/Size 1 warp coils.