Thinking About Space As A Gameworld Again

I always start in the wrong places for proper world design, but...

Ships.

Fusion is the power source for the drives and they work by superheating water to plasma. Water is the reaction mass. I figure water since it doesn't need all kinds of special handling to keep it inside the tank.

The drives run most efficiently at full tilt. 50% thrust runs with 75% fuel consumption. 25% thrust can be done with 50% fuel consumption. These are the game effects, I don't have double talk for it yet. I was thinking that most vessels would have about 0.5g thrust loaded and that the jump drives would be used for most long distance movement in system as well as interstellar.

Drives tend to be clustered in a belt about 2/3 back from the bow. Life sections are usually forward of the drive section. Fuel is placed both forward of the life section and aft of the drive belt. The tankage is partially sacrificial in case of a collision.

Ultra-high discharge rate capacitors fuel the jump drive. They leak down in radio frequencies if not discharged, getting to about 50% charge in minutes. Ships charge just before jump and the capacitors leaking makes it obvious. Vector is retained! Most ships are thrusting to match speed with the jump target rather than to get somewhere.

That's it for now.