A Thruster Module for the Low Slot would allow the ship to remain in a fixed direction to align to without having to be moving forward.
The thruster would activate by pressing the thruster button. While active all weapon ranges would be reduced to half optimal but slightly increased tracking speed.
The thruster would be fueled by nanite fuel, basically the same module as the Ancilliary repper. Once the cycle has completed, the reload woukd take :60 seconds.
If the ship is moved, the thruster de-activates and goes into the :60 second reload.
The new module would free up a rig slot designed to improve align times as there are no bonuses to align speed when the rig and module are paired. But a low slot module used for damage, res, etc bonuses, might be lost.
Assuming the idea is:
“Module that means I can insta-warp when it is active” but wrapped in a mis-understanding of mechanics (a ship only has velocity - they are snooker balls).
This is something that (for all intents and purposes) a fast aligning ship - travel-ceptor for example can already do.
Importantly, it is compromised from other roles.
A well fitted Blockade Runner is slippery enough not to be easily caught, some T3 Destroyers, a good T1 explorer is a hard catch if fitted well and flown with attention.
The proposed module is too open to abuse: a freighter with insta-warp? A mining fleet? - it skews the benefit/risk by lazily removing the risk of being jumped by a ship landing on grid.
You can already avoid that by not mining at the warp-in point, using a higgs to reduce the warp entry speed, paying attention to local and d-scan, having a friend scout a gate for you.
Yeah, to me it doesn’t feel a good idea - removes a fundamental mechanic (benefit for risk) that Eve is based on.
It doesnt feel good to you because you have to actually work and don’t want your prey to escape.
No, the module would not create insta-warp. The module is for station-keeping. When the thruster module is used to align to a point and keep the alignment, the normal engines would not function. You have to turn the thruster module off and then click the MWD or AB to get up to speed in order to warp.
However long it takes the module to get to the warp threshold is the time to lock the target. The ship mounting the thrusters would also not be able to fit warp stabilizers.
You are making a very bad and wrong assumption of my play style. Please don’t jump to conclusions.
I’m invariably the prey, not the hunter - and that is it’s own fun.
I suspect you are are fundamentally mis-understanding how the game engine handles movement.
Facing is irrelevant - the force is externally applied. The “ships” are spherical. They only have linear inertia, angular inertia is zero.
The graphical representation is aligned to the velocity vector.
This means that a module that forces a facing at zero velocity has no actual consequence to gameplay.
My mistake was assuming you knew the mechanics (particularly externally applied force) and we’re trying to get a faster “into-warp” time.
Dynamically, Eve is basically laser firing billiards.
