Jump Engines: Whipcrack

[Angel-125]

Like a jumpgate, the Whipcrack Jump Engine makes use of wormholes pulled from the quantum foam that are then expanded to facilitate travel. But unlike jumpgates, the destination end of the wormhole isn’t fixed. It flails around like the end of a whip- hence the name of the jump engine. Navigating with a Whipcrack is all about timing; if timed just right, the ship will jump forward up to its maximum jump distance, but if the timing is off, then the ship may end up widely off course.

Initiating a jump is known as Cracking the Whip (and there is an appropriate sound effect for it). First-time travelers describe the experience as if riding a rollercoaster or riding on the back of a kraken- the ship and occupants get thrown about as it traverses the wormhole. In fact, there is a possibility that travelers will pass out from the g-forces.

Objects near a jumping ship experience severe gravitic turbulence. A massive gravitic shockwave that originates from the center of the jump applies hundreds of gees of force to the nearby objects, flinging them away from the center. The magnitude of the event depend on how far you jump. This is of course configurable.

It only takes a few milliseconds to perform a jump. There’s no time to get coffee, take a nap, or talk about the weather.

You can have more than one Whipcrack on a vessel, but to jump in rapid succession, each engine must be fully charged. In theory, with enough engines, you could program a series of short-range jumps and “skip” across space somewhat like a warp engine, but in practice it’s better to make one big jump instead. Plus, with KSP 2 allowing engine burns during timewarp, other means of going real fast are possible. Just imagine using souped up gravity engines to rapidly zip around the solar system, to a max of just under light speed. The Star Carrier series by Ian Douglas has great examples of this method.

As with jumpgates, the mass of the vessel affects how much graviolium you need to Crack the Whip. There is no upper limit on a vessel’s mass, but the mass of the vessel affects the cooldown period required by the Whipcrack. It takes 1 hour per 5 metric tons for the Whipcrack to charge its gravitic capacitors before it can Crack the Whip. This duration is of course configurable because people are impatient.

Jump engines are rated for a maximum jump mass, known as Jump Max. Beyond that, they cannot initiate a jump-unless you take advantage of the natural space-time bend of a gravity well. The deeper into a gravity well the ship goes, and the higher the local gravity, the easier it is to initiate a jump. In this way, jump ships can conserve graviolium and even exceed their Jump Max mass by getting as close to the center of a gravity well as possible and/or jumping from a high-gravity world. Note that this does mean that a vessel could jump from the surface of a world- even one with an atmosphere. But with Hard Mode (see below) engaged, jumping from the surface becomes a lot harder.

In general, smaller jump engines have shorter ranges and can’t jump as much mass as larger jump engines. With KSP 2 having enormous interstellar craft, it’s quite possible that to jump between star systems, you’ll need a very big jump engine unless you have something that’s highly advanced and miniaturized.

Similarly, jump engines are rated for their maximum jump range, with smaller engines unable to jump as far as larger engines. But with Hard Mode engaged, you can take advantage of a natural gravity well to boost your jump range.

Before you get ready to jump, point your ship in your desired direction of travel, or point your ship at the desired destination celestial body. While you can technically target a vessel, the best you can do is jump to the target vessel’s celestial body. Once you’ve got your course figured out, just make sure there’s nothing in your way!

Whipcrack navigation, also known as whip throwing, is represented by a graphically displayed, animated sine wave with a dot traveling along the wave and a centerline running through the wave. The closer the dot is to the centerline when the player initiates the jump, the straighter the course.

Jump distance affects the frequency of the sine wave, and thus, the difficulty of jumping on the center line. A slider control lets the player control the jump distance- up to the Whipcrack’s maximum jump distance- and thus, the sine wave’s frequency. The amplitude of the wave is affected by how close the ship is to the celestial body- if any- that the ship currently orbits. The closer to the star/planet, the higher the amplitude.

Kerbal skills can improve Whipcrack navigation. The highest-skilled engineer aboard will slightly reduce the wave’s angular frequency. The highest skilled scientist will slightly affect the amplitude of the wave, and the highest-skilled pilot will slightly affect the wave’s frequency. This might change depending on what skills kerbals have in KSP 2.

Wormholes are attracted to gravity wells, briefly grabbing onto, or “snagging” a gravity well before losing its grip. This only happens if there is a gravity well along or near the wormhole’s projected path. If there are multiple gravity wells, then the wormhole will randomly snag on them, with larger gravity wells having a higher probability of attracting the wormhole endpoint. For interplanetary jumps, snagging a nearby planet is harder because the “snag corridor” is narrow but for a distant target like a solar system, snagging any of the gravity wells in the target star is much higher.

Players can take advantage of the snagging phenomenon by building a Whipping Post in orbit around a desirable celestial body. Whipping Posts are station-sized jump beacons that use a lot of graviolium to attract wormholes. Since the probability of a wormhole snagging a celestial body is proportional to its gravitational force, a Whipping Post improves the odds.

Hard Mode: To jump between moons in the same planetary system, you need to achieve the moon’s escape velocity. So, you’d need to reach Minmus’ escape velocity in order to jump to the Mun. To jump between planets in the same solar system, you need to achieve the planet’s escape velocity. Thus, to jump from Kerbin or either of its moons to Duna, you’ll need to achieve Kerbin’s escape velocity. To jump between star systems, you’ll need to achieve the star’s escape velocity. Thus, to jump from Kerbol to Debdeb, you need to achieve Kerbol’s escape velocity.

You could have custom random messages displayed when you crack the whip, like “WARP!”

Have electrical effects like in KFS that are played as the engine warms up and cools down. Possibly have crackling sounds like powerlines do as the effect plays.