[psimancer]

um no experience with this but
why not make a new type of engine defined as base engine maybe huge size or something
if you really want to slow down the base then just make it destroy on use thus the base has to have a repair bay or ship yard and con only move once every 2 turns
example idea

base1
base engine 1 size 40 move standard 1 destroyed on use
repair bay size 150
turn one move one turn two repair engine turn three etc

next point i seem to have read about some requirements that can be set into a hull or item sorta like racial or such
or specific sizes required for some components so allow only size 40kt engines in the hull

edit oh almost forgot the base engine is a new tech that becomes available to research at say tech level 3 or 6 or some such that way once its discovered its researched and viola no more increases as you just make it a one step rersearch tree and since its separae from regular engines it doesnt increase in any automatic way
oh and swho in their right mind would even try to put a 40 kt self destructive engine in a ship hmmm?? when 10 kt engines are available

rational for the engines
1 their station keeper engines running at overload that have to be stopped and refurbed each month of operation on overload
why does the engines take up so much room well the mod to allow the movement required massive amounts of reinforcement to the station otherwise the station would tear itself apart durin movement

example a tinker toy model of a space station then tie a string to a central strut and swing it around you head for 10 minutes as fast as you can to simulate the structural stress of a engine pushing on that one strut (make sure no one is around or they have armor on )

[ July 03, 2004, 08:13: Message edited by: psimancer ]