After reading the notes I noticed that the cruise drive allows sub light, semi controllable warps in system which is a feature I really enjoyed with games like Rebel Galaxy and Klingon Academy etc. Watching planets and moons rush towards you at high speed while trying to escape a Vonari fleet is perhaps not as practical as the Fulcrum drive but I think it adds a bit of fun to an already excellent game. Then I thought, why take sides in the Cruise Drive / Fulcrum drive debate? Why not have the best of both worlds?
Currently the Fulcrum drive and the Cruise drive can't be equipped at once and if you have an engineer in your crew of a high enough skill level you can swap drives on the fly. While that does add a bit of extra depth to the game in some respects... does it make the game more fun and engaging?
Ok here's my pitch (and I'm in no means harping on Vice's work, Evochron is already a masterpiece as is but here goes...)
There are several types of Fulcrum drives available lets say drive 1,2,3 and Mantis (I don't remember exactly how they were arranged) in this example lets say drive 1 can move two sectors, drive 2 can go 4 sectors, 3 can go 8 and Mantis can go 10 sectors, why not have a cruise drive feature present with every Fulcrum drive? Say maximum speed with thrusters is 10k with IDS off, and sublight cruise speed maximum is 100k....
Drive 1 = 2 Sectors AND 20% of 100k with an alt sub light warp speed of 20k?
Drive 2 = 4 Sectors for 40k sub light warp
Drive 3 = 8 Sectors for 80k
Mantis = 10 Sectors and 100% of sub light at 100k
You could then have a +/ - for thruster control and a 'punch it' button for sub light warp in an emergency (even trim sub light warp as a percentage of that drives capacity?)
What do you guys think? Would it be an improvement, and is it something that could be reasonably added with minimal effort and keep the game stable or am I just crazy?
