Jump Drive

This article contains information relevant to both the C# and VB6 versions of Aurora. Where differences exist, they are noted in the appropriate sections.

The Jump Drive is a propulsion system that allows ships to traverse jump points, as well as bring other ships along with them.

Overview

Jump drives make ships independent of jump gates, which is extremely useful for exploration craft, as well as to project power outside one's own territory.

A ship equipped with a jump drive can traverse (and potentially tender other ships) between jump points. They essentially work by holding open a wormhole big enough for the ship and any others it is transiting to jump through. Ships using jump drive will suffer the usual jump shock and thus upon entering new system they are vulnerable to attack until they recover.

There are two types of designs - military and commercial. The Commercial Jump Drive is larger and less efficient but much cheaper on a per-HS basis. Jump drive efficiency will permit larger ships to jump per unit of drive size. Squadron max jump size and radius are only useful when making jumps into combat situations. All those characteristics can be improved through research.

Components

Jump drive type

Military jump engines are smaller in size and suffer no penalty to max jump squadron size, with more efficient use of size. Civilian jump engines make less efficient use of size and are significantly larger overall, and their squadron jump size is reduced by 1, but they are much cheaper. In VB6, they can also jump larger ships than military version (10x higher Max Ship Size than military).

Additionally a ship whose non-jump engines are flagged as military cannot transit a jump point using a wormhole generated by a commercial jump drive. Military engines create instabilities in the wormhole stabilization field generated by a commercial jump drive and collapse it. On the other hand, commercial-engined ships can transit a wormhole opened by a military jump drive, but this scenario is pretty rare. Military jump drives tend to only support smaller ships, and ships with commercial engines tend to be larger than the capabilities of the military jump drive.

Note that it is not the ship's commercial/military designation that affects this, it is the type of non-jump engines mounted on the ship. Any ship with a military engine is a military ship, but there also exist military ships with commercial engines, and you could feasibly put a commercial jump drive on a military-flagged ship. (That was a VB6 note, Unsure - Please Verify that it's still true in C#)

Jump Drive Efficiency

Jump Drive Efficiency determines how large an engine needs to be in order to jump a particular size of ship. The higher the efficiency value, the more capacity you get per ton.

In C#, jump drive sizes are as follows:

Drive size = Target ship size / Base Efficiency / Large Drive Efficiency Modifier 

and

Military Large Drive Efficiency Modifier = (Drive size / 1000 tons) ^ 0.25
Commercial Large Drive Efficiency Modifier = (Drive size / 5000 tons) ^ 0.25

The large drive modifier cannot be less than 1, so military drives under 1000 tons and commercial drives under 5000 tons are not affected by this modifier.

In VB6, for military jump drives, the max size of ship (in hull spaces; 1 HS = 50 tons) is given by Efficiency * Size For commercial drives, it's a little different. The efficiency of commercial engines is 0.75 x the Efficiency tech, but the size is multiplied by 10 compared to the size listed in the dialogue. The max ship size is thus (0.75 * Efficiency Tech) * (10 * Size), and this is then rounded to the nearest 10 HS.

Efficiency	4	5	6	8	10	12	15	18	21	25
RP cost (C#)	1,000	2,000	4,000	8,000	15,000	30,000	60,000	120,000	250,000	500,000
RP cost (VB6)	2,000	4,000	8,000	15,000	30,000	60,000	120,000	250,000	500,000	1,000,000

Max Jump Squadron Size

The number of ships the ship with the jump drive can bring along with it on a squadron jump. For military drives its as shown, but commercial drives reduces the squadron size by one. Increases jump engine cost in C#, and increases jump engine size in VB6.

Note that this is only relevant in combat situations - squadron jumps are only relevant to reduce jump shock, and standard jumps do not have any limit on the number of ships. If you're jumping into safe space, standard jumps are simpler.

Squadron Size	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10	11	12
RP cost	2,000	4,000	8,000	15,000	30,000	60,000	120,000	250,000	500,000	1,000,000

Max Squadron Jump Radius

Max Squadron Jump Radius is the maximum distance in thousands of kilometres the task group containing the jump ship will appear from the far side of the jump point after a combat transit. It is halved for commercial jump drives. Since jump points are good choke points, increasing this value will allow your combat ships to appear further away from the jump point, which may be useful if an enemy is camping the jump point itself. In C#, it significantly increases jump drive cost. In VB6, it slightly increases jump engine size\crew.

Jump Radius (kkm)	50	100	250	500	750	1,000	1,500	2,000	2,500	3,000	4,000
RP cost	1,000	2,000	4,000	8,000	15,000	30,000	60,000	120,000	250,000	500,000	1,000,000

Jump Drive Size (C#)

In C#, jump drive size can be chosen freely, with no technology required. To pick a size, use the "Target Tons Multiplier" radio box to adjust the drop-down, and then on the drop-down you can pick multiples of the chosen multiplier size, from 1x to 999x. This means you can create jump drives for ships from 10 tons to 9,990,000 tons. This refers to the maximum size of ship that can use the drive,

Jump Drive Size (VB6)

(Unsure - Please Verify - This section seems suspicious to me, VB6 players may wish to amend it.) The Max Ship Size has to be greater than the ship's total hull size; this includes the jump engine itself, so remember when designing a jump engine that you need to account for both the size of the ship + the jump engine's considerable mass. Jump drives below minimum size are only capable of self-jump.

Size	2	3	4	5	6	8	10	12	...	50
RP cost	600,000	300,000	160,000	80,000	40,000	20,000	10,000	5,000	...	???

List of Components

Engines and Power Plants: Engine • Fuel Storage • Jump Engine • Power Plants
Beam Weaponry: Beam Fire Control • Lasers • Particle Beams • Mesons • High-Powered Microwave • Plasma Carronade • Railguns • Gauss Cannons
Missile Weaponry: Missile Fire Control • Missile Launchers • Magazines
Defensive Systems: Armor • Shields • CIWS • Sensor Jammer • Fire Control Jammer • Missile Jammer • Decoy Launcher • Cloaking Device
Maintenance and Repairs: Engineering Spaces • Maintenance Storage Bay • Damage Control • Maintenance module
Carriers and Fighters: Hangar deck • Fighter Pod Bay
Sensors: Active Sensor • EM Sensor • Thermal Sensor • Geological Survey Sensors • Gravitational Survey Sensors • ELINT Modules
Command and Control: Bridge • Flag Bridge • Auxiliary Control • Science Department • Main Engineering • Combat Information Centre • Primary Flight Control
Transportation: Cargo Hold • Troop Transport Bay • Cryogenic Transport • Passenger Accommodation
Logistics: Cargo Shuttle Bay • Refuelling System • Ordnance Transfer System • Tractor Beam
Production: Orbital Mining Module • Sorium Harvester • Terraforming Module • Jump Point Stabilisation Module • Salvage Module