Warp Nacelles
Warp travel (faster than light travel) is made possible in StarshipVL by forming a warp bubble of energy around the ship which distorts the surrounding space and allows the ship (and the encompassed space) to be propelled through non distorted space at speeds which appear to an outside viewer to be faster than the speed of light.
In order to form a warp bubble around a ship it must have a warp core (to produce energy) and warp nacelles to form the shape of the warp bubble.
Having multiple warp nacelles allows the size and shape of the warp bubble to be extended.
Once installed the warp bubble can be tuned to encompass the ship, however if any part of the ship is outwith the bounds of the bubble then the whole bubble will collapse and fail. Making the bubble larger will require more power and reduce the maximum warp speed of the vessel. Therefore tuning the warp bubble shape is critical to getting the most out of your ship.
It should be noted that unlike acceleration using thrusters, there is no physical effects of acceleration felt within the warp bubble as the whole area of space is being moved as one entity. Therefore the internal dampeners don't need to be on when jumping into and out of warp.
Warp drive cannot be steered and provides forward propulsion only in the direction the ship is pointing.
Warp Bubble Size
Here are some example nacelle sizes and the size of bubble they can form.
Nominal Size is given as the bubble length, width and height (in meters) at which it operates at 100% efficiency. Reducing this size increase the efficiency by the percentage of bubble volume reduction. Increasing the size reduces the efficiency by the percentage of bubble volume increase.
Small Nacelle:
Nominal Size: 100m x 40m x 20m
Power Curve: Sqrt(( GigaWatts * Warp Bubble Efficiency) / 447 )
i.e. With 50,000 GigaWatts and 100% bubble efficiency the ship would be travelling at Sqrt(( 5,000,000) / 447) or Warp 5.
With half that power 25,000 GigaWatts the ship would be travelling at SQRT ((2,500,000) / 447) or Warp 3.5.
This is because it requires a great deal more power to travel at high warp.
50,000 GW moves the ship at warp 5
2236
Sqrt((MegaWatts * TotalWarpEngineEfficiency) / 17,000,000)