Jump Drive
| Jump Drive | |
|---|---|
| |
| Category: | Mobility |
| Function: | faster-than-light travel |
| Fits large grid | |
| Mass: | 35980.0 kg |
| Power: | 32 MW |
| PCU: | 100 |
| Size: | 3x3x2 |
| Time to Build: | 120 sec |
| Data Controls: | [edit] [purge] (?) |
The Jump Drive is a block that allows a mobile large-grid vessel to teleport (that is, travel instantaneously) long distances in space at a speed faster than light.
Other means of mobility are 
Atmospheric Thrusters, 
Hydrogen Thrusters, 
Ion Thrusters, and Wheel Suspensions.
Usage
Use jump drives to travel distances between 5km and 2000km instantaneously. Multiple Jump Drives increase the maximum distances to multiples of 2000km.
Only ships with total mass below 1'250'000 kg can achieve the maximum distance, meaning, you cannot simply add "infinite" Jump Drives to reach an "infinite" distance.
The energy consumed by a jump depends on the distance. Shorter jumps do not fully discharge the capacitors. Energy management is an important skill for optimising your jumps.
How to Jump?
There are two ways to aim the jump:
- Either target a specific location,
- Or jump “blindly” in cockpit direction for a specific distance.
Either has its uses: Targeted jumps mean faster arrival at a known location. Short blind jumps come in handy to avoid sudden attacks or when approaching an unmapped location for the first time.
Pre-jump check:
- Verify the Jump Drives are 100% charged.
- If you have several Jump Drives:
- Decide which ones to switch on to increase the jump distance.
- Decide which ones to switch off to let them recharge and as emergency backup.
- Verify that your jump ship is not docked to a station.
- Verify you are out of any gravity well.
- Verify that the crew is seated.
- Verify that carried ships are docked.
How to jump:
- Sit in the main cockpit and open the Jump Drive's Control Panel Screen.
- Configure the jump target:
- If blind jump: Turn the ship so the main cockpit faces into the target direction.
When jumping to a selected location, the cockpit direction doesn't matter. - Click "Jump". A dialog prompts you to click YES to jump or NO to abort.
- After clicking YES, expect a ten second countdown.
Ship movement is not required to jump. If the ship is moving, however, the momentum remains and the ship will continue moving after the jump. Consider this before crashing into an asteroid on arrival.
How to configure multiple Jump Drives
Using multiple Jump Drives:
- Either switch all on to achieve the maximum jump range.
- Or switch one or some off to optimise for multiple short jumps.
You can pre-configure each jump drive to a different target, and instead of changing target settings every time, simply trigger the pre-configured jump drive. Name the pre-configured blocks accordingly, so you can recognise them quickly.
When you trigger the Jump action in Jump Drive X:
- It jumps to the target/distance configured in Jump Drive X.
- If you jump the maximum distance, it discharges Drive X and all other Drives that are switched on and fully charged.
- If you jump less than maximum distance, it discharges one Drive after the other (instead of discharging all of them partially).
How to configure the toolbar:
- Add each configured Drive's Jump action to the toolbar individually.
- Add each Drive's on/off action to the toolbar.
- Add each Drive's Recharge on/off action to the toolbar.
Remember, you have nine toolbars.
What happens to passengers and docked ships?
- Players sitting in cockpits or seats, holding on to ladders, or resting in beds or cryochambers, will teleport with the jumping ship.
- Free floating or free standing engineers --or boarders!-- will be left behind.
- Docked ships and vehicles that use Connectors or magnetic Landing Gear count into the total mass and will jump with the mothership.
- Loose grids and floating components are left behind.
What are the limits?
If you receive a gravity warning, you must either travel further away from a planet/moon, or (if you are in zero g) select a shorter jump distance before trying again.
- Jump Drives cannot jump if the line of sight is blocked by a planetary body or asteroid.
- Jump Drives cannot jump in or out of natural gravity wells.
- There have been rare occurrences of Jump Drives jumping into the middle of hollow asteroids.
- If the target GPS or beacon are closer than 5 km, the jump drive will show a warning dialog and will not engage.
- If you attempt to jump with only partial charge, the jump drive will show a warning dialog and will not engage.
If the total mass of your ship including cargo exceeds 1'250'000 kg, your effective maximum jump distance will decrease.
How to postpone or cancel a jump?
During the countdown, activate the "Jump" action again. The same dialog will appear:
- Either click "No" to abort.
- Or click "Yes" to restart the 10 second countdown.
Restarting the countdown may buy a dawdling team member enough time to get seated, in which case you might not need to abort.
Best Practices
Example: Your max jump range is 2000km, and you want to jump to a friendly station 2500km away. You first make a short, partial jump of 500km, recharge quickly en route, then jump 2000km, dock, and let it fully recharge at the allied station.
If you had made the maximum jump first, you would need to wait longest in the middle of the trip, where you could be stuck with no way to quickly escape pirates. In general, if you travel further than maximum jump range, make the shorter jump first.
Especially when jumping into unknown or dangerous territory, several short jumps are better than one large one. The capacitor recovers faster from a short jump, and any short jump can get you out of immediate danger.
If you have several, better keep one charged Jump Drive as a backup. Switch this emergency drive off before jumping using the others. Don't get caught by enemies en route with a discharged Jump Drive only because you were rushing.
Power
Maximum stored power inside a jump drive is 3 MWh and it charges at a rate of 32 MW, which corresponds to, for example, burning ~3kg of Uranium Ingots in a reactor.
Jump Drives have priority when charging, which means they will consume the power first before batteries, thrusters, and 
Gyroscopes will receive power. All Jump Drives present will proceed to hog power until fully charged. If the power drain is detrimental to essential ship function, use the Jump Drive's "Recharge on/off" toggle to temporarily pause charging.
How do I know whether the drive is charging?
Check the status light colours to get information about the charging status:
- Red — the Jump Drive has no power.
- Yellow — the Jump Driving is charging, but not ready yet.
- Green — it's charged and ready to jump.
If you cannot select a jump distance beyond 5km, that is also a hint that the drive is not charged yet.
Construction
This large-grid block is a bit unwieldy with 2x3x3 large blocks in size. The Jump Drive works the same no matter where on the ship you put it or which direction it faces. It requires a charge of 3MWh, so make sure the ship can store or generate that much power.
The Jump Drive’s components can only be produced in an advanced Assembler and you'll need a large amount of gold and silver ingots, so expect to only be able to afford this block in late game.
Recipe
 Jump Drive | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Component | Large Ship/Station Required | Large Ship/Station Optional | Small Ship Required | Small Ship Optional |
 Superconductor | 1000 | — | — | — |
 Steel Plate | 40 | 20 | — | — |
 Power Cell | 120 | — | — | — |
 Metal Grid | 50 | — | — | — |
 Gravity Comp. | 20 | — | — | — |
 Detector Components | 20 | — | — | — |
 Construction Comp. | 40 | — | — | — |
 Computer | 300 | — | — | — |
