Current w.i.p

https://imgur.com/a/vW5dRZG

When I get a chance I actually want to try a 3x3x1 core reactor block instead. The problem with the full 3x3x3 is almost any engine room isn't going to have more than a 3 block tall ceiling, meaning the nice glowy bits will be completely hidden away

I actually think making the 3x3x1 of the main core is better, while its thinner than the TNG core (and the 3x3x3 was wayy wayy taller than the TNG core too) Its better to build with because even in an engine room with a 2 block tall ceiling you still get to see the coils above the core.

https://imgur.com/a/CPearRp

From a gameplay balance point having such a small block have such a high power output is a bit questionable though

I think you'll find a 3x3x1 (which is what my current warp core base is) is going to look a bit "squashed". The barrel looking core you've got there looks very well proportioned; if you press it down it's gonna look a bit "odd". I do agree that a 3x3x3 is a bit big for the average engine room and you wouldn't see the glowing bits top and bottom.

If that 3x3x1 is one block high then those glowing bits are three blocks high. It could still work; I just like the proportions of your first one more.

yeah the warpcore really needs to be something like 1.7 blocks tall, but I do think a thinner one is more useful design wise.

I was actually thinking balance wise that the central "core" should actually be a "antimatter reaction chamber" and not the actual energy generating part for balance purposes. Maybe it functions only with the top or bottom has the 3x3x3 cylinder connected to it, or the 3x3x3 cylinders only work if they are either connected to a reaction chamber, or to another cylinder thats connected to a reaction chamber. So they are the actual reactors instead of functioning as jump drives.

Instead of using the cylinders of the core as jump drives, making a new "warp coil" block that functions as super jump drives but based on their power setting they disable any blocks over a radius that have computer components. (Thus requiring designers to always put them in naccelles)

Last time I did any space engineer block modding all you could do was edit xml files so not sure if such a configuration is possible.

Anyway first priority is just to get these warpcore models into lods, buildstates uv wrapped configured and configured into something that loads into the engine as non functional blocks

What you're considering there is only possible with some very hefty scripting which I'm not up for because of the maintenance issues around it. The best we can hope for pretty much is to have the middle bit be a reactor and the top / bottom bits be jump drives potentially. I really don't want to make it any more complicated than that.

For the cylinders as jump drives, the 4 square "status bar" material, can that be applied to the each ring of the cylinder (I'd change it from 5 rings to 4) so they show the charge amount by glowing. Haven't really experimented with those before.

Also I guess there is a way to change what the charge colours are, as I've seen modded jump drive blocks that have different colours.

They could show the charge amount by glowing. Again, I've tried similar things with custom emissive colours to replace Keen's standard. Sometimes it's worked (the blue / red emissive on the warp core base) and sometimes it hasn't. I foresee a world of hurt (again) trying to do that. I tried with my Auxiliary Power Coil but the new colours wouldn't take which is why the rods are red and the battery charge is the small "cell phone" type indicator front and back.

The other thing I'd like to consider is customizability. If those top and bottom pieces were purely cosmetic then I would make the toroids actual light emitting surfaces and put glass around them. That way users could decide on both colour and intensity, making the block more versatile. Also, disclaimer, I have jump drive mods in my other mod pack so I'm not real keen on making another one, haha.

Bottom line; Keen's emissives are screwed up, not nearly bright enough, a pain to work with (when they work) and need some serious scripting to do anything else. The more I think about it the more I like the idea of just a decorative light block with conveyors at each end.

Just gonna throw in something here that it doesn't matter if a warp core is massive. Warp Cores throughout Star Trek has spanned several decks, it's nothing new. The current Warp Core can be some small core, but this CHUNGUS can be a real OG multi-deck monstrosity that'll handle all of your power requirements.

Yeah, Warp Core can be massive, for sure. Got no problem with that. My philosophy with modding is that I don’t make a mod if it’s not useful to me. A massive warp core spanning multiple levels is no use to me. This is why I maintain that I would make one model that is 1x1x1 blocks for each part and then scale it up to 3x3x3 for the larger version. The 1x1x1 can then also be used for the much requested small grid version.

At the end of the day I invest a huge amount of time in making these mods, so I need to know it’s worth it.

I disagree, large warpcores make sense for "large ships" the current as you can just toss a 3x3x1 reactor block into it and have the power of a dozen 3x3x3 vanilla reactors at no penalty.

if a block is going to produce gigawatts of energy it should have not just a large material cost but a design cost as well.

In the real world I would agree, but not in SE where every wall has to be at least 2.5m thick. This already poses unrealistic design restrictions on me when I want to design a ship 300 - 500m long, which would already be considered quite big in Starfleet terms; Ent E was only 680m long. So much space is taken up by the blocks themselves that it leaves an unrealistic amount of room inside which is frustrating to me. And I can't build massive ships all the time because then my sim speeds takes a dump so I have constraints there too, as do most people.

And if differentiation is really needed then the bigger one can simply have more power than the smaller one. There's nothing to say they both have to be 100GW.

There IS an alternate warp core mode if you want variety...doesn't sue antimatter for them though. And uh...goodluck getting some of those designs into ships. Especially the Cardassian and Dominion large grid reactors, both are 2 of the most powerful, and alrgest, in the mod, and there s no smaller version...the Cardassian one is basically DS9s reactor core...and the dominion one would only fit in a Jem hadar Battle Ship. Even the small grid ones are too big for most builds. They aren't 100gw, but they are rather large for "micro" cores. One is basically a Bird of Prey core...and I wouldn't consider that micro. The fed "micro" is possibly too big for even a runabout..and round shape, just a shrunk down of Mk-3 like in the galaxy class.The Borg cores for small and large grid are both MASSIVE for their grid size, and circular.Be glad Qarannia is sticking to one shape.And a simple one that looks good. Sure the Warp Core Mega Pack has good looking reactors, but I have NO IDEA how I'd use some of them properly in a build. If I really wanted variety of shapes, I'd expand Qrannia's work so they didn't have to make tons of variations and could focus on just what they want to do.