Store Page
Space Engineers
All Discussions Screenshots Artwork Broadcasts Videos Workshop News Guides Reviews

Space Engineers

Store Page
Space Engineers >  Workshop > Major Jon's Workshop
39 ratings
Helios MSD-35 Mass Shift Drive
Description Discussions0 Comments23 Change Notes
   
Award
Favorite
Favorited
Unfavorite
Type: Blueprint
File Size
Posted
696.966 KB
25 Feb, 2020 @ 5:03pm
1 Change Note ( view )
Required items
This item requires all of the following other items
Created by
Major Jon
Offline
See all 98 collections created by Major Jon and other people (some may be hidden)
4,300 Unique Visitors
2,180 Current Subscribers
57 Current Favorites

Subscribe to download
Helios MSD-35 Mass Shift Drive

In 1 collection by Major Jon
Helios Defence Systems (Plug&Play Guns/Turrets/Clang Drives etc.)
33 items
Description
[Vanilla|Survival Ready|Subgrids]

A simple and ridiculously overpowered "thruster" that works everywhere and for free.

The MSD-35 Mass Shifting Drive is a type of clang drive utilizing two exploits, the instant rotor offset and the instant moving of items using programmable blocks. It pushes the ship off of the cargo container containing 2 tons of ingots, then moves them into the ship and pulls the now light cargo container back in. It repeats this process 30 times per second. This will accelerate the ship pretty fast and without cost. It works in gravity fields and can easily get you off any planet.
It is about as powerful as 8 large hydrogen thrusters, but much smaller and lighter.

This particular version is a better version of the old MSD-2-21. It's much smaller and tileable.

You need the Clang Drive Manager Script installed on a prog block on your ship. The script will detect and operate the drive automatically. For more info visit the workshop page of the script. This drive works in two direction simultaneously, so a forwards facing one can also provide thrust in the backwards direction etc. You can place these in all directions you want, the script will recognize them automatically and address them properly depending on the orientation with wasd as input.

You want to build this in survival?
Easy, just build a basic assembler, put an advanced rotor on top and replace the rotor head with a small one. Add another small grid advanced rotor and a medium cargo container on top of that. Then, fill the cargo container with some iron ingots (~10-20 tons, more ingots, more power). Nametagging anything is not required.
You can also replace the assembler with a cargo container, but have to make sure it is not conveyored, which means you can't place them next to one another anymore. If you do that, you can also use pretty much any other item, like ice or gravel and add up to 30 or 40 tons for more power.

Don't like the assembler?
You can switch it out for a cargo container, just make sure it's NOT conveyored to anything else than the rotor.


Some stats:
-Blocks: 6
-PCU: 252
-Mass: 25 t (including 20 t shift mass)
-Force: ~40 MN


How to use:
-Place it on your ship (see screenshots)
-Make sure it is in line with the center of mass (else it will exert torque on your ship)
-Install the Clang Drive Manager Script on a prog block on your ship
23 Comments
< >
Major Jon  [author] 29 Jun, 2023 @ 8:54am 
Are you playing with blocks inventory multiplier? That would cause such behavior. The cargo container at the back has 20 tons of ingots in it, if you set blocks inventory multiplier to 10, it will still show 20 tons, but they actually only weigh 2 tons. If you want to keep the multiplier, you would need to put 10xmore ingots into the container and multiply the variables called deadmass in the script by 10. They are all around line 1150.
<#690b04>0micron 28 Jun, 2023 @ 8:19pm 
Is this drive or the script broken by automatons? When I spawn in the ship you made with these drives, i go to the cockpit and press w and then the drives start automatically accelerating backward without my continued input. Then, they won't stop until i toggle the pb. What's going on??
condottiere 1 May, 2022 @ 7:14pm 
FYI I'm using small cargo containers in lieu of the basic assemblers, and I can tile them in alternating directions (front to back, back to front) b/c the LG rotor acts as the common center axis for mounting these drives. Not sure if saving 40 PCU is a big deal, since both the cargo and assembler still count as conveyors.

I tend to build with few/no reverse thrusters to save on mass/volume, requiring flip-and-burn braking maneuvers. It's been very relaxing to have built-in reverse acceleration with these MDS-35s.
condottiere 1 May, 2022 @ 7:07pm 
Major Jon, you are such a diverse creator! Very aesthetically well-thought out ships, planets, and these clang drives/piston jolt guns + the awesome manager script. After making a half-dozen 1000-2000 block vanilla large grid ships, I tried using your MSD-35 to get away from the "thruster brick" paradigm for high-acceleration ships. Holy cow, these make a ship fly. I overclocked 14 MDS-35s as high as 20x before the jittery movements became very pronounced (your merge pulse drive is for my next, larger build). No clang explosions so far -- just lightning fast acceleration to my modded speed cap (800 m/s). My 5000 TON frigate flies like an overthrustered 20 ton small grid fighter craft.
Major Jon  [author] 29 Jul, 2021 @ 12:24pm 
The script probably has trouble finding the right ship controller, do you have multiple cockpits and remote controls? Check wether the script finds the right one, it tells you when you click on the prog block in the terminal. The script works fine for me, except for some weird edge cases, where you're in a cockpit and control a remote control with a different orientation.
quocphu1905 29 Jul, 2021 @ 10:36am 
The PDD-3 on the carrier works like a wonder though.
quocphu1905 29 Jul, 2021 @ 10:35am 
I use this as upward thrust for my carrier project, and somehow when i try to fly up the drive pushes the ship down although the CDM says the drive is upward. i tried placing it in the opposite direction and it wouldn't work either. There are three clusters of 2 drives on each side and they seems to contradict each other's position even though they have the same orientation lol
Major Jon  [author] 18 Jun, 2021 @ 5:14pm 
Check wether the script actually finds the right cockpit, that's what the controls are based on. It should tell you when you click on the prog block in the terminal. There might be a remote control set as main cockpit or something like that. Or maybe your cockpit is on a subgrid or something like that. Easiest way to force the script to choose a specific cockpit for orientation is to set it as main cockpit.
execXtor 18 Jun, 2021 @ 1:42pm 
I have a problem with mass drive. Somehow it pushing me backwards when I'm pressing W, down when I'm pressing Space. How to fix it?
Major Jon  [author] 5 May, 2021 @ 8:39am 
I just checked and it's working fine. W to accelerate forwards, S to accelerate backwards. The drives work in both directions. Placing the drive inverted doesn't change it's function. If you only want it work in one direction you can mess with the power and reversepower variables in the script.