I think something like the Ciara would not serve too well. It would destroy the feel of the acceleration drive that makes it feel like it was a hardtech drive. Some fen are going to prefer acceleration drives. Particularly those into hard-scifi or grew up with or saw the moon landing. (Me included.)
I say we should include some sort of drive field that reduces the actual KE that is carried by a ship with acceleration drives. Proportional to their speed and mass perhaps to discourage everyone from trying to use it as kinetic energy weapon. As such a small light ship going fast with an acceleration drive may have the same KE as a larger ship with acceleration drive.
Or we skip the whole thing and simply say that the KE of a acceleration drive is the same as that of a speed drive at the same velocity. Nicely works around the whole KE issue and still allows people to coast around in the solar system. Through some will still try to get the speed record. :p
I say we should include some sort of drive field that reduces the actual KE that is carried by a ship with acceleration drives. Proportional to their speed and mass perhaps to discourage everyone from trying to use it as kinetic energy weapon. As such a small light ship going fast with an acceleration drive may have the same KE as a larger ship with acceleration drive.
Or we skip the whole thing and simply say that the KE of a acceleration drive is the same as that of a speed drive at the same velocity. Nicely works around the whole KE issue and still allows people to coast around in the solar system. Through some will still try to get the speed record. :p