well the "maneuvering" thrusters act directional, as in they pretend to render in a variety of directions regardless of block placement...
which is what makes them great for "maneuvering"...
the balanced would be not as efficient at directional charges, but also would have some strong "forward" push...
and the "big" thruster would only push one way. but do so with heavy thrust.
basically, the most efficient design would be to have a few "large" thrusters on every surface, with a ton of "small" thrusters around them...
the "balanced" is more so for people with "limitations" like fighters.
the best bit about this, is that it allows a player to customise. if they think their ship will doing a lot of "running" or chasing... then having large amounts of "big" thrusters
propelling them "forwards" would be the only option... which also means they need either good turning or good backwards thrust to stop themselves...
while a ship may decide that being able to run RINGS around vessels is more important, and focus on the ability to turn rapidly.
the most important point to mention here, is that adding a "large thruster" is NOT meant to turn your ship from "slug" to rocket... the different thrusters are to allow different attributes.
two IDENTICAL looking ships may be very different by the choice of thruster. much like how you can focus your ship's shielding towards regen or capacity simply by using the appropriate block. the difference being, that i'm suggesting that if a "small thruster" outputs thrust in ALL six directions, while a "big" only outputs on the ONE direction.
a balanced thruster would probably output thrust in ALL six directions, but ONLY one at a time. meaning that it can't be used for "diagonals"
to really simplify it...
directional thrusters = "small" thruster (current starmade)
directed thruster = "balanced" 2X3 block thruster
Propulsion thruster = "big" 3X6 block thruster..
although a ship *COULD* just use the "propulsion" thruster... it would require a thruster in EVERY surface facing "out", and it'd be difficult to maneuver as the thrust is pushing solid in one direction.
whereas a ship using just the "directional thruster" would effectively be able to
perform incredibly complex turns, since the ship can create minute thrust along "1000's" of points along the hull, it can "push" at one end, and "pull" at another.
(the game of course, would not actually "process this" per say, it'd just cheat and claim a maneuvering bonus for turn rate on a direction of rotation)
but those engines really don't do much for actual thrust, meaning that a ship would still be extremely slow to "accelerate" and hence, have a poor top speed.
going for the "balanced" engine is the best case, it basically behaves like a small version of a propulsion thruster, crossed with a directional thruster.
you get none of the "disadvantages" but none of the advantages either...
really, you'd have to think of a "directional thruster" as a six sided engine block, able to emit the same amount of thrust from any one, or all six sides at once...
without "affecting" it's propulsion...
the "directed thruster" is the same concept as a VTOL aircraft engine, all it's thrust is emitted out ONLY one side at a time. meaning any one of the six sides.
but at a much higher power then the directional thrusters...
the other one... is just a traditional main engine... tons of high velocity in what
ever direction it's facing.
(for those complaining of "realism"... how do you know it does not have surface micro channels to allow thrust to reach the "surface"...)
