Revamp Thrusters Similar to Aux Power

[Edymnion]

As of the thruster plume update, we have to be very careful about where we put thrusters because they will generate plumes through layers of armor and even into internal spaces if placed too close. They can't be used as the willy nilly gap filler they used to be anymore.

And if we are having to stop and pay more attention to where the thrusters are going, is it perhaps time to change how thrusters work in general?

Aux Power springs to mind as something we could emulate. As in, have thrust scale upwards in relation to the group size (up to a point), and then having each new group of thrusters restart the scaling. So that we would literally have engines, as in solid discrete blocks of thrusters that you install in large groups.

 

[TrickyNicky27]

I agree, this will improve engine rooms, so that they actually serve a purpose. Currently it really isn't practical to have engine rooms, but if engine's power is scaled based on size, then we can have large engine rooms containing the massive engines.

 

[Panpiper]

I agree, this will improve engine rooms, so that they actually serve a purpose. Currently it really isn't practical to have engine rooms, but if engine's power is scaled based on size, then we can have large engine rooms containing the massive engines.

I think he is referring specifically to the 'plume size' scaling with the engine size, not the engine 'power'. I could be wrong. Do we really need to give a thrust boost to larger ships? I would not be opposed to such as I find large ships to be downright painful to fly, regardless of how many engine modules I use...

 

[Edymnion]

I think he is referring specifically to the 'plume size' scaling with the engine size, not the engine 'power'. I could be wrong. Do we really need to give a thrust boost to larger ships? I would not be opposed to such as I find large ships to be downright painful to fly, regardless of how many engine modules I use...

No I meant actual thrust generated. If we can't use thrusters as efficient gap filler anymore, the overall amount of thrusters we can easily put in a ship has decreased.

I'm talking about further limiting where thrusters can be placed by saying they need to be in contiguous blocks (like aux power and capacitors), but let them scale up in amount of thrust generated (like capacitors scale up in total capacity) to a certain point.

Encourage placement of thrusters into actual engine blocks instead of gap filler.

Maybe even give them the aux power self destruct stuff so that hitting the engines on a ship really does become a viable tactic. Big engines provide tons of thrust, but a few good shots will take them out entirely.

I dunno, I just think it would be nice to see thrusters used in solid clumps where placement becomes important, since we can't gap fill with them anymore.

 

[Arc22]

No I meant actual thrust generated. If we can't use thrusters as efficient gap filler anymore, the overall amount of thrusters we can easily put in a ship has decreased.

I'm talking about further limiting where thrusters can be placed by saying they need to be in contiguous blocks (like aux power and capacitors), but let them scale up in amount of thrust generated (like capacitors scale up in total capacity) to a certain point.

Encourage placement of thrusters into actual engine blocks instead of gap filler.

Maybe even give them the aux power self destruct stuff so that hitting the engines on a ship really does become a viable tactic. Big engines provide tons of thrust, but a few good shots will take them out entirely.

I dunno, I just think it would be nice to see thrusters used in solid clumps where placement becomes important, since we can't gap fill with them anymore.

I doubt giving engine a destruction factor to the block means GG for most ships when their shield drops. So in my opinion that does not seem like a good idea as of yet, because I hear everyone talking about the lack of options to stop high pen weapons currently!

 

[Shadow2Lead]

Maybe even give them the aux power self destruct stuff so that hitting the engines on a ship really does become a viable tactic. Big engines provide tons of thrust, but a few good shots will take them out entirely.

I would really like to see this, but not at the cost of being willing to place engines in exposed locations. If increase the vulnerability of engines dramatically like this then engines will quickly move from the exterior where we can see those nice plumes to the interior.

Just to throw some thoughts on that out there: if engines are made more vulnerable and we still want them to be placed in exposed/vulnerable positions they need to either be more effective in vulnerable locations (this could be some sort of cool mechanic where an engine is increasingly more effective the more faces/blocks which are on the exterior of the ship, perhaps calculated one on ship build and not recalculated for damage?) or you can make every system similarly vulnerable (guns/shields/capacitors/etc) so that engines aren't relatively uniquely vulnerable and therefore worth giving extra protection to.

 

[Malacodor]

If you want your ship to cease to function after only a few hits, why don't you just build it out of warheads?

Edit: Thruster plumes don't go through blocks directly behind them, this includes trigger areas. So you can still put them wherever you want. There's just a bug with that, but crossing a sector border makes covered plumes disappear.

 

[Edymnion]

If you want your ship to cease to function after only a few hits, why don't you just build it out of warheads?

Way to single out the "Maybe do this" as if that was the primary purpose of the thread.

 

[TrickyNicky27]

I think he is referring specifically to the 'plume size' scaling with the engine size, not the engine 'power'. I could be wrong. Do we really need to give a thrust boost to larger ships? I would not be opposed to such as I find large ships to be downright painful to fly, regardless of how many engine modules I use...

It would not necessarily be giving thrusters a boost in power, just making it more efficient when in larger groups. Similar to how power reactors work best in cube dimensions and how capacitors work best when in large groups. If you have 300 thrusters scattered all over the ship, they would be less efficient than one big thruster comprised of 300 thrusters.

 

[aRottenKomquat]

I like it. I think it's odd that thrusters get used as decorative blocks (walls, bulkheads) so often since they can go anywhere with no penalty.

(Off-topic: I originally played Space Engineers and jumped over to StarMade when I realized this was closer to the game I wanted to play. Took me forever to figure out that StarMade thrusters don't burn holes in other blocks because I just assumed they would.)