Larger/Proportionate Thruster Plumes

[Edymnion]

Been working on some engine porn and realized something during small scale testing, that while multiple thrusters next to each other will indeed combine to make a single solid thruster plume, they do not appear to change length at all. A thruster plume is apparently always 3 blocks long.

While this is great knowledge for hiding thrusters as gap filler inside of ships, it does make me wish for one thing.

Proportional plumes.

If I've got a solid block of 50k thrusters sticking out the back of my ship, I would really, really like to see one hell of a plume coming out the back of that thing. If I've got enough thrust coming out of that block of thrusters to push a titan, I kind of want that plume stretching back far enough to see from a couple sectors away.

Any way we can get thrusters set up like power capacitors so that they can tell how big of a solid block they are in, and then generate the plume length based off of that?

 

[jstenholt]

Yes pls.

 

[Goblin]

Hmmm.... i would find it even more cool if i somehow could define: these block group has a badass plume. That group doesn't. It would improve the creative posibilities even furter without loosing the ability of NOT having the two sector prescence plume.

 

[Edymnion]

Hmmm.... i would find it even more cool if i somehow could define: these block group has a badass plume. That group doesn't. It would improve the creative posibilities even furter without loosing the ability of NOT having the two sector prescence plume.

Thruster Control Computer that allows you to adjust thrust in astronaut mode, that you can slave activators to like a rail speed controller to adjust plume length?

 

[Drakkart]

i want the players to have full control on the plume effects. The actual implementation just delivers on actual thruster planes which look gross when standing still. we should add the plumes as a block and then assign to this block a percentage of total thrust modules as measurement for the effect strength. And yes this should also cover the length growing proportional to lots of % added to a certain plume block.

 

[Edymnion]

I mean come on guys, there's solid thrusters behind these cowls. There's thrusters right up to touching the ice even, and the only plume I can see with the engines revved to full is the one little bit sticking out the middle?


(excuse the ship, its a WIP and i'm just working on the engines at the moment)

I'd want to see the plumes on these things shoot at least a dozen blocks out behind something like this!

 

[Groovrider]

There's thrusters right up to touching the ice even,

You must leave 1 block of empty space behind the thruster.

 

[Edymnion]

You must leave 1 block of empty space behind the thruster.

Nope, try it. Plumes go right through everything.

 

[jontyfreack]

no, you need at least a 1 block space for plumes to show. it is because of this the interior of one of my ships becomes something rather incredible when the ship is moving.

 

[Edymnion]

You must leave 1 block of empty space behind the thruster.

no, you need at least a 1 block space for plumes to show. it is because of this the interior of one of my ships becomes something rather incredible when the ship is moving.

Armor directly touching the back of the thruster.
Systems directly touching the back of the thruster.
Ice directly touching the back of the thruster.

The thruster plume goes through everything. You do not have to leave a gap to see it.

The old thruster plumes (before the update) needed a blank space behind them to activate, that hasn't been the case since the plume update though.

 

[Groovrider]

View attachment 36042

Armor directly touching the back of the thruster.
Systems directly touching the back of the thruster.
Ice directly touching the back of the thruster.

The thruster plume goes through everything. You do not have to leave a gap to see it.

The old thruster plumes (before the update) needed a blank space behind them to activate, that hasn't been the case since the plume update though.

You are correct as I have seen this with a sled I just made. My older ships, however, are not exhibiting this behavior.

 

[Spoolooni]

I kinda wish they were more defined as such.

 

[Edymnion]

You are correct as I have seen this with a sled I just made. My older ships, however, are not exhibiting this behavior.

I have an old ship that I built before the plume update that has thrusters as gap filler in support arms wrapped in armor. I can see the plumes through the hull. Not saying you don't or that I know whats going on with yours, just saying my experience since the update has been "plumes go through everything, god help you if you used them as gap filler near any open spaces".

I did testing on sleds like the above after the update, and found that the length is 3 blocks long, so that as long as there are three blocks behind the plume you can't see it and you're safe using it as filler. Otherwise, you gotta be very careful.

 

[jontyfreack]

have you changed sectors, because the thruster plumes require a sector change to update

 

[Edymnion]

have you changed sectors, because the thruster plumes require a sector change to update

Thank you, I didn't realize it took a sector change to apply the change. You definitely made my ship look better!

I'd still like to have a huge plume of flame shooting out the back of this thing, but at least now it looks like the entire engine is doing something.