Thruster grouping mechanic

[Zomborgon]

There seems to be some conflict on the topic of thruster grouping. Our on-site wiki states both of the following:

Official description: They do benefit from being groups, enabling more thrust, quicker acceleration, and better handling. All that the cost of increased power requirements.

Less-official description: There are no grouping effects for this block.

So, does grouping (in the sense of adjacency) affect thrusters? I've tested a few things out, and it seems that having thrusters in an axial formation has more thrust than a disconnected formation does. Could someone clear up this oddity?

 

[MultiDavid]

In all the movies, bigger ships = bigger thrusters, i don\'t know ANY movie/game where a big ship has a multitude of smaller thrusters, i only recognize em with the HUGE thrusters

Also, it makes more sense that way.

 

[Archer6621]

It maybe has something to do with the cubic size of the connected trusters, just like with power generators

 

[Seamus Donohue]

I\'m trying to investigate the equation that governs the exact amount of thrust. It\'s not simple like the Power Tanks (which add storage as Tanks^1.75). It\'s also not the same as the Power generators.

What I know so far is that:
(1) each thruster group is calculated separately, and the thrust for the ship is the sum of the thruster groups;
(2) thruster groups completely internal to the ship will still provide thrust;
(3) the layout of the thrusters within a group is relevant, provided that the sum-of-dimensions of the group is constant (this is similar to power generators);
(4) adding thrusters to a group that expands the sum-of-dimensions of the group adds MORE THRUST than adding thrusters to a group without expanding the dimensions of the group (also similar to power generators);
(5) adding a lot of thrusters to a group without expanding the dimensions of the group is NOT a linear increase per thruster, it goes faster than linear (this is DIFFERENT from power generators); and
(6) having a hole in the XY, YZ, or XZ silhouettes of your thruster group is irrelevant, provided that the total number of thrusters in the group and the sum-of-dimensions of the group aren\'t changing.

 

[Tomino_sama]

great research @Seamus Donohue

 

[seroandj]

My testing shows that the most efficient arrangement of thrusters is one straight line, or one giant axis of lines (x,y&z, like power gen). If you have limited space, just filling that space up with the biggest connected group of thrusters is the best you can hope for.