thrusters like power?

[toric55]

from the wiki:


Sum Of Dimensions - 3 + Blocks^1.125


...where "Sum Of Dimensions" is the length plus the width plus the height of the smallest axis-aligned bounding box (AABB) that contains the entire thruster group. So, 64 thrusters laid out in a line will have a Sum Of Dimensions equal to 66 (because 64 long, 1 wide, 1 high), but 64 thrusters laid out in a 4*4*4 cube will have a Sum Of Dimensions equal to 12. For comparison, the "Blocks^1.125" term is approximately 107.6 in both cases.

i think that this means that thruster blocks get the same groubing mechanics that powerblocks do. i tested thais, and they do. a 3*3*3 cube of thrusters produces 43.6ish thrust, whereas 27 thrusters laid out in an opimal power setup produced like 64.7 is thrust. can someone confim this, and if this is true, why does evrybody act as if thrusters are like shilds? (placing them wherever.) on a related note, the opimal setup for powertanks is to have them in one group.

 

[toric55]

according to the formula, and my tests, that theya re affected by this a lot less than power

 

[War Dog]

It\'s true that thrusters gain a bonus for their axis, they also gain a connection bonus which is significantly higher than the axis bonus. Make two big flat squares of thrusters and connect them and see the massive difference.

Thus, the axis bonus is not too important unless you\'re making a ship with limited mass (Like stealth ships) and need to squeeze every bit of thrust from each block.

 

[toric55]

so one axis style thruster block is the best you can have?

 

[Qweesdy]

Hi,

@toric55: It\'s not that simple.

Imagine you\'ve got a 20*20*200 space. By putting in a 20*20 checkerboard of 200 block long lines of thrusters, you\'d get 200 lines that produce (1+1+200)-3+200^1.125 = 586.845 thrust each, and end up with a total of 117369 thrust. With the same number of thruster blocks, if you do a single \"10*20*200 solid rectangle\" group of thrusters you\'d end up with (10+20+200)-3+(10*20*200)^1.125 = 227+40000^1.125 = 150651 thrust. In this case, the bonus you get from \"number of blocks\" is more important than the bonus you get from \"sum of dimensions\".

Basically; for large ships a single huge blob of thrusters is the most efficient, and for smaller ships many long lines is the most efficient.

 

[toric55]

im saying that a single axis layout would be the most efficent. one blob that is laid out along the axis. wouldnt be very space efficent though.