Introduction
The utility of thruster upgrades has long been debated in E
and I found that there simply wasn't much information out there. While some testing had been done on several ships, the methods used were not as exhaustive as they could have been and as such may have resulted in some misinformation. Wanting to get to the bottom of the matter, I devised a series of tests which should measure most of the relevant characteristics of the flight envelope of a given craft, then applied these tests to the Anaconda in order to compare the utility of A-class thrusters against D-class thrusters (the only two sensible options as far as I'm concerned).
While I'd like to have the time to conduct further tests on different engine sizes and craft, these tests were very time consuming due to their rigorous nature, taking about 6 hours to complete per engine compared. Since I likely will not get around to further tests, I've included below an outline to the procedure and the operational definitions for the different metrics used. Hopefully this data will be of use to someone.
Method
I endeavored to measure engine performance on a fully combat fit Anaconda with a uniform mass. Between the two engine types, all other equipment remained constant, and the only mass differences between the two tests were the mass differences between the two engines. The mass of the Anaconda with D7 thrusters was 1,284 tons, with A7 thrusters 1,332 tons.
Pitch, Yaw, and Roll speeds were measured in the following conditions for all pip assignments (0-4 pips): Flank Speed, Optimum turn throttle, Flight Assist Off + Flank Speed, and Flight Assist Off + Optimum turn throttle. Additionally, Pitch turn speed was measured along one extra metric which is often useful in increasing pitch (though seldom utilized for Yaw or Roll), Afterburner Boost + Flight Assist off. These measurements were recorded in degrees/second.
The strength of the thrusters' facility for applying negative thrust was estimated by measuring the time required to decelerate from Flank Speed to zero, and converting that metric into negative meters/second.
Procedure
A series of ten 360 degree rotations were timed for pitch and roll in all conditions. The number of ten turns was selected in order to cut down on the influence of human error on the results. Upon beginning the first turn the stopwatch was begun. Ten complete turns were counted in sequence aloud as the craft's nose passed a fixed, invariable point (a star system 14ly away which was selected from the navigation menu). Upon completion of the 10th turn, the stopwatch was stopped, and the time recorded. After the data was fully collected, a formula was applied to determine the number of degrees per second the craft's bow had traversed.
In the event that the craft's nose did not pass the fixed point exactly during any test, the data for that test was discarded and the test repeated. In the event the data appeared anomalous, the test was repeated and compared to the original data. If the new data was reasonably close to the old, the original data was accepted, and if the new data was not reasonably close to the old a third test was conducted. The nearest results of the third test were then used and entered into the spreadsheet. (Note that this last scenario happened only on one occasion: TTTTFAOffFull)
You may have noticed that thus far I have only discussed Pitch and Roll. Yaw, being much slower and less succeptible to human error in measurement was recorded in similar fashion, but only two full turns were measured for the sake of expediency.
The facility of thrusters to cancel motion was captured in two ways, one of which I found to be relatively useless but is included in the data for the sake of completeness.
The first (useless) method was to measure the distance traveled from a nearby object during boost. The craft was parked next to a Nav beacon (selected from the contacts menu), and the distance to the nav beacon was then recorded, and the craft rotated until the nav beacon was directly behind. From 0 speed, boost was applied once, and the final distance to the nav beacon less the original distance once the craft had come to a rest was recorded. I found that this distance did not vary by pips or by engine type.
The second (useful) method was to record the time required to achieve null speed from flank speed at pips 0-4. The flank speed at a given pip configuration was divided by the number of seconds elapsed between zeroing out the throttle and reaching null speed
Guide to Reading the Spreadsheet
A number of acronyms were used for brevity. I've translated them here.
TTTTFull - Time to Ten Turns (pitch) at full throttle
TTTTOpt - Time to Ten Turns (pitch) at optimum turn throttle
TTTTnullFAFull - Time to Ten Turns (pitch) at flank speed, flight assist off. Throttle was zeroed immediately after FA was switched off.
TTTTnullFAOPT - Time to Ten Turns (pitch) at optimum turn speed, flight assist off. Throttle was zeroed immediately after FA was switched off.
TTTTnullFABoost - Time to Ten Turns (pitch) at boost speed, flight assist off. Throttle was zeroed immediately after FA was switched off.
TTTRFull - Time to Ten Rolls (roll) at full throttle
TTTROpt - Time to Ten Rolls (roll) at optimum turn throttle
TTTRnullFAFULL - Time to ten rolls (roll) at full throttle, flight assist off. Throttle was zeroed immediately after FA was switched off.
TTTRnullFAOpt - Time to ten rolls (roll) at optimum turn throttle, flight assist off. Throttle was zeroed immediately after FA was switched off.
TT2YFull - Time to two yaws (yaw) at full throttle.
TT2YOpt - Time to two yaws (yaw) at optimum turn throttle.
TT2YnullFAFull - Time to two yaws (yaw) at full throttle, flight assist off. Throttle was zeroed immediately after FA was switched off.
TT2YnullFAOpt - Time to two yaws (yaw) at full throttle, flight assist off. Throttle was zeroed immediately after FA was switched off.
Results & Discussion
While it's difficult to plainly state the differences between the two engines in words (I advise looking at the spreadsheet for details), I found, in general the A7 thrusters were roughly 8% better averaged across all conditions.
The A7s pitched 1.8 degrees per second faster, on average than the D7s. They also rolled 4.5 degrees per second faster, and Yawed .65 degrees per second faster. They applied ~.69 m/s more negative thrust (a 7.6% increase over the D7s).
Further, and not particularly related but worth mentioning, I found that FA off turns (averaged across all conditions and both engines) tended to increase turn rates by .43 degrees/second. The turn speed increases were greatest in pitch, and lesser in both roll and yaw which brought the average increase down quite a bit. The average pitch rate increase of FA off across both engines and all pips at optimum turn speed was a whopping 1.89 degrees/sec on average. So if you need to pull a hard turn, kill that flight assist.
Overall, I found that the 8% turn rate increase was not sufficient in my mind to justify tying up another 2.28 MJ of power, and I downgraded back to the D-class, though I encourage anyone to make their own decisions after looking at the data.
Spreadsheet Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TD5OC0asaIo7UZzIWcVqStnOICelcAGqxlqtxHMnT3s/edit?usp=sharing
The utility of thruster upgrades has long been debated in E
and I found that there simply wasn't much information out there. While some testing had been done on several ships, the methods used were not as exhaustive as they could have been and as such may have resulted in some misinformation. Wanting to get to the bottom of the matter, I devised a series of tests which should measure most of the relevant characteristics of the flight envelope of a given craft, then applied these tests to the Anaconda in order to compare the utility of A-class thrusters against D-class thrusters (the only two sensible options as far as I'm concerned).While I'd like to have the time to conduct further tests on different engine sizes and craft, these tests were very time consuming due to their rigorous nature, taking about 6 hours to complete per engine compared. Since I likely will not get around to further tests, I've included below an outline to the procedure and the operational definitions for the different metrics used. Hopefully this data will be of use to someone.
Method
I endeavored to measure engine performance on a fully combat fit Anaconda with a uniform mass. Between the two engine types, all other equipment remained constant, and the only mass differences between the two tests were the mass differences between the two engines. The mass of the Anaconda with D7 thrusters was 1,284 tons, with A7 thrusters 1,332 tons.
Pitch, Yaw, and Roll speeds were measured in the following conditions for all pip assignments (0-4 pips): Flank Speed, Optimum turn throttle, Flight Assist Off + Flank Speed, and Flight Assist Off + Optimum turn throttle. Additionally, Pitch turn speed was measured along one extra metric which is often useful in increasing pitch (though seldom utilized for Yaw or Roll), Afterburner Boost + Flight Assist off. These measurements were recorded in degrees/second.
The strength of the thrusters' facility for applying negative thrust was estimated by measuring the time required to decelerate from Flank Speed to zero, and converting that metric into negative meters/second.
Procedure
A series of ten 360 degree rotations were timed for pitch and roll in all conditions. The number of ten turns was selected in order to cut down on the influence of human error on the results. Upon beginning the first turn the stopwatch was begun. Ten complete turns were counted in sequence aloud as the craft's nose passed a fixed, invariable point (a star system 14ly away which was selected from the navigation menu). Upon completion of the 10th turn, the stopwatch was stopped, and the time recorded. After the data was fully collected, a formula was applied to determine the number of degrees per second the craft's bow had traversed.
In the event that the craft's nose did not pass the fixed point exactly during any test, the data for that test was discarded and the test repeated. In the event the data appeared anomalous, the test was repeated and compared to the original data. If the new data was reasonably close to the old, the original data was accepted, and if the new data was not reasonably close to the old a third test was conducted. The nearest results of the third test were then used and entered into the spreadsheet. (Note that this last scenario happened only on one occasion: TTTTFAOffFull)
You may have noticed that thus far I have only discussed Pitch and Roll. Yaw, being much slower and less succeptible to human error in measurement was recorded in similar fashion, but only two full turns were measured for the sake of expediency.
The facility of thrusters to cancel motion was captured in two ways, one of which I found to be relatively useless but is included in the data for the sake of completeness.
The first (useless) method was to measure the distance traveled from a nearby object during boost. The craft was parked next to a Nav beacon (selected from the contacts menu), and the distance to the nav beacon was then recorded, and the craft rotated until the nav beacon was directly behind. From 0 speed, boost was applied once, and the final distance to the nav beacon less the original distance once the craft had come to a rest was recorded. I found that this distance did not vary by pips or by engine type.
The second (useful) method was to record the time required to achieve null speed from flank speed at pips 0-4. The flank speed at a given pip configuration was divided by the number of seconds elapsed between zeroing out the throttle and reaching null speed
Guide to Reading the Spreadsheet
A number of acronyms were used for brevity. I've translated them here.
TTTTFull - Time to Ten Turns (pitch) at full throttle
TTTTOpt - Time to Ten Turns (pitch) at optimum turn throttle
TTTTnullFAFull - Time to Ten Turns (pitch) at flank speed, flight assist off. Throttle was zeroed immediately after FA was switched off.
TTTTnullFAOPT - Time to Ten Turns (pitch) at optimum turn speed, flight assist off. Throttle was zeroed immediately after FA was switched off.
TTTTnullFABoost - Time to Ten Turns (pitch) at boost speed, flight assist off. Throttle was zeroed immediately after FA was switched off.
TTTRFull - Time to Ten Rolls (roll) at full throttle
TTTROpt - Time to Ten Rolls (roll) at optimum turn throttle
TTTRnullFAFULL - Time to ten rolls (roll) at full throttle, flight assist off. Throttle was zeroed immediately after FA was switched off.
TTTRnullFAOpt - Time to ten rolls (roll) at optimum turn throttle, flight assist off. Throttle was zeroed immediately after FA was switched off.
TT2YFull - Time to two yaws (yaw) at full throttle.
TT2YOpt - Time to two yaws (yaw) at optimum turn throttle.
TT2YnullFAFull - Time to two yaws (yaw) at full throttle, flight assist off. Throttle was zeroed immediately after FA was switched off.
TT2YnullFAOpt - Time to two yaws (yaw) at full throttle, flight assist off. Throttle was zeroed immediately after FA was switched off.
Results & Discussion
While it's difficult to plainly state the differences between the two engines in words (I advise looking at the spreadsheet for details), I found, in general the A7 thrusters were roughly 8% better averaged across all conditions.
The A7s pitched 1.8 degrees per second faster, on average than the D7s. They also rolled 4.5 degrees per second faster, and Yawed .65 degrees per second faster. They applied ~.69 m/s more negative thrust (a 7.6% increase over the D7s).
Further, and not particularly related but worth mentioning, I found that FA off turns (averaged across all conditions and both engines) tended to increase turn rates by .43 degrees/second. The turn speed increases were greatest in pitch, and lesser in both roll and yaw which brought the average increase down quite a bit. The average pitch rate increase of FA off across both engines and all pips at optimum turn speed was a whopping 1.89 degrees/sec on average. So if you need to pull a hard turn, kill that flight assist.
Overall, I found that the 8% turn rate increase was not sufficient in my mind to justify tying up another 2.28 MJ of power, and I downgraded back to the D-class, though I encourage anyone to make their own decisions after looking at the data.
Spreadsheet Link: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1TD5OC0asaIo7UZzIWcVqStnOICelcAGqxlqtxHMnT3s/edit?usp=sharing
Last edited:
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