PvP MythBuster - Dirty Drive Comparison (Drag Drive vs Drive Distributors)

Audaxxx

Audaxxx
Did a quick comparison of Dirty Drives to try and find out if the rumour was true that you get better acceleration by using Drive Distributor experimental over Drag Drive experimental. It was basically an FDL race using lats and making it about acceleration not top speed. Ship was a tanky FDL build weighing in at 518T. Granted it's not the most in depth test in the world but it told me what I needed to know and thought I may as well share the information.

Top screen is Drag Drives experimental bottom is Drive Distributor.

Test was as follows;
1. Starting from zero, full right lateral engaged until top speed reached. (This is slightly higher for Drag Drives).
2. Engaged full left lateral and began timing when velocity hit 350m/s.
3. Continued to Deacelerate and then accelerate in the other direction.
4. First one to reach 350m/s in the other direction wins.

[video=youtube_share;Ee9MUNUg_RU]https://youtu.be/Ee9MUNUg_RU[/video]

Although there's not really much in it, Drag Drives appear to decelerate from 350m/s to zero faster than Drive Distributors and then continue to accelerate faster up to 350m/s.

If there's any other Dirty Drive related tests that anyone would like to see let me know (lightweight FDL possibly), or if you have any suggestions to improve the test or make it more accurate I'd be happy to carry it out and add it to this thread.
 

Bob Lighthouse

Banned
Bob Lighthouse
Lucifera Danzig said:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/405552-Drag-Drives-vs-Drive-Distributors-for-speed

Already tested extensively by Frenotx, and determined that Drive Disributors only outperform Drag Drives in very specific builds on lightweight ships using Enhanced Performance Thrusters.

Class 3A at masses between 64T and 120T outperforms Drag Drives. For class 2 Enhanced Performance Thrusters the range in which Drive Distributors are superior is 45T to 76T.
Click to expand...



I can't recall who pointed it out but drive distributors can also be used to fit undersized thrusters, ie drive distributors increase the maximum ship mass the thrusters can handle.
 

Audaxxx

Audaxxx
Yes I remember seeing that thread and it's very good and extremely detailed but it's not really what this thread is about. There are some very good pilots out there that are using Drive Distributors on standard drives on the FDL and FAS. The reason being it feels as though the ship is more agile and acceleration (not turn speed or top speed) is better. If you read what I wrote above I do explain this "making it about acceleration not top speed". The top speed and rotation rates etc... are easy to compare as it tells you them in the UI or in Coriolis. Maybe could have explained it better.

The trouble with acceleration is it's very difficult to measure which is why I had to compare them visually in a video. Even this is tricky for anything other than verts and lats, for example comparing the time it takes for the ship to reach it's maximum turn rate of say 65 deg/sec is very tricky and can only really be done on feel which is why I chose Lats to compare.
 
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Winterwalker

Winterwalker
Audaxxx said:
Yes I remember seeing that thread and it's very good and extremely detailed but it's not really what this thread is about. There are some very good pilots out there that are using Drive Distributors on standard drives on the FDL and FAS. The reason being it feels as though the ship is more agile and acceleration (not turn speed or top speed) is better. If you read what I wrote above I do explain this "making it about acceleration not top speed". The top speed and rotation rates etc... are easy to compare as it tells you them in the UI or in Coriolis. Maybe could have explained it better.

The trouble with acceleration is it's very difficult to measure which is why I had to compare them visually in a video. Even this is tricky for anything other than verts and lats, for example comparing the time it takes for the ship to reach it's maximum turn rate of say 65 deg/sec is very tricky and can only really be done on feel which is why I chose Lats to compare.
Click to expand...

You maybe ought to tag your findings to Cmdr Frenotx thread? Then its all together, and I'm sure there will be other testing to do. Nice work on the realtime comparisons Cmdr, I'd like to know all about Clean Drives (hehe) o7 o7.
 

Hairy Polo

Hairy Polo
Lucifera Danzig said:
https://forums.frontier.co.uk/showthread.php/405552-Drag-Drives-vs-Drive-Distributors-for-speed

Already tested extensively by Frenotx, and determined that Drive Disributors only outperform Drag Drives in very specific builds on lightweight ships using Enhanced Performance Thrusters.

Class 3A at masses between 64T and 120T outperforms Drag Drives. For class 2 Enhanced Performance Thrusters the range in which Drive Distributors are superior is 45T to 76T.
Click to expand...

Interestingly, drive distributors are preferred on the Clipper too. Not sure why, it might be something about the Clipper being close to its thruster mass efficiency limit or something. It's an enigma.
 

Audaxxx

Audaxxx
That's interesting I didn't know that. It's strange because on paper Drag is better all round providing better rotation/pitch/yaw and better top speed in all directions. I was chatting on discord today and one theory is that because the top speed is reduced it gives the illusion of better acceleration and manoeuvrability. Apparently back in the day PVPers use to drop the cargo hatch to achieve sharper turns and I have a theory using Distributors might be giving a similar effect.

Winterwalker have you seen Kornelius's vid on clean drives? It's fairly common knowledge they don't perform as well but not quite so clear how the heat is dealt with and he covers this in really good detail.
 

Morbad

Morbad
Audaxxx said:
Apparently back in the day PVPers use to drop the cargo hatch to achieve sharper turns and I have a theory using Distributors might be giving a similar effect.
Click to expand...

I still occasionally use the cargo hatch in combat against much slower vessels. It cuts peak velocity in half, but maintains acceleration and rotational performance, so the turn radius gets much tighter.

Thrusters are different, a lower effective multiplier just makes the ship slower in all ways and drive distributors only helps non-enhanced drives on the most extreme of overweight setups.
 
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