the theory of thrusters

[Stiffmaister]

It has been tested that rank (not sure about class though) does not affect the amount of energy, from the ENG capacitor, required to boost. If you feel a difference, it's either placebo or you may have upgraded your power distributor with now a recharge rate faster than before.


Short story on my thought about rank A thrusters:
if you need highest boost speed, go for it; otherwise, rank D is fine.

Long story:
It was also tested (on a Vulture) that, in the middle of the blue zone, a 5A vs 5D gives only 0.5s improvement for a 360 turn. While it allows to fly faster within the blue zone, you actually end up with less sharp turn since the blue zone is now higher...
I personally would not invest credits and energy use to increase maneuverability by such a small amount.
However, boost speed is another story and, if you plan on escaping or outrunning your opponents, then a gain of 50m/s is worth every pennies.

I've done similar tests with a vulture doing 3 complete loops (pitch up + thrusters up) with engine at 50% with 2 pips to engine then I repeated with 4 pips to engine. I've tested 5A thrusters VS 5D thrusters.

There was a gap of 3 seconds (1 second / loop) between the thrusters. Plus with 5D thrusters you can save energy and I am able to mount another shield booster.

Later I will post the results of my test if interested.

 

[geoffrey.hdt]

There was a gap of 3 seconds (1 second / loop) between the thrusters. Plus with 5D thrusters you can save energy and I am able to mount another shield booster.

The higher the rank, the higher will be the blue zone.
Optimal turn is within the blue zone. If you want to compare thrusters, you must not set to 50% but set the cursor to be in the blue zone. As far as i could read, it takes roughly the same time (0.5s difference) to do a complete turn, but higher rank allows a higher speed, though lower rank allows a sharper turn.