GraXXoR Posted January 15, 2022 Share Posted January 15, 2022 With the advent of Rare Engines that can double the power to weight ratio of engines while halving fuel consumption, I realised that I can pretty much get about the same additional space thrust "permanently" for any specific weight compared to adding a rocket engine with anything other than a trivial supply of fuel. For example while a 500kN small rocket is fairly light, with a medium tank of fuel to give it a few minutes of thrust you're adding 4T for the tank and 3T for the fuel. A 500kN Rare Freight Medium engine weighs only 2T, though, so you could pack FOUR of them in for about the same weight. You could go for a much cheaper Advanced freight engine and still come in under 2.5T per engine (so get 3 of them) and still use 40% less fuel than a regular space engine which comes in at less than 1% of the fuel consumption of a rocket! Admittedly the weight disappears when fuel is consumed but the tank itself still weighs 4T and is not discardable and anyway, if you're using rockets to power heavy vehicles, then losing a few tonnes doesn't make much difference. Even the case for rear cross section doesn't really bode well since the nozzles of rockets are quite large anyway and we can no longer stack them and rocket tanks take up a lot of volume compared to regular fuel tanks for the same number of L especially if you have skilled up since rocket fuel tanks' level-up capacity bonuses are crippled compared to regular tanks' bonuses (half the bonus for significantly higher XP cost). Besides dragsters and a bit of fun or other edge cases, is there anyone here who uses rockets on a regular basis? personally, I use them with light warp shuttles to boost away from the planet as quickly as possible, but I could likely get much the same effect with a single extra medium freight engine. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VandelayIndustries Posted January 16, 2022 Share Posted January 16, 2022 Rockets need some love imo. Probably need dbl the current thrust, and half the consumption rate. But tbh I think it would have been WAY better if space engines didn't turn on until you actually out in space, not the 3.5km above surface area. If would lead to more interesting gameplay. And a usefulness to Rockets. Either use a slow AGG or use Rockets to punch up into space to turn your space engines on. Missed opportunity by NQ. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sevian Posted January 17, 2022 Share Posted January 17, 2022 The rockets are only really "useful" as they don't lose thrust when you cross the atmospheric boundary: so it's full thrust 100% of the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Namcigam Posted January 17, 2022 Share Posted January 17, 2022 I would love to use rockets on my ships for a boost between atmospheric engines and space engines but they made burning up too sensitive during exit and re-entry you pretty much have to risk breaking something during these transitions no matter how careful you are. Another big issue with them is the fuel is heavy and expensive and the duration is way too short. They would also be good to use as a rapid way of slowing down but the performance is short and weight makes it not worth it in my opinion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TonyTones Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 Rockets are still nice for instant power. Lots of fun and can be used in emergency situations. Also you can design a hauler that has rockets to get it out of alioth if overloaded. This keeps weight down vs adding more engines you don't usually need. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Endstar Posted January 18, 2022 Share Posted January 18, 2022 As long as I can remember rockets have been used for fun and fun alone in DU. GraXXoR 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caerus Posted January 26, 2022 Share Posted January 26, 2022 Ran some tests today adding 2 L rockets (connected to 2 L tanks) to a space only ship. Timing 0-29,999 km/hr was only a couple seconds faster with the rockets, so yeah, needs some attention, completely worthless (at least in space). GraXXoR 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GraXXoR Posted January 26, 2022 Author Share Posted January 26, 2022 Just look at the laughable DELTA-V in the ship design tab. 2 x L Engines with 2 x M fuel tanks Delta V 315 km/s 2 x M Rockets with 2 x M fuel tanks Delta V 900 m/s So basically; without rockets total Delta V = 315.0 kps WITH rockets, total Delta V = 315.9 kps AND you have to carry the weight of all that rocket fuel, those heavy tanks and the two rocket engines along with you unless you want to use them immediately on takeoff at which point you're "only" left with the tanks and engines themselves. So Ironically if you remove the two rockets and their tanks, the Delta V goes up to 317! You can go further without rockets than with. LOL. I used to add them to all my ships in the early days of warping because they got you out of planetary warp lock about 30 seconds (from Madis/Thades) or a minute (from Alioth/Sanc) quicker than without them and you could lift off and reach your warp engines' jump point destination within about 60 seconds if you really pushed the envelope out of atmosphere. So reducing 2 minutes to 1 minute is a decent 50% time saving.., But now, with the PVP murder-hobo placating requirements for a complete stop, followed by the "15 degrees an hour" (thanks Bob!) slow-as-a-Flat-Earther turn towards the destination culminating in a 15 second "spool up" and the super slowdown of the warp engine travel itself, it takes 4 or 5 minutes to reach a destination from lift off, making shaving a mere 30 seconds almost pointless. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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