Thruster

A thruster is a propulsion building used to accelerate and propel player-created platforms during interplanetary travel. Thrusters produce thrust (measured in meganewtons, MN) by consuming a fluid fuel; multiple thrusters add their thrust forces linearly. Thrusters are sized to occupy horizontal tiles on a platform, so their placement directly affects platform width and therefore aerodynamic drag and top speed.

Platform design and thruster placement are the primary determinants of travel performance. Platform width (in tiles) is far more important than total mass in determining the achievable top speed; drag increases with width and grows quadratically with velocity. Mass affects acceleration time modestly but has much less effect on top speed, which encourages long, narrow platform shapes (rocket-like designs) for the fastest interplanetary travel. When adding thrusters, the optimal number is usually the maximum that fits within the chosen platform width without increasing it: widening a platform to add thrusters increases drag and can cancel or reverse gains in top speed.

Thruster output and fuel consumption vary with throttle and quality (rarity). Each thruster’s relative thrust and relative fluid consumption are expressed as percentages across throttle settings. For example, a base-quality thruster at 50% relative thrust produces about 55.95 MN while a legendary thruster at the same relative point produces about 139.45 MN (roughly 150% more). Fluid consumption per thruster scales by quality and throttle; tables in the datasheet specify exact units/second for each quality at multiple filled-reserve percentages and throttle points.

The game’s physics use these formulas: net force equals thrust plus drag, and net acceleration equals net force divided by platform mass. Drag is computed as a function of platform width w, mass m, and a speed parameter v; it increases with the square of velocity and includes a small term that scales with platform mass to penalize extremely heavy platforms. A closed-form expression for theoretical maximum speed is: v_max = 10 * sqrt((480000 * F_thrust / (m + 10000) - 480) / w + 9) - 30, with the actual maximum varying by ±10 due to trip-phase offsets. When thrust equals drag, acceleration ceases and the platform has reached top speed.

Practical usage and strategy:

• Favor narrow platforms over heavy or wide ones. Width drives drag, so increasing width to accommodate additional thrusters usually reduces top speed.
• Pack as many thrusters as will fit within the chosen width before widening the platform. Stacking thrusters vertically (if possible within design) allows more thrusters without increasing width.
• Increasing thrust by adding fuel or thrusters alone yields diminishing returns; to achieve roughly linear speed gains both thrust capacity and fuel flow should be increased proportionally.
• For missions relying solely on pre-stored fuel (no refuelling en route), lower throttle settings generally minimize total fuel volume consumed for a given trip: slower flights are more fuel-efficient per distance. The minimum fuel consumption typically occurs at very low throttle, though extremely wide or heavy platforms can shift the optimal throttle slightly upward.
• Mass affects acceleration to top speed (heavier platforms take longer), so very heavy platforms may benefit from higher thrust-to-mass ratios to reduce time spent accelerating.
• Thruster quality (rarity) increases both thrust and fuel consumption; choose higher-quality thrusters when added thrust per tile is needed and fuel supply supports the higher consumption.

Use the thruster datasheet values and the formulas above to model platform performance precisely when designing long-range ships; the interplay of width, thrust, fuel flow, and mass determines both travel time and total fuel required.