right now, a medium engine drains energy vary slowly, almost has the acceleration of a heavy engine, and is only 20 slower than the hvy engine.

The heavy engine gobbles energy super fast, has a little bit more acceleration, and has max speed 200. Now I think they hvy engine should BE a hvy engine...

My proposed change to balance the hvy engine with medium:
-slightly more power drain like 67 or 70 so people cant use a hvy battery get away with long boosts, the hvy engine should be for super fast small boosts.
-much faster acceleration than the medium engine to accomodate the massive drain it puts on battery
-slightly increased spin torque (bairly noticable, but still there)
-max boost speed of 205 or 210
-same non-turbo max speed

I was just thinking, for such fast power drainage, u should at least be-able to accelerate MUCH faster than the medium engine, and go MUCH faster top speeds than the medium engine.

I was thinking either that, or simply reduce the drainage of the hvy engine a bit and then leave it the same.

If you do that, un-nerf the light engine please. As it stands, the light engine, light battery and medium battery are utterly useless. I've tried, but they just... don't do anything.

oops, I forgot to mention the point of making all engines have a use lol... :/

when using the fast charge battery and medium engine uses 5 units of energy per sectond so you can only boost for 50 secs.

rogue the light engine/batt are fine.. they are a fairly good step up from the freebie engine/batt. keep in mind the final product will probably not have such easy access to all equipment.. either credits will be harder to get or the prices will be much higher.

Actually, the free stuff is better than the lgiht stuff.

50 seconds with med. engine and fast charge battery
maybe 10-20 seconds with hvy. engine and fast charge.

except the difference is all in the acceleration and highier top speed. in that 10 seconds u will be going the max speed for 5 of them... or something.. I just want a really fast ship that doesn't go fast for very long

No, keep the engines the way they are. The heavy engine "should" be able to boost away. As its designed to power a heavy ship so that a load full of cargo stands a chance at getting away from the latest pirate group in the area. The light and mediums are fine as well. They are here for the days when money will become a harder thing to earn. When your saving every penny you'll be glad for an engine and battery with just a tiny bit more power for that price you can just barely afford.

The more I think about it, the more I like Arolte's idea of restricting certain engine classes to certain ships. So, while a rag, maud, cent, or hornet can have a heavy, the centurion, vult, or valk would not. Of course, this would also nerf the vult's usefulness against a valk. Something will need to be done about that someday.

Right now, you either see a fighter w/ a medium-fast combo, a ragnarock w/ a heavy-heavy (not as common), or a bus w/ a free-free. I don't think that quite justifies the existence of the others, ESPECIALLY the light equipment, which is worse than the free stuff.

Here's my hairbrained idear:
Eliminate engines and their slots. Each ship will come with an intigrated engine. This makes more sense, as we're talking about swapping engines on SPACECRAFT, not your thirty year-old Chevy. This will give some advantages, such as another way of balancing. For example, we could resurrect some of those less common craft by giving them better engine options.

Before you throw a fit, I'm not suggesting that we eliminate all customizability. You would be able to purchase 'modifications' that affected your efficiency, acceleration, or top speed. These would throw in some interesting factors as a centaur w/ an efficiency mod would not be the same speed as an atlas or a vulture with the same exact modification.

see EVN (one more time).
there, you can buy all sorts of mods for engines, thrusters, whatever your heart desires.
i would also like to see the mass of the ship affect its responsibilty and max speed.
e.g.: a valkyrie that has loaded up on three flare launchers with full magazines would have to be significantly slower/less responsible... than a valkyrie outfitted with three gauss, which in turn would be slower than a tri-tach or tri-grav valkyrie.
same way with cargo: a centaur with empty holds can outfly a centaur crammed to the hatch with precious metals.
give each cargo a very own density and such, and you get all sorts of customizability.

And - you get real pirating - If you want to get away from a pirate with tri flare, jettison cargo. it makes you go faster, and meanwhile they are bogged down because they picked up your cargo and have a loaded valk.

yeah, actually if you'd eject the cargo rather than jettison it, you could get an additional "jump-start". what about a cargo catapult?

First we'l have to invent a slot for it...

But in all seriousness, if you want to spew your cargo, you just open the hold doors without depressurizing first. Then, the escape of the gases will propel the cargo into the void. It'd make it a bit harder for the pirate to pick up, as well, as they'd end up more spread out.

why pressurize the cargo holds at all in the first place?
besides, few ships look like they actually have a cargo "hold" (namely the warthog, the wraith, the atlas, the ragnarok and the centaur).
de- and repressurizing your cargo hold would put unnecessary stress to your life support systems.
yay for the cargo catapult!

why pressurize the cargo holds at all in the first place?

To haul perishable or easily damaged goods. You dont want the foodwigits becoming spacefrozen on their way to the consumerwigits do you? :) they arent very edible that way.

Have you seen the containers the cargo comes in? They're indestructable. No need to pressurize the hold.

hehe he didn't ask if it was logical he just asked for a reason. maybe the cargo is pleasure slaves bound for Noran 4 in the Rogorian system and you have to punch airholes in the cargo containers so they dont suffocate.

/me imagines firing cargo out of his ship and destroying the pirate behind him =)

Then cargo should do damage if you thrust into it at 180m/s .. you'd need a lower relative speed, so if your pirate is hot on your heels (200m away at 180m/s), you drop the cargo - instant boobytrap 8)

As for pressurizing cargo holds - play a game of Elite (Yes the OOOOLD space game Vendetta is emulating), buy a bunch of slaves and forget cargo-bay lifesupport...BAM - instant fertilizers!

@SoundGuy66
Yay - I'm all for integrated engines (since spaceships in most designs are engines with hull and guns)

/G