Thruster

Thruster is a space platform building that produces thrust by consuming fluid fuel. It is the primary propulsion building for moving platforms between locations, and its performance depends on both the amount of thrust installed and how the platform is shaped. Thrusters stack additively, so adding more units increases total thrust, but the resulting speed also depends heavily on platform drag.

A platform’s top speed is determined much more by width than by mass. Wider platforms experience much higher drag, while mass has only a comparatively small effect on maximum speed and mostly affects how quickly that speed is reached. This makes long, narrow, rocket-like platform designs the most effective choice for fast interplanetary travel. In practice, adding more thrusters is only worthwhile if they can be installed without making the platform wider. Once extra thrusters force the platform to expand outward, the extra thrust is often canceled by the added drag, and with fixed fuel flow can even reduce top speed.

Thruster performance also shows diminishing returns with either extra fuel or extra thrusters when the other factor is held constant. At low fuel levels, the thruster becomes more efficient, so increasing fuel or thrust alone gives progressively smaller gains. Linear gains require both fuel and thrust to be increased together. For fuel-limited journeys, the lowest practical flight speed uses the least total fuel volume overall, because the improved efficiency at low throttle outweighs the longer travel time. On very wide or very heavy platforms, the fuel-optimal point can shift slightly above minimum throttle, but the difference is shallow.

The thruster’s output varies with its quality and current fluid reserve. Relative thrust and relative fluid consumption are given as percentages of the thruster’s quality range. For a normal thruster, 50% relative thrust is 55.95 MN, while for a legendary thruster it is 139.45 MN. Fluid consumption also scales strongly with quality, from 6.00 units/s for a normal thruster at full reserve up to 15.00 units/s for a legendary one.

• Platform width is the key factor for top speed; mass matters much less.
• If adding a thruster requires widening the platform, the extra thruster may not improve speed.
• Multiple thrusters stack additively, but speed gains diminish unless fuel supply increases too.
• For fuel-limited trips, slower travel usually consumes less total fuel.
• Very wide or very heavy platforms may have a shallow fuel-use minimum above the lowest throttle.
• A 32-tile-wide platform reaches maximum speed with 8 thrusters, since each thruster is 4 tiles wide.