New engine types |
Ok so the new engine types appear to offer little advantage for the cost. In v1.00 you can just stick one of the new engines on and get bonus movement which works but it still seem like an awful lot of research for little improvement. Just from Ion to Jacketed Photon the cost per engine increases 50% and you get one extra point of movement. Or am I just missing something?
Plus if you're faster you
Plus if you're faster you can avoid combat altogether 
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Mr. Flibble says...
Game over, boys! 
I agree, and think it is a
I agree, and think it is a design flaw. I think if they reduced the space requirements it would make it better to use the newer engines from the start, or only give the extra movement point if all engines are the same type.
Engine exploit really...
That's because the movement bonus isn't supposed to work with mixed engines... I'd imagine this will be set correctly in the next patch as it was in SE:IV.
I don't mind having the Engine types listed separately though since you might want to use Ion Engines on transports and stuff like that where speed isn't necessary.
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Engine cost
A Quantum engine- the best type- costs just under twice as much as an Ion Engine.
Seems expensive, but consider the weapons. An Anti-Proton Beam I costs 50 minerals. By max level it costs 550! Shields, armor, ECM, sensors..they all go up.
Re: New engine types
A part of the problem is the number of engines required to get to max speed. That means that the percentage of total hull space required goes down as hull size goes up.
On a max level Frigate, 12 (the max on a frigate) engines take up a bit over 25% of the total space.
On a max level Dreadnought, 8 engines (the max on a dreadnought) take up a little bit over 4.7% of the total space.
Might be just me, but that seems a little strange.
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Speed is life.
You'll find in combat that if you're too much slower than your opponent, they'll pick you to pieces without too much problem. The engines are definitely worth the extra cost. Just one though- make the rest of your engines Ion.