Thrusters engineering question

[H34VY_R41N]

Hello, commanders!
Every thrusters' engineering decreases Optimal Mass parameter and increases Optimal Multiplier. Do I understand right, that it decreases overall thrusters' performance and increases boost?

[Squirg]

Dirty drives are the only effect ever worth considering anyway.

[Agony_Aunt]

Originally posted by Admiral Squirg:

Dirty drives are the only effect ever worth considering anyway.

Not true.

Clean drives are a good choice for exploration builds.

[Lightning]

Both affect ship's speed and agility, just in a bit different way.

Each thrusters has min/optimal/max mass and min/optimal/max multiplier. Each of mass value and multiplier value are related to each other.

For example, you have 7A thrusters on your ship: they have 1080/2160/3240 of min/optimal/max mass and 96%/100%/116% of min/optimal/max multiplier

If your ship's weight is 1080 tons or below (min mass), your ship's speed AND handling gets max multiplier bonus which is 116%.

If the weight is 2160 tons (optimal mass), you get optimal multiplier which is 100% , which means nothing's changed. Your ship is basically operated at their standard performance.

And at 3240 tons (max mass), your ships gets a penalty on speed and handling with that min multiplier which is 96%.

[Trackur]

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

Originally posted by Admiral Squirg:

Dirty drives are the only effect ever worth considering anyway.

Not true.

Clean drives are a good choice for exploration builds.

I have dirty drag on my exploraconda and I can still charge half my FSD while scooping before I start overheating..

[St0rmFury]

Originally posted by trackur:

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

Not true.

Clean drives are a good choice for exploration builds.

I have dirty drag on my exploraconda and I can still charge half my FSD while scooping before I start overheating..

That's because you don't use thrusters during supercruise.

[BatWingSix]

Dirty for combat / low temp running traders. Clean for exploration / high temp trading (type 7 style ships).

[Delta Green]

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

Originally posted by Admiral Squirg:

Dirty drives are the only effect ever worth considering anyway.

Not true.

Clean drives are a good choice for exploration builds.

Absolutely this. My AspX and deep space Anaconda both have clean with stripped down. The rest of my ships, dirty with drag.

[Trackur]

Originally posted by St0rmFury:

Originally posted by trackur:

I have dirty drag on my exploraconda and I can still charge half my FSD while scooping before I start overheating..

That's because you don't use thrusters during supercruise.

I think the heat generation still counts, Either way the point is that there is no reason to use clean drives for anything. Dirty drag all the way!! I suppose you could do dirty stripped down if you wanted.

[funkynutz]

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

Originally posted by Admiral Squirg:

Dirty drives are the only effect ever worth considering anyway.

Not true.

Clean drives are a good choice for exploration builds.

Also the best choice for stealth builds.

Originally posted by trackur:

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

Not true.

Clean drives are a good choice for exploration builds.

I have dirty drag on my exploraconda and I can still charge half my FSD while scooping before I start overheating..

That has nothing to do with your thrusters, that's because of your power plant and fuel scoop.

[Squirg]

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

Originally posted by Admiral Squirg:

Dirty drives are the only effect ever worth considering anyway.

Not true.

Clean drives are a good choice for exploration builds.

You realize clean drives run hotter than no engineering at all right?

[Dolphin Bottlenose]

Originally posted by Admiral Squirg:

You realize clean drives run hotter than no engineering at all right?

I think you are confusing power draw and thermal load. G5 Clean drives have a 60% reduction in thermal load. They run cooler.

[Squirg]

Originally posted by Dolphin Bottlenose:

Originally posted by Admiral Squirg:

You realize clean drives run hotter than no engineering at all right?

I think you are confusing power draw and thermal load. G5 Clean drives have a 60% reduction in thermal load. They run cooler.

No, I'm not. Build them both out and look at your actual heat loads in game. Clean Drives run 1-2% hotter than no engineering at all.

[funkynutz]

Originally posted by Admiral Squirg:

Originally posted by Agony_Aunt:

Not true.

Clean drives are a good choice for exploration builds.

You realize clean drives run hotter than no engineering at all right?

The whole point of clean drives is that they run cooler, the speed boost is just a secondary bonus.

Originally posted by Admiral Squirg:

Build them both out and look at your actual heat loads in game. Clean Drives run 1-2% hotter than no engineering at all.

I run a stealth DBS... With regular 4A drives, it idles at 23%. With g4 (maybe g5, I can't remember) clean drives it's idling at only 19%.

[Squirg]

Originally posted by FunkynutZ:

The whole point of clean drives is that they run cooler, the speed boost is just a secondary bonus.

Yeah clean drives run cooler than dirty drives, but if you want to be cold you're better off not engineering your thrusters at all, clean clean drives are hotter than no engineering.

[funkynutz]

Originally posted by Admiral Squirg:

Originally posted by FunkynutZ:

The whole point of clean drives is that they run cooler, the speed boost is just a secondary bonus.

Yeah clean drives run cooler than dirty drives, but if you want to be cold you're better off not engineering your thrusters at all, clean clean drives are hotter than no engineering.

Clean grade 1: 20% thermal load REDUCTION from standard.
Clean grade 2: 30% REDUCTION.
Clean grade 3: 40% REDUCTION.
Clean grade 4: 50% REDUCTION.
Clean grade 5: 60% REDUCTION.

If your ship was was running hotter with clean drives, you must have changed something else as well, OR you're using an undersized power plant and maxing it out with the clean drives extra power consumption.

With the thermal spread special effect it's a 64% reduction in thermal load. That's LESS heat from the drives, not more.

Originally posted by EDWiki:

Clean Thrusters is an engineer modification that can be applied to thrusters. It reduces thermal load and increases speed, at the cost of increased power draw, and reduced integrity.

Let me further emphasise that point for you:

It REDUCES thermal load