How do You Make Ships and Hovercrafts go Faster?

[Nox Tenebris]

I made a ship with a ton of forward thrust but it goes the same speed as my old ship, capped at 70 m/s. Same with my hover vehicle. It doesn't seem to matter how many thrusters I put, it only goes at 50 m/s?

[kDM]

There are hard caps on speed, both for planets and space, any faster and things wouldn't render in time and could potentially destroy your vessel before you've even seen it.

[Nox Tenebris]

Originally posted by kDM:

There are hard caps on speed, both for planets and space, any faster and things wouldn't render in time and could potentially destroy your vessel before you've even seen it.

Oh damn, then what is the point of upgrading to better thrusters? Ship already accelerates to max speed quick enough with early game thrusters.

[Whiplash711]

Originally posted by Nox Tenebris:

Originally posted by kDM:

There are hard caps on speed, both for planets and space, any faster and things wouldn't render in time and could potentially destroy your vessel before you've even seen it.

Oh damn, then what is the point of upgrading to better thrusters? Ship already accelerates to max speed quick enough with early game thrusters.

They did bump up speed a little but the purpose of the different thrusters are not really felt if you play without CPU and Weight turned on. Once you use those then there is a big use. Devs gave the option to turn those off knowing that otherwise they would fast an angry mob. They are however developing the game with those mechanics in mind.

[Wisp Cat]

Max speed also depends on the design of your ship.

Or, I know that I have changed max speed on stuff I have built by putting bigger thrusters on.

[Whiplash711]

Originally posted by Watering Cthulhu:

Max speed also depends on the design of your ship.

Or, I know that I have changed max speed on stuff I have built by putting bigger thrusters on.

Yeah but much like Space Engineers there is a cap you can only go so fast. Could also say much like your car. A tune up other things could pull more speed out but there is a hard cap of how fast the car will go. I know I help people in pickups learn that all the time in my little sports coupe. Most pickup do not like doing triple digits, the engines start to make loud noises and drivers tend to pull over. LMAO.

[MR DNA]

Originally posted by Whiplash711:

Originally posted by Watering Cthulhu:

...triple digits, the engines start to make loud noises and drivers tend to pull over. LMAO.

From this statement, it is clear you have never seen triple digits yourself.
Pickups can run 115-125 stock easily and this is capped by the limiter of the OEM.

[EzRyder]

larger thrusters give you more 'thrust' per cube used, its more for moving mass than speed directly
if you use weight and volume this becomes very important
i cant speak for hv's much since i do not build/use them very much and mainly concern myself with balance on these
but lets say you have a small sv, with small thrusters that does fine empty. now triple the weight with some ores or by making the ship bigger ... and you will be lucky if it lifts off the ground and if it does it will likely be incredibly slow moving (forward speed is reduced). add the next size thrusters and the ship may be back to max speed with that higher mass

so increasing thrust will give you a benefit to speed but only in the situation where the mass is too much for the current thrust

it is possible that the max speed (which can vary from ship to ship) is calculated using a similar formula that weight/volume does to determine the max of that ship (up to the cap) - it may be worth adding some thrusters just to see (if yours are not at cap speed already) even when not using weight and volume it might give you a boost idk

[OnlyZuul]

Originally posted by Nox Tenebris:

Originally posted by kDM:

There are hard caps on speed, both for planets and space, any faster and things wouldn't render in time and could potentially destroy your vessel before you've even seen it.

Oh damn, then what is the point of upgrading to better thrusters? Ship already accelerates to max speed quick enough with early game thrusters.

The point is weight. If you're playing with weight and volume turning on then the weight of your ship matters. Cargo adds weight so you have to balance performance with a full load of cargo. That is the point of more or less thrust.

[Midas]

Originally posted by Nox Tenebris:

Originally posted by kDM:

There are hard caps on speed, both for planets and space, any faster and things wouldn't render in time and could potentially destroy your vessel before you've even seen it.

Oh damn, then what is the point of upgrading to better thrusters? Ship already accelerates to max speed quick enough with early game thrusters.

Mainly for acceleration. The stronger your thrusters, the faster you can change direction. Being able to move at max speed is all well and good if you're just transporting cargo or something, but if you're in a battle, you want to be able to maneuver quickly.

[RoY]

Originally posted by Nox Tenebris:

Originally posted by kDM:

There are hard caps on speed, both for planets and space, any faster and things wouldn't render in time and could potentially destroy your vessel before you've even seen it.

Oh damn, then what is the point of upgrading to better thrusters?

High Gravity planets. Some planets have very strong gravity pull. If you have lots of weight and weak thrusters + strong gravity you'll end up stuck on the planet.

[Wisp Cat]

Also, in space, max speed is about 129m/s. If your vehicle is significantly slower than that, upgraded thrusters would make it go faster.