User:Cassiel Seraphim/Sandbox13

Afterburners and microwarpdrives

Afterburners (AB) and Microwarpdrives (MWD) are the most commonly used propulsion modules. Afterburners increase the ship's maximum speed by around 150%, while Microwarpdrives increase it by around 500%. Compared with Afterburners, Microwarpdrives use more capacitor energy, reduce the ship's total capacitor capacity, are shut down by warp scramblers, inflates the ship's signature and are generally harder to fit.

These propulsion modules come in various sizes, one of each for each class of hull size. Below is a list of the various sizes and the ship classes they are normally intended to be fitted to:

AB/MWD	Ship class	Thrust
1MN / 5MN	Frigates and Destroyers	1,500,000 N
10MN / 100MN	Cruisers, Battlecruisers and non-capital Industrials	15,000,000 N
100MN / 500MN	Battleships	150,000,000 N
10000MN / 50000MN	Capital Ships	1,500,000,000 N

Oversized afterburners

It is possible to fit ships with oversized afterburners: 10MN on frigate/destroyer or 100MN on cruiser/battlecruiser. The high fitting requirement of larger afterburner usually makes this harder to do. In this case the full maximum velocity formula needs to be used.

Generally the resulting maximum velocity is close to normal sized microwarpdrive but the added bonus is that the oversized afterburner is not shut down by scramblers. The drawback is greatly increased ship mass which makes maneuvering harder.

Related skills

The following skills directly effect afterburners and/or microwarpdrives.

• Acceleration Control 5% Bonus to Afterburner and Microwarpdrive speed boost per skill level.
• Afterburner 5% reduction to Afterburner duration and 10% reduction in Afterburner capacitor use per skill level.
• Fuel Conservation 10% reduction in afterburner capacitor needs per skill level.
• High Speed Maneuvering 5% reduction in MicroWarpdrive capacitor usage per skill level.

Velocity formula

The maximum velocity bonus of a propulsion module is as follows:

Vpropulsionbonus = Vbase × Vbonus × ( Thrust / Mass )

To make this clearer, you can combine this formula with the regular velocity formula and turn it into two sections; one for your maximum velocity without your propulsion module turned on and one for when you turn on the propulsion module, since the Thrust / Mass part of the formula isn't relevant when your propulsion module is turned off. Since the game also separates and stacks independently the propulsion Maximum Velocity Bonus and  Navigation bonuses from other Velocity Modifier bonuses such as propulsion upgrades, you can greatly improve transparency by rewriting the formula.

Without an active propulsion module:

Vmax = Vbase × Vskillbonus × Vvelocitymodifier

With an active propulsion module:

Vmax = Vbase × Vskillbonus × Vvelocitymodifier × V(propbonus * thrust / mass)

The show info of a propulsion module will normally show the raw propulsion bonus, for example +500% for a microwarpdrive, but when fitted it will multiply with skills and show, for example +625% for someone with  Navigation V trained. This means that the skill is accounted for twice, first for your general Velocity Modifier bonus and again by augmenting the Maximum Velocity Bonus from propulsion modules.

Here's an example of a ship without a propulsion module:

The  Heron has a base speed of 340 m/sec. This is then further improved by your  Navigation skill, for a high-skilled player that means +25% more speed and a total speed of 425 m/sec. If you were to put on some Nanofiber Internal Structure I modules on there, two to be exact, you'll get an additional +7.75% bonus for the first one and then +6.73568% for the second one (~86,9% effective due to stacking penalties) resulting in a new speed of 340 (base) * 1.25 (skill) * 1.0775 * 1.0673568 (modules) which rounds up to 488.7827 m/sec.

Here's an example (with rounded numbers) how things change when adding a propulsion module:

Now add a 50MN Microwarpdrive I to the above mentioned  Heron, which has a +500% maximum velocity bonus influenced by the  Navigation, making it a +625% bonus thanks to the +25% bonus from the skill. The propulsion bonus is then modified by the 1,500,000N thrust and the base mass of 1,150,000 kg for the ship as well as the +500,000 kg the propulsion module itself adds when turned on (total mass is 1,650,000 kg). The old calculation for your maximum velocity before turning on your propulsion module is the same 340 (base) * 1.25 (skill) * 1.0775 * 1.0673568 (modules) which rounds up to 488.7827 m/sec. For the actual propulsion modifier (accounting for the bonus modified by thrust and mass) you get 1 + (5 (base) * 1.25 (skill) * 1500000 (thrust) / 1650000 (mass)) that's 6,681818 resulting in a new maximum speed of 488.7827 * 6.681818 which rounds up to 3,265.9570 m/sec.