It has been brought to my attention that radiators DON'T reduce material efficiency anymore. They're just less effective at cooling individual cylinders than exhaust. To quote: "radiators USED to reduce efficiency. they don't anymore. I assume back then the idea was that they were only for situations where you absolutely couldn't vent exhaust; or were to reduce your heat signature" So sorry for getting that wrong. This is why engine tutorials are scary to do: it's REALLY easy to miss information, and the game itself keeps changing. 😅
I just spent about 12 hours the last 3 days playing around with fuel engines, I really like small turbo injectors. If you're going cheap and are putting 2 injectors on one cylinder you probably want 3 exhausts.
Power, Efficiency, Compactness; pick two. Injectors get you Power and Compactness, at awful efficiency Superchargers get you Efficiency and Compactness, but are much weaker unless they're always operating at capacity Turbochargers get you Power and Efficiency, but are much bigger than their competitors. Hybrids can get you all three, at the cost of also picking up the secret fourth stat: Headaches. Hybrids are cursed; they're like if APS was an engine, and also not an intentional game mechanic. Or you could have multiple types and finagle the priorities in the V menu, so that your Superchargers always get used first and Injectors stay off unless they're needed.
Having been on the steam side my entire building career this feels useful as a secondary emergency generator to stick in the core of the ship in case the main steam works gets hit. set the power priority low so it only pulls when there is a need and that will help keep it cool and even out the spikes in demand.
The best fuel engine I've come up with is a 5x5x5 including piping. It is a 12-cylinder engine, it has 8 carburetors connected to 3 cylinders and 3 turbochargers each (2 carburetors and turbochargers per cylinder) generating 4328.4 stable power at 721.4 PPM (685.6 PPM at 25% load) . The build cost is 1140 and has a volume of 109.
1. Exhausts only deliver about 4C cooling for each cylinder, no matter how many you place. 2. Injectors and carburators make a cylinder have a bigger volume of exhaust, which is good to know, if you want to manage your turbo.
I need to double check, but I distinctly remember each slot on a cylinder providing an additional multiple of exhaust, so three ports on a given cylinder connected to exhaust should cool 12 C for that cylinder.
Just checked ingame, it's 4C per utilized port on the cylinder. It does get tricky trying to get good utilization though when you're doing some really confined engine tetris, so radiators still have a niche, especially if your engine runs really hot in general.
I quite like using radiator-cooled exhaustless supercharger engines, for two reasons. 1: I like having redundancy on my craft, so unless I need to absolutely min-max my power per volume, having more supercharger engines running in parallel means more fuel efficiency. 2: The radiators keep the engine cool enough that it will be the last potential target for Hot Block aimpoint selection. Yes, each cylinder does still generate heat, but it's usually less than 50 degrees, whereas exhausts can get to 100s of degrees. The downside of course is that they're more potential targets for block cluster aimpoints.
I used to love fuel engines. I never got into the crazy 3T and above designs, but I did have fun with the tetris for 1T and 2T designs. Then they went and got rid of fuel and changed all the balancing and suddenly the most fuel efficient design I could come up with was a freaking custom jet engine. Injectors were basically as fuel efficient as turbo designs while being far more compact. And nothing was better than steam engines. Sad days. I'll grant that the fuel efficiency of old fuel engines was a bit ridiculous, but the changes made were terrible. That said, for all I know they overhauled it again. I have no idea. I hope so.
Wait, how do radiators reduce efficiency? I use radiators more than exhaust, is that why my fuel engines are always almost as inefficient as steam over time?
It never sank in that you can forgo exhaust completely on fuel engines if you use enough radiators. Thanks for that info. Your better with fuel engines then I am. If you still want more info and/or examples on steam engines(for later use), I can supply you with a set of compact steam engines. Down to as small 3x3x4. Mostly medium, but the smallest are small engines. I already have it available on the steam workshop; "Ultra Compact Steam Piston Engines" under the same character name as here. If nothing else, you can at least use them as smaller drop in power blocks for your ships.
One of my patrons has actualluly built one for me! In the meantime, I think if you search 'fuel engine' on the steam workshop, there's at least one recent engine platform. 👍
It's actually a bad idea to only put injectors on an engine. You have a LOT of exhaust you could use to power turbos, which would not only make the engine more efficient, but also more powerful. I actually have an 3x3x3 engine that is fairly efficient, dishing out 1400 units of power (504 power/material thanks to turbocompressors) and also has turbochargers that allow the engine to stay really efficient at low RPMs (704/material). All in all, it's my default engine now for most my crafts as it has great sustainability in its lower RPM range, but also decent efficiency for such a powerful, cheap and compact engine. So yeah, if I have a small craft I need to power, it's my go to. It would also make for a decent backup engine, though it runs a little warm and could use more cooling.
@@BorderWise12 I don't remember if you mentioned it or not, but in most cases, adding radiators drastically improve engine efficiency even because of the heating mechanics. The backdraw is too inconsequencial to really matter, and the extra cooling is almost always worth it.
I like to have a bunch of inefficient but compact injector engines spread around my larger ships so that if the main engines get gutted I can retain enough power to at least run basic "keeping moving" or "staying in the air" systems running for just a bit longer. They're bad engines, but they give a healthy amount of energy with a minimum of space or cost commitment, and they don't need to run for long.
I usually generate backup power from CJEs(I make aircraft mostly) that turns on through bread. Also same goes for ship if you use steam propellers. If you test enough you will find that limit where ur speed doesnt change much but you get nice amount of power. Backup engines ofc are rly good but you can always make em efficient.@@tortugagreen9924
It has been brought to my attention that radiators DON'T reduce material efficiency anymore. They're just less effective at cooling individual cylinders than exhaust.
To quote: "radiators USED to reduce efficiency. they don't anymore. I assume back then the idea was that they were only for situations where you absolutely couldn't vent exhaust; or were to reduce your heat signature"
So sorry for getting that wrong. This is why engine tutorials are scary to do: it's REALLY easy to miss information, and the game itself keeps changing. 😅
Basically they are space efficient, not material efficient.
Also you can do some very silly things when you realise radiators connect to each other.
I just spent about 12 hours the last 3 days playing around with fuel engines, I really like small turbo injectors. If you're going cheap and are putting 2 injectors on one cylinder you probably want 3 exhausts.
Power, Efficiency, Compactness; pick two.
Injectors get you Power and Compactness, at awful efficiency
Superchargers get you Efficiency and Compactness, but are much weaker unless they're always operating at capacity
Turbochargers get you Power and Efficiency, but are much bigger than their competitors.
Hybrids can get you all three, at the cost of also picking up the secret fourth stat: Headaches. Hybrids are cursed; they're like if APS was an engine, and also not an intentional game mechanic.
Or you could have multiple types and finagle the priorities in the V menu, so that your Superchargers always get used first and Injectors stay off unless they're needed.
I meant to mention the 'Pick 2 of the 3' thing and I completely forgot. Thanks for mentioning that! :D
@@BorderWise12 No problem! Thank you for making the tutorials that got me to the point I could figure that out!
Having been on the steam side my entire building career this feels useful as a secondary emergency generator to stick in the core of the ship in case the main steam works gets hit. set the power priority low so it only pulls when there is a need and that will help keep it cool and even out the spikes in demand.
The best fuel engine I've come up with is a 5x5x5 including piping. It is a 12-cylinder engine, it has 8 carburetors connected to 3 cylinders and 3 turbochargers each (2 carburetors and turbochargers per cylinder) generating 4328.4 stable power at 721.4 PPM (685.6 PPM at 25% load) . The build cost is 1140 and has a volume of 109.
I'm begging you, please upload it to the workshop then come back here with a link 😂 🙏
Big efficiency numbers make my day, any day. Engine nerd here
Yay finally been whating for eges for this one
1. Exhausts only deliver about 4C cooling for each cylinder, no matter how many you place.
2. Injectors and carburators make a cylinder have a bigger volume of exhaust, which is good to know, if you want to manage your turbo.
I need to double check, but I distinctly remember each slot on a cylinder providing an additional multiple of exhaust, so three ports on a given cylinder connected to exhaust should cool 12 C for that cylinder.
Just checked ingame, it's 4C per utilized port on the cylinder. It does get tricky trying to get good utilization though when you're doing some really confined engine tetris, so radiators still have a niche, especially if your engine runs really hot in general.
If only engines were as simple irl as they are in ftd
Yaaaaaaaaaaaay :D Please show us an example of a modular carbureted turbo block. I have all this exhaust and nowhere to put it!😶🌫
I quite like using radiator-cooled exhaustless supercharger engines, for two reasons.
1: I like having redundancy on my craft, so unless I need to absolutely min-max my power per volume, having more supercharger engines running in parallel means more fuel efficiency.
2: The radiators keep the engine cool enough that it will be the last potential target for Hot Block aimpoint selection. Yes, each cylinder does still generate heat, but it's usually less than 50 degrees, whereas exhausts can get to 100s of degrees. The downside of course is that they're more potential targets for block cluster aimpoints.
My personal favorites are turbo charger engines, sometimes hybrids with superchargers.
I found a pattern I like very much using the adapters.
I used to love fuel engines. I never got into the crazy 3T and above designs, but I did have fun with the tetris for 1T and 2T designs. Then they went and got rid of fuel and changed all the balancing and suddenly the most fuel efficient design I could come up with was a freaking custom jet engine. Injectors were basically as fuel efficient as turbo designs while being far more compact. And nothing was better than steam engines.
Sad days. I'll grant that the fuel efficiency of old fuel engines was a bit ridiculous, but the changes made were terrible.
That said, for all I know they overhauled it again. I have no idea. I hope so.
it's steam all the way for me. love me some steam.
Wait, how do radiators reduce efficiency?
I use radiators more than exhaust, is that why my fuel engines are always almost as inefficient as steam over time?
They make the engine burn more materials over time, yes.
Okay question whats more efficient for charging the battery's steam or fuel?
Steam. Definitely steam.
@@BorderWise12 do you have a tutorial of this? Im new i only have 100 hours in the game.
It never sank in that you can forgo exhaust completely on fuel engines if you use enough radiators. Thanks for that info. Your better with fuel engines then I am.
If you still want more info and/or examples on steam engines(for later use), I can supply you with a set of compact steam engines. Down to as small 3x3x4. Mostly medium, but the smallest are small engines. I already have it available on the steam workshop; "Ultra Compact Steam Piston Engines" under the same character name as here. If nothing else, you can at least use them as smaller drop in power blocks for your ships.
are there any good up to date engine prefabs to download?
One of my patrons has actualluly built one for me! In the meantime, I think if you search 'fuel engine' on the steam workshop, there's at least one recent engine platform. 👍
It's actually a bad idea to only put injectors on an engine. You have a LOT of exhaust you could use to power turbos, which would not only make the engine more efficient, but also more powerful.
I actually have an 3x3x3 engine that is fairly efficient, dishing out 1400 units of power (504 power/material thanks to turbocompressors) and also has turbochargers that allow the engine to stay really efficient at low RPMs (704/material). All in all, it's my default engine now for most my crafts as it has great sustainability in its lower RPM range, but also decent efficiency for such a powerful, cheap and compact engine. So yeah, if I have a small craft I need to power, it's my go to. It would also make for a decent backup engine, though it runs a little warm and could use more cooling.
What you're talking about is hybrid engines, and yes we will get to those. 👍
@@BorderWise12 I don't remember if you mentioned it or not, but in most cases, adding radiators drastically improve engine efficiency even because of the heating mechanics. The backdraw is too inconsequencial to really matter, and the extra cooling is almost always worth it.
People still use injectors? 👀
They're the lazy option. XD
for when you didn't leave enough space for engines
Yup. It's why I keep using them. 😅@@mrfigaloopierre9610
I like to have a bunch of inefficient but compact injector engines spread around my larger ships so that if the main engines get gutted I can retain enough power to at least run basic "keeping moving" or "staying in the air" systems running for just a bit longer.
They're bad engines, but they give a healthy amount of energy with a minimum of space or cost commitment, and they don't need to run for long.
I usually generate backup power from CJEs(I make aircraft mostly) that turns on through bread. Also same goes for ship if you use steam propellers. If you test enough you will find that limit where ur speed doesnt change much but you get nice amount of power.
Backup engines ofc are rly good but you can always make em efficient.@@tortugagreen9924