Worst engine in KSP

[goduranus]

While there's no best engine, does anyone think that there may be a worst engine?

The Thud(medium radial)is pretty bad imo, it's expensive and heavy, it's too big for small rockets, but if you have a rocket big enough to use the Thud it's better to use inline engines.

It's got a good gimbal range but I've never found a use for it.

Edited July 3, 2016 by goduranus

[Bill Phil]

The Thud used to be pretty awful. But now it's not that bad, but it isn't an engine I would use regularly. However, I wouldn't say there's a worst, either.

[Jetski]

Puff mono engine

[Dfthu]

The flea SRB. Nobody ever uses it besides their first flight in career mode.

[Spartwo]

The poodle, so bad I haven't given it a second chance.

[Corona688]

The poodle is terrific if you know it's just a scaled-up terrier with the same relatively low but super high efficiency thrust (and awful atmospheric performance).  The game just calls it a "small engine" without pointing out its intended uses.  I will concede that its boring and ugly.

Another vote for the thud.  They've built gimbaling into literally every large engine, there's nothing for it to augment.  It fits a gap between two engines of larger and smaller thrust, except it doesn't -- you have to use them in pairs or more, so that gap is still empty.  The vernier engine gives us even less reason to use them.

Edited July 4, 2016 by Corona688

[cubinator]

I vote Flea as well. I've literally never used it for anything but the first flight, except in one really grindy save where I had to do extra flights to unlock the next nodes.

[HebaruSan]

All the jet engines other than the RAPIER and Whiplash. I want to go to space.

[TwinKerbal]

Ant.  No question

[Brownhair2]

The Flea may never be used, but that doesn't make it bad. I'd say the Ant and the Spider, since those are the only engines I have never used. Not even once

[solarbearman]

The reliant. Swivel is better.

[Corona688]

A slightly-worse-than-the-best-engine-in-the-game engine isnt the worst-engine-in-the-game.

[Ultimate Steve]

There is no worst engine. Just engine for different jobs.

Wait, what if I did a bracket?

*15 minutes later*

Spider worse than twin boar. Rhino worse than twitch (I really like the twitch), Thud worse than mammoth, Juno worse than puff, Ant worse than Wheesley, Panther Whiplash worse than Terrier, Goliath worse than Reliant (I never use either, mostly), Flea worse than Swivel, Hammer worse than Vector, Thumper worse than RAPIER. Dart vs. Kickback is tough, but I'll say Dart is less used. Sepatron is worse than Nerv, although still very useful. LES worse than Poodle, Dawn less useful than skipper, and Mainsail gets a free pass because there are 31 engines.

Round 2. Spider worse than Rhino, Juno worse than Thud (Still fun to play with), Panther worse than Ant (Great for tiny ships), Goliath worse than Whiplash, Flea worse than Hammer, Thumper worse than Dart, LES worse than Sepatron, and Dawn worse than Mainsail.

Round 3: Spider vs. Juno. A tough one. I'll say that the spider is worse. Panther and goliath? Goliath. Flea and Thumper? Flea. LES and Dawn? LES.

Round 4: Spider vs. Goliath. Goliath worse. Flea and LES? I think LES is worse.

Now, it comes down to the Goliath and the LES. Even now, they both are useful in their niches, but if I had to say one was worse it would be the Goliath.

So, the above is all opinion. It also should be noted that everything is useful somewhere.

 

EDIT: I may very well have been nerd sniped here.

Edited July 4, 2016 by Ultimate Steve

[RocketSquid]

Ant. I have never once found a use for it. Spider I found a use for, ant, nope.

I used thuds for my Mun missions, where adding another poodle would make the whole thing fall over. Puffs are useful because, hey, monoprop engine. Poodles are good for service modules, very convenient. Fleas are not very useful, but they are fun. All jet engines, goliath included, have uses, but admittedly the goliath is the least useful jet. Reliants are good for early-game LVs.

[Xyphos]

While there is no "best" or "worst" engine, because each is better suited for different tasks, I will actually defend Thud's honor by mentioning that it's better suited for short VTOL flight operation and is small enough to fit inside a cargo bay, along it's walls and still have enough room to drop off a size-1 payload.

but in my most humblest opinion, the Rhino is the worst - sure it has the second (or third?) best ISP in game, but it's size, weight and relative lack of power negates any real benefits to using it; I'd rather slap on some mammoths and/or vectors and just muscle my way to orbit. who needs all that fancy efficiency when you can just use raw power? I mean, once it's in orbit, you won't ever need the darn thing again, because it's nukes all the way from here. save yourself some effort and skip the middle stage entirely.

Edited July 4, 2016 by Xyphos

[GoSlash27]

Another vote for the Flea. There's nothing that engine can do that can't be done better with another engine. The only reason to ever use it is it's the only game in town in very early career, but I work my early career so that I never need it.

Other than that, I'll put in a highly controversial vote for the Vector. It's got great numbers on paper, but it's so expensive that it can't be used in career unless it's brought home intact and there always seems to be easier/ cheaper ways to do the same job with a different engine.

Best,
-Slashy
 

[septemberWaves]

I regularly use every engine in the game. Sometimes that's entirely for aesthetic purposes (e.g. mimicking the aesthetic of a Delta IV Heavy launch vehicle) but they all have their uses if you don't care an enormous amount about efficiency.

[cfds]

What is so bad about the Ant? Since 1.0.x it has ok TWR and rather good ISP. It is my preferred engine for satellites.

Edited July 4, 2016 by cfds

[septemberWaves]

The ant engine is great; anything fairly small can make use of it and it has incredible ISP for its size. It's far better than the spark for any non-atmospheric use that doesn't involve landing, and in some cases it works quite nicely as a landing engine as well. It's a nice precursor to the ion engine.

[Xavven]

I vote Thud for the reasons already explained.

 

Like cfds and Jane, I do use the Ant engine on satellites a lot. When your payload is that light, even shaving 0.1 tons can increase your delta-v by a material amount.

[KerikBalm]

I use the flea for recoverable rato packs... when I only want a short burntime... but I suppose a rt-10 with the fuel tweaked down would also serve.

 

Thuds I've used them on large landers where radial attachment is desireable... but honestly I choose them for their looks because of the abilit of the aerospike to surface attach as well.

 

The wing covers a lot of this, but here the dropship lands with a pair of aerospieks close the the CoM, and 2 pairs of thuds for control, the front one action grouped for extra control of pitch.

 

The ant at least has a better Isp than the spark... 315 isn't bad... but the spider... thats got terrible Isp and a bad TWR... no thanks.

[magnemoe]

10 minutes ago, cfds said:

What is so bad about the Ant? Since 1.0.x it has ok TWR and rather good ISP. It is my preferred engine for satellites.

Ant are decent now if you don't bother with two spiders, main issue is that it float over the decopler. It makes for very lightweight probes. Very nice for multiple payloads or secondary payload on anything. 

Engines I never use is
the Rhino, only role I see for it is huge second stages. has not need so large ones even with 100 ton payload a mainsail worked better. 
The T-45, with fins and reaction wheels I don't need gimbal much during launch, probably better if you don't use fins with control surfaces.
 

[Gauga159]

6 hours ago, TwinKerbal said:

Ant.  No question

Ant? I Have an ant on a Small probe with 3.5k dv

[DunaRocketeer]

There are no worst engines, just engines that don't fit with your current play style.

[Blaarkies]

3 hours ago, Gauga159 said:

Ant? I Have an ant on a Small probe with 3.5k dv

Same here, small oscar tanks on decouplers infront of probe...drop them as you burn. 0.6t probes that easily get to Jool is awesome(Ant has even more Isp than spark)