Varietize engines (sure, that's a word)

[horndgmium]

So, basically the only thing that's terrible in the atm is the nuclear engine, which is great in vac obviously. All of the rest of the engines are basically a variation on an engine that works okay in the atmosphere but better in vacuum, having different ISPs scaled mostly to their thrust. A proposal:

Engines with a wider variety of functions. Meaning, ISP would be greatest (better than the stock engines currently) where they are meant to be used, and absolutely terrible where they are not. Examples:

Atmospheric launch engine: LFO, works great in the ATM (ISP 480, thrust 960 at sealevel for example, ISP scales down exponentially until an ISP of ~60 in vac, rendering it essentially useless in space, but awesome for launches. This also solves the problem of needing asparagus to gain orbit, which is stupid because actual rockets are mostly one stage to LEO.

High-atmosphere orbital velocity achievement engine: used after the former, LFO, this would make more sense to have a balanced ISP for Vacuum and Atmosphere, as you would be using it to get out of the atmosphere, and to get into orbit (in-between essentially). Our normal engines do this, but that's not all we ever want...

Orbital maneuvering engine: LFO, 0-60 atmospheric ISP, cann come in varieties with low and high thrust (ISP 720, thrust 270; ISP 560, Thrust 1280, IDK)

Orbital escape Engine: LFO, quite high thrust (like 2k or something, ISP more ~400, but 0 ISP/thrust in atm)

So instead of 5-6 stages, it would be nice to achieve orbit and orbital maneuver capability with 2-3 well thought out stages, by picking engines intelligently for where you need them, and if you planned wrong, they will be terribly inefficient somewhere else. Any of these could come in small and large sizes as well, further varietizing your choices for heavy/light payloads, but still allowing you to choose a proper engine for each stage/location.

The things I have suggested are only more powerful where they are intended to be used, and quite useless elsewhere, preventing them from being overpowered.

Edited December 25, 2013 by horndgmium