O-10 Monopropellant Engine & Vernor LFO RCS Thruster

[LethalDose]

The numbers actually describe how the engine will work in game. My response to the post you quoted was an attempt to curb the typical "just edit them" and "don't like them? don't use them" responses to balance issues, which are not useful when talking about how the parts fit into the stock mix. They're just offtopic noise.

Agreed.

"Heavier fuel" is not a significant thing, nor is it accurate (monoprop is less massive per unit than LF/O). Isp is essentially a measure of thrust produced per unit mass of fuel, it ignores varying fuel densities. The worst that can be said it that monoprop has poorer mass ratios for most of the tanks, though the 2.5m tank has a comparable ratio to the liquid fuel/oxidizer tanks.

Fair enuf, good points.

It is still useful to discuss the relative balance and usefulness of the new parts without respect to cost; this will matter for sandbox players, the career endgame, and for experienced players who are unlikely to feel very constrained by budget. Of course it is a bit speculative because we don't know how or if all the other parts have been changed, but there's nothing wrong with a bit of speculation before the update drops, and I imagine the discussion will continue after it does and we have practical experience to talk about.

This is where we're gonna disagree. "Discussion" != "Calling for nerf bat" or any other call to action when conclusions can only based on conjecture and incomplete information. Also, balance in Sandbox, and now Science, modes will take a back-seat to balance in full career mode. It seems to be widely accepted that Sandbox is "scope complete" (I say "widely accepted" because I'm not aware of a dev statement on this), and it's clear ongoing development and balance is focused on career mode. You simply can't balance all three modes, the devs are clearly going to balance for career mode.

As of 0.24, you're going to have to accept that cost going to be an aspect of part balance.

Finally, I'd posit that if speculation has no basis in practice, then pure speculation isn't necessarily wrong, but it can lead to very bad conclusions which are wrong.

Edited July 17, 2014 by LethalDose