Impressions of 14.0RC - Small, Standard, Large, and Huge thrusters seem reasonably balanced, though it's annoying that maneuvering thrusters need to be rectangles that don't match their graphic.
Engine rooms are probably too weak. They offer only minor cost savings in ideal situations, and they force you to place engines in very weird configurations to get that ideal situation. IMO their boost should be raised to 75%.
Ships remain functional for a lot longer outside the ring of death now, since there's no chance for reactors to explode early. This means that battles where all ships end up outside the RoD are now determined more by shooting than by random chance, which IMO is a good thing. Shields are abnormally strong outside the RoD though, since the shield arc doesn't get weakened like parts and armor.
nop Personally I don't like this idea. It makes less sense intuitively, and would encourage ships with only forward thrust. If there is a skill floor issue, I would rather lateral come back than reverse thrust. I also don't think that lateral thrust gives diagonals an advantage - remember that even with 30% lateral on live, small thrusters are only 92% as efficient on a diagonal as on a standard ship. That being said, I don't necessarily agree that there is a skill floor problem.
