Editing Engine (section)

====Military engines====
Now you decide to design a compact but powerful standard engine for your medium-sized warships. You intend to stick two of these on a frigate, three on a destroyer and so on. 15 HS (= 750 tons) sounds like a good size and you select a power modifier of 175% because you need that extra bit of ''wroooom'':

<code>Magneto-plasma Drive  EP420.00<br>
Engine Power 420.00      Fuel Use Per Hour 833.59 Litres<br>
Fuel Consumption per Engine Power Hour 1.985 Litres<br> 
Size 15.00 HS  (750 tons)      HTK 3<br>
Thermal Signature 420.0      Explosion Chance 17%      Max Explosion Size 105<br>
Cost 210.00      Crew 26<br>
Military Engine<br>
Development Cost 1024 RP<br>
Materials Required<br>
Gallicite  210.00</code>

Research costs are significant, and fuel use is ''forty-four times'' higher than for the commercial engine of similar power. You can save a lot of weight with military engines, but all that engine power severely limits your range. Perhaps your destroyers would do better with a single, large engine instead? Let's see:

<code>Magneto-plasma Drive  EP1260.00<br>
Engine Power 1260.00      Fuel Use Per Hour 1443.81 Litres<br>
Fuel Consumption per Engine Power Hour 1.146 Litres <br>
Size 45 HS  (2,250 tons)      HTK 6<br>
Thermal Signature 1260.0      Explosion Chance 17%      Max Explosion Size 315<br>
Cost 630.00      Crew 79<br>
Military Engine<br>
Development Cost 1774 RP<br>
Materials Required<br>
Gallicite  630.00</code>

It has three times the power of the 420EP engine, but research costs, which scale with engine size, are now getting pretty high (especially since you'll need to research different models for other classes). Having only one engine means being more vulnerable to lucky enemy hits, too. Fuel use compared to three smaller engines is about 42% lower, though.