Seems as if RCS has been nerfed into mostly uselessness, but does it matter where you put them? Would they work better if I placed them close to the center of gravity or farther or does it matter at all? Thrusters work better if placed farther from the center of gravity so was wondering if RCS worked the same.
RCS just apply a fixed bonus to all-axis torque. Where you place them only has to do with where you want their mass applied to.
For sure you don't need nearly as many RCS as you did before. I believe they also help rotate when thrusters are off.
Just wanted to throw my hat into the ring on this since I found this thread trying to gain traction on this subject. I've been playing around (Single Player, Mass/Volume ON, normally I play with it off) with salvaging wrecks in the Polaris mine field (currently the Exodus, but have also done the 409, both CV's). There are a lot of other wrecks you can retrieve thrusters and other materials to make the CV wrecks space worthy. Biggest PITA is making it airtight. Kinda fun, and you learn a lot about shipbuilding. Later you can break them down and use the parts to upgrade to a "real" ship from the Factory. What I've learned: In Early/Mid gameplay when resources are still a bit scarce, if a CV has RCS's already on it, grab them. I suggest RETRIEVE not salvage as you can use them later, if you're not in desperate need of the materials. (Throw them into the Factory so you're not hauling them around wasting fuel) As far as USING them; you don't really need them if you have properly placed thrusters in all directions. They help more in later game where you're in battles and you get a thruster(s) knocked out as they let you turn without the thrusters. The problem comes in that you need a number of them, more as the vessel mass increases. But starting out they take a LOT of CPU points, so if you rip 'em out and only use thrusters you can get away with just say a T2 core while WITH them you'll need T3 or T4 which requires a lot of Rares (Gold mostly) which you probably don't have yet. (T2 CV only needs 4 Flux coils plus some computers). Later when you want to add them, the way to test them is to add one RCS and enable it in Devices. Disable all thrusters in Devices. Try flying the ship (turning only, RCS do not THRUST, only PIVOT or ROTATE). If no movement, keep adding RCS until you get some movement. How many? What's your resource and CPU pain level? The more you add, the better the response. But keep in mind they work WITH the thrusters normally so don't go crazy, keep in mind they most act as a backup and to enhance the thrusters. Note you may now be able to drop some thrusters to offset. Remember, more thrusters allow faster acceleration, not speed, and allow better response as you load the ship with loot. Don't forget to re-enable the thrusters... just sayin'. Hope this helps someone.
