The Power of a Star....(calculations of Warship engine power and heat)

[cray]

DropShips & JumpShips, which is contemporary with AT1, provided the original tables for continuous 1G transits through a star system and set the proximity limits at their modern distances.

[Daryk]

Thanks Cray :)

[Triptych]

Speaking of engine exhausts, there ought to be rules for using them as weapons a la the Kzinti lesson. 

[monbvol]

Yeah, just the amount of energy coming out of some of the larger dropships should at the vey least alter local weather patterns.

[Triptych]

And not only that, every electronic device nearby that isnt protected would get fried every time one of those things launches lol.

[cray]

Speaking of engine exhausts, there ought to be rules for using them as weapons a la the Kzinti lesson. 

The blast effect of DropShip engines on ground maps is covered in the rules. You don't want to get behind an aerodyne taxiing to takeoff.

[Paul]

Eh, 42 damage on average is very survivable. And it gets better from there.

I once had a hill the player force was assembling at prior to a Sally turn out to be a buried dropship. The effects were very medium.

Also had a fight where about 20 units got exposed to dropship exhaust twice at various ranges. Only 1 kill, mostly from the dropship guns, but if taking off was the final straw.
Heck, even trees often do fine...

[EPG]

As I said right off the bat, the usual handwave is to link Strategic Thrust to the fact that KF Physics were discovered in a fusion reactor.

I really like this bit of handwavium.  It explains the performance of the engines, but also:

Why you can’t just hang a bunch of dropship engines on a warship and get the same effect (it’s like bunching up a bunch of piston driven propellor engines and wondering why they don’t make the aircraft perform like a jet  even though they both burn the same fuel - they just aren’t doing the same thing inside.

Why warship engine construction was such a bottleneck in their reintroduction

Why you can’t jump out of system while maneuvering under maximum thrust (head cannon here) you have to cut the engines before you can jump, or else the KF fields in the engines and the ship conflict and the crew experiences a significant emotional event.