Do thrusters do anything?

They makes ships move ever so slightly faster. They're really not worth it in vanilla.

Only in combat right?  They do make you close faster on AI ships in battle, but more than one is really needed and is it worth the mass vs more armor or guns? IMO no.  Really only for use on ships with short range weapons but i think they also slightly increase the probability of an AI miss.

You can see this by making a fleet, 1/2 with thrustors and half without.  and watch the battle

Tried that... but with the loony combat system...     unless I made the exact same fleet and made them fight each other... I'd not really be able to see WHY the ships are attacking ship A not Ship B

I do know that it does increase miss chance...  but how much?    if each level of thruster increased the miss chance by x% then I could honestly see a reason for them... depending on how great the chance is...

Thrusters will not effect WHY the ships are attacking ship A not Ship B.  It make the shik close the ramge faster.  take 2 battleships with kinetics, put 2 thrusters on one of them. If you fight say 2 ships with missiles, both of you ships will be in their range almost from the start, so either or both could be fired at.  The ship with thrusters should be able to close the rage and start firing before the second salvo where as the one without will not.

No idea, Paul even did not know when asked

No change there then

They don't. It is clear if you look at the XML that all they do is increase in-combat speed and acceleration.

Acceleration may impact on that. We don't know. Should be relatively easy to devise a test though.

IIRC his is what paul said would have a small impact.  I Never tested it though

Yeah, they really should just utilize the jamming trait, and make these doubly effective on speed, so they are worthwhile.  

In theory a interceptor class battleship with many thrusters and guns could be really good at hitting carriers

O no not carrier discussion again... just kidding

good idea, think i'll try that in my next game

hmmm that's an interesting thought.

Either way, thrusters need some documentation so we know if they are worth the space on a ship.   from what I've seen, they are not.

Tried couple of ships with 100+ speed. Didn't seem to have any effect on how enemies miss. They only got close very quickly and flew around very fast.

Also it affects how close to enemy ships are in beginning. Fast capital ships are much in front of normal capitals. Fast assault ships start in front of enemies.

Could make sense on large kinetic ships, when you get choice between 2x-3x speed vs 10% increase in firepower. Extra salvo in the beginning could change the battle. Especially against enemy with very long range missiles.

If I had enough free points for a thruster and nothing else, and planned to spend a lot of research time on industrial and research and economic techs and not improve my military for a while, then I might put a thruster on.

They don't do anything helpful as far as I can see. Under the present combat system where everyone rushes into a melee in the middle of the room, getting there quicker is a disadvantage and getting there more slowly - holding the range open and delivering hits - is what you want.

That is why you would use Thrusters on ships with short range and not your missile boats.  You want the missile boats hanging back and launching long range missiles while your kinetic weapon ships rush in to hold them off.  I use thrusters, especially on my kinetic weapon ships and it definately helps if you utilize your ship roles and strategy for them.

On the money!  Thrusters are very helpful on kinetics but not much else

Ah. I've never used kinetics beyond burning up some Durantium by putting in a prototype driver. I can see that thrusters have a use there.

Durantium being so common, you can make very powerful kinetics with the dur driver (a step up from prototype) rapid reload and range extension and thrusters

... and you can put them on a cargo hull together with some durantium hull reinforcements and defences