Factorio Forums

TL;DR

The rocket exhaust created by space platforms is not how rocket exhaust works. A cloudy plume would only be created inside the atmosphere. Therefore, I'd like if the smoke particles were deleted.

What

Boosters do not create the same exhaust as they do in the atmosphere. The flame instead expands to a glowing cone. You also need an atmosphere to properly form smoke through pressure, which means that the logic that makes Burners not work in space somehow does not apply to the thruster effect. For simplicity, and as realism is not Factorio's goal, I wouldn't be asking for an entirely accurate effect here.
The current thruster flame can stay, just without the smoke element.

Why?

Although I am not entirely a "hard sci-fi" nerd who demands total realism (otherwise I'd start going into ad absurdum territory that all space audio should be muffled due to the only medium being hull vibrations, that there should be no visual feedback for chemical plants or turbines, etc etc which is of course going much too far), my personal immersion is damaged by this trait of space platforms to a considerable degree. It's bothered me ever since the very announcement of the expansion, but I unfortunately never got around to making a post about it; bystander effect/hope somebody else would mention it, I suppose.

I don't know... The last time a popular video game tried to model rocket engines accurately it didn't go to well...

KSP2

Well I disagree on this one. I mean I agree it's not realistic. But I think the exhaust plume looks so awesome that I'd rather keep it than improve realism, and just get the flame alone.