Trevish notes: "Whats up with the thrust values(11.25:1 on smallship)? not balanced with vanila which uses thrust 6kn:1 block"

Grains notes: "This probably isn't about making a one block thruster, just an alternative."

Yes, these probably should have been 1x1x2 and 2x2x2 blocks. But I won't change that now as people might have already used these blocks and changing their geometry might render existing creations defunct.

My reasoning for the stats of the small 2x2x1 thruster came from the surface area available for thrust which is 4x that of the standard thruster. Applying Trevish's math to compare surface areas actually yields slightly lower thrust values (11.25 vs 12.00).

As for thruster damage:

Ion thrusters are based on accelerating very little mass to very high velocities. I assume that wouldn't cause very much thruster damage. I should probably set it to a one-block distance, though. That'll need some experimenting because I currently have no idea how the corresponding parameter-values translate into distance.