From what I've seen, strength of manoeuvring thrusters' effect depends on the speed in the direction they're attached to. Normal (back) engines' strength effect is dependant on throttle position. In other words, if you push throttle to max the engines will glow at their max strength, even if the fighter is moving at 10% of max speed. For manoeuvring thrusters, if your at 10% of max speed in a certain direction engines will glow at 10%. Also, for normal engines you can use modelled thrusters (which suits me very well). I'd like my forward engines to be modeled thrusters too. I'll create a short video of how I want the engines to work.
