(Over)heat System

GodoftheGrove

I would understand if this is hard to implement, but wouldn't it be cool (pun intended) to have a heat system, where weapons can overheat?

Basicly, systems could have a radius of heat that warms up components around it, when in use. Weapons could shut down due to overheating and maybe sometimes even start a fire.

So why would we want this?

Well, heat is a realistic problem in space fights, but Cosmoteer isn't really about realism, more about shooting ships. However, Cosmoteer also is a puzzle game where the logistics of your systems matter. However, the game is pretty much "solved" - just stick a reactor next to your weapons and you'll be fine.

When a heat system in place, a reactor could be one of the hottest things in the game, and sticking it next to your guns would mean they heat up faster than they could dissipate the heat, so they overheat faster and cool down slower. This could mean that systems that use ammo are more useful, and even more so: Plasma Storage would be more useful.

With a system in place you'll have to balance how far you'll put your reactor from certain systems, and concider how many reactors you'll put on the ship. Having too many reactors may even mean they overheat themselves, shut down, or sometimes even lead to more dangerous consequences. (They turn red, start a countdown, crew needs to shut 'm down manualy before they explode.)

In design, having drawbacks is overrated, but right now a lot of parts are obsolete (storage, conveyor belts) because the best practice is just to stick a reactor next to a system, and there aren't really any consequences or interesting design options.

0huixuan0

GodoftheGrove However, the game is pretty much "solved" - just stick a reactor next to your weapons and you'll be fine.

I disagree with your explanation .Defense is also a serious subject so if your put your reactor cores at places where there are important parts ,you must take the risk of lowering the structural strength of your ship ,so your ship will be easier to destruct ,that's not what you want to see .
So ,we needn't to add an extra system to warn players to put their explosive modules at the right places ,since defense is already tiresome .

Lafiel

Cosmoteer is first and foremost a building game featuring combat. This has been suggested for the nth time. And even though Abh has them it still won't have enough impact unless overheating is a serious operational hindrance. Which in turn will lead to noobs complaining allover about building problems and or combat sucking. And the game ends up being rated as bad.

GodoftheGrove

Lafiel Cosmoteer is first and foremost a building game featuring combat. This has been suggested for the nth time. And even though Abh has them it still won't have enough impact unless overheating is a serious operational hindrance. Which in turn will lead to noobs complaining allover about building problems and or combat sucking. And the game ends up being rated as bad.

It being a building game is an argument for a heat system. Since it gives a reason to make design decisions. Overheating shouldn't go too fast, but come into effect in longer engagements. Also the effect could be subject to a square-cube law. Smaller ships will have relatively more surface touching space in relation to their actual surface, dissipating heat faster than larger ships. This means that there is more room to ease people into the concept. With a good enough tutorial it becomes an easy enough concept, especially when there is a "heat map" function that also shows the relation between systems heating the ships up vs. dissipation speed.

OR we could just stick reactors next to guns and call it a day.

Lafiel

It's more complicated than a square-cube law relation. A ship not only re-absorbs part of its own heat but also absorb heat from space (stars, magnetic fields, electric charge buildup). Anyway, I would like to see a heat pool that can be used to simply lower operational responses (fire rate for weapons, thruster recoverytime etc.). And all you need do is have enough radiator parts to reduce it at a certain rate.

GodoftheGrove

Lafiel It's more complicated than a square-cube law relation. A ship not only re-absorbs part of its own heat but also absorb heat from space (stars, magnetic fields, electric charge buildup). Anyway, I would like to see a heat pool that can be used to simply lower operational responses (fire rate for weapons, thruster recoverytime etc.). And all you need do is have enough radiator parts to reduce it at a certain rate.

Sure it's more complicated than that. Getting hit by an ION-beam could be dramatic, but it's an abstraction. The general idea is for systems to have a radius, creating a balance between grouping systems together or allow them to "breathe" and mostly having the reactors as being the hottest things on the ship as an excuse to have them further away from other, heat sensitive systems.

The square-cube thing is just a thing to calculate how quickly parts lose "heat points" due to dispersion. Thermodynamics are complicated though, so it doesn't have to be 100% realistic, an abstraction works well enough.

There could be radiator parts having a cooling radius, but it's hard to have a part that doesn't work when enclosed. I don't want to see 6 lasers, a reactor and then some radiators inside the ship and everything is just fine.

It would be cool to have crew run in with fire extinguishers trying to cool systems down a little, and add some time before guns shut down.

The other effect heat could have is that engines have long heat plume, making "engine boxes" a less attractive option.

Lafiel

GodoftheGrove It doesn't really matter how far you place parts because it's all in an enclosed space(ship). Without making it too complicated having the ship more susceptible to starting fire is a huge game changer. Also possibly having reactors explode. Or the ship melt/explode as a hole like how the ring of death works.

Dumb Irradiation is far less than any weapon's waste heat. You can't simply dissipate even today's megawatt only lasers easily.

GodoftheGrove Yes, the total ship's mass is basically a huge heatsink that soaks up all the heat but cooling can only be achieved with radiating it into space. Yep, a human body could take a day to cool off in space.

Dumb

well if heating is a thing,weapons won't be able to overheat like at all due to them being exposed to the void,which is able to absorb enough heat from the weapons to keep it from overheating as heat loss increases when temperature gradient is increased 🤔

GodoftheGrove

Dumb well if heating is a thing,weapons won't be able to overheat like at all due to them being exposed to the void,which is able to absorb enough heat from the weapons to keep it from overheating as heat loss increases when temperature gradient is increased

In physics, that's not entirely true. There are 3 ways the weapons would lose heat:

Conduction: The weapon being in contact with other material.
Convection: The weapon being in contact with a gas, that goes up when heated and is replaced by cooler gas
Radiation: Where heat radiates in the form of infra red light.

Only the last one is true in the vacuum of space, and radiation cools down things very slowly. It's surprisingly hard to get rid of heat in space.

GodoftheGrove

Lafiel Yes, the total ship's mass is basically a huge heatsink that soaks up all the heat but cooling can only be achieved with radiating it into space. Yep, a human body could take a day to cool off in space.

The abstraction is that while, yes, the heat stays in the ship, the conduction is slow enough for placement to matter. For balance reasons.

A spaced human body would stay warm for longer, but yes, it takes about a day for the outer layer to cool off, because in space there is little where heat would go.

As for the square-cube thing, a jagged ship would dissipate heat better than a smooth one, but that is too complicated for a system that is there for balance reasons.