More in-depth player and ship heat mechanics

Keen, I think you missed out on a huge opportunity between adding the temperature meter and with the latest Frostbite update. For a game about engineering, SE has surprisingly few challenges to overcome, and adding heat mechanics would both add some real meaning to the temperature meter, and make us worry about more than just fuel.

I'll skip the spiel and give you the short version - heat is a major concern when you're in a vacuum. We should have to design our ships with this in mind; thrusters should generate heat when firing, reactors when they operate at high throttle, and refineries when... well... refining.

For grids, having two types of heat could be interesting: grid heat, and block heat. Blocks that generate heat increase their block heat, which is fed into the grid heat at a steady rate, and the grid bleeds away its heat into space at a steady rate that depends on the grid's size. We could have a variety of new blocks to help us along - namely radiators and heatsinks.

• Radiators, as the name suggest, would increase the rate at which the grid dissipates heat into space. A subset of radiators could be used internally to speed up the rate at which block heat is transferred into the grid (so we can fire our gatlings for as long as we wish)
• Heatsinks would effectively increase the maximum thermal capacity of the grid, turning grid heat into block heat if cooling isn't at least on par with heat generation.
  

So what happens if you let a grid run hot? First, non-essential systems begin to shut down. If that isn't enough and the grid becomes saturated, the blocks generating the heat suddenly have nowhere to dump it and start to take damage. Heat could also have its use in combat, with turrets having an easier time tracking hotter grids. We could have thermal sensors. Shutting off radiator blocks would allow us to run silent and pass by enemies unnoticed (with the risk of being cooked alive if we forget to switch them back on...). Intentionally dumping heat into and then ejecting heatsinks would be an excellent counter to turrets.

Finally, player heat! One thing that stood out to me was how the Frostbite trailer claimed Triton's atmosphere was breathable. Ah yes, a balmy -237C, practically shorts weather! Fact of the matter is we should die if we open our helmets there, giving us more of a reason, other than our suit power draining faster, for us to build climate-controlled shelter.

Have it as a world option, of course. Some people like to build magnificent works of art, physics be damned, and that's part of what defines this game now. Thank you for giving us so many options to begin with.

Thanks for reading!