Heat Management adds depth to gameplay by making power, performance, and detection interdependent. Systems like reactors, thrusters, and weapons generate heat that affects efficiency, thrust, and firing rates. Cooling solutions—radiators, coolant tanks, or water systems—allow players to extend performance, but excess heat must be expelled, revealing ships to detection. Environmental factors, pressurisation, and component placement influence cooling efficiency, encouraging thoughtful design. Heat can be temporarily stored, providing short windows of reduced visibility, but long-term management is crucial. Larger ships face scaling challenges, and balancing power usage against heat output becomes a key strategic consideration.
Heat applies selectively: Only to systems where it naturally fits—reactors, thrusters, and weapons. Managing their limits feels intuitive rather than arbitrary.Overheating reduces performance: Thrusters lose thrust during prolonged burns, reactors scale down power output, and weapons take longer to cool. Prevents sudden failures while encouraging planning.Cooling systems create meaningful choices: Adding radiators, coolant tanks, or water-based cooling offsets heat. Players who invest in cooling gain extended efficiency, while those who don’t operate at reduced performance. Logical ship design is rewarded: Components with more surfaces exposed to space cool better than those buried under armor. Protect systems for durability but sacrifice cooling, or expose them for efficiency but risk vulnerability. Pressurization stabilizes heat: Components in pressurized rooms maintain ideal temperatures, avoiding rapid thermal swings. In vacuum or thin atmospheres, systems fluctuate more, increasing the need for active cooling. Environment affects gameplay: Icy planets make cooling easier; desert planets make heat harder to shed. Planetary conditions directly impact ship design and base construction strategies. Larger ships face trade-offs: Bigger vessels generate more heat, encouraging balanced scaling rather than “bigger is always better.” Massive ships require careful engineering.
Component temperature relative to the environment affects detectability. High heat output may make a battleship glow on radar, like a Christmas tree.Good cooling does not guarantee invisibility. Cooling requires expelling excess heat, which increases visibility.Systems can be temporarily shut down to reduce heat and detection risk, trading operational capability for stealth. 
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I think this could be a good idea. I'm not sure that I want extreme super detail on it. But a basic cooling system/heat system might be fun.
In many rockets, the fuel itself plays a dual role as both propellant (for thrust) and coolant, especially in a system called regenerative cooling. So in effect the hydrogen system could act as a cooling system.
I think this could be a good idea. I'm not sure that I want extreme super detail on it. But a basic cooling system/heat system might be fun.
In many rockets, the fuel itself plays a dual role as both propellant (for thrust) and coolant, especially in a system called regenerative cooling. So in effect the hydrogen system could act as a cooling system.
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