Heat Sinks

[Spartan-228]

I think that we should have heat sinks that we could put on our ships. These heat sinks would keep heat seeking missiles from locking on to you. At least for as long as they are activated. The thing is heat sinks would over heat if left on to long and have to be vented.

 

[Mariux]

We do need some countermeasures to heatseekers, they're somewhat OP at the moment. +1

 

[Creeper__God]

Heatsinks could work kind of like radar jammers if they are added. The heatsink uses power when ever it is turned on but prevents heatseekers from locking onto your ship. Like jammers and cloakers an active heatsink on the main ship would affect turrets and docked entitys. Also firing weapons of anykind should turn off heatsink unless you have a really good heatsink. Maybe this could work like passive effects work now. in order to fire weapons without your heatsink deactivating you would have to have a set percentage of the weapons mass in heatsink blocks.

 

[Winterhome]

...You DO know what a heat sink is, right?
It's an object that radiates heat outwards. >_>

If anything, heat sinks would make heat seekers MORE effective.

 

[Keptick]

A heat sink would be like a super bright beacon inviting every heat seeking missile in the vicinity towards it...

BAD IDEA

If you want to avoid heat seekers, use a cloak. If that doesn't work then post a bug report. OR, use a lot of point defense turrets, that works well too. OR, eject a ton of chaff, that will mess up enemy heat seekers, turrets and ships.

 

[Spartan-228]

...You DO know what a heat sink is, right?
It's an object that radiates heat outwards. >_>

If anything, heat sinks would make heat seekers MORE effective.

Yes I know, but it is what they are called in mass effect. So I went with it so I wouldn't have to write out a long and lengthy description.

 

[Keptick]

Yes I know, but it is what they are called in mass effect. So I went with it so I wouldn't have to write out a long and lengthy description.

This is starmade, not mass effect...............

 

[Spartan-228]

This is starmade, not mass effect...............

Your right, but what do you want to call them? The only thing I can think of is thermal storage tanks. Of course you would still need heat sinks to bleed off all the heat you stored up.

 

[Keptick]

Your right, but what do you want to call them? The only thing I can think of is thermal storage tanks. Of course you would still need heat sinks to bleed off all the heat you stored up.

It's called a cloak. Heat seekers go after every form of radiation, which a cloak blocks (or whatever).

As I said earlier, if you want to be completely immune to a weapon then use a cloak. Sure, it takes a ton of power but you shouldn't be able to completely negate a weapon without a big sacrifice. You're just asking for a cheap way out, ain't gonna happen.

There's already ways to counter heat seekers (which I mentioned above). You just have to get creative :p

 

[Viridis00]

Your right, but what do you want to call them? The only thing I can think of is thermal storage tanks. Of course you would still need heat sinks to bleed off all the heat you stored up.

Just so you know, heat sinks can't dissipate heat in the vacuum of space. There's no air to transmit heat elsewhere. They'd only work to take heat away into themselves and quickly become useless. You'd have to eject them permanently like how the mecha in Valvrave do or the way Mass Effect guns use heat sinks as magazines.

Countermeasures on the other hand would be cool, like IR flares and Chaff.

 

[aceface]

I think that we should have heat sinks that we could put on our ships. These heat sinks would keep heat seeking missiles from locking on to you. At least for as long as they are activated. The thing is heat sinks would over heat if left on to long and have to be vented.

you should also have it that if you let it be on for too long they will explode :3

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

Just so you know, heat sinks can't dissipate heat in the vacuum of space. There's no air to transmit heat elsewhere. They'd only work to take heat away into themselves and quickly become useless. You'd have to eject them permanently like how the mecha in Valvrave do or the way Mass Effect guns use heat sinks as magazines.

Countermeasures on the other hand would be cool, like IR flares and Chaff.

I've actually had that same argument before and was proven wrong. Heat-sinks do work in space they are just not the conventional heat-sinks we are used to. The ISS has heat-sinks.

See those big flat panels running perpendicular to the solar panels? Those are heat-sinks.

Spoiler

On topic: I would love to see a deploy-able IR flare option.

 

[Mr. V]

I think that we should have heat sinks that we could put on our ships. These heat sinks would keep heat seeking missiles from locking on to you. At least for as long as they are activated. The thing is heat sinks would over heat if left on to long and have to be vented.

I think a few people touched on the solution -- make a support "weapon" that deploys chaff

The deployed chaff would scatter in the direction it was shot and temporarily exist for the sole purpose of attracting heat seaking missiles. it could have a slow cooldown time so that you could only use it once every so often -- i.e. I think chaff should have limited usage ability so that the player would have to strategically choose when to employ it


In the meantime I guess you could always just drop a bunch of really cheap drones when you see heatseakers :D

 

[Viridis00]

I've actually had that same argument before and was proven wrong. Heat-sinks do work in space they are just not the conventional heat-sinks we are used to. The ISS has heat-sinks.

Huh. Well that's pretty interesting. I'm guessing they're converting the heat into other forms of energy for the station, right? All that heat has to be taken somewhere in the water loop.

 

[Sven_The_Slayer]

Huh. Well that's pretty interesting. I'm guessing they're converting the heat into other forms of energy for the station, right? All that heat has to be taken somewhere in the water loop.

The heat radiates from those panels I pointed out.

 

[jayman38]

Huh. Well that's pretty interesting. I'm guessing they're converting the heat into other forms of energy for the station, right? All that heat has to be taken somewhere in the water loop.

The heat is being radiated out into space. (Science fact: there are three forms of heat transfer: radiation, convection, and conduction; since convection and conduction only work with a transfer medium, radiation is the only way to vent heat into space. Example: a planet's upper atmosphere is among the largest known heat sinks.)

Citations:
http://spaceplace.nasa.gov/beat-the-heat/en/
http://coolcosmos.ipac.caltech.edu/cosmic_classroom/light_lessons/thermal/transfer.html
http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-nasa/2001/ast21mar_1/