Heat box/Interferance box solution, now with images!!!

Update 4/27/17: Added a reply below with images illustrating the concept hidden in spoilers

One of the criticisms of the Power Overhaul proposal was figuring out where the heat boxes were actually going to go, and managing a heat box on a non-rectangular craft. I recognize that HEAT might not be the final name for this resource, this could end up being Electrical interference or radiation instead.

What made the most sense to me was to allow the player to draw-out where the heat box was going to generate using Heatsink blocks. Here are two proposals for how this block could function.

1: Heatsink blocks must be placed as a continuous group, attaching to the reactor, and radiate heat a number of blocks in all directions from themselves. Each space that is radiated adds to your heat dissipation score, and a reactor with an insufficient heat dissipation score gets "backed up" and suffers a steep loss in output. The heatsink blocks themselves do NOT count towards your heat dissipation score, only the blocks or empty space they radiate. Selecting a heatsink block group should show you the radiation area, and highlight any system blocks that will be affected by the heat zone.

The size of the radiation zone generated by the Heatsink blocks is determined by the size of your reactor. A larger reactor causes each heat sink block to radiate a much larger area, allowing players to build ship interiors where they cannot actually see the heat sink blocks, but where all of the interior is being scored for heat dissipation (by placing a heat sink track outside the perimeter of a common room in-between the walls, or down the middle of a corridor). A smaller ship will require drastically less heat dissipation, and the heatsink blocks would project a radiation area of only one or two blocks, encouraging a more cramped interior for an efficient design.

The heatsink blocks themselves could be fairly low mass, but there would be tradeoffs to denser or looser heat dissipation shapes. A denser shape will be less efficient, since the blocks themselves aren't counted towards the heat dissipation score, but it would be more durable against attack. A more loose shape would be more efficient, but any time heat sink blocks are no longer connected continuously (when part of a loop is broken away), the disconnected blocks no longer generate radiation areas and no longer contribute to the heat dissipation score, creating a backup and potentially disabling or overheating the ship.

This allows Heatsink blocks to be palced in tubes throughout the ship, blades protruding from a ship, or all manner of in-between. This would be the ideal system. It would offer the most flexibility but would probably be challenging to code/implement.

2: Heatsink blocks could be used to form the boundries of the heat box in the same way that shipyards and jump gates create areas. Selecting the heatsink block group would reveal the heat box, and highlight any systems that would be affected by it. Reactors would have a minimum heat dissipation score, and the size of that highighted area would need to meet or exceed that score or it would become "Backed up" and suffer a steep loss in output. The biggest downside with this design is that the "guts" of the heat dissipation would need to effectively line the inside of the ship, exposing it to attack. If it were written the same way that shipyards are, a small amount of damage to the heatsink blocks would cause the shape to become invalid and you would immediately have a backup. This system would not be ideal, but it might be simpler to implement.

Here are some screencaps I put together illustrating what I had in mind.

and note this is NOT intended to be a heat zone that hurts players or damages blocks. I'm simply demonstrating the interferance area created by the generator and how a player might use a heatsink to create that heat "box" to fit a n on-rectangular ship. the heat boxes here interfere with systems only.

Here is what a small reactor might look like
And below, pretend that these scanner parts are the Heatsink blocks
A small u-shaped Heatsink should be just fine for a very small ship, and it is a safe design because one break in the loop won't separate a long section and create a back-up. Below is what it would look like when you select the system group.
It reveals the red heat dissipation/interferance area for that heatsink. For a small reactor like this (or smaller) each heatsink block would only create a dissipation area of 1 block on each of its sides (where there isn't already a heatsink block). Each of those red spaces contributes to the heat dissipation value of the heatsink, and enough of those red boxes means you won't have a back-up. A larger reactor will cause the heatsink blocks attached to it to create a much larger dissipation/interference area to create bigger non-system areas on the ships.

Below shows the area from above excluding the heatsink itself.
sow with this footprint, the heatsink would have a heat dissipation value of 40. if you just lose one block of the heat sink, you will lose around 4 heat dissipation, but gain 1 because the empty space where the heatsink was is now part of the heat dissipation area of the system generated by the blocks on either side of the gap. If the heatsink were a solid 3/5 slab instead of a U shape, you would lose the 4 heat dissipation in the center, but gain 8 heat dissipation: 4 right on top of the middle and 4 right on the bottom. Adding 8 heat dissipation for 4 blocks is NOT very efficient, but the shape is more redundant, and thus more resistant to damage.
Below is what an affected system would look like while you have the heatsink selected
That hazard block in the lower-right hand corner is where a cannon barrel is inside the heat dissipation area, which will would then penalize the cannon system.

GRHayes said:

Just want to be clear. I wasn't saying your idea was bad. Just they could simplify the issue and not have to define heat zones at all if they went ahead and did as they plan to in the future and atmosphere and combine it with a general heat system.

Click to expand...

I'd prefer not having my thread hijacked with discussion of a completely different heat dissipation system

jayman38 said:

If this heat radiation were to become a part of the game, I hope the texture will be mostly solid, and available in all colors, because it will be a very good reason to give spaceships fins, wings, struts, and other protrusions. Solid-panel-looking textures would probably be the best look for those kinds of external radiators.

For those wondering about the realism of radiating heat in the center of a ship, versus the outside, well, those individuals will just have to get over it. There will be builders who will need the extra flexibility, because they don't want to have to realistically radiate heat out into space.

Click to expand...

Also too the Proposal thread mentioned it being less of a Heat Box and more of an Electric Interference box, so rather than calling these Heatsinks (which would give the impression that the interference area would hurt/damage players if they radiated inside the ship), we could easily just refer to them as Grounding Wires, or Distribution Rods or something. The Heat Distribution area would just be referred to as the Interference area and that would be that!

As far as how they would look, the way I imagined them were as a solid color block where half of the block is the thickness of a slab (Giving it a bit of an "L" shape in profile). This way they would be visually distinct, but that you could attach hull blocks or slabs to form new and interesting shapes with them without hindering their performance (since hull blocks in the interference area would still contribute to heat distribution score).