Heatsink Retrofitting Guide

A cooling system retrofit in progress

Heatsink Retrofitting Guide

With the introduction of the new heat mechanics, the cooling system of many spaceships will become outdated and incapable of sustaining maximum power draw. While these ships will still be able to operate with reduced performance characteristics, they will require a refitting in order to return to expected operating performance.

Overview of the New Heat Mechanics

While the new mechanics bring several new features to power and heat management, they are not so radically different as to require a complete redesign for the majority of ships. Ships that have been designed with sufficient power generation and heat dispersion will see limited effects, while those ships that have been designed on the bleeding edge may require significant overhaul to their cooling systems and power plants. Power plants designed with a reliance on enhancers to provide increased fueling from fuel rod chambers will see significant performance loss, as enhancers no longer affect fuel rod chambers. Instead, enhancers must be attached directly to the generator unit to apply their effect.

Power Generation

• Enhancers: Enhancers can be used to boost the maximum output of electric current, at +500/+750/+1,000 for tiers 1-3 respectively. Enhancers only affect the generator unit to which they are attached.
• Electricity Cap: Generators have a maximum bonus electric output of +1,000, meaning that stacking more enhancers on a single generator quickly leads to diminishing returns - or no return at all.
• Overheating: Generators which are insufficiently cooled and reach their maximum heat capacity will now overheat and throttle to 5% output until the heat has been managed.

Ship Weapons

• Pipe Connections: All mounted weapons will need to be piped into the ship's pipe network, as they now produce significantly more heat which must be dissipated through radiators for optimal usage.
• Energy Consumption: Most ship weapons have had their energy consumption and heat output adjusted slightly. You can see the new data here.

Heat

• Adjacency: Generators and fuel rod chambers which are placed near to each other will increase the maximum heat output of those devices. See this example for reference.
• Enhancement Effects: Enhanced generators will produce significantly more heat than their unenhanced counterparts. See this chart for reference.
• YOLOL: Many devices now have extra device fields to monitor the production and storage of heat.

Cooling

• Coolant Cells: Coolant cells are now primarily intended for short bursts of extreme cooling, and should not be relied on for extended usage.
• Heatsinks: Heatsinks are a device designed for the rapid storage and transfer of heat away from sensitive devices.
• Radiator Transfer Rate: Devices now have a limited rate at which they can transfer heat directly to a radiator. Heatsinks should be used to connect a device to a radiator instead.
• Natural Dissipation: Devices have a limited capability to disperse heat on their own, meaning that low-power devices and ships do not necessarily need a complex cooling system to operate.

Retrofitting Guides

Most ships will follow the same basic steps to upgrade the cooling system, but some specific ships (purpose-built fighters, haulers, etcetera) may require a more complex retrofit to continue operating with unabated function. Generally speaking, adding a handful of heatsinks (any shape, as they share performance characteristics) to a ship will suffice as a functional - if not optimized - retrofit.

While simple, the Laborer Module serves as a good example for learning how to retrofit a ship.

Laborer Module

Remove the Cooling Rack

Firstly, remove the cooling rack from the mid section of the ship. You may wish to relocate this device to a different part of the ship, as it can still be used with the heatsink. However, you'll need to configure when the coolant cells are utilized with buttons (or optionally, a YOLOL script), or the coolant will be used up rapidly.

Place the Heat Sink

Move the heat sink from your inventory into the game world, and then place it in onto the ship. Note that the cube shaped heatsink can connect directly to a generator unit, while a plate or beam type heatsink cannot. Those models will need ducts or pipes connected to a pipe socket board to function.

• Snapping: If you're having trouble with the heatsink not snapping, make sure to press 'C' to toggle snapping on.

Secure the Heat Sink

Secure the heat sink in place by bolting it to the generator unit and fuel rod chamber. You can do this manually by clicking and placing each bolt individually, or you may automate it by pointing at the device and holding the left mouse button with the bolt tool equipped. This will place bolts automatically and try to ensure that the device is mounted with sufficient structural integrity.

Alternative Step: Use Easy-Build Mode to Swap the Generator Unit

If you're less inclined towards manually converting the generator assembly to include a heatsink, you can also use easy-build mode to swap out the entire generator complex. You'll need to bring your ship to the easy-build hall (located on each Origin spawn station), and you'll also need to craft one of the updated generator modules, such as Tier 1 Generator 2 Radiator 1 Heat Sink, located under Ship Modules → Power

1. Bring your ship into the easy-build hall and disembark. Easy-build mode should activate after a moment, but you can check the chat log for errors if it isn't
2. Point at the generator module so that it is highlighted in green, and right click to remove it
3. Drag the new generator module from your station storage onto your hotbar
4. Press the hotbar key to bring the module into the world
5. Manipulate the new generator into place, and click the left mouse button
6. Press the '.' key to exit easy-build mode

Add Displays

Place two 12x24 cm progress bars from your inventory into the world, and arrange them on your ship's control panels as desired. These will help you to monitor the production and dissipation of heat on your ship via their device fields. Make sure you remember to bolt the displays to your ship before you start flying!

Set Device Fields

Using the universal tool, modify the device fields of the progress bars to match the output fields of the heatsink. While looking at a progress bar, press the U key to bring up the universal tool, and click the fields on the left side of the window to modify device fields and their values. You'll need to set a total of 4 device fields for this tutorial:

For the first panel:

1. PanelValue ⟶ HeatSinkStoredHeat
2. PanelMaxValue ⟶ HeatSinkMaxStoredHeat
   • You'll also need to set the value of this field to 15000

For the second panel:

1. PanelValue ⟶ HeatTransferRate
2. PanelMaxValue ⟶ HeatTransferRateLimit