Managing O2 and Heat



This Article will show you the basics of setting up a ship with a Sealed Hull. Read it before you look into Heat and Atmosphere.

Managing Atmosphere
All you need is a Sealed Hull and a Life Support system somewhere on your ship, with sufficient power to turn it on.

That's it. Your ship has air as long as you have power. The air vents and ducts are in the ship walls.

If Life Support goes offline, then Hypoxia will set in. If a hull is breached, Decompression will occur.

You will need an atmosphere in your ship to help manage heat. Hot machines and weapons will have nowhere to bleed excess heat and take damage in a vacuum.

Heat Management
Massive Railguns and Lasers will produce incredible heat when firing, and the radiation from Reactors and Shield Generators will bake your crew under heavy strain, lighting compartments on fire and destroying equipment.

Pictured: A Small Railgun attached to a Capacitor and Reactor piped to a Heat Sink and Radiators.

To prevent that fateful end to your story, you will need some basic ship buildings:


 * Heat Sinks
 * Thermal Conduits


 * Life Support and a Sealed Hull


 * Radiators

Your ship's atmosphere will absorb heat from weapons and shields not connected to a thermal conduit, heating up the room they are in. This is obviously not desirable, as heat will cause your reactors to melt down and weapons to catch on fire.

Heat Sinks must pump heat from connected appliances into the room they are in, which requires they be sealed in a room with atmosphere away from sensitive equipment. Make sure you have Life Support functioning and a Sealed Hull!

Rooms that contain a Heat Sink need to vent the heat to space without losing atmosphere, and that requires a Radiator.

Radiators are installed as part of a wall, and turn on when the temperature of a room is above a limit set by the player. They can be used to create freezing temperatures, which is ideal for heat sinks to operate in, though slightly expensive on power.

Shields create a kinetic barrier that traps heat. When your shields are up, your radiators automatically retract and shut down, no longer venting heat to space. Your shields and weapons begin relying on the capacity of your Heat Sinks to prevent overheating and shutting down. Make sure to connect all these with Thermal Conduits!

The types of building that emit heat are:


 * Turrets (when Firing)
 * Shields (When taking damage)
 * Reactors (When operational)
 * Smelters
 * Heaters
 * Campfires

Heat Sinks cannot work in a vacuum, and hot systems cannot vent without atmosphere, causing them to catch on fire and melt. Make sure your hull stays sealed and the atmosphere is cooled.

Ship Weapons and Shield Generators that are exposed to the vacuum of space can't radiate heat away fast enough, so they will actually run out of capacity faster than a room inside the sealed hull of your ship (ship to ship turrets are on the ship's roof.)

Heat Sink "Gardens" are ideal for storing up lots of heat capacity for your turrets and shields to operate. They can be tightly packed in a room and act as a reservoir. This will however heat up the room to extreme levels very quickly, and runs the risk of starting fires.

Use Firefoam poppers to prevent flameups, and use a row of radiators to vent the heat to space.

Obviously, when shields are up, the heat can't be vented.

One strategy is to drop shields and rely on thick armored hull to protect you until heat levels drop to safe limits. Another is to build an array of radiators outside the shields, with the heat sink room exposed, and vent heat that way. Obviously this has risks in combat, threatening to breach the room and render the radiators ineffective, but it's a risk some ships take.

Don't forget to watch your Heat and Energy gauge! It will pop up only in combat. The gauge only counts heat currently in the Heat Sinks, not heat loose in a room. Watch the temperature on your ship by keeping track of each room's heat level, and don't let pawns hold open doors between scorching rooms and the main living areas. You can in an emergency open a hole in your hull to space to vent the atmosphere in that room and quickly seal it up again, but it is ill-advised, as this will only trap heat in the conduits and heat sinks. That method is good for quickly making safe repairs without getting burned, however.

Load Capacities
How many Heat Sinks and Radiators will you need to keep a weapon firing?

Heat Sink
Holds 120HU (Heat Units).

Radiator
Provides 5HU (Heat Units).

Reactor
Without a Reactor you won't have power to continue firing your weapons or keep up your shields. These beasts have 4 modes of power output and each one emits a different amount of heat.

@Standard Power -- 1 Heat Sink and 1 Radiator are adequate to keep your reactor room cool.

@Overdrive 1 -- 1 Heat Sink and 2 Radiators

@Overdrive 2 -- 1 Heat Sink and 3 Radiators

@Overdrive 3 -- 1 Heat Sink and 4 Radiators

Small Laser


Will need 1 Heat Sink and 1 Radiator to remain cool during continuous operation.

Large Laser


Will need 2 Heat Sink and 2 Radiators to remain cool during continuous operation.

Small Plasma


Will need 1 Heat Sink and 2 Radiators to remain cool during continuous operation.

Large Plasma


Will need 2 Heat Sinks and 3 Radiators to remain cool during continuous operation.

Small Railgun


Will need 1 Heat Sink and 1 Radiator to remain cool during continuous operation.

Large Railgun
Will need 1 Heat Sink and 1 Radiator to remain cool during continuous operation.

If you add all these up and build the required heat sinks and radiators, you should be able to keep your ship cool when your shields are down. As soon as your shields go up, however, expect all that heat to build up quickly, so plan for additional heat sinks and prepare to put out fires unless you carefully manage your shield use!

Protect your Radiators!


Your radiators must be connected to a room that is enclosed, preferably also containing your heat sinks. You can create a single continuous room that runs along the spine of your ship and use it to cool the shields, radiators, and heat sinks.

Having cavities INSIDE your ship to vent heat to space is a totally valid strategy. The enemy does it, so can you!