Heat

[Freaky]

Let's see, we have fusion reactors, drive systems, massive shield arrays, huge energy weapons; GW's of energy being pushed around, thrown at things, etc.

Now, assuming these systems aren't 100% effecient (which would seem rather unlikely), our starships are going to have an awful lot of heat to dissipate; and there's not exactly much in the vaccum of space to transfer that heat to. Maybe for a lot of ships, the hull makes a good enough heatsink even with everything maxed out, but that's.. boring (no idea how likely it is; anyone up on their thermodynamics?).

So, picture this: a new subsystem type: the radiator. It can both store and radiate heat generated by other subsystems (which would need a bunch of other attributes; at least an effeciency rating which works out the heat generated from its energy consumption), up to the point at which it starts to melt, where you either reduce loading to where it can cope, or have it slowly destroy itself and the subsystems which depend on it.

Why? Well, it's the natural counterbalance to the problems of energy generation and distribution; you can't necessarily sit there pounding away at a foe for hours even if you have the power; you might well have super powerful weapons, but you could be at a disadvantage against a smaller, more effecient vessel which can throw alpha strikes at you all day with full shields. Combat drones suddenly become even more important as you start to rely on them as a way of managing heat output while continuing your attack, and ramping shields up to max in every situation may not be the best idea in the world.

Imagine a battle with this realised; you raise your shields, pump your drives up to full power, and start towards your foe; heat output from the systems you're using starts to raise, and your radiators start to glow a dull red colour as they heat up, raising your sensor profile and looking kinda cool. As you come into range, you start pounding your enemy with everything you've got, while your radiators move up the spectrum until they're glowing a bright blue-white colour, making you visible for thousands of km. An incoming torpedo suddenly manages to penetrate your shields, damaging one of your radiators, which suddenly can't cope with all the heat you're generating; an alarm goes off warning you to power back, but you ignore it and are soon rewarded with yellow caution lights on your primary beam weapons, while your shields start to drop since they're overheating. Doh.

Anyone else find this idea appealing? Even just as a cosmetic thing, I think it would be cool

[DamoclesX]

Ya, that would be sweet

then i could do what I did in mech4, get all loaded up, press the button, and blow up from overheating EHEHEHEHEEHEHEHEHE

[NinjaDriver]

I like this idea of energy management. I've read about having to manage your energy use in the manual for StarShatter, but have never had to worry about it. This can bring a needed twist to cap ship battles, where you won't be able to pound it out with full power weapons and shields while running the drive hard.

[Pheonix Starflare]

Well, if you run your shields at lets say, 1/2 and see how long it takes for your main guns to recharge (lets look at the Archer, for example) you'll notice that its faster than when your sheilds are at full.