Yes you do
But... Have some constructive criticism:
EDIT: it doesn't cool you down to 0 kelvin, as pointed out below. My point doesn't change, so please don't talk about the current temperature in the comments correcting me.
So right now, to purge heat you fire out shrapnel or pieces of metal into space. Sure, it works fine. It uses power? Surely this wouldn't be mechanical or only uses a minute amount of power to flick a switch? It's not like it uses any more than an LED light to release a piece of metal?
Getting the heat into that tiny pieces of metal is the tricky bit that requires power.
Power aside, heat sinks reduce your heat to 0%. I don't think this is acceptable. 0% heat is close to absolute 0 (I assume) but your modules are always producing heat from the reactor, so reaching anywhere near absolute 0 is not possible.
As above posters, I'm not going to say again what they've said about 0% not being close to absolute 0 where nothing can move let alone use a joystick, throttle and breathe.
Next thing for me to complain about is the module itself. Launching metal/material into space is not very good or efficient heat dispersal. Animals like elephants have a VERY low surface area to volume ratio, which means elephants build up heat extremely quickly. The same goes for large ships (hence why Capital Ships have special modules to keep them cool). An elephant has large ears (not to hear stuff) to disperse their heat. A ship in elite dangerous in this year should be waaaaaay past launching heatsinks. We need a deployable module which opens up a very large, foldable radiator unit. A large panel with strips of metal running from top to bottom which can be deployed and retracted at will. The rods are for more surface area (heat dispersal).
Gameplay trumps Realism. The ability to put a ton of heat into a tiny pieces of metal is pretty high tech though, we do it with flares although thats a chemical reaction not energy transfer. For military ships radiator panel as you point out = weakness. Having a launcher for a worst case scenario will win a lot more handshakes at the military development board I can assure you
Another suggestion would be to fit a utility mount with a corrugated metal panel. This makes the ship look a lot nicer whilst still managing to disperse heat.
Deploying a foldable radiator module should reduce heating effects by 20%. If you would be on 100% heat for whatever reason, then you deploy this, it goes down to 80%.
The small panel should only decrease it by 10%, being considerably smaller. These modules also don't require ammo, this being cost efficient as well as realistic.
Ok now you have me sold as an
addition and not as a change. Better passive heat reduction rather than instant. Perhaps both for those smuggler types. But seriously can you imagine a Python with an ISS style sail trying to cruise stealthily into a station?
Hey captain, Is that a small wedge ship over there? Nah son, your hallucinating...
Hey captain, what's that Yacht doing over there, is it trying to dock? Yacht.. sure... Wait what? Where?
Idea inspired by Kerbal Space Program and life on earth.
Feedback would be appreciated, thank you - have a nice day
And the crutch of the issue. KSP is great but this here is a combat game and MMO primarily, it just has simulator elements rather than KSP that's a simulator with some game elements attached. Right now heat sinks are needed as they are and work quite well. Combat, smuggling and exploring need them and I'd be shouting if they were removed (and I don't shout too often). As an addition, I'm sold, get me some radiator sails or panels or whatever for passive heat removal, but I'd argue why you can't simply route the cooling through your armour to the hull of your ship anyway if that's the case and have perfect cooling everywhere instead of having to buy a separate panel.