Thermal vent question

[jnTracks]

I just heard that the thermal vent effect is mostly negated if you use it on the efficient blueprint... is this true? Have I been doing it all wrong this whole time?
I’ve still managed to ice my canopy with sustained fire of efficient beams, but are they more effective if I used another blueprint?

 

[Bigmaec]

Lightweight is another good one as it reduces distro draw but not heat generated like efficient.
As far as I know it simply reverses heat generation and cooling, meaning an efficient beam does less cooling because it does less heat.

 

[Ethaidan]

But, if your other weapons are overheating your ship?

 

[SlickPBW]

Long range thermal vent is my preference. No need for HSL’s.

 

[Kzak]

But, if your other weapons are overheating your ship?

Then you need more Thermal Vent weapons to balance this out.

 

[Ethaidan]

Then you need more Thermal Vent weapons to balance this out.

That's what I was getting at. Running all Efficient beams with TV seems a bit unnecessary, but I run three large OC multicannons (two with incendiary rounds), so the two medium Efficient beams with TV balances it out nicely.

 

[Darty]

I just heard that the thermal vent effect is mostly negated if you use it on the efficient blueprint... is this true? Have I been doing it all wrong this whole time?
I’ve still managed to ice my canopy with sustained fire of efficient beams, but are they more effective if I used another blueprint?

Its complicated.
Thermal vent cools at about 3x the rate of heat generation of the weapon when the weapons capacitor is full. When it is empty it hardly cools at all.

This means that you want the mod that uses the least distro while having the highest thermal load, but also that you want the total distro usage to be low enough that it doesn't start draining the weapons capacitor. With that being said, these are your options:

Long range: Can cool at up to 6km, decent damage due to no falloff, but only ok distro to heat ratio. Might drain your distro
OC: Lots of heat and damage, but worse distro to heat ratio than LR. Will drain your distro
Short range: Best distro to heat ratio, best raw damage. Cant cool if your target is beyond 1.5km though. Might drain your distro
Lightweight: Second best distro to heat ratio, can cool up to 3km, good for fast ships, and usually won't drain your distro. However, if you do overheat, well you better cool down quickly or else you aren't going to have a thermal vent beam anymore.
Efficient: Terrible distro to heat ratio, but most reliable of the bunch. Won't melt if you overheat, can cool up to 3km, and won't drain your distro with proper pip management.
Sturdy: No.

Honestly there's no good choice, so just pick whichever suits your style.

 

[Koben]

Long range: Can cool at up to 6km, decent damage due to no falloff, but only ok distro to heat ratio. Might drain your distro

This ^^^
Normally I'd choose a small gimballed beam to reduce PD draw and max cooling effect...

 

[Bryan K]

Long range thermal vent is my preference. No need for HSL’s.

Same. Nearly all my combat ships carry at least one long range thermal vent beam. Even my Xenoconda has two class-1’s to take the edge off of the Gauss Cannons.

 

[jnTracks]

Interesting stuff.

it was silly of me to assume the cooling would be a constant, or maybe based on the size of weapon.
I might do an experiment on my cold-build viper... currently smalls are eff TV and the do cool me down to 5% or lower, but I may roll up some light weight to test.

 

[Jake Savage]

Interesting stuff.

it was silly of me to assume the cooling would be a constant, or maybe based on the size of weapon.
I might do an experiment on my cold-build viper... currently smalls are eff TV and the do cool me down to 5% or lower, but I may roll up some light weight to test.

I would be interested in your results

 

[jnTracks]

I would be interested in your results

I swapped them with lightweight and it does work. The increase in distributor draw is very minimal over efficient. With both I need 3 pips in WEP to keep it from draining under constant fire, so there's almost no difference in how I fight with them.
They do less damage, of course; but the heat venting is much increased. Where before they could cool me to under 10%, as low as 3% if I wasn't boosting... The long range ones cool to 0% even when boosting and firing the frag cannons, too.

I tested in a HAZ res and and took out a deadly python. My ship is a viper, shieldless cold build with these size 1beams and efficient frags with drag munitions. It took a while, but the python never hit me once. It did manage to get enough distance a couple times to turn on me for a second due to sloppy flying, but even then never even pulled the trigger; Assuming it couldn't get a target lock.
I think it's a success. I may add a chaff launcher since the heat is so much less of a problem. I bet I can run this in silent for ages. Though, I'm not sure if that would change anything if I'm already maintaining 0% heat.

 

[Darty]

I bet I can run this in silent for ages. Though, I'm not sure if that would change anything if I'm already maintaining 0% heat.

Silent stops vent from working last I checked.

 

[JetsonRING]

I just heard that the thermal vent effect is mostly negated if you use it on the efficient blueprint... is this true? Have I been doing it all wrong this whole time?
I’ve still managed to ice my canopy with sustained fire of efficient beams, but are they more effective if I used another blueprint?

Other mods have different cooling vs. weapon power benefits but thermal vent cools your ship no matter what is heating the ship up, as long as the lasers are striking a target.

 

[Cpt Shadow Wolfe]

I generally use Thermal Vents with Efficient on my larger ships mainly because I can use multiple beam lasers, like 5 on the Conda and Cutter and fill out the rest with MCs Overcharged. That way the beams can fire endlessly without overheating, and the Efficient prevents them from running down the distributor, so can usually run constantly with 3 pips in wpns. Once their shields are down, I can open up with the MCs. Of course, I use gimbaled weapons mostly and NPCs tend to spam the chaff a lot, so then I just use the beams until the chaff runs out and reengage with the MCs, that way I'm not wasting bullets during the chaffing period.....

 

[jnTracks]

Silent stops vent from working last I checked.

Oh? I see no info to that point..... I guess I can check when I get back out there tonight...

 

[Screemonster]

Silent stops vent from working last I checked.

I've got a DBS with a turreted ventbeam on it, when I turn it on it can maintain silent running for longer than I would otherwise, but it's not quite enough to keep it up indefinitely.

Since shooting autoresolves you to your target anyway, I just turn SR off when my heat gets to around 90%, cycle the turret firegroup in and it's got me back to 0% in seconds.

 

[Darty]

I've got a DBS with a turreted ventbeam on it, when I turn it on it can maintain silent running for longer than I would otherwise, but it's not quite enough to keep it up indefinitely.

Since shooting autoresolves you to your target anyway, I just turn SR off when my heat gets to around 90%, cycle the turret firegroup in and it's got me back to 0% in seconds.

Hmm, might have changed since I tested it.

 

[Screemonster]

What exactly is the difference between 0% heat and 0% heat signature?

I dunno if there were ever things planned to be included in the "signature" besides heat since they do appear to be separate variables, but unless you get hit with emissive or activate silent running they're pretty much the same

I'd have been okay with things like thruster use having an amplifying effect on signature that let you be detected at greater ranges than if you just cut FA off and coast, or night vision amplifying your signature since it's an active sensor instead of a passive one, and things like that. Right now burning thrusters has a slight impact on being sneaky since other players can see your exhaust trail with the ol' mk1 eyeball, but it's not something that affects sensors.

 

[znôrt]

What exactly is the difference between 0% heat and 0% heat signature?

heat % is the ships heat inside, which would cook up your modules.

heat signature is what radiates outside, which determines the distance at which other ships will resolve you as a target. i think it is represented by the wave diagram bottom-right, but no idea if the display is actually meaningful.