A suggestion...
100% heat is the tolerance for any given ship. Above that there is a chance of taking heat damage equal to the excess over 100% every unit of time. A unit of time for this purpose can vary by ship type but if you sit scooping at 98% you're fine, at 102% you have a 2% chance per unit of time to take heat damage, 40% chance at 140% and at 200% and above heat damage every unit is guaranteed.
I'm not really expecting a change, I just keep thinking (as I sit scooping slowly at 98% heat after taking some heat damage after a moment of over exuberance at 1,500ly from Sol and becoming, at least for a while, extra cautious) that it would be a nice mechanic. You could sit at 175% for a while if you were feeling lucky (are ya, punk?) and there'd always be some danger in exceeding the design parameters (i.e. going over 100%) so scooping anyway other than exceedingly carefully would always be a bit of a gamble. Even if it was a relatively safe one at a few points over 100% - unless you're tens of thousands of light years from the nearest place where you can dock for repairs...
100% heat is the tolerance for any given ship. Above that there is a chance of taking heat damage equal to the excess over 100% every unit of time. A unit of time for this purpose can vary by ship type but if you sit scooping at 98% you're fine, at 102% you have a 2% chance per unit of time to take heat damage, 40% chance at 140% and at 200% and above heat damage every unit is guaranteed.
I'm not really expecting a change, I just keep thinking (as I sit scooping slowly at 98% heat after taking some heat damage after a moment of over exuberance at 1,500ly from Sol and becoming, at least for a while, extra cautious) that it would be a nice mechanic. You could sit at 175% for a while if you were feeling lucky (are ya, punk?) and there'd always be some danger in exceeding the design parameters (i.e. going over 100%) so scooping anyway other than exceedingly carefully would always be a bit of a gamble. Even if it was a relatively safe one at a few points over 100% - unless you're tens of thousands of light years from the nearest place where you can dock for repairs...