Questions about heat and power management

[LFoD]

1. Is weapon thermal overload fixed by putting pips in Systems or in Weapons?

2. Power Distribution module... what the frick does it do? I got an upgraded one to E3 and it doesn't seem notably different from stock. (Viper with 2xG1 Burst Laser (G) and 2xF1 multi-cannon (G).

3. Upgrading the power plant itself would just allow you to continue to fire longer, but it doesn't deal with the heat problem, correct? Is dumping heatsinks the only way to cool things down?

I'm bounty hunting and it can get frustrating when you lose kills to some other clown simply because the weapons quit due to heat or power right when your target is at 5%.

Thanks!

LFoD

 

[DeanWnchester]

Yes putting pips in weapons speeds up the time it takes for weapons to cool. Sys causes the shield to regenerate quicker and engines increases top speed and increases boost regeneration. With an E rated power distributor you should definitely be noticing a difference. You should be able to boost permanently. With an F rated distributor and 4 pips in engines I can maintain 350Km/s. Boost puts me to 405 and I can boost again by the time my speed drops to roughly 360, basically I can boost every 5 seconds. And with 4 pips in weapons and can fire my C2 overcharged pulse laser non stop.
Upgrading the power plant CAN reduce your ships heat output and will prevent you from running out of enough energy to power all your systems at one time. Powering off unnecessary modules like cargo hatch during a dogfight will help keep your ship temps down as well.

 

[kyoseki]

Power plants determine the maximum power output, exceed that and systems will start shutting down.

Power distributors change the recharge speed (and possibly capacity) of the three SYS/ENG/WEP subsystems, improved systems definitely speed that up.

I was running a D4 power couple in my Cobra and had no issues keeping things charged, so it does make a significant difference.