What causes heat damage while in combat?

[CMDR Kantos Kan]

I thought I had a pretty good gripe on the game but I guess I'm missing something.

I'm flying an Imperial Clipper. It's equipped with:

A 6C Power Plant providing 21 MW of power
A 6A Power Distributor, providing 5.2MW to weapons, 3.2MW to systems and 3.2MW to engine.
A 6C Shield Generator
2 2D gimbaled beam lasers
2 2F gimbaled pulse lasers

From time to time, I'm getting the "Warning! Taking heat damage" while I'm away from any star and in combat, firing at my opponent.

What could be causing this?

 

[Arubeto]

Continues fire of energy weapons - the beam lasers in your case - raise heat levels and cause head damage eventually.

 

[Whiterose]

Overheating of your lasers.

 

[Polared]

your weapons, as they fire they generate heat, too much heat = heat damage! the bigger the weapons the more heat!

 

[Arubeto]

Overheating of your lasers.

your weapons, as they fire they generate heat, too much heat = heat damage! the bigger the weapons the more heat!

Ninja'd you both

 

[Monk]

You should pulse your beam lasers. Try to only fire them when they are actually on your target. With the right intervals, you can being firing beam lasers almost non-stop.

 

[Mark Allen]

Keep an eye on your heat gauge (vertical curved bar to the left of the radar) - whenever that reads over 100% you're taking damage to your modules, over 166% your hull is starting to burn as well..

Primary causes for heat buildup in combat are boosting, weapons fire or charging FSD to escape. To a lesser degree engine thrust increases heat, as do shields recharging, and anything that draws increased power.

 

[SpitTheDog]

I thought I had a pretty good gripe on the game but I guess I'm missing something.

I'm flying an Imperial Clipper. It's equipped with:

A 6C Power Plant providing 21 MW of power
A 6A Power Distributor, providing 5.2MW to weapons, 3.2MW to systems and 3.2MW to engine.
A 6C Shield Generator
2 2D gimbaled beam lasers
2 2F gimbaled pulse lasers

From time to time, I'm getting the "Warning! Taking heat damage" while I'm away from any star and in combat, firing at my opponent.

What could be causing this?

Thargoids!

 

[cluelessforumuser65578]

so far as im aware shooting, boosting and using shield cell banks all generate heat to sum degree when used

 

[EUS]

Also a better PP will be more efficient in dealing with the heat.

 

[Cmdr Basskicker]

Firing you weapons non-stop is most likely your problem. Your power plant may have the wattage to handle the 2 beams and 2 pulses, but it doesn't have the efficiency to dissipate the heat that those weapons put out. Those beams put out a ton of heat over time.

In short you need a better powerplant, or you need to change your loadout to something with less heat generation eg, multi cannons or cannons. Or, you could always just lay off the beams when you see your heat getting close to 100%.

 

[Polared]

Ninja'd you both

double nunchucked indeed : )

 

[Mark Allen]

Also a better PP will be more efficient in dealing with the heat.

Yes, indirectly - the higher class power plants will generate less heat per unit of power consumed by your ship (at best about 40% of the heat per unit a basic one would) - but will have no effect on heat generated by any method other than modules consuming power.

 

[CMDR Kantos Kan]

Is there anything I can do to minimize the heat, besides switching to smaller weapons? (medium hard points are not that big already, not looking for this option).

Otherwise, does that mean I would have to stop firing from time to time? Or maybe use an alternate fire group?

And I just upgraded my PP yesterday from the default class E (or was it D?) to a class C. I did notice that when comparing the one I had and the one I purchased, the heat was down. So, upgrading the PP could be a possible solution?

 

[quickr]

Firing your weapons
Firing chaffs
Firing shield cell bank
Boosting
Preparing hyperspace jump

In imperial courier even breathing

 

[Mark Allen]

One option is loading up on some heatsinks in utility hardpoints - each one will carry most (usually all) of the heat in your ship out into the void. Has the added benefit of working quite well at distracting incoming seeker missiles too.

 

[who?]

Yes, indirectly - the higher class power plants will generate less heat per unit of power consumed by your ship (at best about 40% of the heat per unit a basic one would) - but will have no effect on heat generated by any method other than modules consuming power.

Cheers for this, great to have detailed info from a reputable source!

Planning on re-outfitting my Asp, and this helps a lot.

 

[Vincent Starson]

Keep an eye on your heat gauge (vertical curved bar to the left of the radar) - whenever that reads over 100% you're taking damage to your modules, over 166% your hull is starting to burn as well..

Primary causes for heat buildup in combat are boosting, weapons fire or charging FSD to escape. To a lesser degree engine thrust increases heat, as do shields recharging, and anything that draws increased power.

While your here, why does the bar on the left update slowly? It refreshes every second instead of being a constant reading.

For example when fuel scooping you can see the heat percentage rising smoothly for every percent of heat, while the gauge on the left of the scanner can update in 2 or 3% increments due to the refresh rate. Is that a bug or intended?

 

[Karakhian]

Keep an eye on your heat gauge (vertical curved bar to the left of the radar) - whenever that reads over 100% you're taking damage to your modules, over 166% your hull is starting to burn as well..

Primary causes for heat buildup in combat are boosting, weapons fire or charging FSD to escape. To a lesser degree engine thrust increases heat, as do shields recharging, and anything that draws increased power.

Thanks for clarification - interesting that anything that draws increased power also builds heat.

- - - Updated - - -

Is there anything I can do to minimize the heat, besides switching to smaller weapons? (medium hard points are not that big already, not looking for this option).

Otherwise, does that mean I would have to stop firing from time to time? Or maybe use an alternate fire group?

And I just upgraded my PP yesterday from the default class E (or was it D?) to a class C. I did notice that when comparing the one I had and the one I purchased, the heat was down. So, upgrading the PP could be a possible solution?

Yes, an A class powerplant will make your ship run a lot cooler in general and control heat better - though bear in mind that it has no effect on getting heated up by something like being next to a star!

And use heat sinks. They basically dump 100% of your heat (as far as I know) each time you launch one, providing a target for anything that is heatseeking and also the sudden drop in your temp can make you disappear from people's scopes if you're far enough away. They aren't just for smugglers

- - - Updated - - -

Firing your weapons
Firing chaffs
Firing shield cell bank
Boosting
Preparing hyperspace jump

In imperial courier even breathing

I remember the first time I tried to fuel scoop in a courier. Well, that was hilarious...

 

[CMDR Kantos Kan]

Thanks for all the very good replies and hints, guys! Much appreciated! I've learned again something new!