Hey everyone,
Thought i'd take a moment to give you all an update on what i'm working on. Over the last few weeks i've been working on the heat addition mentioned in the road map. I thought i'd get on to this now rather than further combat additions as i think it'll give a bit more depth to underlying gameplay.
So what will the heat addition bring? Items will now generate heat whilst operating, and this is something you'll now need to manage. Obviously some heat is actually needed, so that your habitat stays at a nice comfortable temperature for your human crew/visitors. Your life support will now try and maintain this, but excess heat has to go somewhere, so you'll now need to build radiators to dissipate excess heat.
Adding heat also gives us a reason to add a couple of interesting items to play with. 1) Thermal Storage - Excess heat can be stored, rather than radiated away into space. 2) Thermoelectric generator. Excess/stored heat can be used to generate power. Not as efficient as solar, but it is a sink for excess heat, giving a small power bonus (not affect by solar storms).
These items are in my development build of the game, and i am now just balancing figures and adding in updates to the all the user interfaces where needed. You'll also be getting a new Engineering window, that will show power/heat/cooling and allow you to control required aspects. (Turn off machines too hot, set auto off temp settings, dump stored heat if you're getting too hot).
Looking to get this update out later this month.
Nick