Warfare & Tactics

The position of an overloaded module in the rack affects the chances of the other modules in the rack to take damage from heat. The further away from the overloaded module they are, the smaller the chances are for the other modules to become damaged.

Damage will not spread in a totally random way over the rack. It will most probably hit the overloaded module(s) generating heat. There is less chance of damage being done to modules equipped next to them, with further reductions in chance to modules further away from the overloaded one. The exact formula can be found and discussed in the "Ships & Modules" section of the forums.

The damage spreading "sideways" also depends of the heat dissipation of the different modules :

•Module Groups have specific behavior towards overloading, an afterburner will produce more heat than one missile launcher or a shield booster for instance.
•Tech Levels are getting different heat sustenance levels, some can take the heat better, such as the run of the mill Tech 1 modules that don't suffer from the delicate construction of specialized modules.
•Shield Boost Amplifiers are one of a kind, has they passively double the heat damage for the amplified Shield boosters.
Having the Thermodynamics skill at a high level and clever fittings won't let you overload your modules forever, but it might give you those several additional cycles's advantage that can make the difference between an expensive repair bill and a whole new ship purchase.

You can thereby create heat sinks or buffers by putting less critical modules on the sides of the to-be-overloaded module

Whilst modules are active and overheating, they, and other modules in the same section, will take heat damage. The amount of heat damage taken is a set amount, and can be seen in a module's Show Info. This is the amount of damage a module has a chance to suffer per overheated cycle. The structure HP of a module can also be seen, and this is universally 40 HP. Well, some Titan-only modules like Clone Vat Bays and Jump Portal Generators have 99,999HP (just to ensure you can't burn them out), but apart from them, it's all 40HP. Once a modules damage exceeds its structure HP, it will be forcibly offlined (also known as burn out).


However, heat damage is not the same every time you overheat. Whether a module takes damage or not each cycle is a random chance, presumably using some kind of algorithm that CCP won't tell us about. Although we can't know exactly how heat damage is applied, we can do some experiments and draw our own conclusions. Something to point out is that because heat damage is random, it's impossible to be certain about anything related to how heat damage is distributed. All these tests were with Thermodynamics at level 1.

As you can see from the bottom row, the end result is that once the red sections completely surround the module image, the active turret burns out with 8 rounds remaining. All of the other turrets also took significant heat damage. The two modules adjacent to the active turret were damaged the most, but the other four took varying amounts of heat damage.

The conclusions are that:

1.every module in the whole rack takes heat damage from a single overheating module,
2.the active module takes the most heat damage, and
3.the closer a module is to an active overheating module, the more damage it takes.

Note that heat damage does not spread over other racks (high slot modules cannot damage mid or low slot modules, for example).

Heat damage appears to be applied at the beginning of a module's cycle. In theory therefore, skills that make your modules cycle faster will correspondingly cause them to burn out faster, although the number of cycles should not change. Another interesting feature is that a module that burns out will cycle one last time despite being offlined at the beginning of the cycle due to heat damage. You can accomplish a lot with this final hero cycle!

This heat acts as a sort of multiplier, as your ship gets hotter stuff gets damaged faster. Technically, I think it gives you a higher chance for your modules to be damaged.

http://jestertrek.blogspot.com.au/2011/12/guide-overheating.html

^best overloading guide you're going to find anywhere, have a read.