Player Features and Ideas Discussion

Ship heat is something that doesn't have much depth in the game as it is. You can overheat modules to improve their performance, then repair damage that is dealt via Nanite Paste, but there isn't much else. The three modules I propose would interact with ship heat in different ways to add depth and complexity to combat.

First, a Microwave Emitter would be a high slot module that would come in small, medium, and large sizes, just like energy neutralizers, and have similar fittings costs, with larger modules having longer ranges and producing more heat in the target ship. When activated on a target ship, the module would add heat to the ship's high, medium, and low racks. This would not add heat damage to modules, just the racks themselves, effectively increasing the risk that overheated modules took damage when activated. This could be used in numerous applications to prevent ships from overheating modules, although it would never prevent a ship from activating a module at all (unless they burnt it out by accident).

To counteract this module, I would introduce a mid slot module called a Coolant Injector. This module would act like a shield booster, only instead of providing shields, would reduce the amount of heat in the racks of your ship when activated. This would reduce the chance of your modules taking heat damage, allowing them to be overheated for longer periods of time. Similar to shield boosters, they would come in small, medium, and large sizes, with larger modules reducing more heat and requiring more fitting.

Finally, I would include a low slot module called a Heat Capacitor. This module would reduce the rate at which your ship accumulated heat in your racks and increase the rate at which heat is naturally dissipated from your ship's racks. This is similar to the bonus that Strategic Cruisers and Tactical Destroyers have, although their bonuses reduce the heat damage that modules take rather than reduce the amount of heat generated in your ship as a heat sink would. Similar to capacitor batteries, this module would come in small, medium, and large sizes, with greater fitting requirements and effectiveness for larger modules.

The main issue I see with these modules is what sort of module a ship would have to give up to fit them instead. Lots of ships have utility high slots that could potentially see the Microwave Emitter used, but mid and low slots are usually much more scarce. While being able to overheat modules significantly more would be a great benefit, it would potentially not be enough to overcome the loss of a ship slot.

Any comments are appreciated!

EDIT 1: Reddit thread I made with more ideas on rebalancing heat in general.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Eve/comments/4gsk5h/rethinking_heat/