Heat generation is a significant issue that has to be managed as you pilot your spacecraft. There is no conduction or convection available in a vacuum, so the heat has to be radiated away to prevent overheating and degradation of system performance. This radiant heat provides a tell-tale signature that is used to provide the information on your scanner about the other ships in your local space. Unfortunately, it means you show up on everyone else’s scanners, too..!
The general rule is: the hotter you are running, the easier it is to ‘see’ you. The operation of every module on your ship contributes to the load on your power-plant and hence your heat signature. A representation of your current signature is shown on your ship’s display, along with a percentage measure of your heat relative to the allowable maximum.
Faster-than-light travel in-system using ‘super-cruise’ of course uses prodigious amounts of power, and the heat signature generated lights you up like a beacon on everyone’s scanners. And even that pales in comparison with the amount needed for long-range hyperspace travel between systems.
Normal propulsion using main engines produces significantly less heat than faster than light travel, and is normally not a limiting factor in general manoeuvring and combat.
Other sources of heat are weapons – some more so than others. For example, kinetic weapons are a good choice to keep your heat signature low, as the heat is generally ejected from your ship with the projectiles. Lasers and other energy weapons and shields, however, do contribute to the heat signature of your ship. In general the energy demand of every system you have contributes to the heat generated by your ship.
The heat vents on your ship operate automatically to attempt to regulate your ships temperature and keep all systems operational.
Additionally heat-sink modules are available as part of your loadout configuration which allow you to jettison heat stored by heating physical blocks to white heat, then ejecting them, having the additional benefit of acting as a decoy to other ships’ scanners and any incoming heat-seeking missiles.
In more extreme situations you can choose to ‘button down’ your ship for a short while, which stops the normal operation of the heat vents. Your shields are inoperative whilst you are in ‘silent running’ like this, and the heat that is still being generated by your ship’s systems builds up. Effectively your ship is ‘holding its breath’ and this is only a temporary measure – your ship will become disabled if you carry on too long.
Switching off your ship’s systems (even flight assist!) and using only gentle nudges of your thrusters to manoeuvre can result in a very stealthy profile, and you can combine this with the right weapons and tactics and achieve a whole new dimension to space combat. But beware - the hunter can easily become the hunted..!
If you are playing the Alpha or have Premium Beta access to the single player missions and haven't already mastered it, start experimenting and see how you can add pro-active thermal management to your repertoire of Elite: Dangerous Pilot Federation 'tricks of the trade'!
Cobra MK III - Design Philosophy
The Cobra Mk III is easily the most iconic ship in the lore of the Elite universe; a robust, multi-role vessel favoured by lone wolf space farers - hard-bitten mercenaries, intrepid explorers and entrepreneurial traders alike. It’s also one of the smaller ships in Elite: Dangerous, which presents an interesting challenge: how to make this favourite shine as always, without making it punch too far above its weight.
For a start, we reason that it should not be able to match smaller craft such as the Eagle or Sidewinder for straight agility. We categorise both of these vessels as “super manoeuvre” ships – they rely on being able to affect direction changes faster than their opponents to get on their target’s six in a dogfight – and we want to ensure that they maintain viability in this role.
To compensate, the Cobra has more main drive power, giving it a higher top speed. It’s not the fastest ship, but coupled with very respectable hull strength and shield capacity for its size and cost, the Cobra is usually able to dictate engagement ranges when combating smaller ships; having the speed to break off and recover, as well as run down smaller prey and project superior firepower.
The Cobra isn’t a complete dogfighting slouch either; it’s able to run rings around many of the larger ships, and with four weapon-capable hardpoints it demands respect. The flip side is that it’s at greater risk from larger tracking-weapons that struggle to keep up with smaller fighters.
Elite: Dangerous isn’t all about combat though, as the forthcoming rollout of trading within a 200 cubic light year play space in Alpha 4 will reveal. Possibly the Cobra’s main appeal is that it combines a good degree of “yanking and banking” combat with solid trade and exploration options, representing a sweet spot for pilots wanting to do a little bit of everything on a budget.
Of course it’s not the be all and end all in space flight. For those looking to specialise, there will be vessels that are more effective in narrower fields, and due to its relatively small size, there are limits to the kind of endeavours it can safely engage in.
Alpha and soon Beta testers can look forward to continued ship-based tweaks as we strive to achieve the perfect balance for the Cobra, even as we add new vessels into the mix. But one thing’s for certain – the Mark Three is back with a bang!
Check out this great image of the Cobra that was used recently for an Edge magazine cover; you can also view the animation that was used in their interactive version of the issue here.
Mostly Harmless Questions
In the Private Backers forum we have a thread where commanders can pose questions for the development team. In this section of the newsletter we’ll take a look at some of those questions and provide answers from Executive Producer Michael Brookes.
-Perrie67: How will E:D make travelling the insane distances for exploring the galaxy without making it too easy to travel around the populated systems?
There are two modes of super luminal (faster than light) travel.
Super cruise (or frame shifting) is used for travel inside systems. It was originally conceived as a sub-luminal drive, but based on the fantastic collaboration we have been having with our Design Decision Forum backers it was re-worked and is now itself a super luminal system to allow relatively rapid travel within systems.
Hyperspace drives are used to travel between star systems. Hyperdrives with different ranges, charge up times and fuel consumption parameters are available, and so your particular model of hyperdrive governs your specific ability to move around the galaxy.
Both will make their debut in Alpha 4 (not counting the early version of hyperspace in Alpha 3).
-bedroc: Hi, If you explore far out, will there still be stations and an ability to trade?
Most of humanity inhabits a few hundred light year bubble around Sol, Achenar and Alioth. Beyond this are a lower density of isolated systems with small communities on them that can be used by explorers to resupply, with small/basic orbital stations. These are the “Frontier” systems. Beyond this, you will still encounter occasional ships (including other players), but no stations; not to start with at least. There will be ship-ship docking though too, so it will still be possible to resupply. The ships suited for long range exploration will require a greater degree of self-sustainability, for example fuel scoops and repair and maintenance equipment, and we expect players to cooperate to meet the challenge!
-Wreckage: Is the Kepler data for planets being figured into the galaxy map?
We’re striving to make the Elite: Dangerous Milky Way as accurate as possible. As part of this we are using a variety of sources for the celestial bodies data, and that includes confirmed exoplanets from the Kepler data and many other sources.