We changed how heat works on your Relay bays. Here is the short version.
No more shutdowns
The biggest change: bays do not shut down anymore. Before, if a bay got too hot it would trip and sit in a long forced cooldown, making nothing the whole time. That is gone. A hot bay now just runs slower, and it never fully stops.
Hot just means slower
Heat works on a smooth slider now. While a bay is cool it runs at full speed. As it heats up it gradually makes less, down to a minimum it will not drop below. So even a maxed-out hot bay keeps producing, it is just working at a lower rate.
Your heat can settle anywhere
You might see a bay heat up and then just stop at some number, sitting there without moving. That is normal, not a bug. A hotter bay makes less, and making less also makes less heat, so as it climbs it reaches the point where the heat coming in and the heat going out balance each other. The number levels off and holds there. It is simply where that bay settles for its current size and mode. Underclock it or drop a coolant and it settles lower, build it up or overclock and it settles higher.
Big bays are worth it
Stacking modules used to cook your bay (kind of a hidden mechanic, targeted mostly Mint, but also Refinery on a lower scale). Now each extra module in either bay adds a little less heat than the one before it, and leveling a module up makes it run cooler. So large, high-level bays stay reasonable instead of melting, and going big is actually a good idea now.
A new heat bar
Every bay now shows a heat bar, right above its output. The color tells you where you stand at a glance:
- Green: nice and cool, full speed
- Yellow: warming up, output starting to dip
- Red: at the cap, output at the minimum
- Purple: overclocking, pushing past the normal cap
Output is shown as current and max, so you can see exactly how much your heat is slowing things down right now. After overclocking session heat dissipates naturally based on the current dissipation rate of Normal mode (-1%/min by default).
Modes, quick recap
Each bay runs in one mode:
- Off: nothing runs, and heat cools off the fastest
- Underclocked: cooler and steady, a bit less output, great for set and forget
- Normal: the baseline
- Overclocked: a big output push, but it heats up fast, so use it for a burst and it cools back down on its own afterward
A normal bay tops out at 100 percent heat (no more nonsensical 120%). Overclocking lets you push above that, up to 115 percent, for extra output while it lasts.
Research changes
A few Relay research nodes changed to fit the new heat:
- Thermal Reserve changed to decrease the output penalty while throttled.
- Interlock Harmony still does the same thing, but the amount was retuned to the new, smaller heat numbers, and the fact that overclocking is possible without worrying about shutdown while socializing.
One heads up
Heat pool of all your bays is reset to 0% retroactively, at the time you last did anything with Relay Network. Open up your Relay and see how your setup runs now.
What’s next?
Cooling Bay is right around the corner, but needs a bit more work to be finished. Also, as usual, research/upgrade effects may be changed based on the feedback, as long as they remain at sane value ranges.