Reactor

Ships have two reactors, the main reactor, and the auxiliary reactor. This article is about the main reactor. The main reactor is responsible for powering the main systems of the ship while the AUX gives power to secondary systems. While it is possible to use a ship without a main reactor, it would be very inefficient since the output of the auxiliary reactor is just 6400 MW.

Heat
Heat changes depending on the total usage of a reactor's output. If the total usage is less than half of the output, the reactor cools down, and it will cool down faster depending on how low the usage is. When the total usage is more than 50% of the reactor's output, the reactor will heat up faster depending on how much over 50% of the total usage is. Coolant can be used to control the cooling of the reactor.

Heat Formula (simplified):

$$\left (\left ( \tfrac{Power\, usage}{Output} \right ) * Heat\, Output -\left ( 0.55 + \left (Coolant_{a}*0.2 \right ) * 1.5 \right )\right ) * 135 *  Time.deltaTime$$


 * a: 0 for Off, 2 for Low, and 4 for High

Overheating
If the temperature reaches the maximum, the reactor automatically shuts down, leaving the ship without power for some time (determined by the emergency cooldown stat) while the reactor cools. This can be prevented if the core safety lever is toggled off. This allows the core to overheat at the cost of reactor stability. Once the reactor stability reaches zero the core must be ejected to prevent the ship from blowing up.

While overheated the core emits radiation, damaging all personnel inside Engineering who are not wearing an Exosuit. The core will recover from overheating by itself when heat is under maximum temperature, restoring core stability.

Overclocking
When the Overclock option on the reactor screen is selected the reactor gains 70% more potential output, however it comes at the cost of 20% more reactor heat gained and 90% less passive heat loss. Coolant usage is highly suggested while Overclocking is in use.

Overclocking without a main reactor (e.g. after ejecting a critically unstable reactor) only gives a 20% increase in power, and has no downsides as this applies the overclock bonus to the auxiliary reactor instead.

Maximum Temperature
Maximum temperature before core overheats. A higher maximum temperature allows easier heat control for the engineer.

Emergency Cooldown
Determines how long in seconds that the core is offline for when it overheats while the Core Safety is enabled.

Output
Total energy output of the reactor. Determines when the core starts to heat up and how much energy can be used at once.

Heat Output
Heat output is how much heat is generated per produced MW. The standard value is 100%, which means the core generates heat when over 50% of total power is used. If heat output is 200% it means the core produces as much heat as twice the current output meaning the core starts to heat up when 25% of total power is used.

Electromagnetic Signature
Used to calculate the ship's electromagnetic signature. A higher EM signature means the ship is easier to find with sensors.

List of affecting talents

 * Custom Coolant Mix
 * Auxiliary Power

List of affecting programs

 * OverDrive