Radiators

[Amplar]

Size is what drives balance in acf, so I thought of an idea for radiators. Basically, you link any prop to a motor and it gets assigned as a "radiator", and based on its size (surface area probably, like armor calc) determines its cooling effectiveness and ACF assigns it a weight so you can't use a bit of armor or baseplate for a radiator.

In basic form:
Engine will not operate without a radiator of sufficient size depending on motor type
Radiators will be pretty big (their whole purpose is to take up interior space)
Their mass assigned based on surface area so they are too light to be used as armor and structural (weight doesn't really matter, it's size that does giggity)

Down the road:
Engines can run without radiators, but will offer less output than an engine with a radiator
Overheating
Require to be touching open air (this is kaf's original idea) to operate (such as sitting on the engine deck)
Require to be in proximity of engine

If you've got any more ideas, please share

[Fervidusletum]

More down the road ideas:
Radiator efficiency based on velocity.
Engine cooling needed based on how hard the engine is being run.
Certain air-cooled engines (single, twin, radial, turbine) wouldn't necessarily need radiators if exposed to open air at sufficient velocity.

This would reduce the radiator size needed by engines used for cars, as the radiator would be more effective at high speeds. Correspondingly, slow moving vehicles (read: tanks) would need larger than normal radiators as they would have poor airflow.

If the engine starts to overheat, the user can lower the load on the engine (less throttle, turning off, etc) reducing heat produced, to maximize the cooling from the radiator.

[Amplar]

+1

[Redreaper]

If we make it optional, it's much more practical. Maybe it lets you run at 110% throttle for a preset radiator of certain sizes. Small engines use a small radiator, medium a medium radiator, large a large radiator. We could do the same thing with turbos, just have em engage at a certain rev band, and should be relatively fucksimple with code.