# Auto Radiator A Cosmoteer mod. Radiators stop dumping heat the ship still wants. ## The problem Thermal Canister Missiles are built from the ship's own heat. The game says so itself, in `Data/strings/en.rules`: > Manufactures guided Thermal Canister Missiles that take thermal energy from > their own ship's heat pipe network and inflict it upon the target. The launcher charges each missile from the heat network — `HEAT_PER_MISSILE = 8500`, two missiles buffered per launcher. A radiator pulls from that same network, through a component that is behaviourally identical to the launcher's: | | Radiator | Thermal launcher | |---|---|---| | Type | `NetworkResourceOutput` | `NetworkResourceOutput` | | Mode | `DistributeProportionallyByAvailable` | `DistributeProportionallyByAvailable` | | Categories | `[ thermal_storage ]` | `[ thermal_storage ]` | `Data/ships/priorities.rules` defines priorities for crew and supply only — nothing for heat. So the two compete flat, proportionally, and a radiator running constantly is spending your ammunition to make steam. ## Why holding heat is safe Heat storage being full does not hurt you. Damage comes only from *overflow*. Every overclocked part routes its heat through this (`Data/ships/base_part_overclock.rules`): ``` HeatDistributionStorage { Type = MultiResourceStorage ResourceStorages = [NetworkHeatInput, OverflowHeatStorage] AddMode = InOrder } ``` `InOrder` means the network is tried first, and `OverflowHeatStorage` only receives what the network refuses. Overflow then applies the `cosmoteer.heat` status to the producing part's own tiles. From `Data/statuses/heat/heat.rules`, that status does nothing whatsoever below **350** per tile (`RequireValueRangeForTick = [350, Infinity]`). Fire chance ramps from 350 to 2500; thermal damage begins at 700. An overclocked large reactor produces 2750 heat/sec over its 4×4 footprint — about **172 status/sec per tile** while fully overflowing, so roughly **2 seconds of continuous, total overflow** before fire risk even arms. Radiators react within **0.5 s** (`HeatDissipationConverter { Interval = 0.5 }`). With 5% of one thermal battery (750 status heat) left when venting starts, one overclocked large reactor takes about 0.27 s to consume it, against a 0.5 s radiator reaction time — so the overshoot lands well under the 350-per-tile threshold at which anything begins to happen. Holding the network near full is safe with a wide margin, and headroom given up beyond that is ammunition thrown away for nothing. The genuine constraint is not the threshold. It is total radiator throughput (1100/sec each) versus sustained generation. If you are short on radiators you overflow continuously and no threshold value saves you. ## What the mod does The radiator's own on/off switch picks a mode: - **ON** — vanilla. The radiator vents constantly. You want the heat gone. - **OFF** — bank heat. The radiator idles while the heat network has room and vents only when it is nearly full: vent while less than **5%** of the network's heat storage is free, hold again once **10%** is free (a deadband so radiators do not chatter). The ship never overflows heat onto its own parts, and thermal batteries stay topped up as a deep missile reserve. The radiator measures the network itself, with a bare `NetworkResourceInput` — the same component an overclocked part pushes its heat through (`base_part_overclock.rules`: `NetworkHeatInput`), so it sees exactly what a producer sees. Both thresholds are named constants in `components/radiator_auto.rules`. The design is **fail-safe**: idling requires positive evidence that the network has room to spare. Anything missing, disconnected or unmeasurable ends up venting, which is vanilla behaviour. On one thermal battery (15000 status heat) 5% free is 750 of headroom. An overclocked large reactor fills that in ~0.27 s against the radiator's 0.5 s interval, so the worst overshoot is ~45 heat per tile, an order of magnitude under the 350 where anything starts to happen. More storage means more absolute headroom at the same percentage. No stat or number is changed. Only *when* radiators run. ## Layout ``` mod.rules manifest + patch actions components/radiator_auto.rules measures network headroom, gates the radiator tests/ offline validation suite tests/steam_paths.py finds the game via Steam's libraryfolders.vdf tools/dotnet_enum.py reads component schemas out of Cosmoteer.dll tools/ildump.py disassembles component methods to readable CIL install.sh validate + copy into the Mods folder ``` ## Install ```sh ./install.sh ``` Then enable **Auto Radiator** in the game's Mods menu. `./install.sh --uninstall` removes it. The script finds the game by reading Steam's `libraryfolders.vdf`, so a library on a second disk and a Proton prefix are both handled. If it still comes up empty it prints the libraries it searched; set `COSMOTEER_MODS_DIR` to override. ## Tests ```sh python3 tests/test_mod.py # the mod, against installed game data python3 tests/test_steam_paths.py # game discovery ./tests/test_install.sh # Mods folder discovery ``` Cosmoteer applies mod actions to vanilla data at load time. Some mistakes crash the game on startup — an unresolvable path, a misspelled component `Type` — and the suite catches those by parsing the installed game's `.rules` tree offline. The more dangerous mistakes do not crash anything. They load perfectly and silently do nothing; see **Status** below for the four this project hit and the guard for each. The suite also self-checks its own parser against known vanilla facts first, so a broken parser fails loudly instead of passing everything. Set `COSMOTEER_DATA` to point at a different install, and `COSMOTEER_ASSEMBLY` for the schema checks. ## How to tell it is working Switch a radiator **OFF** with heat storage low. It shows the "powered off" indicator and no steam plume while the network fills. As the heat gauge nears full the plume starts and the gauge stalls around 90–95%, with no overheat warning. Fire missiles, the gauge drops, the radiator goes quiet again. Switch it **ON** and it runs constantly, exactly as in vanilla. ## Status **Confirmed working.** Against game 0.30.4c on 2026-08-29, v4.0.0 in a real fight: radiators switched OFF idle while the network fills, vent as it nears full, the ship never overheats, and they go quiet again once missiles drain the reserve. Switched ON they vent constantly, as in vanilla. Earlier builds required a launcher to broadcast "thermal ammo in use" over the heat network, which worked at load but did not follow the ammo selection live. The player's switch expresses the intent more directly, so the broadcast was removed in v4.0.0 and OFF now means "bank heat". ### What the assembly says Nothing about these components is documented, and guessing cost six builds. `tools/ildump.py` disassembles `Cosmoteer.dll`, and three methods settle how the measurement actually works: - `PartThresholdToggle.OnAmountChanged`: `IsToggleOn = (Value >= MinAmount && Value <= MaxAmount) != Invert`. Plain floats. **There is no percent logic** — `88%` in a `.rules` file is simply 0.88. - `BaseResourceStorage.get_Value`: `Lerp(ProvidedValueRange, Resources / MaxResources) + Resources × ProvidedValuePerResource`. The default range is `[0, 1]`, so a storage's value is its **fill fraction**. That is why vanilla can write `MaxAmount = 88%` against a network-wrapped `HeatStorage` (`resonance_beam_turret.rules`). - `PartNetworkResourceInput.get_Value`: `Lerp(ProvidedValueRange, 1 − Resources / MaxResources)`, where `Resources` is the connected sinks' used capacity and `MaxResources` their total. So its value is the **free fraction of the network**, and 0 when nothing is attached. v2.1.0 compared that 0..1 free fraction against `2000000`. "Space low" was therefore permanently true, radiators always vented, and the mod was a no-op with a clean load. v2.0.0's failure was elsewhere, in a battery-to-radiator broadcast chain that v2.1.0 had already removed. ### Silent failures and their guards Every build so far loaded without a single error. Cosmoteer reports none of these, so each has a mutation-verified test: | Silent failure | Guard | |---|---| | `NetworkToggle` / `NetworkToggleReceiver` carry no signal on a physical ship (every vanilla use sets `IncludeInPhysical = false`) | `test_no_blueprint_only_signal_types`, plus `test_vanilla_marks_those_types_blueprint_only` so the premise cannot go stale | | A field name that does not exist in the component's real schema is ignored rather than reported | `test_component_fields_exist_in_schema`, read from the assembly's own metadata (ALL_CAPS local constants exempt, the vanilla convention) | | A network component no route reaches never attaches, and reads as absent forever | `test_network_components_are_routed` | | An `Overrides` value naming a component that is not there reverts the gate to nothing | `test_override_values_name_real_components` | | A threshold on a fraction-valued source compared against an absolute number is permanently on or off | `test_threshold_amounts_match_value_scale` | Routing was the cause of the first three builds doing nothing. A network component is only attached if a **route** reaches it: the part's `NetworkPort` anchors on one component, and a `NetworkRouter` bridges that anchor to every other network component on the part. That is how vanilla connects the radiator's own `NetworkedThermalDissipationLoadValue`, and how the amplification pump reaches the resonance beam turret. Many parts ship no router at all. ### Tools `tools/dotnet_enum.py` reads component schemas and enum members straight out of `Cosmoteer.dll` with no dependencies: ```sh python3 tools/dotnet_enum.py /path/to/Cosmoteer.dll PartThresholdToggleRules python3 tools/dotnet_enum.py /path/to/Cosmoteer.dll MultiToggleMode ``` `tools/ildump.py` goes further and disassembles methods, resolving calls, fields and strings to names. It needs `dnfile` and `dncil` (pure Python; set `ILDUMP_PKGS` to a directory of unpacked wheels if they are not installed): ```sh python3 tools/ildump.py /path/to/Cosmoteer.dll PartNetworkResourceInput get_Value python3 tools/ildump.py /path/to/Cosmoteer.dll BaseResourceStorageRules .ctor ``` Version 1.4.0 in the git history carries a probe build that makes a radiator report its own internal state through indicator icons, if this ever needs debugging again. ## Possible additions - A third switch position (ON / BANK / OFF) so a radiator can be fully disabled, which needs a new `ChoiceID` wired into `Data/gui/game/parts/part_toggles.rules`. - Exposing the 5% / 10% band in the game UI rather than as file constants.