cosmoteer-pressure-relief-radiator/README.md

# 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 }`).

At a 98% ceiling on a single 15000-capacity thermal battery, the overshoot
during that reaction window is about 625 status heat spread over 16 tiles —
roughly **39 per tile**, against a threshold of 350. Holding the network near
full is safe with a wide margin, and every percent of ceiling given up 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 — which is what the
safety net below is for.

## What the mod does

Radiators vent when **any** of these is true:

1. The heat network is not asking them to hold — the thermal battery is at or
   above 98% full (dropping the hold again at 94%, a deadband so radiators do
   not chatter at the threshold).
2. No launcher on the network is set to Thermal Canister Missiles. If you are
   not spending heat as ammunition there is nothing to hoard, so radiators
   behave exactly as in vanilla.
3. **Safety net:** some part is actually overflowing heat right now. This reads
   the engine's own `OverflowHeatStorage`, so it fires the moment the network
   genuinely refuses heat — regardless of thresholds, pipe topology, or whether
   your radiator capacity was ever sufficient. Latched for 3 seconds so a
   stream of per-tick overflow events becomes one steady signal.

Your manual radiator on/off switch still overrides all of it. The automation can
only idle a radiator you have left switched on.

Ships with no thermal battery have no broadcaster, so nothing changes for them.
The signal polarity is deliberately "hold", not "vent", so that the absence of
any part of this mod's machinery always falls back to vanilla behaviour.

No stat or number is changed. Only *when* radiators run.

## Layout

```
mod.rules                                  manifest + patch actions
components/thermal_battery_vent.rules      decides when there is surplus
components/launcher_ammo_signal.rules      reports thermal ammo in use
components/overclock_overflow_signal.rules safety net, reports real overflow
components/radiator_auto.rules             combines the signals into one gate
tests/                                     offline validation suite
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. If the script cannot find your Mods folder, set `COSMOTEER_MODS_DIR`.

## Tests

```sh
python3 tests/test_mod.py
```

Cosmoteer applies mod actions to vanilla data at load time, and a path that does
not resolve, a component reference pointing at nothing, or a misspelled
component `Type` all fail identically: the game crashes on startup and leaves a
log file. The suite parses the installed game's `.rules` tree and checks all
three offline. It also self-checks the 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.

## How to tell it is working

There is no separate "auto" mode and nothing to reset. The radiator's on/off
switch is an AND gate:

- switch **off** → radiator is off, and stays off. The mod never turns it back on.
- switch **on** → the automation decides, moment to moment.

An auto-idled radiator shows the same "powered off" indicator icon as a manually
switched-off one, and stops emitting its steam plume. That icon appearing on a
radiator you did *not* switch off is the mod working.

## Status

Validated against game data version 0.30.4c, and confirmed to load cleanly
(`Enabled mods: [User Folder] - ganter.auto_radiator`).

**v1.0.0 loaded without error and did nothing in game.** It broadcast its
signals with `NetworkToggle` / `NetworkToggleReceiver`. All three vanilla uses of
those types set `IncludeInPhysical = false` — they are blueprint stat-display
plumbing and carry no signal on a real ship, so every receiver read off, the
vent gate was permanently open, and radiators behaved exactly as in vanilla.

**v1.1.0** carries the signals as `NetworkValue` / `NetworkValueReceiver`
instead, which is what vanilla's thermal amplification pump uses to drive actual
physical behaviour, and which never sets `IncludeInPhysical` anywhere in the
shipped data. `tests/test_mod.py` now fails on any use of the blueprint-only
types, and separately re-checks that premise against the installed game so the
guard cannot quietly go stale.

The v1.1.0 logic is verified statically but has not yet been confirmed in-game.

## Possible additions

- A per-radiator UI toggle for auto/manual, which needs a new `ChoiceID` wired
  into `Data/gui/game/parts/part_toggles.rules`.
- Making the 98% / 94% band configurable.