Does anyone know the specifics of coolant pod mechanics.
Are they for example compressed gas bottles that discharge the gas into heat prone component areas.
As anyone whos used a soda syphon knows when the gas gets discharged it comes out cold.
If so, perhaps coolant pods should explode like an ammo bin if it takes a direct hit
http://www.sarna.net/wiki/Coolant_PodGame Rules
Each coolant pod weighs one ton and takes up one critical spot. For each turn a coolant pod is active, each heat sink (no matter if single or double) dissipates 1 extra heat point. Only one pod may be used per turn. If a full/unusued pod is struck, the pod causes internal damage (Unbound/Tactical Handbook = 20 point, Maximum Tech/Tactical Operations = 10 points) just like an ammunition explosionSo translated to MWLL from CBT, what
could that mean?:
Coolant pod weighs 1ton (Heavy C-pod might weigh 2 or even more IDK)
The C-Pod would take up weapons space and be able to be shot off the machine carrying it.
A full C-Pod if destroyed does similar damage to a Gauss exploding, an empty or recharging C-Pod might only do a fraction of that damage.
When activated the C-Pod would act similar to how a coolant flush does now.
When activated the C-Pod works for X seconds and takes Y seconds to recharge. There would be no 0.5s taps of coolant, just press C and it works for X seconds at a time.
Activation of the C-Pod while recharging could damage the Heatsinks (to further balance the C-Pod in a world where there is no, or very little, free coolant (I'm still a fan of "no-free coolant ever").
IIRC when we tap coolant right now it x2 our Heatsink dissipation values, if we followed the Lore that would be x2 for SHS and x1.5 for DHS. But there's several threads on this (including a C-Pod thread from last year) in those threads this is all discussed ad nauseum already TBH.
EDIT:
To answer your question as to the exact nature of the C-Pod, it's a powerful compressor (like a suped up domestic refrigerator), it stores enough coolant to replace the 'mechs entire HS Coolant supply. When activated it swaps the hot coolant from the heatsinks (heat pump system) with the fresh coolant from the C-Pod (this creates the illusion of 150% to 200% Heat pump efficiency while the fresh coolant is replacing the hot coolant). Once the fresh coolant has all been discharged into the system the C-Pod starts cooling the hot coolant via condensing, using extreme pressures to bleed the coolants temperature; thus the nasty pressure explosion if a full C-pod is hit, things such as high-mass/low kinetic impacts (ie. melee combat) and pressure explosions are not resisted well by 'mech armour.
It's worthy to note that a 'mech has a closed coolant system, there is no loss of coolant other than due to damage or bad maintenance (there are many seals in the heat pump system that need inspection frequently), Battlemechs do not roam the countryside pissing coolant on trees, any "flush" of coolant refers to the transfer of hot coolant to a condenser (such as a C-Pod) or heat-pump. In fact External discharge of coolant will most likely compromise the machines entire heat dissipation system. FLyingdebris did a quick sketch of the heat system with a C-Pod attached, to show how it worked that was very good but I can't find it right now.
Freon is most commonly used for coolant, although many other liquids (including liquid metals) are often used also.
And one last thing, if we were to use C-Pods then technically they are IS only tech, as the complex clan cooling systems break when attempting to use C-Pods in the Lore...but that's a balance issue, we can pretend that "they fixed that"
