In the latest PTU patch, 3.2o, they have added a long awaited feature.
Overclocking.
This changes the dynamics of components entirely.
A size 1 gun overclocked is something similar to a size 2.5 gun.
A thruster overclocked gets better turn radius and better acceleration.
A cooler overclocked can cool almost twice as much.
But all of this comes at a cost. Power. Lots and lots of POWER.
For ships with really large power supplies this is a great boon. They can overclock features and leave them that way, making use of the additional power resources they have available.
But then there is the heat. Guns that fire more often produce just as much heat per shot, which means over time they are producing more heat. Or think of it as the same heat just being pumped out faster.
This also adds to multi-crew ship dynamics.
In order to overclock a component you must go to the Power MFD page and select Items tab then scroll to the unit you want to overclock, then click the overclock button.
This is not exactly a middle of a fight single seater action you want to take on. But if you had a copilot/RIO/second seat that was just handling component power and overclocking…well you could certainly turn the tide of a fight in a few clicks.
IT is an early implementation for sure, and it is still getting the treatment to work out kinks. But in my testing so far it has been a welcome addition to the already growing gameplay mechanics of Star Citizen.
I expect 3.2 will drop to the LIVE servers sometime this weekend or early next week. Be sure to check out all of the new features, like mining, new QT calibration and spooling, groups, multi ship QT, new ships and now Overclocking plus a ton of enhancements and improvements to frame rates and connectivity.