Overheating

Overheating is the failure state used by many buildings when they are exposed to excessive heat. A building has an overheat temperature, and if its temperature rises above that threshold it can stop working and, for some building types, begin taking overheat damage. The exact threshold depends on the building and on the material it is made of, so the same design can behave differently when built from different resources.

This makes material choice important for heat-sensitive infrastructure. A building may still be vulnerable even if it has not reached its overheat temperature, because it can also melt if its construction material reaches its own melting point. In practice, this means a safe design needs to account for both the building’s overheat limit and the material’s phase-change limit.

• Overheating is separate from general heat transfer: a building can survive gradual warming for a while, then fail once it crosses its limit.
• Some buildings only stop functioning at their overheat temperature, while others also suffer direct damage.
• The building’s material matters; refined metal, metal ore, plastic, and wood can all give different overheat behavior.
• A building can still be destroyed by melting even if its overheat limit has not been reached.
• Good cooling and thermal insulation are often used to keep critical buildings below their overheat threshold.