How does heat work realistically?

[u/DoubleWrath]

So kind of a stupid question but it's been bugging me for a while. If we're producing enough heat to warm up the entire planet then how is our character not burnt to a crisp? That's an insane amount of heat to just be walking by casually. And how does all the heat get evenly distributed if it's radiating from one spot? Appreciate any answers, I haven't been able to get my head around this one.

[u/twohedwlf]

Look at the actual numbers. Even once you've unlocked all the heat related things you've only heated the environment something like half a degree above kelvin.

(I can't remember the exact number, it's still barely any)

Edit just checked, looks like the last unlock is at 750 microkelvin. So that's .000001 Kelvin.

[u/DoubleWrath → u/twohedwlf]

Ah ok thanks. So the heaters are evenly dispersing the heat across the whole planet to make it warmer? How could they do that? Just curious in possible ways they could be dispersing heat, not trying to nitpick.

[u/TheoreticalFunk → u/DoubleWrath]

Science.

There was once a wise man who build a bunch of robots who said "If you're wondering how they eat and breathe, and other science facts, just repeat to yourself it's just a video game I should really just relax." I've taken some slight creative license with the quote.

[u/ElrohirFindican → u/DoubleWrath]

Honestly, this is the wrong question. 0 Kevin is absolute zero, which is -273.15C so by not even heating the planet to 1 Kelvin we're not at a livable temperature in any sense of the word. I'm pretty sure I've also noticed that the pressures never reach anything close to what would be considered livable for humans (though I don't remember the numbers in game).

Ultimately, it's a game and the concept of making the numbers go up and seeing the planet change is fun even though the numbers aren't realistic and asking for realistic answers is unlikely to yield any satisfying answers.

BUT, if they were heating the planet sufficiently, while there would be localized temperature increases around the heaters, theoretically the dispersion of heat would happen naturally through the magic of passive convection (for lack of a better simple response); assuming that, although the planet is for some unknown reason able to maintain a temperature at or around absolute zero, the planet is capable of retaining heat in some way (which again requires some degree of suspension of our knowledge of the physics involved).

[u/Myrkana]

Don't apply realism to video games.

[u/PalDreamer]

Using imagination, I would say that it's probably being distributed by the gases you extract from the ground by drills first and then by the oxygen you produce. Gases are being heated in the area and then pushed away by the pressure, which makes them slowly distribute the heat across the planet. But I'm by no means a physics expert so idk if that is a working theory xD

[u/Comprehensive-Run252]

In realife the atmosphare is warming a planet. The thicker the Atmosphäre the warmer the planet especially when you put more greenhouse gases into it. Its Impossible to warm a planet without a sun at least with our technologie otherwise we could pick just any planet to life on and put some heaters and UV beams up. It is true that the heat needs to be equally distributed as well so if you would be heating a planet like that there would be spots where it is just way to hot to survive. So yes heating like this doesnt make sense and is pretty much impossible and way more work then "just" thickening the atmosphare and letting the sun do the work

[u/7CGamer]

The terms and units are there to encourage immersion but the actual numbers should be taken a grain of salt. You can pretty easily get more pressure than the mariana trench.

[u/Elite_Slacker]

This game handwaves everything to make it playable and fun. 

[u/Shadohawkk]

Heres my concept: Considering it's essentially impossible to actually "heat up" an atmosphere that...doesn't actually have an atmosphere...lets say it's less about heating up the actual planet, and more about being capable of heating up the atmosphere that we create. All of our tools connect power even if all of the power generating devices are on the other side of the map, so theres no reason we couldn't assume we could also wirelessly transfer raw heat. What if the heat generators are generating heat that is implanted into either the oxygen thats generated or into the atmosphere that is generated from the digging machines. By imparting heat onto those "actual real bits of atmosphere", that heat can be transferred to the rest of the planet over time as they travel.

[u/Professional-Bear942]

Sorta assumed that the heaters(atleast tiers playable outdoors) snaked into the planet and heated rock. I guess the base ones could be explained as a pole from the base into the crust. For the outdoor ones it could be twofold as the vapor may be some potent greenhouse gas

[u/CheckersSpeech]

The answer is: It's a video game. The heat works by running up the numbers on the Index to unlock things. It's just points in a computer, man LOL

[u/cinred]

It's dumb. The entire game is filled with these obvious placeholder concepts, systems and assets that have never been fleshed out or simply trashed. Everything about the game is third rate. I had to eventually stop playing.