Allow turning off the Scaled Furnace

[Uncrushed]

This thing pumps out a lot of heat in a wide radius making it only suitable for non-summer bases.  I wish I could turn it off or to "simmer" (meaning cook food but radiate heat in a smaller radius) the way I can switch an ice flingomatic to emergency mode.

 

[ShadowbirdRH]

I don't think it'd be excessive for the Scaled Furnace to be a bit more useful. As it stands now, you can still get all the utility of a Scaled Furnace from the lava pools near the Dragon Fly. Having a Scaled Furnace just means you can have that anywhere you like. Adding the ability to cook food with it, or turn it off when the heat isn't wanted, sounds perfectly within reason to me. That said, it doesn't strike me as an especially vital modification, given that you can just keep the furnace a short ways outside of your base to avoid unwanted heat.

 

[Uncrushed]

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get all the utility of a Scaled Furnace from the lava pools near the Dragon Fly

Yes, for Willow.  Maybe for WX-78 (haven't played with his thermal circuits yet to know).  As any other character, I almost always seem to get scalded when I try to cook over a lava pool.  Cooking a second item definitely results in me being set on fire.  The furnace is much nicer than that!  At worst, I start to overheat in summer, but take no instant damage.

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you can just keep the furnace a short ways outside of your base to avoid unwanted heat.

I tried this, but didn't put it far enough away.

The polar light was the best mitigation strategy I came up with, but even it has to be cast to one side of the furnace, so there's a gap in the coverage.  It also waxes and wanes:

Notice the area of blue stones grow and shrink, then just the two yellow-hot stones on the left in the opposite extreme.

Any way you try to mitigate this is going to leave weird temperature patterns.  Even if this were good enough, there's the work of refreshing the polar light every 2 days and the cost of the moon caller's staff.

I'll either not use a scaled furnace near work areas, or make entirely separate (and distant) winter and summer work areas.  It just gets costly to keep more ice flingomatics fueled to cover duplicate areas.  Even in the oasis, you need flingomatics to grow things in summer.

[ButterStuffed]

Heat sources in summer have no effect on how quickly you reach overheating thresholds, with or without any insulation.

They will reduce the effects of nearby cooling sources, but you would only need to separate the furnace from your endothermic fire or polar light by what appears to be approximately 2 1/2 tiles according to your picture.

[Uncrushed]

There's one place on the map where you can set a polar light without refreshing it: the moon stone where it is created.  The temperature of any point still varies with the ambient temperature, so I think the "Goldilocks zone" will shift from season to season.

I can put the furnace on a boat, and row it away in summer.  That's probably the best solution.

Oops, my reply and @ButterStuffed's reply crossed.

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Heat sources in summer have no effect on how quickly you reach overheating thresholds, with or without any insulation.  They will reduce the effects of nearby cooling sources

What if you are carrying a thermal stone?

I did all my tests in autumn.  Here is the same area in winter and summer:

So... heat doesn't affect thermal stones in summer and cold doesn't affect them in winter?  Is that correct?  Same with the player?  Heat doesn't add to overheating in summer, cold doesn't add to freezing in winter? But a heat source in summer can reduce the intensity of a cold source and vice-versa in winter?

Maybe it's just the animation, but I do appear to see some affects on thermal stones in fall and even a little in summer.

Math:

If heat is positive and cold is negative then at any given point:

stoneTemp = heating + cooling

if (summer && stoneTemp > 0) {
    stoneTemp = 0
} else if (winter && stoneTemp < 0) {
    stoneTemp = 0
}

Definitely not what I expected, but this mitigates my perceived issue significantly.

[ButterStuffed]

According to the wiki and my own tests, the maximum rate of temperature change can never be more than 1 degree a second. The only exception is when your temperature is past the freezing/overheating threshold where your temperature will change at 5 degrees a second when exposed to the appropriate temperature source.

The color of the thermal stone is not a very accurate indicator of temperature as it is determined by the relative difference between the stones temperature and the worlds temperature. From what I understand the thermal stone reacts to temperature the same way the player does with a maximum temperature of 90*, a minimum temperature of -20* and a rate of temperature change equal to a player with 120 heat or cold insulation depending on whether it is winter or summer.

Red hot = 30 or more degrees above world temperature

Slightly warm = 10 to 30 degrees above world temperature

Neutral = 10 to -10 degrees above or below world temperature

Slightly cold = -10 to -30 degrees below world temperature

Freezing cold = -30 and lower degrees below world temperature

 

The target temperature for a thermal stone and player is determined by the average temperature of all temperature sources including the world itself. The distance from a temperature source does effect how the temperature is absorbed, which explains the strange thermal stone colors in your pictures.

In winter, the temperature of the world (-20*), a furnace (115*) and a polar light (-100*) puts the the player's target temperature at -1.666~*.

(-20 + 115 - 100)/3 = -1.666~

Without the polar light the target temperature with the furnace would be 47.5*, which is not that hot since to overheat you have to surpass 70*. You would have to have 2 furnaces right next to each other to reach the max temperature.

If we were to remove the furnace the target temperature would become -60*, but since the maximum rate of temperature change is 1 a second the polar light is not freezing the player any faster and since the minimum temperature of a thermal stone is -20* the thermal stone is not affected. It is only relevant when it is close to a competing heat source.

In summer, the temperature of the world (90*), a furnace (115*) and a polar light (-100*) puts  the player's target temperature at 35*.

(90 + 115 - 100)/3 = 35

Without the furnace the target temperature with the polar light would be -5*, which is cold enough to cause you to freeze.

If we were to remove the polar light the target temperature would become 102.5*, but since the maximum rate of temperature change is 1 a second the furnace is not overheating the player any faster and since the maximum temperature of a thermal stone is 90* the thermal stone is not affected. It is only relevant when it is close to a competing cold source.

In autumn, the temperature of the world (30*), a furnace (115*) and a polar light (-100*) puts the player's target temperature at 16.666~*.

(30 + 115 - 100)/3 = 16.666~ 

Without the furnace the target temperature with the polar light would be -35*

Without the polar light the target temperature with the furnace would be 72.5*

 

Hopefully that clears it up a bit. I have a tendency to ramble, so excuse me if my explanation is a bit jumbled.

[Gwido]

@Uncrushed : You can still smash it or use a deconstructor staff. :P

 

But maybe an option to "close" it so it will radiate less heat in summer could be a good thing.