Damage from Engine Exhaust?

[Wcmille]

I've noticed that in the Flight Results (F3), it will report that an engine has damaged a part if you burn the engine too close to another part. Is it possible to actually destroy a part this way (I never have). If so, is this damaged remembered? Does damage have any other detrimental effects?

Edited November 2, 2015 by Wcmille
Question answered.

[FancyMouse]

As of the newest version, it should increase that part's skin temperature, and if it reaches max temp, it explodes.

Also if a thrust is against something on the same ship, apart from the "something" being damaged, you won't get thrust force at all as well.

[AlextheBodacious]

You can blow up parts this way. If you heat up something, then go to the center, timewarp, and go back, it'll have cooled down.

[Mastikator]

I've destroyed quite a lot of main stages by using Seperatrons.

[Snark]

To answer the OP's question, no, the "damage" isn't remembered. It's possible to destroy things with engine exhaust, but unless they're actually destroyed, there's no lingering effect at all. KSP doesn't really have a concept of partial damage.

[Wcmille]

So is the "X is damaging Y" message precisely synonymous with, "engine X exhaust is heating part Y"?

[AeroGav]

I struggled for a long time with a spaceplane design with yaw instability. Added tailfins wherever I could behind the CG, on the engine pods, at the wing tips, above and below the wing, and of course on the tail itself. Could never get it under control.

Then after a crash i noticed a message about engine exhaust from the wing root mounted jets damaging the tailplane, at the start of the destruction log. Moved the tailplanes up a bit, out of the efflux. Suddenly the yaw instability is gone.

Why would the jets impinging, symetrically, on the tailplane, result in a yaw problem? A pitch problem, perhaps, but yaw?

Anyway , this is why you don't want stuff sitting in the jetwash. Even if it never gets hot enough to explode.

[Snark]

So is the "X is damaging Y" message precisely synonymous with, "engine X exhaust is heating part Y"?

To be honest, I've never understood those messages. They seem extraordinarily unhelpful, since the game doesn't actually have "damage". Maybe you're right, and it's just intended as a placeholder so that when someone sees that "part X overheated and exploded", there's a preceding "damage" notice so they have some idea why.

It's an area that could certainly do with some attention. I think this is one of those things where we're bumping up against the fact that Squad is a tiny company with only a few developers-- they have to triage relentlessly in order to put out the major fires, so little fit-and-finish things like this tend to get left untended for a long time. It's hard to blame them for it.

[FancyMouse]

To be honest, I've never understood those messages. They seem extraordinarily unhelpful, since the game doesn't actually have "damage".

They're extremely helpful when I build a skycrane and get fr*ing no idea when I don't have thrust while full engine throttle.

Edited November 3, 2015 by FancyMouse

[NathanKell]

Yes, that it says "damage" not "heated" is a known bug.