[MatthTheGeek]

Well, terrans reactor do already. It's just that they can't have both the Ultra and an onboard targetting system for it.

[Liberator]

That's something I don't understand.  How can you have power enough for a flashy, beamy thing that is no doubt terribly inefficient, but not enough for a computer that can monitor 30 targets at once?

[X3N0-Life-Form]

Future suck.

[Commander Zane]

That's something I don't understand.  How can you have power enough for a flashy, beamy thing that is no doubt terribly inefficient, but not enough for a computer that can monitor 30 targets at once?

Balance.

[General Battuta]

There were actually a lot more ultraAAAs in WiH R1 before release but it was a...well, balance.

[Mars]

Getting hit with a TAG-B in Post Meridian is something of a death sentence unless you've already disarmed the Juarez.

[Androgeos Exeunt]

I've been hit by TAG-Bs in that mission before, but only when I'm escorting the Indus and Churchill.

[-Norbert-]

That's something I don't understand.  How can you have power enough for a flashy, beamy thing that is no doubt terribly inefficient, but not enough for a computer that can monitor 30 targets at once?

Here are some justifications I just came up for what is apperently a balancing issue:
Energy isn't the only concern. Maybe the UAAA is just too big to have enough room for the targeting computers as well.
Or they cause interference with the usual computer systems because of it's high energy throughput and thus needs very special computers, that are (apart from their resistance to the interference of course) inferiour.

[General Battuta]

Don't forget the heat issues, always heat

[crizza]

Venting heat into open space should solve that shouldn't it?

[Droid803]

...and how exactly does one "vent" heat into open space?

Sure, space is "cold", but space is a vacuum, the only way you can lose heat to it is through radiative heat loss, a la black body radiation, which is slooooooow.

Or flushing coolant I guess, but that's limited, and I'm not even sure if that works.

[General Battuta]

Venting heat into open space should solve that shouldn't it?

You can't; there is nothing in space to serve as a thermally conductive medium, therefore the only venting possible is via radiation, which is incredibly slow. Overheating is thus a huge problem for spacecraft.

The solution is to use an active cooling system and then vent or recirculate the coolant.

[T-LoW]

The SSV Normandy has a very nice cooling system.
It spews small liquid particles out of its nose ( ) that go all along the hull and harvests them at the rear to transport them to the nose again.

[-Norbert-]

Even there it is too slow for prolonged use in combat, which contributes to space battles in Mass Effect being rather short (that and how quickly ships get blown up....).

[Asteroth]

The SSV Normandy has a very nice cooling system.
It spews small liquid particles out of its nose ( ) that go all along the hull and harvests them at the rear to transport them to the nose again.

I'm not quite understanding this. If you're not actually getting rid of the coolant and just recirculating how does that solve the problem? The point is to transfer the heat to the coolant and then throw it out into space, taking back in won't help, it will still be hot and will take an exorbitant amount of time before it cools.

[Mars]

It's a surface area vs mass thing.

[Delta_V]

The idea is to eject the coolant in a very fine mist, so there is much more surface area.  The coolant radiates heat as it travels from the front of the ship to the back, where it is recollected so it can be used again.  You don't want to just eject in off into space because that would require ridiculous amounts of coolant.

[Droid803]

Exactly how do you prevent vapours from, well, expanding due to zero external pressure, so you can collect it again? O_o
You must have some massive vapour collectors.

[General Battuta]

This thread is the #2 google hit for "ssv normandy cooling system" 

[Pred the Penguin]

Does that mean we'll get confused Mass Effect fans here?