Cooldown reset when deploying Heat Sink mod?
Yesterday, I hacked a portal, deployed a Heat Sink mod on it (there were no other mods), then hacked it again to see how long it would now take to cool down. To my surprise, the second hack (at most 20 seconds after the first) succeeded!
So it looks like deploying a Heat Sink immediately resets the Cooldown timer.
Is this a known technique? A bug? New?
It's known, and somewhat-new.
As of March 20, 2014, a new ability was added to the Heat Sink, thanks to IQTech Research. An article was written to break down the changes into greater detail, Next Generation of Heat Sinks. In short, addition of a heat sink to a portal will reset both the cooldown timer, as well as reset the burnout counter. Both of these resets only apply to the agent deploying the heat sink.
Source: http://decodeingress.me/ingress-manual/ingress-items/portal-mods/heat-sink/
The idea is that by deploying a heat sink, you get the bonus hacks, but not the enemy agent who wants to leech your farm before taking it down.
Cooldown timer – Instant reset
When a Heat Sink (regardless of rarity) is installed to a portal, the current cooldown timer is immediately finished. What does this mean? Say I hacked a portal and have 300 seconds to wait until I can hack again. When I install the Heat Sink, that counter is set to 0, allowing me to hack the portal instantly. This instant reset is only given to the Agent that deployed the mod. Even though my timer is reset to 0, you still must wait the the cooldown period before hacking again. You do, however, still benefit from the +% cooldown decrease given from the Heat Sink.
Burnout Reset
Typically you only get 4 hacks on a portal before burning it out. Multihacks of course add onto the burnout counter, allowing any Agent to hack beyond it’s burnout limit. Heat Sinks (regardless of rarity) now reset the burnout period to 0 for the Agent that installed the mod.
This reset is only a one time reset of the burnout counter for the Agent that installed the mod.
Example 1:
I’ve hacked a portal 4 times and burned it out. Adding a Heat Sink resets that burnout counter to 0, allowing me to hack 4 more times, with a total of 8 hacks. Other Agents still only get their original 4 hacks with no burnout reset.
Example 2:
I’ve installed a Common Multi Hack and hacked a portal 8 times before burning out the portal. Adding a Heat Sink will reset that counter to 0, allowing me to hack 8 more times.
Stacking
Even though only the Agent installing the mod gets the Cooldown and Burnout bonuses, these bonuses can be obtained again.
Example:
I stumble a portal with a VR Multi Hack (deployed by another Agent) giving me 16 hacks. I install a Heat Sink after burning it out, giving me another 16 hacks. After that, I install another Heat Sink, giving me 16 more hacks, 48 in total.
http://decodeingress.me/2014/03/21/next-generation-heat-sinks/