heatsink & starting position

why do you start with a gamma heatsink and not the worst which is "alpha" ?

The starting tug is just a standard pre-fitted tug from the original game. We didn't modify any ships for Torn Stars. We were leaving that for Traffic. However, thanks for pointing that out. It doesn't really make sense to start the player out with an advanced heatsink...however, perhaps the tug requires that level of heatsink to operate correctly?

I'll try with an alpha heatsink & tell you how it fares

ok
I had no problem at all with an alpha heatsink (which I had from the start too it seems...)
I never had too much heat with basic equipement (LDS 1, light CP, quick fire CP ...)
I made a full scale battle cycling & depleting all my weapons while strafing & thrusting in multiple directions at the same time
and heat remained at 50% or below

in fact the torn stars tug having only 2 weapon mounts makes the heat much less of a problem I think
(don't know about other weapons though)
(in the original game, I only had heat problems with a full load out of "quad-light CP" on a patcom with a gamma heatsink & no heatsink upgrade)