Don't worry, I'm not about to start cooking snakes

I am planning my wooden vivarium and doing plenty of reading about how best to heat it. There seem to be plenty of conflicting views on how to acheive this. Some swear by mats, others by lamps or ceramics in lieu of a basking spot. Others will maintain that it is ambient temperature that is the key. Some will argue that a mat risks burning your snake like a frying pan, others will point out that ceramics or lamps are like putting your snake under a grill and only provide one concentrated spot of heat. I've even heard a suggestion to pile heavy rocks on a heat mat (but never one of those heated fake-rocks)

I know ectotherms thermoregulate in many ways. Some will bask, like lizards and rattlers for a radiating heat, other snakes seem to need an ambient convecting heat, such as arboreal or terrestrial forest snakes. Others get their heat not from the sun but from direct conduction with warm ground

What is the Royal Python's natural method for thermoregulation. Do they come out and bask under a lamp? If they spend their time hidden in termite mounds etc, would ambient heat be better? Or something warm to lie on if they like a conduction heat.

I'm so confused with it all