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In Battletech of which this game is supposedly based off from there is a set max heat of 30. You get heat penalties as your heat rises due to walking, running, JJ and weapons or equipment like the Stealth Armor.
As your heat rises, you become less accurate, higher chances of ammo explosions and when you overheat you get really really bad problems.
In MWO we have no penalty until the overheating at 100%, and no damage until 120% that you can't notice unless you intentionally spike far beyond reasonable limits.
We've had this idea around back and forth for a while, so I'll lay it out once more:
Basic heat threshold of 30
Single Heat Sinks increase threshold 1 per SHS, with normal dissipation
Double Heat Sinks increase threshold 0.5 per DHS, with double dissipation inside the engine, and 1.4 outside This rewards larger engines over smaller without completely erasing the intent of higher dissipation.
This means at most, a typical mech with basic number of 10 DHS has at most a max of 35 heat threshold. The typical PPC stalker build with 20 DHS can only attain 40, leaving fixing PPC heat to 10 and ERPPC heat to 15 the perfect way to eliminate high alpha builds. But it brings an alternative as Single Heat Sinks could allow a flip side of max 50 Heat threshold with 20. You have less overheat risk, but must wait longer to cool off.
Does it hurt others? Sort of. If the dissipation rate is increased to be in line with current recharge times the factor of calculating the DPS over alphastrikes makes it a viable working and brings certain weapons like lasers or missiles back into play. This also supports the lore trend towards DHS as it will be more benificial to make Double Heat Sinks and higher dissipation builds over Single Heat Sinks and higher alpha intents, preferring DPS with higher dissipation over it.
For penalties we need to rework what the cost of heat is. This is what I suggest;
You have no penalties until you cross the 50% heat threshold. With high dissipation builds and DPS brawlers that would then be able to handle heat can easily avoid the majority of the problems. This also brings Flamers back in as a viable use as it helps cripple the target. It requires the heat dissipation to be brought up overall, to bring it in line with the recharge times of the weapons to encourage the DPS over alphastrikes.
At 50% and higher you suffer from increasing inaccuracy. Your reticle shakes randomly (JJ effect) with increasing results as you run hotter. It maxes out at the current JJ level which is good for now.
For every % over 50% you suffer a movement penalty, maxing out at a 50% reduction in max speed. This makes the "skimpering lights" a real risk to run, as constantly running in circles while firing weapons would lead to higher heat. The flamer comment I made is in relation to this as oddly enough it could help slow down and limit what lights can do making them a target in close quarters. This will bring Mediums back into play as brawlers being able to bring enough firepower into a fight faster, but without being such a lumbering target as Heavy or Assaults.
Overheating at 100% should bring into play three key penalties for the game.
Basically what we have now. You can override and ignore the problem or have the automatic shutdown turn you off and wait to force cooling off. But the penalties regardless shoudl remain the same.
First is damage. For every % over 100% you overheat your mech suffers increasing internal damage (not armor) that could fry you from the inside out. Ammo explosions would be the least of your worries as your engine could melt killing your mech. In theory if you hit 150% you will burn out your engine before you cool off enough.
Overheating adds a permanent reduction in engine efficiency. This adds up but does not stack with the heating movement penalty. For every % over 100% you go it becomes a permanent reduction in top speed. It along with the regular heat penalties maxes out at a 50% reduction in top speed.
Overheating also fries your sensitive targeting equipment. As you overheat it adds a permanent shake to your targeting reticle, increasing per % overheated. This adds up with the normal heat inaccuracy penalty but does not stack, maxing out at the max level as if you were running JJ all the time.
I feel adding this into the heating system of the game with a reworking of the dissipation of heat to be a bit faster would end up benefiting the game meta dramatically. Of course certain high alphastrike builds remain, but this isn't to utterly dismiss the option, merely limit its effective use as its frequency gets determined by the cooling rate or the threat of suffering permanent penalties ends up crippling your mech for the match. A fair trade I think.
it is my goal that the heat efficiency could allow a good build to maintain it well so certain brawlers or intended snipers (like the 2 PPC K2) to keep up what they should do close enough to the intended recharge times without preventing it from working, but make it manageable in most cases.
(side note) some weapon heats shoudl be returned to original levels, such as the MLs back to heat of 3 to bring the balance back to where it should be and PPC to 10 and ERPPC to 15 for key weapons that need it.
Edited by Unbound Inferno, 11 July 2013 - 12:30 PM.
