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[Tamerlin]

If a core design principal is to "introduce greater risks and penalties for powerful and frequent Alpha Strikes, with minimal impact on existing heat-conscious gameplay styles", how about making weapon cooldown variable depending on mech heat status?

InnerSphere Medium Laser

Cooldown: 3 seconds

With the current rules it doesn't matter if you fire one ML or 20 ML - three seconds later you can fire them again (assuming you didn't explode by firing 20 ML).

Instead make the cooldown variable on mech heat status - as a simple example "for every heat percentage increase the cooldown time by the same percentage". If mech heat = 0% you get your default cooldown. If at the end of your weapon fire your mech heat = 50% your weapons get 150% cooldown time.

So my HBK-4P laser vomit build (STD250 + 9 DHS):

• If you fire one ML you get 0% heat, so three seconds after the end of the ML burn you can fire it again
  
• If you fire six ML you get 20% heat, so 3.6 seconds after the end of the ML burns you can fire them again

If you continually alpha, the heat will increase and your cooldown with it.

You can throw in another wrinkle by adding a further cooldown increase depending on current mech speed - If your mech is moving at it's max speed your cooldown is increased.