Rogue Jedi, on 04 December 2016 - 10:24 AM, said:
there is a simple test to prove this
put 1 (or more) Medium lasers on a Mech
fire 1 laser, note the heat level at the end of its burn time, now after letting your Mech cool fire 2, and take note of the heat level, if the heatsinks only activate after the burn finishes you should be at exactly double the heat level you were after firing one
did you notice how at the end of the burn time from firing 2 your Mech is at more than double the heat level was is after firing 1, that is because the heatsinks have started removing heat as soon as the weapon starts generating it, but your Mech does not (unless you have put on a crazy number of heatsinks) have enough dissipation to completely sink the heat of firing 2 ML in the beam duration
I might be wrong but I thought this is by design as all HS/DHS have 2 attributes in MWO: the capacity to handle the spike in heat and ability to cool off standing heat. This could be equated to having buckets of different capacities and apertures, some can hold more before overflowing, but drain slowly where others can't hold as much, but can get rid of it faster.
If i understand HS, if they are at rest, the can cancel out X heat right off and the rest is handled over time.
If you fire double the lasers you may end with more heat at the end of burn because the total heat generated exceeded the capacitance of the heat sink(s) so you see more than double the heat that still needs to be vented.
I think is (roughly) how they work... here anyway...