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- When engaging override shutdown, a visual will flash on the screen “OVERRIDE ENGAGED”
- Betty will also alert you when override has been engaged
- If you manually power down while over 100% heat, you will remain powered down until you manually power up
- While in the middle of a power up/down sequence, you can press P to queue up the command to perform the opposite sequence
- It's also worth reviewing how the override and automatic shutdown system works, including the most recent changes:
- At any time you can press P to power your Mech on/off
- Each time you press P, there is a 0.75 sec cooldown before any additional presses of P are recognized; this is to help prevent people who constantly spam the P key from continually powering up and down
- If you press P while in the process of powering on or off, you will queue up a command to perform the opposite sequence once the current sequence is complete
- If your heat level reaches 100%, your Mech will automatically power down; it will automatically power back up again when your heat level drops below 100%
- Your Mech can be manually powered up again after an automatic shutdown by pressing P
- If you press O, you will command your Mech to override the automatic shutdown
- When O is pressed, Betty will alert you that override has been activated, an override warning will flash on your HUD, and it starts a 5 second timer during which, if your heat reaches 100%, the automatic shutdown is ignored. (Note: Even after the 5 seconds have passed, your Mech will not automatically shutdown if you are over 100% heat.)
- Each time you press O, you reset the 5 second timer
- You can manually power down after overriding the automatic shutdown by pressing P, however you will not automatically power back up when your heat drops below 100% (though you will know this has happened when your screen stops flashing red)
- If you remain powered up while over 100% heat, you will take damage to your internal structure
Holy carp! These are the instructions on how to shut down and power up your mech! TL;DR, anyone? Does anyone think that giant set of rules will make the game more fun?
It seems to me there are two thing to consider when talking about heat shutdowns: whether or not you are shut down at the moment, and whether you WANT to shut down to avoid damage, should you overheat. With that in mind, I'm going to stick my neck out and suggest a MUCH simpler system:
* The "O" key toggles automatic overheat shutdown. When on, your mech will shut down when it overheats. When off, it won't. This is a permanent toggle within the lifetime of a match.
* The "P" key behaves as so:
If the mech is running:
Shut down
If the mech is shut down:
Start up
If the mech is transitioning:
Do nothing
* As your mech nears and passes 100% heat, you get visual indicators that you're in trouble. At 100% the heat gauge starts blinking and Betty yells at you. If heat climbs you get scary visual effects like steam visuals/noises or a red shift or your HUDs glitching. And of course, your ammo starts to blow up.
That's it. No "queueing". No 0.75sec lockouts. No wondering WTF will happen when you press "P". No obsessively pounding "O", wondering how long ago you last pressed it. You can operate in two very simple, and very easy-to-understand modes:
1) Your mech shuts down when you overheat, and you press P to bring it back, just like The Old Days.
2) You disable the overheat protection and live dangerously. You can cheat a bit on the 100%, but do it too much and You Go Boom. Lets make it reeeeeal punitive, so you feel the fear when you flip that switch off!
Now, I don't want to be nasty to PGI about the new system, but could anyone tell me why you would want to use the Rube Goldberg system PGI outlined in the current patch notes? And then could you tell me what percentage of players might actually understand this new system? And before you answer, consider the people you've seen in your deathcam, using their arm crosshairs for their torso weapons, firing their LRM's at 70M, and just generally not understanding even the most simple rules in the game.
The overheat system is now broken, and it should be fixed. I hope I don't sound like a jerk for saying so, but I think someone just needs to throw it out there for comment, and hopefully PGI considers the community's wishes. (If indeed, you all tend to agree with me.)