6 replies to this topic

[Jman5]

PGI, The current heat system is a big unintuitive mess.

• Double Heat Sinks are 1.4 unless it's the ones attached to the engine. Those are 2.0, but, not the ones you slot on top of the engine. Those are 1.4.
  
• That heatsink value number in the mechlab means something. Higher is better, but that's about as far as most people understand it.
  
• Maps have different temperatures and that makes heat generation different? I think it impacts the base number and also the rate of cooling?
  
• Speaking of base heat, you can have negative heat, but the system doesn't tell you what that is. Instead it just shows 0%. You may have -1% or -5%. Who knows? You can't get a feel for how much heat generation your weapons create because you might be at 0% or you might be at -10%.
  
• Water seems to have an impact. In fact how deep you are in the water has an impact too.
  
• Moving seems to increase your baseline heat. So do jump jets.
  
• Getting hit by lasers impact your heat I think. As do Flamers.
  
• Firing 1 medium laser will increase your heat by X. Firing 2 medium lasers at the same time will increase your heat by more than 2X.

Are you starting to get why people find the whole heat system to be kind of difficult to understand? Why people misjudge and overheat all the time? I understand why you do all this from a balance perspective, but it's confusing and opaque.


Two easy solutions could go a long way toward addressing much of the confusion around the critical feature of heat management.

1.) Add a real time heat dissipation number by your heat bar that precisely tells you how fast your heat goes down at any given time. So when you move from a lake, to a burning caldera, that number should be telling players how well their heat sinks are operating. The data is in game already. It's just a matter of showing the player.

2.) Don't cut off the heat bar at 0. Show the exact negative number the player's heatbar is at. If I'm at -5% I want to see -5% and not 0%.

Edited by Jman5, 16 February 2013 - 03:24 PM.

[DeadlyNerd]

The only change that heat system needs is faster cooling and lower heat threshold. Encourages chain fire and discourages boating and alpha striking, win win.

[Jman5]

My problem isn't with how they are balancing the heat system. My problem is that the UI doesn't explain it well to the player. When I walk into a river, it should tell me what my heat baseline is. It should tell me in real time what my heat dissipation rate is when I'm running around in a caldera while getting shot by 3 medium lasers.

I shouldn't have to guesstimate as much as I do with the current UI.

Edited by Jman5, 16 February 2013 - 03:28 PM.

[Stringburka]

+1000

Heat should be displayed as a hard number (or maybe even degrees if there is such a conversion, know MW4 had it but not if it's based on BT or they just hand-waved it).
If I'm at 0 degrees and haven't fired, heat should show 0. If I fire two medium lasers it should increase to 8.0, and then get lower as it cools down.

Heat dissipation should be displayed as amount of heat lost per second. In the mechlab it should show that based on temperature 0 and not in water, in-game it should show the current heat dissipation and change based on environment.
If I have installed DHS and have a 275 engine with the slotted heatsink and three external, heat dissipation should be shown in the mechlab as 2.56 (if that's the actual number, which I think it is, 10*.2+4*.14), and heat threshold as 55.6.
In-game, display these but altered due to environment.

That's much more useful than a vague "heat efficiency" stat that we don't know what it means.

BTW being hit by lasers does not increase heat, but being hit by flamers does (by .2 heat per second).

Edited by Stringburka, 16 February 2013 - 03:44 PM.

[Woska]

I think the current system is just fine. I didn't have any trouble figuring it out, and think that putting in hard numbers would actually be more confusing. You're going to be playing in different environments that have different ambient temperatures. So if you have specific numbers you're having to adjust to a different base number every time you switch to a different map.

The current heat system is flexible and intuitive in my opinion. 100% means you shut down. Pretty simple.

[Jman5]

Woska, on 16 February 2013 - 07:14 PM, said:

I think the current system is just fine. I didn't have any trouble figuring it out, and think that putting in hard numbers would actually be more confusing. You're going to be playing in different environments that have different ambient temperatures. So if you have specific numbers you're having to adjust to a different base number every time you switch to a different map.

The current heat system is flexible and intuitive in my opinion. 100% means you shut down. Pretty simple.

That is why these numbers would adjust in real time. To reflect map, location, and whether you are being hit by something that impacts your heat.

The game is already doing all the hard work in real time. The only difference is that we aren't shown it.

[Minsc]

I'm going to have to partially agree and disagree Jman. I do believe we should have more detailed information on the subject, but in the mechlab. Have the mechlab inform us what our current dissipation rate is along with our maximum heat value. This combined with the heat generated from an alpha strike along with our current maximum heat generation from firing all weapons.

This would allow players to make more informed decisions during mech creation. However, during game-play, let us leave things as is, for now.

The reason why I am against it being displayed in real time is, well, to combat players such as myself who will, once we are running hot, squeeze out every last bit of damage while never exceeding that 99% thresh-hold. I already do that now, but it is a guessing game and I usually play it safe and go with a 90% to 95% thresh-hold, holding back my fire. When I go over that, I often over-heat since it is a bit of a calculated risk.

If I can see in real time when and where my dissipation and possibly current/maximum heat numbers fluctuate, I know I can, along with several others, squeeze out every last bit damage pushing that heat envelope even more without going over.