Overide shutdown mode instead

[Askis]

BTW: I remapped the override key 'o' to 'lalt' (left alt). 

Easy and safe and fast to reach while in the heat of battle with my nearly unemployed left thumb.

I switched the mapping of 'o' and 'f', no more accidental ejection and override close to the other keys

[7.[WD]Ragor]

  'F' I changed to 'ralt'... (wanted that bitch of a function far away)
'T' to 'F' (I hate to chat nonsense when the plan had been cycling targets...)

BTW: In my first MW:LL tournament (had no clue how to edit the actionmaps these days) I ripped y,u & and f off my keyboard. Had to penetrate the hole of the missing 'ejection/enter'-key with a pencil...

[HAARP]

I've seen plenty of times people running in override shooting PPCs while being shot at with flamers. It's as if they just don't care. Sure, they damage their mechs in the process, but it's still strange. Shouldn't there be a forced shutdown if you exceed 950K for too long or something?

Besides that, the pilot should "feel" the heat. I think this would add a bit more realism and fun to this mod. Slowing the mech down should be obvious. How about a bit blurry vision and a "jumpy" targeting reticule? After all, the temperature inside mechs has always been depicted as godawfully hot. You're baking in this machine, there should be gameplay and graphical components to reflect that

Another thing I'm confused about is what happens when you REALLY overheat. You simply take damage. What? Are those armor plates and arms glued to your mech coming loose or what? Doesn't make much sense to me.

Also, I'm all for actual "cooldown phases". In addition to being inaccurate, I simply don't like the current system. You shoot 2 PPCs and your mech is instantly at a pretty high heat level. Isn't there any heat capacity? Why does the weapon heat affect the mech instantly?
My proposal:
- Increase the mechs heat capacity. Let them fire off several volleys of PPC, but force them to cool down for 20 seconds or so after that and thus make them very vulnerable.
- Delay the weapon heat. It should take a few seconds until the heat of your guns reaches the mech's cooling system. This would make people pay attention to their heat more and think twice about going beyond the "critical" heat level.

[Mattk50]

as you said, stuff is ungodly hot. the glues not melting, the armor is melting.

[(TLL)CapperDeluxe]

My proposal:
- Increase the mechs heat capacity. Let them fire off several volleys of PPC, but force them to cool down for 20 seconds or so after that and thus make them very vulnerable.
- Delay the weapon heat. It should take a few seconds until the heat of your guns reaches the mech's cooling system. This would make people pay attention to their heat more and think twice about going beyond the "critical" heat level.

Even though that may be more true to CBT, in a system like that it seems you would just get an effect like Mechwarrior 4, where you can just load up on heat sinks and never think twice about firing off 6 ERLL alpha-striked every 10 seconds since your heat sinks would just be an instant heat buffer.  I like the current system in that it feels like the spike is really an instant heat wave (just needs the visual effects or some other detrimental effect added to it), and then based on how many heat sinks you have determines how fast it goes down. 

I would probably be more for removing or greatly reducing the amount of coolant flush to achieve a more balanced feel of high heat energy weapons versus low heat limited munition weapons.

[dsaint24]

I would probably be more for removing or greatly reducing the amount of coolant flush to achieve a more balanced feel of high heat energy weapons versus low heat limited munition weapons.

This.

I'm down for reducing coolant as well. People should be held more accountable for their lack of better heat management.

[Killer-Bee]

in my opinion coolant goes down rather quick already.
reducing the coolant amount wouldnt reduce the use. it would just make it necessary to stay close to base to reload it more often.
the effect that reducing the coolant would produce is that even the energy weapon users will hang back closer to their hangar to reload more often than before. just like some ammo-weapon users already do.
im all for supporting ppl that go away from their bases. having a reasonable amount of coolant is one of those things.

[(TLL)CapperDeluxe]

in my opinion coolant goes down rather quick already.
reducing the coolant amount wouldnt reduce the use. it would just make it necessary to stay close to base to reload it more often.
the effect that reducing the coolant would produce is that even the energy weapon users will hang back closer to their hangar to reload more often than before. just like some ammo-weapon users already do.
im all for supporting ppl that go away from their bases. having a reasonable amount of coolant is one of those things.

I guess I just play really conservatively with my coolant then, as I think I've run out only once before only because I was in a 6ERLL novacat for a really long time.  But take the 4LRM20 vulture on sandblasted for instance, I always run out of LRMs before I'm even halfway out of coolant, so the return to base is necessary anyway.  I don't think the player's choice of proximity to the base has much to do with whether they're using ammo based weapons or not, but rather the current flow of the battle and the role of the mech's ammo based weapons.

[dsaint24]

Killer-Bee, while your concern of base proximity due to coolant and ammo levels are a valid concern, and i support the concern, I have to agree with C-Deluxe. I rarely find myself running low on coolant, let alone completely diminished. Nor do I feel that base proximity is as closely related to ammo/coolant as you may suggest. Perhaps a factor for some, but I'd say a small one. But maybe dropping coolant amounts isn't the answer.

That being said, still I feel that players could stand to receive a little harder slap on the wrist for lack of better heat managing. I do like the proposed idea of the foggy screen, similar to that of when you enter lava for too long.

On a side note: Does anyone have a good idea of how the heat transfer works from PPC fire other than knowing it increases enemy heat upon impact. Perhaps some numbers in terms of degrees?

[(TLL)Siilk]

 Coolant issue is actually a delicate one. As many action, coolant main purpose is to keep game faster-paced, as tabletop BT(and MW2 for some extent) was full of rounds in waiting for a cooldown. And if in tabletop you just passes the move for an overheated mech, in a sim this means having an enemy in a reticle, being unable to fire an energy weapon, but holding yourself down, as you just override a shutdown and even SL could make your reactor go critical. Quite frustrating, it was, I can tell you. It was many, many times I had my mech destroyed by overheating in MW2 just because I thought "one more laser salvo wouldn't kill me".

 Coolant, on the other hand, helps keep heat at bay, letting the game have less moments of "standing and waiting to cool down". Heat management is a balancing issue and one of cornerstones of a BT, but it could kill the pace of a real-time videogame in no time. You could think of coolant as of "ammo for being active on a battlefield", as an opposition to "fire rarely, move slowly and waiting half a minute after using JJs".

 If coolant is removed from the MWLL, it would tone it's pace dramatically, as more time to cooldown woud be needed. Mechs with better heat management  would shine brightly, while ones like Cougar B or any Awesome variant wouldn't be as attractive as they are now. In other words it would be a completely different balance and much slower game. I, personally, would like it that way, maybe even more, than "MWLL with coolant", but I doubt devs would do such thing as severe reduction of coolant amount, or it's complete removal.

Tl;dr: I'd like to have no coolant whatsoever, but MWLL combat would be slower without it, so a hard time getting devs to do that.

[HAARP]

Yes, get rid of coolant (and increase the heat capacity a bit). OR make it a one-shot. For emergencies, like dipping in lava, not really for combat.
Several times I've seen pilots go "Out of coolant, returning to base" and leaving me stranded at the frontlines. wtf? The point of energy-based designs is far longer endurance, and coolant just destroys their purpose. Designs like the Awesome are prone to overheat, agreed. But that's how they're supposed to be in exchange for not needing ammo!

[dsaint24]

Woah, removing coolant altogether would be a rather spunky move, and a bit drastic, no? As for slowing the pace down of the game, I feel as though a move like that would only slow it down for some (energy wielding mechs). Ballistic based mechs would remain unaffected for the most part, with exception to the missile boats. I'd only be looking to bring more heat awareness to pilots, because I enjoy having that extra variable/decision to keep an eye on.

Haarp, if you increase heat capacity, you won't have designs like the Awesome overheating as much. And if anything, wouldn't the coolant make them last longer? The fact that your allies are running out of coolant to me hints (at least to me) that they are throwing out attacks after attack and abusing their coolant/mech heat management. This is poor piloting, thus the penalty of removing himself from battle at the expense of losing his mech from heat damage.

Stick by me, I don't overheat as much and won't leave you at the front lines. 

[=KoS=Zeus]

I also support the suggestion to remove coolant. The amount of weight energy weapons take up is already amazingly little for their firepower, and with double heat sinks they became even more powerful. By removing the coolant but keeping heat spikes vs. heat sink over time you will see more varied designs that make good use of both energy and ballistic weapons to manage their heat. Energy Boats will be a lot rarer and the Awesome might actually benefit by mounting the secondary weapons (2 Md. Pulse and 2 SRM-2 Streaks) instead of another massive PPC or pair of Large Lasers.

As for the heat gauge, I really think that spiking your heat up to maximum over the red line should cause immediately unavoidable shutdown (heat level 30+ anyone?), while anywhere between there and the red line is potentially avoidable. Also, ammunition should potentially cook off if you max out the heat.

It slows the game play down, but helps eliminate laser boats, encourage players to diversify weapon loads outs, and makes for a more interesting game overall.

[(TLL)CapperDeluxe]

It slows the game play down, but helps eliminate laser boats, encourage players to diversify weapon loads outs, and makes for a more interesting game overall.

I don't think anyone's wanting to encourage elimination of laser boats altogether, as their ability to stay in prolonged fights effectively due to not running out of ammo is a tactic in itself, even in CBT.

Rather it should seek to reduce the ability to alpha strike with a full energy weapon loadout to fire repeatedly without a certain period of time in between to compensate for it properly.  A small amount of coolant can at least make sure that the game is still fun and fast paced when the mech is fresh much like when an ammo based mech is fully loaded to start... but the added factor of actually running out of coolant even when using it conservatively is a small price to pay for longevity on the battlefield at the small cost of eventually having to fire those weapons without being able to rely on the coolant to save your butt.

[Askis]

I'm against removing coolant.
Every energy weapon boat is able to stay out in the field indefinitely without using it, if the pilot handles it right.
But if one of those Maulers with 4 Flamers get's close, you're screwed without coolant.

Also, it's nice for some MASC 'Mechs, if you find yourself in a tight spot and need to get away fast, but your heat is already high due to PPC hits or something.

Also, accidentally stepping into lava while brawling happens sometimes, without coolant it'd be an immediate death sentence and without a way to look left/right/back that'd be very frustrating.

That said, I'm also against an override shutdown mode.
If you can't manage your heat levels, you'd better be quick about hitting the override key.
Solution?
Get better at managing your heat