MercTech: Heat

Heat Mechanics
Unlike in vanilla MW5 MercTech changes the penalties of high heat from the simple shut down and structure damage mechanics. Most of these options can be changed in the Campaign Options at the start of a new Campaign.

Heat Scale
In the current build of the game every mech has a heat value that ranges from 0 to 90. Mechs will operate normally up to 60 points of heat but depending on Campaign Options will begin to suffer negative effects beyond this point until forcibly shutting down at 90 points. Unlike vanilla Heat Sinks will not increase this limit and only effect heat dissipation. In the players UI heat is read as 100% at 60 points and 150% at 90 points.

Ammo Explosions
If the Ammo Explosion Checks is enabled in Campaign Options then starting at 120% heat (72 points) a check will be run every 10 seconds if this check fails the mech will suffer an ammo explosion in a random bin that can more than 0 damage meaning gauss ammo and empty bins are exempt. As heat rises the chance of ammo explosions increase.

Shut Down and Override
Unlike in the vanilla game you can't simply turn on override and power through your heat limit. Rather MercTech tries to simulate the piloting roll required to keep a mech from shutting down. Starting at 110% heat (66 points) a shutdown roll will be run every 5 seconds. If this check fails a warning will appear on the HUD and the pilot will have a limited window to hit the override key or the mech will shut down. If heat reaches 150%(120 points) the mech will force a shut down regardless of the pilots actions.

Speed Penalty
Based again on the limit you chose for Heat effects percentage in Campaign Options this effect can kick in anywhere from 0 heat to 100%(60 points) heat. Once you reach the the selected heat limit your mech will have its top speed reduced down to 20% based on how close you are to 150%(90 points) of heat. This means that if your Heat effects percentage is set to 0% you will have a gradual reduction in speed as your mech gets hotter. If you have it set to 100% then your mech will not feel any effects until your heat reaches 100(60 points) then your speed will quickly begin to drop until you reach 20%.