BATTLETECH – Heat
Heat is analogous to Mana systems in other games. Jumpjets and weapons like spells. To use these, you generate heat (Or consume mana in comparison to many other games). Half the heat management is done in the MechLab and the other half on the battlefield, let’s delve into the battlefield aspect.
The following are pointers you need to note when firing your weapons, we’ll talk about each pointer later.
-Chance to hit with weapon
-Damage per Heat (dph). Derived from dividing damage by heat generated. A basis of how heat efficient a weapon is
-How much overkill will be dealt
-The resulting heat level after the salvo is fired
1. Avoid firing weapons that have a low chance to hit unless you desperately need to kill a specific enemy then and there or not firing those low chance-to-hit weapons would result in your mech being totally 0 heat. By virtue, if you’re shooting, make sure your mech is never at 0 heat as it implies some of your heatsinks are not doing any work which means wasted tonnage for that turn.
2. Dph is a ratio of damage dealt for heat generated. It’s a rough quantification of how heat efficient a weapon is, but do not rely on this ratio entirely. There are other factors you need to consider such as stability damage, damage spread and debuffs applied (PPC only).
3. Damage dealt is gated by your heat dissipation. Damage is a resource and overkill is wasted resources. When considering how many weapons to fire, avoid overkill damage but also consider the fact that damage spreads across different parts of your target. A cored mech (A mech with 0 armor left on its CT) may not die because the weapons you fired hit other components. So inevitably you would fire more weapons than the remaining health on the CT to account for this.
4. Play with the weapon list on the bottom right. The heat bar on the bottom left will show you how much heat you will be at after you fire the weapons you selected. Avoid it going down to totally 0, and don’t overheat.
