It's really simple: 30 Heat=Max Heat=100% Every heatsink increases Max Heat by 1. % Heat Generated=(Heat/(Max Heat+Heatsinks) For example, A 'Mech shooting a ER PPC (13 heat) with only 5 heatsinks would be something like this: (13/(30+5)=34.3% I did this over a period of weeks using single weapons, some guesswork and a lot of frustration. It might not even be right which is why I never include it in my spreadsheets. Lasers are fucked up with this formula since they generate heat over time. In fact, heat dissipation will **** it up in general, especially when you have like 30 of them (since you dissipate it so fast you won't be able to get a proper reading). ANYWAYS, that's generally how it works. As for heat dissipation, it's probably "0.1 heat every second" not "0.1 percent every second". It'd be simple to test though, I'm just too lazy.
Heat from lasers is upon firing, not overtime. This was included during a early to mid-September patch. Some weapons used to apply heat over duration (lasers) and some after the fire effect (forget which), and ballistics as soon as you fired. Now they're all as soon as you fire. It looks over time for lasers because of how the heat moves up the scale instead of jumping straight up. As for how heat dissipation works, I'm gonna take your word for it. I haven't done the math or even really thought about it. All I can tell you is that for a single PPC to be heat neutral in this game take 42 heat sinks if I remember correctly. Edit: http://mwomercs.com/forums/topic/50334-there-is-no-heat-penalty-for-firing-more-than-one-of-the-same-weapon-at-once/ The guy is a tool, but he had asked about the possibility of killing boats by applying a modifier for having multiple weapons of the same type firing at once. They did hint at this for awhile, fire 1 laser decent heat, fire 3 lasers, not only was there normal heal, there was also the stacking heat. Basically Jun asked about it and the response is: Weapon heat is now applied upon firing, not at the end of the firing effect.
Did an accuracy test. Worked perfectly when testing a 100% overheat vs. 97.5% (almost overheat). Test was 10 heatsinks, 4 ER Large Lasers for 100% (Overheated) and 3 ER large Lasers and a PPC (Didn't Overheat). I would like to note the latter case actually pulled me over 100% on the heat meter but it is my belief that lasers (and ping) **** it up. Since I didn't not power down over a dozen trials it is safe to assume my formula is more correct than the game's measuring instruments. And no, I have had no "stacking affects". Stacking weapons as I did in the testing above had zero impact on my results. I had only a 2.5% room for error up, and a 0% chance for error down. (Anything below 100% would cause me to not overheat where anything above 2.5% up would have cause me to overheat) So unless stacking weapons provides a near-negligible effect, it's safe to say you're find to fire as many weapons as you want at once with no (additional) ill effects. Let me emphasize: The heat bar can be grossly inaccurate at reading actual heat. This is why people sometimes have their heat go above 100% of a few seconds and never overheat. Glad I got this fucking **** out of the way. I hate having people ask me questions I have no answer to, now I can do heat analysis on 'Mechs without having to rely on some craptastic "Heat Efficiency" that gives out some arbitrary number that no one really has any clue to what it's trying to say.
Compiled and posted in the articles section here: http://www.mechspecs.com/content.php?125-GUIDE-How-Heat-Dissipation-Works
Great article Michael! I'm still a little concerned about the DHS issue though. WTF! Either make it work or don't but the psuedo hybrid system is kinda shitty to be honest!
