Author Topic: Overheat Value and Water  (Read 1924 times)

Captain Punka

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Overheat Value and Water
« on: 01 April 2020, 16:42:51 »
As I understand RAW, a unit that uses it's Overheat Value (OV) that is in water will not benefit from the cooling from that water.  I base this on the sentence that states "Any unit that used Overheating in the current turn will ... not cool down at all in the End Phase." (p. 53).

However, I ask because the "Steps" in the same section seem to somewhat contradict this.

So, does a mech using OV still benefit from water?

Joel47

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Re: Overheat Value and Water
« Reply #1 on: 03 April 2020, 17:19:28 »
It's oddly worded, but by my reading you can use OV 1 while standing in water and break even. That's not cooling off, just remaining the same, so both the earlier sentence and the steps remain correct.

FenderSaxbey

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Re: Overheat Value and Water
« Reply #2 on: 03 April 2020, 17:34:42 »
Yeah, that sentence is unnecessarily confusing. The steps just make more sense as you apply heat from the OV in step 1, then remove 1 point in step 2 if you're in water.

LegoMech

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Re: Overheat Value and Water
« Reply #3 on: 03 April 2020, 21:23:27 »
Yeah, water good, unless you're a mogwai. :)

Fear Factory

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Re: Overheat Value and Water
« Reply #4 on: 04 April 2020, 20:15:10 »
Yeah, water good, unless you're a mogwai. :)

Or unless you take a hit and suffer a crit.
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Son of Kerenski

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Re: Overheat Value and Water
« Reply #5 on: 10 April 2020, 03:13:31 »
Or unless you take a hit and suffer a crit.

Or you have no armour. Then you take a crit from being in water at the end of your turn.

Fear Factory

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Re: Overheat Value and Water
« Reply #6 on: 10 April 2020, 08:54:39 »
Or you have no armour. Then you take a crit from being in water at the end of your turn.

Oye. I learn more and more how wrong I've played water hexes over the years. That's brutal.
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Scotty

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Re: Overheat Value and Water
« Reply #7 on: 10 April 2020, 09:01:54 »
That's a Commander's Edition change, so you've probably not been missing it as long as you think.
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NeonKnight

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Re: Overheat Value and Water
« Reply #8 on: 10 April 2020, 09:08:00 »
As I understand RAW, a unit that uses it's Overheat Value (OV) that is in water will not benefit from the cooling from that water.  I base this on the sentence that states "Any unit that used Overheating in the current turn will ... not cool down at all in the End Phase." (p. 53).

However, I ask because the "Steps" in the same section seem to somewhat contradict this.

So, does a mech using OV still benefit from water?

As to overheating, in ALPHA STRIKE, all mechs are converted to be Heat Neutral. This means that during the conversion process, to aid in speed of play, the mechs were converted across to allow for play not tracking heat. Think of it as when playing regular Battletech, you opt to fire just 3 Medium lasers instead of your full arsenal of 4 medium lasers.

However, there were a lot of mechs that had damage output way beyond this 'balancing act' and so they had a OV value.

Now under normal circumstances, these mechs could fire and do more damage than the normal 'heat neutral' damage output, and again, normally would not cool down in the end phase. In regular battletech, this would be akin to generating  11 heat (2 from  running, and firing 3 medium lasers for 3 heat each), but having a mech with 12 heat sinks. If this same Mech fired all 4 medium lasers, then it's going to see some heat carried over for the next round.

However, standing in water in regular Battletech is like having bonus heatsinks (provided those heat sinks are in the legs), and those heat sinks can dissipate twice as much heat a turn. Have 4 heat sinks in legs? That's like having 8 of them.

In ALPHA STRIKE, we don;t track things like that, so easier to just say, Standing in Water counts as lowering a heat scale by 1 if needed.

So, Firing a Mech with an OV value of 1, sheds all heat. Firing an OV Value of 2? End result is you now have a heat value of 1.

Have an Engine Crit that gives a heat value of 1 if you fire your weapons? Standing in water will indeed remove that penalty.
« Last Edit: 10 April 2020, 09:09:50 by NeonKnight »
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nckestrel

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Re: Overheat Value and Water
« Reply #9 on: 10 April 2020, 10:05:51 »
Commander's Edition did not change the rules for damage while submerged, it merely changed terminology.
old "submerged" but not "completely submerged" became "partially submerged" to differentiate it.
But submerged (didn't specify completely) always took a crit from being hit. 
TOR (torpedo) attacks always did their damage to submerged (didn't specify completely).
Completely submerged is/was the requirement for underwater movement, underwater ranges, and for being destroyed with loss of all Armor.
But many players (including myself several times) missed the distinction between submerged and completely submerged, so I renamed most cases of submerged as partially submerged.  Submerged (without partially or completely) now means both. 

The OV and water timing is a change with ASCE.
« Last Edit: 10 April 2020, 10:08:04 by nckestrel »
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Re: Overheat Value and Water
« Reply #10 on: 10 April 2020, 13:59:56 »
I know it's probably been explained, but just to run it through my brain...

'Mech standing in a depth 1 water hex (partial cover)
If you take damage in a water hex you roll a crit.
If you don't have armor and you take a hit, you roll 1 crit for taking damage, and 1 crit if you end a turn in water?
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