Full disclosure up front: my thinking on this was inspired by MW2's mission starts, which always began:
Planet: name
Ambient Temperature: XXX degrees
And young me thought that was unbelievably cool and highly relevant in a game where managing your heat was an on-going struggle.
Anyway, I like the different environmental rules but one thing that sticks out to me is that the extreme temperature rules, rather than being as omnipresent as other environmental rules, are squeezed out to the far fringes and decidedly limited in their effects. My idea is simple:
The temperate range for mech operations is 1-29C. Starting at 0C, heat is reduced by -2 for every five degrees, while at the other end, 30C and hotter (also in five degree increments) produces +1 heat. So at -20C, you've got -4 while at 50C, you have +5 heat. The heat impact is reduced for hotter temperatures because I want to avoid an extreme situation where any SHS mech with only its engine sinks would not be able to lower its heat.
Yes, this will change play, making decisions on heat management less impactful in cold climates while hotter biomes become even more of a heat management juggling contest. It will also be applicable more often. But I also feel it would give a decent incentive to the use of low-heat ballistics, particularly in introtech games where they would otherwise be incredibly niche otherwise, as swapping weapons takes time that isn't always available between battles. So the HBK-4P winds up a bad idea on Dune whereas it is a stellar performer on Hoth, but a more diverse set of weapons split between energy, missile and ballistics performs generally well on either.
Thoughts?
