Gah! can't answer each of you individually and be any kind of coherent.
so let's be incoherent.
Shoot, couldn't you just crank up the reactor a little so you didn't even have to turn off heat sinks?
I never liked TSM as-written, anyway. BT is already too much a game of Rock-Em-Sock-Em Robots without the extra enticement of double melee damage, ranged weapon TH penalties, and extra MP.
I always wanted to hear about the original TSM version described in the 4th SW novels, before TRO3050 came out. (Not the "prototype" version they added years later, the as-described version that was letting Liao strap extra weapons and armor to their machines to create what they hoped would be ÜberMechs.)
The difference between a feature to provide enhanced play, and a feature that has an automatic way to beat it. The Liao version
combusts when exposed to a catalyst that can be delivered with gas shells!!!IOW it's an automatic win-button for the other side if you take it. This is versus a feature that lets you come up with clever things. For example, using it as a sort of MASC that doesn't break your legs when you use it, to get an extra MP while riding the 9 heat curve 3025 style. Basically taking a 5/8 'mech capable of generating either 19 heat on 10 heat sinks, or 29 heat on 10 DHS with a jumping alpha, and 'riding' the curve with balancing fire and a 6/9 movement. In a fight where you have a lot of heavies on the ground, that extra mobility can be very useful...but it requires you to run a lot like you would have run if you started with Battletech before Double Heat Sinks and advanced construction materials ever existed. The emphasis on Melee is more or less a cherry on top of the REAL usefulness-which was to give a slight edge on mobility as a reward for being able to manage your heat curve.
We used to play that this was automatic on all mechs. The idea that you can't put a thermostat in a mech was to ridiculous even for CBT... ::)
I kind of consider this approach to be a bit of a cheat-instead of having an asset you have to think and manage, it's just an asset you have automatically.
It seems like it would be a fairly easy thing to automate heat sink control so that you always land on the magic 9 for TSM, doesn't it?
So lets assume this would have to be a piece of equipment. So it's got weight and it's got crits. For balance purpose, I suggest that it be limited in how much extra heat it can allow. It can't make heat, so a mech with 10 DHS that just runs for 2 turns can't hit the magic 9.
It should also have a limit as to how many heat sinks it can disable. Perhaps linked to size and weight?
Thoughts?
You do-it's grayish-pink and located inside your skull. One of the main benefits for TSM, is that it can be an excellent tactical tool-but like all tactical tools, it can go wrong if you use it the wrong way. Unlike some other items that appeared in the game at the same time, it has an easily managed drawback, to go with the benefits, and unlike so many other forms of recovered tech, it didn't show up with a better version in Clanner hands invented before Operation:Revival-it's one of the very FEW actually-good inner sphere specific techologies.
What do I mean? well, aside from the obvious melee advantage (which isn't that much of an advantage outside of solaris duelling), it provides the ability to reward you for builds that don't min/max to be iceboxes-if you bothered to track your heat and learned how to ride the curve in 3025, you can become an opponent that Clan-fanatics hate to face-by matching (or exceeding) their mobility and carrying lots of fire power while still being a bit of a 'zombie' with a standard engine, chassis, and armor.
it also provides the chance for risk-taker tactics and thanks to needing to carry MORE heat-generating weapons per ton than most Inner Sphere designs, the ability to ride that curve and then deliver a 3025-ish, PSR inducing, alpha-strike when you get a good position with that extra mobility-and those, even with the plus two, can be devastating WITHOUT the physical even entering the equation.
automating it you might as well just play Clanner, or just use Clanner gear-because by making it 'automatic' you're just installing the easy-button.