Heat Effects

Heat Effects Changes
These changes replace the default overheating behaviors, in which high heat levels caused internal structure damage. Instead it introduces a series of progressively more difficult random skill tests that cause negative effects when failed, as well as attack and movement modifiers starting from slightly elevated heat levels.


 * Attack Modifier is a penalty to the unit's chance to hit.
 * Movement Modifier is a penalty to the unit's base Walking Speed, which also reduces its running speed.
 * Shutdown Chance is the threshold a percentile check (d100) must equal or exceed, or the Mech will be forced to shut down.
 * Ammo Explosion Chance is the threshold a percentile check (d100) must equal or exceed, or the most damaging ammo box remaining will explode and inflict internal damage.
 * Pilot Injury Chance is the threshold a percentile check (d100) must equal or exceed, or the Pilot will suffer one point of damage.
 * System Failure Chance is the threshold a percentile check (d100) must equal or exceed, or one randomly selected internal component will be destroyed.*

These changes are tied to the Classic BattleTech (CBT) extended heat scale, which normally ranges from 0 to 50 heat. The HBS game expanded heat values on a 3:1 basis, so this implementation uses a 0 to 150 scale for heat. Multiple effects can occur at the same heat level, which can result in the unit shutting down, having an ammo explosion, and injuring the pilot all at once! Some may seem unusual, like a linear Movement penalty or lack of penalty to Jump Jets, but they are ported strictly as is from the tabletop version of BattleTech.

All heat effects are resolved at the end of the current turn, except for the movement and attack modifiers.

Guts Skill reduces the chances of any Heat Related effect by a flat 5% per point beyond the minimum of 1. e.g. a Guts of 3 removes any chance of shutdown at 51 heat or below, as 10%-5%(3-1)=0%

*: The specifics for most of these factors, in game, can only be found in the Heat Window by hovering over the Heat Bar at the bottom left interface of your Mech. Exceptions are the linear Movement Modifier--directly applied without mention otherwise to the move total in the Info Window, the Attack Modifier, which is reflected as "Heat" in the accuracy breakdown when overheating(it's applied without individual mention if not overheating), and the chances of certain penalties, which only shows in the event of a failed roll.

Heat Threshold Indicator
The heat threshold indicator in-game, also known as the overheat bar, which in vanilla HBSBT showed the heat over which your mech would begin to take damage, is now pegged at 42 heat for all mechs and does not change as of Osmium Beta 1.7.7. It carries entirely different implications to gameplay in RT.


 * Heat percentages of in-game descriptions, such as that of Radical Compact HS Kit: "Activates above 90% heat", "Deactivates below 50% heat", refer to percentages of this threshold.
 * Weapons that do additional damage to overheated mechs, such as flamers, do additional damage to mechs with their current heat above this threshold. This does not vary with the total Guts Skill of the pilot and equipment modifiers of the target mech.
 * Some equipment, such as Enhanced Imaging, have the effect of automatically causing pilot injury when the mech overheats, independent of the Pilot Injury roll described in the above table. The onset of this effect follows the Heat Threshold Indicator, and does not vary with total Guts.
 * If your pilot has a total Guts Skill of 1 or 2, this indicator coincides with the heat level at which there begins to be a possibility of mech shutdown, as indicated by the CBT extended heat scale. However, since the probabilities in the Heat effects table are reduced by Guts in the manner described previously, resulting in the chance of shutdown being delayed to 54 heat from 3 guts, 66 heat from 7 guts, 78 from 13 guts and 90 at 15 guts, while the Attack and Movement penalties onset at 24 and 15 heat respectively, it can be said that the indicator has absolutely no correlation to the CBT extended heat scale with regard to actual gameplay.