can anyone recommend a good way to manage heat in MWO

-Avoid the middle of the volcano map! LOL The maps are on different planets, all different conditions
-Snow is good.
-On maps with water, spend as much time in water as you can, it cools you down tremendously.
-Lower your speed on your way to the conflict, watch the heat levels at different walking speeds. Engines produce heat and if you walk just a little bit slower you can lower heat about 2% and still have decent speed. In a flat scissors with another mech, slow down a bit to lower heat a touch--you can turn faster that way too.
-When building, I want my heat ability at 1.3 or better (not easy to get better than 1.5). You can do a lot of firing before overheating at that level.
-On the pilot tab, use your mech XP to unlock the perks...2 or 3 are heat related, others help with twisting/turning etc.
-Have a weapon that produces very little heat that can fire continuously. That's what I love about the streak SRM's. They're well grouped and fairly accurate once you get used to them. I set them to fire together and lock down my rt mouse button so they fire continuously as long as I've got a lock. Unless I'm damaged or firing other weapons too much, they fire continuously without overheating me. Ballistic weapons and missiles are good for firing when running hot.


If you don't have it already, download the spreadsheet for weapons/mechs etc.
http://mwomercs.com/forums/topic/27065-o...s-excel-inside/

I printed out the excel sheets, invaluable! There isn't nearly enough info just on the build screen.

I guess to add to Raw's suggestions (all great btw), one thing that you also need to be careful with is your rate of fire.

It is easy to fall into the trap of just holding down the triggers and blasting away. Take some extra time to make sure all of your shots count, really work on aiming, not just blasting away.

I still catch myself just 'blasting' away, and have to make a concsious effort to ease down on my rate of fire.

Yeah great tips, also you can use "chain-fire" mode (Backspace key) to keep from getting too hot firing all the lasers in the fire group at same time, i.e. I usually have my lasers mapped in a "fire-all" group and also in a "chain-fire" group so I can switch tactics based on my heat.

If you've got some seriously high heat weapons (PPC's, and large lasers are the normal culprits) do NOT put them in the same group normally. Sure you can rain down some serious damage, you'll seriously over work your heat sinks unless you in water. Save that kind of massed fire power for a coup de grâce, or possibly the opening salvo in an ambush. If you don't have any real weapons other then your high heat options (such as the Awesome) then only use 1 PPC and 1 small laser in a group. This will let the heavier high heat weapon cycle and keep your heat down. Now if you can get in the water, bring the pain!

I haven't played the newest MW:O, but I've player pretty much every incarnation of BattleTech from table to CCG, to PC, to Xbox, etc. Honestly if the gameplay is true to the universe and base table top rules, I'd highly recommend looking for a startegy guide for the table top game (the hex based one, not the click one). Balancing heat is a HUGE part of the table top game, and there are lots of good strategies for it.

-Jenrick

Grouping is a big deal, and weapon placement is too. When possible (it's not always possible, like on my current favorite) I want my similar weapons on the same arm or torso, or arm/head/torso but not both arms. The closer you can place your grouped weapons together, the more accurate you'll be. That was huge in Chromehounds too. It's fun firing 2 PPC's or large lasers from each arm, but it's not as accurate as having both on the one arm or firing straight forward from the torso. When up close, you don't want to hit their left and right torso, you want both guns hitting squarely in the center for full effect, IMO. At distance sometimes the beams will cross over. You aren't getting full damage at that distance anyway, but accuracy is better than spread out shots to make each one count.
Also having your big guns on an arm or torso means you can have a sacrificial arm on the other side. LOL Stack all the armor you can on the gun-arm, lighten the load on the one that doesn't count--but don't put ammor or heat sinks there to get blown away.

I stick to 2-3 groups max:
left mouse btn: main guns
right mouse btn: repeating weapons for the lock down....machine guns, streak SRM's
middle/wheel button: secondary guns or LRM's