Hero with Mass Effect 1-style overheating mechanic

Playing Yamato for the first time recently, and seeing how different her "gun" is compared to everyone else made me think of this. Since not all "guns" have to have the ability to ADS, I think this could be extended to guns having ammo and reloading.

In Mass Effect 1, weapons did not have ammo (or "heat sink cartridges" as it was explained in ME2). Instead, they had a meter that would overheat if you fired too much in short succession. If you overheated, your weapon would not be able to fire for a bit as it cools off. I would like to see a concept like this used in Deadlock. It could be something like instead of having a reload (both manual and automatic), you have a heat meter that rises every time you fire. Items that affect magazine size would give you a higher heat meter instead, and items affecting reloading would cool down your weapon completely. However the drawback could be that NOTHING reduces your reload time, no items or anything. If you overheat, you're stuck in a cooldown animation (possibly even being forced to stand still), longer than that of a reload on other heroes. This would punishing trying to just spray and pray. Items like Quicksilver Reload could also reset the heat meter.

I think this could be taken even further with something like having right click be an alt fire like Yamato that produces more heat. Seeing how much heat both normal fire and alt fire produce would help you gauge what kind of shots you can get away with without overheating. I think this theoretical hero would have to be something futuristic in order for it to make sense for the gun to not have ammo, or could be simply explained by "it shoots magic" if the hero should fit more in with the 1900s New York theme of the game.

I'm not entirely sure what other skills a hero like this could have, but maybe have an ultimate that just overheats the gun but it's still usable, hinging on this mechanic where the gun briefly shoots more powerful rounds that have a different effect (maybe burn damage, or a slow, or something like that) as well as melee attacks with the gun could apply this and be stronger. When the ult ends, the gun could cause a blast around your hero that damages and knocks back enemies.
 
Thematically overheat can fit Bebop (lazer), Dynamo (energy gun?), Paradox (no-magazine through time shenanigans), Viscous (goo)
It can make different characters feel more unique + there are probably a portion of people who would love this style of firing :D
 
I looked at the heroes not playable yet, but are in the console and I saw one has exactly this! I don't know if it was made before I made this post, but if it was inspired by this, thank you Valve!
 
Technically speaking that's exactly what happens with Infernus though he doesn't recover ammo by not shooting his finger just reload animation being cooling it off.
 
Technically speaking that's exactly what happens with Infernus though he doesn't recover ammo by not shooting his finger just reload animation being cooling it off.
Technically, but not mechanically. You still have to "reload" as Infernus even if you stop shooting. What I'm talking about would be a meter that builds up as you keep shooting, but when you stop shooting, it goes down. If it overheats, you end up in a longer "cooldown" animation than reloads in the game.
 
Yeah i'd really like to see more non-traditional weapons.

I just think it will be boring if every character is a variation on standard rifles, pistols, and machine guns.
 
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