I just tried to enter the Fusilier into v15, and it appears that the auto-feed of the Equipment cells in the Design sheet are broken.  I only get a "0" appearing for all of them.

Well, I had made the same mistake, so don't feel bad.  And yes, I forgot to note the Reduced Ammo on the Flechette Guns.  I'll be entering the new mech designs into your spreadsheet when I get a chance.

PS - is it possible to attach pdf's of design sheets to these threads?  It would make posting new mech designs enormously easier.

Note: for those who may have reviewed this prior to 10/22, the Fusilier and its variant weapon systems have been modified in response to the clarification of the Reduced Range rule.  This lowered the Point Value of the Fusilier by 4, and effected the SRM's, MRM's, LRM's, LRIF's, and AWE's, as well as the HAMR, HEATR, and Flechette Gun.

Fusilier Weapon Variants

may be substituted for the E-Mag Cannon, both @ 10HP

Cold Plasma Shield-Resonant Anti-Materiel (S-RAM) Rifle
RNG 5, RoF 1, DMG d6
Energy Weapon, Thermal 1
Inverted & Doubled Range Mod's, Shield Resonant, Sniper Scope
(Slow Firing x2, base RoF 3)

may be substituted for any missile battery, all @ 5HP

4cm General Purpose Missile (GPM) Pack
RNG 5, RoF 1, DMG d10, Ammo 13
Ballistic Weapon, Thermal 1
External

4cm Short Range Missile (SRM) Pack
RNG 6, RoF 1, DMG d10, Ammo 23
Ballistic Weapon, Thermal 1
External, Reduced Range (6/12/16), Doubled Range Mod's

4cm Medium Ranged Missile (MRM) Pack
RNG 5, RoF 1, DMG d10, Ammo 7
Ballistic Weapon, Thermal 1
External, No Range Mod's

4cm Long Range Missile (LRM) Pack
RNG 5, RoF 1, DMG d10, Ammo 14
Ballistic Weapon, Thermal 1
External, Inverted & Doubled Range Mod's

4cm Long Range Indirect Fire (LRIF) Pack
RNG 5, RoF 1, DMG d10, Ammo 7
Ballistic Weapon, Thermal 1
External, Indirect Fire Capable, Inverted & Doubled Range Mod's

Airburst Widespread Explosives (AWE) Pack
RNG 6, RoF 1, DMG d4-2, Ammo 16
Ballistic Weapon, Thermal 1
External, Airburst Warheads, Multiple Warheads, Reduced Range (6/12/16), Doubled Range Mod's

may be used as a variant missile type for any battery at no cost

Direct-fire Unguided Munition (DUM) Missile variant
Increase RoF to 2
Re-roll Dmg

Example (same standard HP cost of 5):
4cm General Purpose Missile (GPM) DUM Pack
RNG 5, RoF 2, DMG d10, Ammo 13
Ballistic Weapon, Thermal 1
External, Re-roll Dmg

may be substituted for the HAMR, both @ 2HP

Heavy Explosive Anti-Tank Rifle (HEATR)
Rng 4, RoF 2, Dmg d8
Kinetic Weapon, Thermal 0
Hand Carried, Reduced Range (4/8/10), Armor Piercing, Doubled Range Mod's, Heavy Explosive

Actually, now that I think about it, there isn't anything that would prevent the internal game logic from being ported over to physical targeting versus thermal targeting (this applies to the Steamtech vs High Tech thread as well).

Thermal Signature = Targeting Signature, based on Size.
Tech Modifier is due to size of power plant.
Thermal Dampers = Technical Developments that allow the same technology to be fit into a smaller frame, i.e. micro-sizing.
Stealth System = Stealth System
Ballistic and Energy Weapons increase TS because they are simply physically bigger than kinetic weapons.
Weapon Mod's that increase or decrease TS are likewise due to space requirements for the equipment.

Due to the % math of the "Thermal Dampers", using full Size instead of half Size for the TS would only raise the final TS by 1-2, but it would make the balancing of TS and equipment and weapons harder, and would doubtless make for a bloodier game.  I think there might be a "wait and see who runs out of smoke" effect, but that's already built in to the system to a certain degree.

It is a crucial part of the game, and one I haven't quite worked out yet.  Most of my playtesting had been with "non-maximized" Battletech conversions without using most options, so it wasn't so apparent, however it is very easy to reduce Thermal Sig's to very low or even impossible levels.

Using L4 Thermal Dampers, it is very easy to construct powerful mechs with TS's of 3-4, and possible but difficult to create mechs with TS's of 1-2 (especially is using fission rather than fusion, and sticking to kinetic weapons).  They will usually have enough MP's to get +1 or even +2 to the lock roll, cover can give them another +1 to +2, and use of smoke can give another +3 (the more precious decoy flares +5).

For instance, I've designed a series of mechs for my campaign.  The Voltiguer is a light mech that can move 12 and jump 9, and has a TS of 3.  The Fusilier is a medium mech that can move 9 and also has a TS of 3.  The Grenadier is a medium-heavy mech that can move 7 and has a TS of 4, but has 10 armor!  All of them have Smoke and Flares on top of that, and (especially the Fusilier) have fearsome arsenals of weapons and multiple levels of Enhanced Sensors.  I'll post these soon for comparison.

Possible solutions to this are using cheap levels of Enhanced Sensors (3 max, -1 lock per level), using the rare area effect weapons (ballistic airburst and/or multiple warheads, or EMP), or melee.  Enhanced Sensors can be countered to some extent by the more expensive levels of Electronic Countermeasures (2EM per level compared to 1EM per level for Sensors, max 2 levels).  Airburst weapons target the hex rather than the target (base 5), but are -2 DMG.  Multiple warhead weapons automatically hit the surrounding hexes, but have to hit a target first (combining the two is possible, makes a great anti-infantry weapon, but is hard to make effective versus mechs).  EMP's knock a target out for a turn - but you have to hit it first.  Melee has its own problems, one of which is exposing yourself to close-range fire.  In general, melee weapons are rather ineffective compared to specialized short-range weapons, but if you can avoid being hit and get into melee, it is the one solid option - unfortunately not as effective versus the smaller mechs that probably also have the lower TS's in the first place.  Also, if you're not really taken with the idea of mecha melee, then you shouldn't be forced into it by the remote targeting system.

Of course, Veteran pilots are another solution, if you have them, but then again Green pilots are another problem!

I haven't figured out a real solution to this yet.  I think part of the problem might be that range now effects damage instead of "to hit", although both make sense.  However, while it would be easy to rate weapons for "to hit" bonuses in the same way as damage, you would then have to roll for each weapons system.  Doing away with Electronic Countermeasures, or having them only effect AI, would be another balancing factor (and is something I'm thinking of using in my games).  After all, you already have Dampers and Stealth Systems to mask your TS, so what does EC do on top of that against thermal targeting?  Using a minimum TS of 1 would be another thing to consider, but would change the game a bit.  Combining a minimum TS of 1 and rolling for "lock" for each weapon system would change the system even more.

A possibly bloody way to go would be to use Full Size (instead of the half for TS) if in "open terrain", i.e. if you are in full visual view of the targeting systems and any Thermal Sig is just a bonus.  You would then use the standard TS if in cover of any sort, when the Thermal Sensing really comes into play.  It might just result in a game of hide-and-seek in cover, but then again cover is already important anyway.

I would be interested to hear other thoughts!

Hmm ... I have all the HG and JC books, but I'm not sure that I know the system well enough to stat them out the same way I did the BTech mechs (which I still need to update and expand to include all the 3025 era mechs).

It's a good idea though!

I haven't tried it, but I would imagine that with Clockwork and Steamtech you could just base the To Hit roll on the unit Size.  You could also keep the Lock system as-is (or use Size instead of Half Size for the base number), and assume all the rest of the modifiers are for "steam and clanking" and such.  By Combustion tech you could reasonably infer IR systems and computerized targeters, etc.

One of the possible aberrations of the Thermal Sig system is when units have a low TS (1-2) and enough movement adjustments (and/or cover) to present a TS of 0 or less pretty much every turn.  Low Tech mechs probably won't have that problem, although Clockwork has that nasty TS base of 0.  By the way, I always favored rating Steamtech as 0.85 instead of 0.8, a small but statistically significant advantage for the cost of the increased TS mod.

That's what I thought about dual-wielding them, but how about wielding a single 1HP "pistol" in one hand and leaving the other hand free?  That would leave the free arm to shoot another weapon or punch ... maybe not too bad if both sides are playing by the same rules.  I'm imagining a "swashbuckling" mech with a pistol in one hand and a sword in the other.