JIP Realistic Weapon Overheating

This mod simulates the real-world, adverse effects of continuous, intensive fire which, if sustained long enough, can cause a firearm to overheat. It is intended, and probably best suited for hardcore players and/or realism fanatics, as it will impose further limitations on using projectile weapons, at times making the game more challenging. An overheated weapon will gradually become extremely unreliable and much more prone to malfunctioning (jamming); It may cook-off ammunition rounds and fire spontaneously; Its accuracy will suffer, and its condition will begin to deteriorate much faster, intensifying the negative effects on spread and damage. All projectile-type weapons (both guns and energy weapons) will be subjected to these effects (with a few exceptions, explained below).

Heat dissipation has always been an important consideration in the design of firearms. This is especially true with automatic firearms, capable of firing hundreds (sometimes even thousands) of rounds every minute. Well, at least in theory. In order to get some perspective, let's look at the M16 rifle. It can fire up to 950 rounds/minute. Quite impressive, for an assault rifle. However, according to the U. S. Army M16 rifle manual, firing 140 rounds, rapidly and continuously, will raise the temperature of the barrel to the "cook-off point". That is, assuming the gas tube hasn't failed before that could even happen. Not surprising, considering the levels of energy released when a weapon is fired. By the time the bullet is ejected from the muzzle, roughly 10% of this energy is already spent, converted to heat and conducted to the weapon's parts. If not allowed to disperse, this excess heat will continue to build up and can, potentially, reach as high as 1200 degrees centigrade (about 200 degrees shy from the melting point of steel). There are two major contributors to this accumulating heat. They constitute two of the most basic principles by which modern-day firearms work. Heat is conducted to the weapon by high pressured gases, product of the combustion of gun powder stored in the cartridge. It is these gases that give the bullet its linear momentum that will propel it on its trajectory. More heat is produced by friction between the bullet and the barrel's walls, as the former is pushed outwards by the pressure of the gases.

The effects of overheating on a firearm result from certain properties of matter and the way it is affected by temperature (as explained by the laws of thermodynamics). As temperatures rise, matter expands (grow in volume). Steel, at very high temperature, tends to deform, weaken and lose much of its elasticity. All these effect