I'm surprised nobody has thought of adding the factor of
REPAIRING THE DAMAGED MYOMER BUNDLES!
Speaking logically, a device that's used to push something beyond its safety limit is gonna break something. It might not be now, it might be after that fourth sortie without maintenance, you shift your Jenny out of park and something snaps in the left hip. Speaking personally, this is how I think it should work, which balances out each idea.
1. Upon activation, there is an instant increase in base heat, maybe the equivalent of taking three to five heatsinks offline, depending on the class.
2. The longer you have MASC active, the more heat is generated. For the first five seconds, no additional heat is generated, but after that, heat starts to rise at about on the level of firing a medium laser every two seconds.
3. Your mech becomes more sensitive to the terrain and is more likely to stumble during a shift in elevation or during a turn. If you try to shift from flat terrain to a hillside, you'll probably end up with dirt in your face.
4.
MOST IMPORTANTLY mechs that use MASC have to replace the myomer bundles that were damaged. This gets more expensive for the longer durations that MASC is used. It's feasible to use MASC in 10-15 second bursts with minimal increase in normal repair costs, but if you try to outrun someone for more than 60 seconds, you're gonna have to sell a weapon or two to get your mech fixed.
5. After a certain amount of time of heavy usage without repair, the myomer bundles fail, forcing your mech to limp along at walking speed when at full throttle.
What I'm getting at here is that we have the whole c-bills mechanic in the game, it can be used as a risk/reward/punishment factor in this given situation.
Edited by Curly Fride, 28 October 2012 - 11:10 PM.