Except for MW3, later mech simulations increasingly deteriorated to mere first person shooters, but an engine that allows for a easy creation of campaigns is still missing. Fan-driven attempts to recreate a mech sim have either stalled or are still closed-source, not allowing for easy adaption to new campaign types or limited to a single platform.
I therefore conclude that it is time to create a new mech simulation, with the following goals:
- Open Source. Looking at earlier attempts, it is obvious that a new mech sim attempt should be open source in order to encourage modding and to embrace a wide audience.
- Faithful recreation of MW2, though not blindly so. By accessing original content from MW2, we strive for a look that matches MW2 as closely as possible. However, there are things that were improved in MW3. These improvements include more realistic weapons, and more freedoms in engine choice. Currently, the engine of MW3 does not need to be replaced for playing MW3 content.
- Modding tools. These are badly missed in MW2 and MW3, because there is a lot of historical background in BattleTech just waiting to be adapted to a simulation. As the effort might not be commercially viable, it is up to the community to create tools and content that will make this happen.
- Configurability. The communities still supporting MW2 and MW3 do not always agree on what an ideal mech sim should look like. When necessary, options should be added so that MechVM can be configured to please both communities.
- Platform independence. Like other game recreations, such as ScummVM and the Wing Commander: Privateer remake, the implementation should be chosen such that users are not limited to a specific platform.
While the open source approach opens up cheating vulnerabilities, some level of secure network playing can be achieved through running all steps that need to be refereed on all participating machines.