ah but see , while the universe is huge , missions are generally not
and just imagine it , you and ur little merc band
trundle off and accept a Draconis combine contract to attack a davion force that is secretely on one of their plannets
contract lasts for 6months (game time, and is quite a short contract)
so u run off to find those nasty davions
you do find them and kill them , but some esscape
so your next mission is to kill the ones that esscaped before they can leave the plannet
but ! they manage to get a transmission out to call for renforcements
who rock up , just as you waist the last survivors, face with a new threat you retreat to the nearest DRAC city
the the davions dont let up, and attack the city
dracs call for renforcements and so do the davions
and pretty soon , you realise you just started a war
then on the little dirt ball on the edge of the solar system where only about 12 players were in action (including the davions you waisted earler)
now there are hundrends of players rocking up to the planet
then war would spread to the near by plannets and so forth and so forth
i rekon battle tech would be the best mmo out there
cause it would have every possable player class available (like traders, engineers, pilots, infantry, medics, tankers, artillery, aerospace, transport pilots and so on
i would start the game off at the 2nd succession war
that way, the star league is very very gone, and most of the good technology is too
but then you have lots and lots of new content to add , then the clans could invade
new content is almost endless
i think this game tho would be better off left alone for about 20years
then we would have the technology to pull it off correctly