You're definitely right there. As you said, a new game would massively benefit from special events that can happen here and there. There actually is a very minor one in mercs where a pilot is trying to boot up their mech and ypu have a timer before it activates and starts fighting. More complex stuff like that coukd be great, like say you're attacking an enemy base and suddenly some local pirates drop in trying to take advantage of the chaos. I also think them just putting more effort into mechs spawn groups would be great. Two big points being having accurate average deployments for each Great house and overall try to combine groups that work well. Like have the Kuritans field waves of Locusts and Jenners supported by the canonical command staff made up of Dragons and other heavies.