Why not dual boot a Linux distro?
for a start trying to find compatible drivers is a pain in the backside, second I'm not a fan of the GUI KDE sucks and I've tried several others and I just can't find one that is usable, and being dyslexic doesn't really help either, unless the system works the same as windows i just can't use it, as it is it took me years to become proficient with a PC running windows, which is part of the reason i object to newer versions of windows because Microsoft can't leave well enough alone, and won't stop messing around with the UI, they keep moving things around changing how things work which renders the whole thing completely unusable because something that I'd be able to do in a matter of seconds otherwise becomes this massive chore because I cant figure out how to access the thing that I'm trying to access or do the thing that I'm trying to do, because they wont stop meddling.
I had the same problem in collage when i had to use the MACs i just couldn't use the dam things even trying to do simple things like copy and paste or accessing my flash drive so i could save my work proved to be a massive headache, on a PC something like that would take a matter of seconds trying to do it on the MACs I'd be messing round for 20 minutes just trying to figure out how to access the thing that i wanted to access and as a result i just couldn't get anything done, and unfortunately every time i have tried using linux i encountered the same trouble.
I've actually been keeping an eye on
https://www.reactos.org
Ok..so what's ReactOS?
ReactOS is a free and open source operating system written from scratch. It's design is based on Windows in the same way Linux is based on Unix, however ReactOS is _not_ linux. ReactOS looks and feels like Windows, is able to your run Windows software and your Windows drivers, and is familiar for Windows users.
unfortunately its still in alpha and not ready for general day to day use just yet but they are making progress all the time, its a pretty cool and ambitious project because building an operating system is no easy task, but it should be good when its ready for general day to day use.
As for engine upgrades, it's possible but very time consuming.
how so because i would have though it would simply be a matter of changing up the formula a bit, something like
base speed = engine power / total weight x propulsion modifier
engine upgrade = base speed x upgrade value
actual speed = base speed + engine upgrade x terrain modifier
a very simple formula that isn't actually that different from how it works now but would actually make engine upgrades work as expected because the base speed is no longer a fixed value and is instead calculated based off of the body engine power the total weight of the vehicle and the propulsion modifier
so for example a viper body on wheels with a machine-gun turret and 1 engine upgrade
body 600 + wheels 1800 + turret 200 = total weight 2600
base speed = engine power 5000 / total weight 2600 x propulsion modifier 0.71 = 1.365384615 rounded to 2dp (1.37)
engine upgrade = (base speed 1.37 x 0.10 = 0.137) + base speed 1.37 = new top speed 1.507 rounded to 2dp (1.51)
actual speed on flat ground = 1.51 x 1 = 1.51
actual speed hills = 1.51 x 0.75 = 1.1325 rounded to 2dp (1.3)
so you see this works perfectly and isn't that dissimilar from how it works now, admittedly changing this isn't quiet as simple as just changing the formula and there would be one of two other things that would also need changing to but it shouldn't take that long maybe a couple of hours for someone who knows what there doing, unless I'm missing something ?!?!
The EB-Mod already does this (unique speed signatures for basically everything) and a ton of other cool things like merging multiplayer and campaign stats together. So tons of new bodies, propulsion, weapons, and the Mech borgs are available. And a special hyper aggressive AI that focuses on attacking and building defenses. I'm just going to use it a stepping stone, replacing camBalance, since it basically does everything we wanted to do anyway and more. I just have to get motivated enough to map out all the tech, per mission, and assign new tech arrays to the AI per mission and verify all research is available when it should be.
humm..... I'm not sure that would be such a good idea because the idea of the cam balance mod we where working on was simply to fix the broken balance and make all the weapons viable at each stage of the game, as well as making a judgment on things like mission timers and resources for insane difficulty. The EB-Mod sounds like it makes some pretty significant alterations to the base game, which as a general rule i don't agree with, because I'm of the opinion that we should avoid altering the base game to much, fixing bad implementation and things which are broken, is fine and fixing issues that arise from fixing badly implemented or broken things is also fine, but otherwise I'd advise against altering the base game to much.