The weather effects and night battles in MechWarrior 5 are a bit frustrating, with nighttime not necessarily requiring night vision and the weather being little more than a cosmetic tweak. It is more of an arcade-like experience than realistic weather effects. For those who like their mech sims a bit more simulator-like, RainingFire416 has created the Weather Improvement Mod.

The Weather Improvement Mod tweaks the game's weather settings so that you actually care about the time of day and conditions when you get a contract. Harsh weather becomes more realistic, and extreme snowfalls give whiteout blizzard effects. Night missions will also be properly darkened, and using night vision during combat will no longer be an option. Additionally, daytime missions have been added to the volcano biome and nighttime missions have been added to the iron oxide and sulfurous biome. Finally, there are days of clear weather with haze barely obstructing long-range visibility.

Despite its flaws, the bones of Mechwarrior 5 were quite good at the time of its release. At the time, I wrote: "The big campaign map is just a vehicle for a simple, tight, effective loop. Move to a new conflict zone, pick a mission, doom a mech in combat, find and accept a side quest, go to some industrial area to rearm and repair, and then head back for a new mission. It's the combat that makes this game worth playing, so it's nice to have a modder who can extend the experience for those who like realistic simulators.

Weather Improvement Mods can be found at Nexusmods.