Those aren't really narrative in my mind. The story is on rails and different factions have massive unearned advantages in the metagame. I've talked about this at length.
It requires effort, but the book missions and the campaign system also provide a ‘story’ mode. The tools are there, it’s just a lift. Plus there’s making sure your local group is interested.
Then you should write a narrative campaign or mission set. Given the volume of your posting and the way you think about rules I'm guessing you'd be good at structuring and generating content for that kind of thing. Ever tried it? The Operation Hungry Walrus stuff was a fun effort at something like that, if you'd like an example. There's plenty of room for other efforts that use the rules and depart further from what CB has written too, if that's more what you want.
I wrote a ruleset that was a mashup of a Necromunda-esque progression system and Infinity in early N3. I've definitely done things like that. I have tried my share of rules hacks. The issue is, nobody really wants to play it.
Uh, did you -see- how many people played Operation Hungry Walrus? A lot, self included. EDIT: One of the Operation Hungry Walrus missions even made it into the current ITS packet! The issue isn't rules or good fluff, it's engagement. Write good stuff and collaborate with someone to use it in a mini-campaign, even just starting with an escalation league or mini-arc at a single-day ITS-style event. If you're near some shops with ownership who support Infinity well, that would seem like fertile ground for collaboration. Or even just post it here in a good format. I've played plenty of stuff from the forums, as have others.
BTW, personal why-won't-people-play-my-mods moment to share as well: I've written a couple of missions and mods to core Infinity, one of which I'm planning to force upo.... uh, introduce to my local player group through a narrative tourney round. It's a 400- or 600-point TAG-heavy format (65%+ of your points are TAGs) called Iron Fists. Mostly standard rules in N4, just a few AVA mods and fireteam changes. [The original N2 version had Tac Aware orders before Tac Aware was a thing, I am slightly proud of possibly having influenced that very-obvious advancement.] I've been trying to find opportunities to play it and to get others to play it since N2, only managed to get 3 games in so far but they all worked well. I'm thinking about running it as round 3 of a weird narrative games day thinly disguised as an ITS event with "special missions." Planning to use standees and Gundams as stand-ins for players who don't have that many large space-mecha-mandolls, aka most sane people. Anyways I have underappreciated works in my files too. Still worth writing them to get the ideas and energy out in a constructive manner, and if you get to play through them, bonus. If anyone else actually plays them, WOOOOT!
I played Highly Classified. Reinf works well, as you can technically do all 5 classifieds round 1 anyway. but having a reinf group that can cover many classifieds was interesting. I was able to do both HVT related classified with my Turn 3 Reinf even if the opponent had parked his reinf to cover the HVT and was preventing my main section from advancing to the HVT.
