Hi
Well the problem of changing the base mesh will of course create a big impact especially for all those using it. This mesh is dependent with all features like rigging etc all targets are used on this mesh and most but not all targets also work on the helpers which are also part of the mesh. Also additional tools like MakeClothes and mhx2 exporter must be changed.
Our team programming the application (and also using it for scenes like I do) is rather small. I guess nearly all of us have a normal job and daily life ... so this is our hobby.
First we have to keep in mind how different the wishes of people working with MakeHuman are.
If you had ask me half a year ago, I tried to do more realism and hoped for additional geometry. Especially in shoulder reason. And the shaders should be like the principled one in Blender. And I hoped for shapekeys or additional bones to correct geometry. And jiggle bones of course.
Then I learned that other people used it for creation of fantasy and they hope for a more flexible mesh. And some want it smaller, because in smooth regions you don't need much geometry. And for a game/simulation a character with less vertices is faster. So of cause the MH team has to consider the whole range of users in future.
The last year the team tried to keep the system compatible with changing software and hardware requirements. This is a never ending story, because this will be always a problem. If you are ready with a topic, vendor abc introduces a new standard and we can do all the things again. Or the vendors try to keep their software proprietary and hide functionality.
Nevertheless I vote for more flexibility in future and did an experiment. I wrote an article about how this mesh can be used and new features can be added to the end of this mesh. So similar, like starting from vertex number xyz there are different topologies. I also figured out how I was able to determine if a skeleton could deal with non-existent verticies etc. So when you read the article you can see the limits but also ideas from a technical point of view. My idea is to create sth. like the target/skeleton "abc" can be used on the mesh "def" + additional topology "xyz". But it is still experimental, maybe it is a better way to use a set of targets if a mesh is built from base-mesh and two additional helper ones etc. For more flexibility we have to re-arrange a lot of stuff, like making things configurable (e.g. in coding configuration in JSON for e.g. data-exchange) ...
I hope the developers (and I am one since January) will have the time (and ideas) to create a concept for all these things. What we can't do (and I will not do) is to create sth. where we cannot reuse assets etc. This will create problems with the "old" users.
And the next version will of course not contain these ideas, there we have to fix all the problems from adapting to new standards and we have to work on a few neglected topics.
Before I, as the newbie (or should I say apprentice?), will change things in MH, I have to understand the complete software. Then the team has to find a "general agreement" on how we can proceed and reach more functionality. Otherwise it would end up in chaos.
Here is the article:
http://www.makehumancommunity.org/forum/viewtopic.php?f=7&t=16927In a way I tried to do a in-between thing to allow the characters to be in a simulator but also to create animated assets like wings and tail in a standard scene using Blender ...