Behind the Scenes
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Unlike most mech building programs, there is no intermediary list of items between the full tree list of all available gear and the crits of the mech: items go immediately from the equipment trees to the location crit slots.
Option choices you make (eg. changing to an XL engine, or to double heatsinks) could suddenly mean there is no longer room for equipment already mounted on the mech: equipment that doesn't fit will be removed.
In hindsight, a mixture of both approaches would have been best: apply items directly from the equipment tree to the mech locations, but instead of having items simply disappear from the mech if there's no longer room for them, I would instead have another ninth location called "Overflow" with unlimited crits displayed in the centre column of the window where all mounted items that no longer fit on the mech are moved to.  The overflow location would have to be empty before the mech could be saved.  This would have the speed and simplicity of my current equipment mounting method, but would also make QuickMech's behaviour more transparent to the user when the mech runs out of crits (plus it would have been simpler for me to code than changing armour type or removing heatsinks).
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If you try to fit more crits of endo steel, TSM, armour, etc. than can fit in a mech, QuickMech either refuse the change, or will change the armour or heatsink type to Standard, or reduce the number of heatsinks. You will only notice this if you try to build a mech with (for example) endo steel, and XL engine, and TSM, and double heatsinks and a 20-rated engine, and Heavy FF armour!  All that simply won't fit onto a chassis, even with no weapons.
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Crits are updated in the following order:
1. The crits that are always the same in every mech (3 engine crits, 2 gyro crits, leg actuators, etc.) are mounted first.
2. The rest of the engine, gyro and cockpit crits.  These may cause over-full locations to discard other equipment.
3. TSM, endo steel, and armour crits are counted and compared to the number of these that should be present.  If there are too many, QuickMech will remove the appropriate number from locations of its choice.  If there are too few, QuickMech will add more in locations of its choice (it will prefer locations with empty crits) until the number is correct. This may cause over-full locations to discard equipment. You can move these crits to locations of your choice.  Heat sinks are also added/removed in a similar fashion.  If you currently have selected more heat sinks than can possibly fit in the mech then the selected number will be reduced.
4. If there is space, all other equipment (equipment that you have added from the trees to a particular location) is mounted.
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When a change in mounted weapons causes a change in the size of a mounted Targeting Computer, the computer will be removed, and one the correct size will immediately be mounted in the same location.  If there are not enough crits at that location, or if the computer will make the mech overweight, it will not be mounted.



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"Legal" Stuff
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Neither I nor this program have any affiliation or connection with Battletech or its owners, nor with any other fan-made Battletech related creation.  As far as I know I've avoided any use of any BT copyright or trademarks. (For example: every pixel of the record sheet was hand-placed, there was no copying+pasting in it's construction)  This program is 100% free for anyone, I make absolutely no money from it in any way, and its only purpose is to make Battletech more accessible/enjoyable for BT fans.  

