BattleTech Mech Variants Pack 3 for MechWarrior 4 Mercenaries, by RaptorRage      6/02/03
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Installation:

To install this variant set, simply unzip or highlight and drag the .mw4 files to the 
RESOURCE/VariantsMercs subdirectory in your main MechWarrior 4 Mercenaries directory.

Note that these variants are for MechWarrior 4 Mercenaries with the Inner Sphere and 
Clan Paks only, not for Vengeance or Black Knight. Use the previous BattleTech Mech 
Variants Pack 2 for those game versions.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Notes for Version 3:

This is the Mercenaries update to the previous BattleTech Mech Variants Packs. This 
version includes compatible variants for MW4 Mercenaries with the Inner Sphere and 
Clan Mech Paks.

Including the 8 Pak Mechs there are 44 total Mercenaries compatible variants available.

The 34 variants that were included in the original BattleTech Mech Variants Packs for 
Vengeance and Black Knight have been updated for this version. Some tweaking to the 
weapons and armor have occurred for a few of the Mechs, and some variants were replaced 
with variants that include the new weapons in Mercenaries. In addition, the year dates 
that denote the Technology Base of each Mech now more accurately reflect the year the 
Mechs were introduced, as described in the historical text of the BattleTech Technical 
Readouts.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Description:

These variants recreate the Mechs published in the various BattleTech Technical 
Readouts and Record Sheets publications for the BattleTech RPG:

-Technical Readouts 2750, 3025, 3050, 3055, 3058, 3060, and 3067
-Record Sheets 3025, 3050, 3055 & 3058, 3060, Upgrades (3062), and 3067

The majority of the Inner Sphere Mech variants included are the common configurations 
that are described in the text of the various Technical Readouts. The Clan Mechs are the 
Primary configurations (PRIME) or in some cases the only configuration of the Mech. Each 
Mech type is listed by its specific model number followed by the year it was introduced.

I have modified a few of the new Mechs introduced in MW4 to reflect the statistics 
found in the Technical Readout: 3067 and 3067 Record Sheets. They are included here 
for completeness.

Each Mech has been restricted to its technology base. Inner Sphere Mechs use only Inner 
Sphere weapons, even if in the BattleTech publications they use Extended Range (ER) or 
Streak missile technology of the Star League era. Clan Mechs use their respective 
weapons.

The types of weapons used on the Mechs and their mounted locations reflect as closely 
as possible the statistics found in the various BattleTech Record Sheets. The speed 
of each Mech was set to most closely match the Running Movement Points (MP) of the 
BattleTech versions. In those cases where a BattleTech variant has MASC to briefly 
boost its speed beyond the maximum Running MP, I have set the max speed of the MW4 
variant to a point about halfway between the Running MP and the MP achieved with MASC.

Due to the unique weapon hardpoint system used in MW4, rather than the critical slot 
system of the previous MechWarrior games, there are a few instances where the weapon 
locations don't match up with the BattleTech variants. There are also a few instances 
where there was no available slot for a particular weapon type. In those cases the 
weapon was omitted rather than replaced with a weapon that would fit that slot but was 
not part of the BattleTech variant.

Since the armor system of MechWarrior 4 uses a different point distribution than 
previous MechWarrior games and the BattleTech RPG, for the sake of simplicity I used 
maximum Ferro Fibrous armor (rounded down in some cases), rather than computing the 
proportion of BattleTech armor to MechWarrior 4 armor. This also helped use up the 
extra tonnage that would otherwise be wasted in the MW4 game.

To recreate the Mechs as accurately as possible using the available tonnage and unique 
hardpoint system of MW4, I installed the weapons and equipment first, then adjusted the 
engine rating, then used the extra tonnage to maximize the armor. Any remaining tonnage 
went into additional heat sinks.

Note that a majority of the ammunition based weapons on the included variants do not 
have additional ammo beyond what is included with the weapon, as most of the MW4 
weapons come with the correct or higher number of shots than are included in the 
BattleTech variants. As a consequence of matching the limited amount of ammo of the 
BattleTech variants, some variants have an excess number of heat sinks (far above what 
is required for heat dissipation) using up the remaining tonnage, as their total weapon 
and armor loadout did not use up the available tonnage. This is particularly noticeable 
in some of the Heavy and Assault Inner Sphere Mechs from the earlier BattleTech eras.

These designs should be suitable for tournaments, team games, online roleplay, as well 
as any regular multiplayer mode included in the game. These designs are particularly 
suitable for Clan VS. Inner Sphere and other "Pure Tech" games that use weapons 
restricted to the Technology Base of the Mechs. Also some of these designs should work 
well in the single player campaigns that have various target types other than Mechs.

Have fun seeing how effective the published variants designed for the RPG might behave 
in the MW4 environment. You might be surprised how well some of these stock BattleTech 
configurations can perform in MW4 multiplayer.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Future versions:

If it is requested I can create other BattleTech variants beyond the single Inner Sphere 
and Clan PRIME configurations. There are currently about 211 officially published 
BattleTech variants for the 44 available MW4 Mechs to choose from.

Also if any additional Mech Paks are created by the game developers or by third parties, 
I'll likely be making BattleTech configurations for those Mechs as well.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Contact for feedback & requests:

RaptorRage
raptor@mn.rr.com

Previously submitted designs to www.mechwarriorcenter.com

-Raven: Alseides
-Daishi: Railgunner
-Daishi: Revenant
-Loki: Lightspeed
-Uller: Velociraptor
-BattleTech Mech Variants Pack (Vengeance Only)
-BattleTech Mech Variants Pack 2 (Vengeance/Black Knight/IS Pak/Clan Pak)

Previously submitted designs to www.teambanzai.net & pri.mgonetwork.com

-BattleTech Mech Variants Pack 2 (Vengeance/Black Knight/IS Pak/Clan Pak)