Sorry. Rather fond of it myself, actually. Got the Tech Manual (with favorite variants ticked) and everything.

>Besides, it's not the factories that are going to customize any decent
>MechWarrior's gear; it's his regimental tech crew, probably in
>exchange for liquor. This is how it has worked for as long as there
>has been military technology.

True, but I'm not talking about tinkering or House variants of existing machines. Haven't you ever run into a player whose MechWarrior seemed to have his very own Skunk Works in the back 40 churning out custom prototypes, each more outlandish than the last, for him to ride into battle each week?

... I am now disturbed by how much that sounds like a Super Robot show, in a setting that's supposed to be about "real" robots (as real as 20-meter-tall humanoid fighting machines get, anyway).