Edward Mattlov, on 30 March 2014 - 12:04 AM, said:
In mechs that were produced during Star League times, the alphanumeric was usually arbitrary did not indicate where the mech was manufactured, after the fall of the Star League, mechs alphanumerics began to be used to indicate the house, or successor state which it was manufactured in.
Ed, your stuff I usually find realiable but this one I am struggling with.
AFAIK, Mechs are listed in an appreciating production number which is not always sequential due to variants not put into production.
Then there is a letter affixation that can have various meanings depending on the mech but by convention, the House letters are associated with their House specific refit.
So for example the 3025 Spider is a 5V (production model) with noted variants in the TRO as Davion and Kuritan (the 5D & 5K respectivily while not identified as such in the TRO, can be cross referenced to the record sheets to confirm).
In 3050 TRO, the production model of the Spider is now the 7M, being both the updated (new tech) production and the "Marik" version similtaneously.
We can assume the '6' model was a prototype which for some reason, did not get approval to go into production (failed, cost, not FOTM?)
The Warhammer is another example which has the 6R in production at a couple of locations (TC, LC & FWL in 3025) but has a 6D (Davion), 6K (Kuritan) and 6L (Liao) variants. In 3050, the 6R is still in production in TC, but the FWL are now producing a 7M and the LC a 7S both of which incorporate different new tech production.
So in summary, number = tech (the higher the number the more new tech it has) and the Letter = House specific fitout (for most mechs this is a field refit as not many mechs if any are produced in all Successor states)