Bishop Steiner, on 15 September 2013 - 03:17 PM, said:
Experimental and Prototypes seldom actually conformed to "Legal" rules. And I would point out the MUL date, is from CGL, the "official" source of the Battletech IP (though obviously not at the time Maximum Tech was produced) so it is the "Correct" date, even if some of the Saran info is indeed headache inducing.
If you think this is bad, go look at Tales of the BWC sourebook from first Edition and the original game stats for the Super Griffin and Super Wasp, mechs with both SHS and DHS in the same chassis, among other things.
For that matter, the MAD-4X has both (twelve) SHS and (six) DHS on the same 'Mech (which, IIRC, is still currently illegal under both BT's unit construction rules and the unit customization rules), as well as a "prototype Endo Steel" structure (also used (along with prototype LB 10-X ACs) on Daniel Sorenson's custom Hatamoto-Chi - PES either (or both?) consumed more criticals or weighed more than standard IS Endo Steel (but still less than Standard Internal Structure), IIRC), and was built in 3039 and is featured on the cover of Experimental Technical Readout: Succession Wars I...
Perhaps CGL might be gearing up to introduce more "prototype" Tech 2 equipment as time goes on, and/or turning the construction and/or customization rules on their ears?
As for the Lyrans getting their hands on pre-production Draconian tech... it was Lyran agents who "acquired" the production data for the Mackie from the Terran Hegemony, as well as trained/inserted Snow Fire.
The LIC is certainly quite capable, yes?