Not sure I'd use those exact words, but yes, a lot of constraints were placed at day 0. Some made sense, some were unhelpful. Probably one of the very worst decisions, wasn't a decision at all:
To keep the MW3 weapon data because it was reprinted in Tech Manual, and we weren't about to contradict another core book. Basically a problem that was unfixable by the time we started to work on ATOW, since the only feasible solution was if TM was printed with all-new-ATOW stats, which'd require simultaneous development. Didn't happen that way, so sometimes you're stuck with legacy.
Subsequent to that, some design decisions were made by the lead dev (and line dev at the time, Herb) about what the game ought to be, subsequent to him spending an ungodly amount of time reading through pretty much every RPG in the market at the time (and a few that weren't anymore).
The high lethality was one such decision. I've grown to like it, and we added the reduced lethality rules in to cover the concern.
Then, a few actual mistakes were made during development. It's gonna happen. IE, we should've made point based the default chargen, and made Modules optional. We probably also could've made BAR easier. I honestly think that's about it, when it comes to major failures.
After that, we got a decent chunk of playtest data. Some things were incorporated, others were not.
What does that leave? Tweaks, in my view. Something not stated as clearly as it should? OK, sorry. Maybe next time.
Consciousness TW vs ATOW: yep, noted prior to playtest, after the mechanism was finalized for ATOW. The decision was to not change it. Something to keep in mind:
The Standard TW MechWarrior would have BOD 6 and WIL 6. And no Edge.
(The archetypes are for PCs, not TW NPCs; yes I wanted that stated clearly, no we didn't do that.)
Subduing attacks: p. 175: needs a 'D' in the damage code. Only applies to ammo explosions and heat. Not normal head hits or falling.
I can't quite recall the convo I had with Herb about setting the damage values on p.217; they were specifically set with the standard cooling vest and neuro helmet in mind, but that should create different outcomes than what we're seeing. It's been 8 years, I don't recall.
Also, I was there for the start of ATOW, and Herb was there till the finish.
Paul