I missed the stack of 5th reprint of TRO3050u when last I was in my FLGS if you saw it in yours.
How many grognards did not buy TO b/c it had 'equipment I will never use, I do not want to support any of that *insert adjective of choice*" when it came out? Its a well proven theory, complete with graphs and other fun facts, that the buying decision is a curve- you can get X buyers at this price point, and if you raise it another $5 you will get X-Y buyers. Splitting the book, even if the price is not completely split- say instead of the $40 for old TO we get $25 or $30, you are going to get more buyers for the rules or equipment than you would have people buying original TO with both. Which will include the grogs who refused to buy advanced rules that they might have used b/c they were compatible with their ideal 3025 game they would not have bought with equipment.
I didn't see it either. In fact I saw very little for Battletech. I think that's in part because things don't stay in print.
How many grognards did buy TO because it contained new equipment? How many grognards were irritated though having to buy TW because TM didn't contain game rules for the new equipment? That really irked me. Having to wait for months for TechManual to come out only to find that I had to go but Total Warfare to use new equipment. I also wonder how many stores will stock both TO books when every time I'd go into the one store that carries Battletech there's less and less. I also wonder if the books will be released together or one after another. If its the latter I really worry the construction/equipment section won't get printed. After all books have been canceled before.
Trouble is the writing has been on the wall I'd say for at least a decade that the way Battletech was being marketed was broken but it just hasn't been noticed by as many people as it is now because of some rather herculean efforts on the part of CGL and admitadly the grognards.
For the kickstarter it seems very clear that CGL went into this being reasonably sure they would be able to deliver the base product.
The truth is it is a pretty safe bet that most games involve nothing but mechs and that most people who play Battletech will never actually use anything but mechs.
With what I know from various marketing research most players are not going to care about the fluff or try to dig deeper no matter how easy we make it for them and let's be honest it isn't easy in the current state of Battletech. At least not in a commercially sustainable fashion to support.
Ultimately it is becoming harder to deny that the old ways are no longer sustainable and that the evidence is mounting that things do need to change or we may not have Battletech at all.
It didn't help that needed books weren't in print.
I hope that they will be able to deliver.
A lot of players do use the other units. I've even hear of some only playing the other units. Abandoning those units abandons players. The players I've known enjoyed Battletech because it wasn't just robots. They all loved the robots but they enjoyed using other forces too.
Will Battletech still be Battletech without all the other units or will Battletech become just another anime robot game? How many of them have there been? How many lasted 35+ years? Battletech has survived because it isn't just a robot game. It's a huge gaming universe where one can play anything.
Look at TRO: Clan Invasion. There's no Battle Armor yet it Elementals were one of the key units in the Clan Invasion. They were a terror to mechs. They made the IS wonder if aliens were invading. Can you picture the Clan Invasion with Battle Armor retconned out of existence? Now the Invasion is obviously the SLDF. No one else had the tech. Battles also change because mechs aren't being lost to Battle Armor. Other mechs are also going to disappear or be retconned because they were created to deal with Battle Armor. Things like Turtle Bay never happen as there's no Warships. Of course there's no Dropships or Jumpships either so Transportation will just be hand waved. How troops travel between planets isn't important.
Honestly, I really don't see how diminishing a universe improves it.