Well I've GMed on a number of systems. But this will be my first foray into a scifi setting. And I'm pretty comfortable with the Battletech setting as a whole and communicated to my players what kind of campaign we'll be going on and what kind of characters we'll need. So far, I've got someone who is dedicated to the tech position, another for a soldier/saboteur, and a third for a mechwarrior. I've got 4 more who are still deciding.
Very interesting. I´ve had a similiar char setup and ran into spotlight problems from the start.
The reason behind this was the time
and abstraction the specialities used up. Fact is, like with other systems, abstract thingies are reduced to a roll while concrete thingies are played out, meaning that all challenges a tech/scientist/medic face can be done quick, while the "physical" guys rely on combat action and rules, which takes [insert swear word of choice] time.
True, that´s a problem with more than one rpg system out there and resolving it takes time and work.
SciFi itself poses an additional problem. If you want to circumvent the spoligth issue, you need players who can make up pseudo technical details on the fly to keep a non-combat scene interesting.
I hope I´m not downplaying your previous experience as a GM, but in that case, I´d recommend telling your guys and gals to play mechwarriors first, secondary options second, to have one base to work from.
The armor situation in ATOW is interesting. There was a big discussion about it a while back, you might want to look (I believe its still on the first page).
Also, do realize that as written, the game can be very very very lethal.
Yes, there´s something to that. If you´re not in a Vee, or at least BA, you´re pretty much dead meat.