and some people will pick up a mini/Record sheets XXX and be pissed they don't have the rules for them.
Until all the rules and equipment are in one book that is always going to be a possibility. One that can be mitigated by the buyer doing a little due diligence*. I know that won't always happen and it is clearly impossible to have everything in one book at a reasonable price for Battletech and have sufficient return on investment.
*All of the products where this is an issue do pretty clearly say you do need TacOps in them too.
Yeah, and? Their opponents might. You can't dictate what your table plays all the time, and it's nice to be able to have a change of pace occasionally.
This is still a setting specific issue. Something that ideally should be decided before minis hit map sheets and thus can just as easily be handled in a supplemental book.
Plus there are players who were using that equipment just fine before the products changed availibility ratings by trying to change rules levels.
Don't kid yourself, they'll pick up the clan box too. Half will skip the beginner box if they realize it's the cut-down kiddie version.
Fair enough that'd probably be another fairly introductory purchase.
But that's kind of the thing, most customers will never be impacted by not having availability changes of equipment information in the core rule books.
It's basic economics, no matter how good the product is the percentage of the consumer base that will make purchases beyond introductory products gets smaller at each step. Often very steeply.
Ultimately all I'm saying is in the grand scheme of things with how thin we've seen the margin for error is when it comes to Battletech there are hard choices to be made about what is in a core rule book and honestly I've heard nothing so far that makes even the slightest case that this issue cannot be resolved by a supplemental product instead. Fat needs trimmed from the core books where possible. Like the BMM. Just have what is absolutely neccessary to play the game in the rule books.
Which is quite fitting as it is only created by and effects people who bought certain supplemental products.
Funnily enough that's pretty much the current state of affairs we have now too.
But to be absolutely crystal clear I'm not saying there shouldn't be rules for the equipment as available as economically possible, I'm just saying any information about how common these weapons are in certain eras isn't strictly needed in the core books and thus can be relegated to supplemental books.