MercTech: Armors

General Overview
While you can change armor values in the base game to increase your durability or free up equipment tonnage, armor, like engines and structure, remained inaccessible as an actual item, preventing you from changing its type to another that exists in Battletech canon. Merctech now allows you to change armor types, which opens up new tactical possibilities that weren't possible before.

Standard Armor:
The ubiquitous armor type that has been available for most of the battlemech's history, Standard Armor is compact and durable, offering good resistance to all types of damage. While there was an advanced armor variant developed during the Star League-era, Standard Armor would remain the sole battlemech armor in use during the Succession Wars. Following the Clan Invasion, a large number of new armor types would enter production, relegating Standard Armor for use on cheaper units.

Mechlab rules: Standard Armor requires no space for armor slots and provides 32 points of armor per ton.

Ferro-Fibrous Armor:
An advanced armor produced by the Terran Hegemony during the Star League-era, Ferro-Fibrous incorporates a blend of metal composites along with a special diamond weave to form a plate comparable to Standard Armor in durability, but is 12% lighter. The primary drawback to this armor is the bulky mountings needed, which limits the available space inside a mech or vehicle for equipment. The technology behind Ferro-Fibrous plate would be lost during the Succession Wars, and wouldn't be rediscovered until the early 31st Century by the Gray Death Legion. Variations of this armor would also be developed after the Clan Invasion.

The Clans would greatly improve their Ferro-Fibrous armor, halving the bulk of the mountings and further decreasing its weight.

Mechlab rules: Ferro-Fibrous Armor requires space for 14 armor slots and provides 12% more armor per ton than Standard Armor.

Light Ferro-Fibrous Armor:
With the advent of lightweight, but bulky technologies like Endo-Steel structure and Extra-Light fusion engines, Marik scientists took to developing a heavier, but more compact version of Ferro-Fibrous Armor. Although it provides only 6% more armor per ton than Standard Armor, it takes only half the bulk of normal Ferro-Fibrous weave, much like Clan-grade Ferro-Fibrous.

Mechlab rules: Light Ferro-Fibrous requires space for 7 armor slots and provides 6% more armor per ton than Standard Armor.

Heavy Ferro-Fibrous Armor:
Going the opposite direction of the Free Worlds League's Light Ferro-Fibrous armor, Lyran Alliance scientists developed a modified Ferro-Fibrous weave that is even lighter and bulkier. Given the sheer bulk of Heavy Ferro-Fibrous Armor, it can only be mounted on units with plentiful internal space to spare, a rarity on the modern battlefield.

Mechlab rules: Heavy Ferro-Fibrous requires space for 21 armor slots and provides 24% more armor per ton than Standard Armor.

Hardened Armor:
Originally conceptualized just prior to the Clan Invasion and entering the experimental phase shortly after, Hardened Armor is a penetration-resistant armor composed of multiple layered plates. While this configuration is resistant to penetrative hits and allows twice the usual protection than Standard Armor, its bulk and lack of flexibility reduces the mech's agility.

Game rules: Hardened Armor requires space for 10 armor slots. It only provides 16 armor points per ton, but incoming damage is reduced by half, which essentially means you can mount twice as much armor as normally allowed. So long as armor is present in a location you cannot receive Through-Armor Criticals. Reduces your mech's top speed by 20%.

Laser-Reflective Armor:
Originally created by accident from a defective batch of Ferro-Fibrous Armor, it was discovered that this armor can deflect a large amount of energy coming from lasers, PPCs and other thermal-based weapons, greatly reducing the damage it receives from these sources. Given that energy weapons are extremely prevalent on the modern battlefield, the ability to reduce their effectiveness is significant, although Laser-Reflective Armor has a number of drawbacks to offset this. Due to the more brittle nature of the composite, it is more susceptible to impacts and penetrative hits, making armor-piercing weapons particularly effective against this type of armor.

Game rules: Laser-Reflective Armor requires space for 10 armor slots. It provides 32 points of armor per ton like Standard Armor. All damage from energy weapons is reduced by 50%. Damage from environmental sources is increased by 50%. The chance of receiving Through-Armor Criticals is increased by 50%.

Reactive Armor:
Developed by Combine scientists in the early 3060s, Reactive Armor is able to reduce the effectiveness of explosive weapons when used against it. While reactive armors have existed since the 20th century, those versions used explosive packs mounted on the unit's armor, and would be used up once hit. This new reactive armor is composed of microscopic explosives that detonate in response to explosive force, meaning that this armor can weather multiple hits, unlike its progenitor, and is as effective against non-explosive weapons as most other armor types.

Game rule: Reactive Armor requires space for 14 armor slots. It provides 32 points of armor per ton like Standard Armor. All damage from explosive weapons is reduced by half.

Additional notes:
Early battlemechs used armor much like what was used on 20th century armored vehicles. This primitive armor was less effective than the now universally-available Standard Armor.

3063 entry: Capellan mechs invisible to standard battlemech sensors have been encountered by FedCom forces. Insiders in the Confederation report that this might be related to some new kind of armor being developed, although security around these experiments has so far proven impenetrable.

3070 entry: Reports of a new armor type developed by Clan Snow Raven have surfaced. This armor appears to be resistant to multiple forms of damage as well as penetrative munitions.

3103 entry: A new armor type has started to appear in the Solaris arenas that can resist physical blows. Considering melee weapons are mostly used in the arenas, it remains to be seen whether this armor will appear on combat forces, particularly against nations known for employing these kind of weapons.

3114 entry: Federated Suns forces have recovered fragments of a new kind of armor employed by Combine mechs. An added layer composed of ribbed steel allows this armor to resist penetration, and is likely a response to the prevalence of armor-piercing munitions used by Davion mechs.

3123 entry: Davion infantry have reported Capellan mechs largely unaffected by Inferno SRM fire. Sources imply that this might be due to a new armor that was recently developed.

3131 entry: Combine mechs resistance to autocannon and gauss fire have been encountered.