I had actually planned this for some time but it was late getting out the door: Training costs for most Secondary Skills and most conventional unit primary skills have been significantly reduced (roughly 9-15 XP depending on the skill). The purpose of this is to allow players a little more flexibility in cross-training. In particular, this should greatly help in situations where the player is without a mech to pilot (by having vehicle or infantry skills to fall back on). Because it only changes training costs it will not be affecting any of the work we've done on our character conversions. An example of how this has changed: For character conversion, Levels 1-3 were converted on a 1:1 basis: "Old Version" Level 3 = "Previous New Version (3.2)" Level 3 Old Version Costs (Training + Level 4 of 8) = 14 + 4 + 5 + 7 + 10 = 40 XP Previous New Version Costs (ver 3.2) (Training + Level 3 of 6) = 20 + 10 + 11 + 13 = 54 XP New Reduced Training Version Costs (ver 3.5) (Training + Level 3 of 6) = 5 + 10 + 11 + 13 = 39 XP As you can see, since version 3.2 was significantly more expensive per level than the old version (remember there are now only 6 levels instead of 8), this 1:1 conversion nets old characters overall higher skill levels than if they had done a full XP reimbursement for the old costs. Since the cost of training was ignored for character conversion, this recent change will only affect people who purchased skills after conversions with the new costs. As far as I can tell, this only applies to Orc (who recently got Small Arms). Post here if you suspect this applies to you.
Val (in her endless pursuit to exploit any opportunity for more XP) has pointed out there is one apparent flaw in this system: Characters from the original version 2.8 skillsheet paid +9 more XP for Small Arms that has essentially been "lost" with this new update. In my luminous wisdom I have devised a solution to this problem that I think is fair to old players without giving them too much preference over the new players: All old characters that had Small Arms gain an additional 10 XP, BUT... the XP may ONLY be spent on Pilot/Ground Vehicle or Anti-Mech skills. To which you may ask, "but Magnus... although I have little doubt your mysterious plans are as brilliant as you are virile, why would a Mechwarrior need either of these skills?" To which I will respond... "Hmmm... why indeed?"
