Images to go with this: https://imgur.com/a/q9oY9
==Mechlab==
Mechwarrior lets you customize the loadouts of your Mechs. This talks you through the Mechlab basics.
>1
First thing you are going to want to do when you find a Mech you like is either select “New” or “Save As” I recommend “Save As” since it will keep you on your currently selected Mech.
>2
These are components that you can install on a Mech. Components such as Jump Jets and Advanced Gyro weigh differently depending on the Mech. If you want to know what each component does see the components post or hover you mouse over them.
>3
You can adjust your speed here, making your Mech slower gives you more tons to play with and making it faster costs tonnage. Again depending on Mech the tonnage costs will vary. Second is Heat Sinks which you definitely want to be aware of. If you are new to the game make sure you have enough Heat Sinks that you are in the Green otherwise you may find yourself overheating your Mech.
>4
This is the weapons menu. You can select what category of weapons you want and drag them into an available slot.
>5
These are weapon Hardpoints. The colour of each Hardpoints determines what kind of weapons can be fitted to it.
Orange ones are Beam Hardpoints and can only accept Beam weapons
Blue are Direct Fire and can accept Beam and Ballistic weapons
Purple are Heat Generating and can accept Beam and Missile weapons
Yellow are Ballistic Hardpoints and can only accept Ballistic weapons
Cyan are Ammunition Hardpoints which accept Ballistic and Missile weapons
Green are Missile Hardpoints and only accept Missile weapons
Grey are Omni Hardpoints and can accept any type of weapon
It should also be noted that each Hardpoint have size limits so you can only fit weapons that fit in that slot.
>6
Once you've equipped weapons make sure you group them so you can fire them properly.
>7
It is recommended that if you are using different types of weapons you group them by Heat and/or Range. Remember to press “OK” when done.
>8
From here you can choose armour type. Details about each armour is in the components section. Needless to say it is recommended that Ferro Fibrous be your default armour and always set to as much as you can get away with.
>9
Where you can adjust armour levels. If you find yourself with 0.10 of a ton under you may want to trade some armour so you have an extra ton to play with in your loadout.
>10
Above all, remember to save.

MP3.1 also allows you play as Battlearmor and Infantry units. These units have some unique attributes to them. Firstly is that they have a unique set of weapons they can equip although they can equip some Mech sized weapons if they wish although this is not recommended
Secondly they are very hard to detect, especially if using ECM. Infantry with ECM are close to impossible for a Mech to detect unless it has BAP.
Lastly they are incredibly fragile and often short ranged. While you may get the drop on a Mech they will find it very easy to kill you if you are out in the open.
A side note about Infantry is that they require a Heat Sink in order to run for extended periods of time.
>Why ever play Battlearmor?
There are some maps they can actually make great advantage of the environment especially in Advanced Radar mode and there are dedicated Battlearmor maps.