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To clarify a few things:

As for items marked 'SW:something', you're correct in surmising that those are software.  First, be sure to notice in the description pane the 'SF:' number.  That tells you which system scale the software is for.  0 is for computers carried on your person.  2 is for mechs.  Assuming you play with standard content, no other numbers will be encountered.

Next, they must be installed.  In order to do that, they must be in the same inventory space as the computer you wish to install them into.  For personal scale SW, simply having the comp and 'ware in your character's inventory simultaneously is enough.  For mecha scale SW, move the 'ware from the Field HQ to the mech in which you wish to use it.  Now select the software, then select 'Install WhateverWare' (it'll be the first menu item), then select the computer you want it in.  Unfortunately, the computers will all be labeled 'Computer' in the selection pane.  In order to pick out one in particular, you'll have to pay close attention to the ZeG's (capacity) of the available systems before electing to install the 'ware.  WARNING:  Make sure to remove any software from a computer that is about to be installed or uninstalled, as software installed on a computer which is destroyed in an engineering attempt is destroyed along with the computer.

As for computers themselves, personal scale systems are available at electronics shops, usually as components of data visors and bracelets, media tablets, and so forth.  As for mecha scale, you'll find good ones installed in Ramuhs, Vadels, Savins, Rocs, Ovaknights, Chimenteros, and plenty of other mechs.  The ones available at retail are passable in a pinch, but are all default mass for their size classes, meaning that they're too heavy.

Next issue:  Storage modules.  To be fair, this isn't perfectly obvious (well, most things in GH aren't very obvious.)  While most modules have labels which include their type name, most storage modules are labeled as 'Pod' or 'Thruster' or something like that.  The Dora, Shard, Argos, Phoenix (which has a backpack!) - all are examples of mechs with storage modules.

Finally, a melee mech with four arms?  Not really all that silly, exactly, but still at a disadvantage in a battlefield full of ranged firepower.

Hope all that helped - good luck!

Hmm, adding it to a shop and then buying it - should've thought of that    So I can just waltz into the Design folder and take PC_equipment.txt apart, without needing to recompile the game or something? Awesome.

...but i'd better leave further testing to after I actually finish the game, or I'll ruin the fun of exploring things for the first time.

You're right, my early-game pilot had no skills to back up the high end parts stripped from mecha I bought from stores - at the time didn't really think about PV. I tacked on some class 10 arc thrusters, class 10 sensors, phase cannons (read about these in a guide somewhere on the wiki), class 7 ECM suite, etc... all this stuff on mecha you can buy from the shady mecha dealer guy in Snake Lake waterfront. I stuck them on my starter mecha, a Corsair, thinking "it's still a starter mecha, even if the difficulty scales I should be okay." I guess the 13mil+ PV escaped my attention for a while.

The next few random missions got ugly real fast. Heh.

Ach, bad me, overlooked this thread.

I'm male, asian, early thirties, chained to a desk, and a long-time gamer (wheee 1980s). At work I pretend to be a web dev/DB programmer, and at home I enjoy reading, strategy games, RPGs, and eroge. I love hanging out with other old fogeys who also complain that games nowadays are all flash and no substance. Back in our day we programmed in BASIC and regularly made machine code calls, we walked 2 miles through snow to get to school, get off our lawn, etc.

My pet genres are strategy games and eroge. The former because I like thinking, the latter because eroge is so much more advanced compared to western porn "games" (I mean, just look at what Illusion has published)    Space sims too, but the genre is sadly very sparse and most of the titles are only concerned with graphics, graphics, graphics. Jeez. Most of them - when you strip away the shiny - are merely all about combat, with some obligatory teensy-weensy customisation usually limited to weapons upgrading or maybe trading your ship for one with a larger e-peen. Nothing like Gear Head. Hell, Gear Head puts RPGs to shame in what the player can do.

In my spare time I climb rocks, break into buildings, and jam with my band. The second activity arose back in college when they'd close the computer faculties for the weekend, leaving us nerds angry and bored (this was back in the early 90s). So me and two best buddies figured out how to scale the lab building, shimmy into a classroom, and from there make our way through the ceiling and drop down into the pc lab. Friday night in, Sunday night out. 3 geeks, 20 computers, one high-speed 14.4k baud modem. Crazy times.

Nowadays I just sit around in forums and bitch about the sad state of gaming while waiting for the next batch of Touhou images to appear on pixiv. Ha.

I'm pretty much with trucidation on this as well, GH2 is a wonderful game, and I enjoyed the fact that they compressed some of the skills a bit, but starting it out is a bit daunting, and the wiki could use a lot of work. I should probably at least add redirects for all of the mecha pages so you don't have to add the "Mecha:" tag, actually.

They're good games, it just requires a lot of outside information to understand a lot of the stuff.

Ahh, well that answers why I uhhh, couldn't replace the gyroscope I suppose. :p

And okay, That explains why I wasn't finding anything worthwhile in shops directly.

And by computer software I assume those are the items tagged at the front with "SW: etcetc".

Do I install them directly in the mech, or what?

Use them?

I haven't messed with them in a while, and I recall not being able to figure out how they worked.

Also, what are storage modules? I feel like I should know, maybe I'm overlooking something obvious.

And finally, on the "completely silly stuff" note, I've toyed with the idea of an all melee mech with  four arms or something, but I'll (obviously) wait until after the combat rebalance to actually try that, as it sounds pretty unlikely to be workable for now. :p

Thanks for the help again.

A buncha' storage modules also helps get mecha off the ground if you're going for something legless. There's a limit to how many movement parts you can stick in a single limb/armor/mounting point (One of each if you're in GH1; still one of each in GH2, but you're going to need innovation and a ludicrously high knowledge/m.engineering score to pull that off), but storage modules make it a lot easier to stick more on a single machine. Their limited firing arc makes 'em better for movement/utility parts than weapons, though.

Re: Gyroscope question, yeah, in GH1 you're not getting the buggers out of the machine (GH2 replaces what gryos do with computer software, which is interchangable), but in regard to the second part of that question, it is indeed harder to install higher quality level parts into a machine, but, it's still not terribly difficult, especially in GH1. A decent knowledge/m.engie score'll let you do most things that aren't completely silly (AHAHAHA, EIGHT(Y) WINGSSSSsss! GUNS IN EVERYTHING! MOVESPEED OF ONE, BECAUSE OF THE AMMUNITION!! , etc.), and savescumming will let you do everything else .

For items, especially non-plot related ones like the laser drill, it's a lot easier to just add it into the design files instead of messing around with the save file. You've got to buy it from some shop or another afterwards, but it's a considerably simpler process. Design file editing's pretty straightforward, even moreso in GH1.

Sidepoints: SMOKE BLAST melee weapons are alright; pretty useful, actually. I like to make a blast 1 or 2 energy weapon for some stealth-themed mecha.

Also, yeah, adding types increases weapon cost and PV, usually by a certain amount, though I forget if it's percentage, multiple, or straight addition. Certain tags increases cost by more -- a HYPER weapon is going to cost more than a BRUTAL one, ferex. There's a number of guides, iirc, on how item design works, but it's pretty self-evident how most things work in GH1 if you don't want to bother hunting them down. GH2's a little more complicated, but not terribly so.

There's a 'soft' limit to how difficult the machines you encounter is, by th'by, depending on how high the machines in your design folder goes. Iirc, stuff like the Monstrous is about the highest PV thing you'll encounter in GH1 barring unique stuff. However, from what I vaguely (mis)remember, enemy pilots can keep scaling even if the machines stop, so you'll keep running into harder fights regardless, though I've no idea if the rewards from fighting such missions allow you to outpace their growth; I've never tried to do something like that. Still end-game fights can see you taking out dozens of high-end machines, so you'll probably be fine if your pilot has the stats to back up the machine's PV.

Yeah, GH2's already got item stacking of a sort; it'll put together identical items for you. T'was a blessing when it happened, but from what I understand a titch of a pain to code. There's some postage somewhere on the forum about it, a ways back (Here, actually.). Mind you, there's no 'move all item', nor 'stack splitting' or similar such things, but it does a massive amount to unclutter the inventory.

'Course, they're still separated out in parts view, but that's fairly minor. Can usually just hit the up button and work your way up instead of starting from the top.

I see. Oh well, gotta live with it then. It's not gonna stop someone determined to enjoy the game (I bought a usb keypad for my laptop for this    ), but it's quite a hassle. Isn't GH2 still being worked on, though? It'd be nice if this could be done.

1) MV is updated. Picking up stuff on the battlefield or getting your gyrsocope blown will show a decrease in MV.

2) I suppose you mean GH1. You can't change/add/remove the gyroscope of a mech.

3) For parts, capture enemy mechs, pickup weapons from destroyed mechs in the battlefield, or buy mechs and take the parts you like. Sometimes parts appear in stores, but they're usually just "generic" parts.

4) Yes.