The full page things-you-print-and-hand-out such as the equipment sheets or space craft maps are not things you would ever want in a book. It's a pain in the backside to photocopy them from a book with a spine. Much better to have a PDF where you can print just what you need for your game.
The Description bits and those equipment pictures that are on a contact sheet (such as Loki expeditionary technology) are not things you print out. They're things you write down in the traditional way. Therefore, moving them into the main rules would be fine.
However, the core book would then still be missing the weapons. So, I could include a table but I've always hated those. Instead, I am tempted to put together 'contact sheet' pages of common weapons and vehicles with just enough of the stats you need to use them. Imagine the current front page of the Equipment Index (see below) but with stats along with the images.
All the complex/rare weapons would not go in as you would have to be quite advanced (advanced is the wrong word - I mean competant or confident) to use them and the equipment index is likely to have been downloaded by 'advanced' people anyway. The equipment included would be enough to play but not the full load - space craft will remain only in the equipment index because if you're a player group looking to shop around for a space craft, you've probably been playing a while as they are expensive. Furthermore, there is just too much information to include about space craft to boil them down to a few simple numbers.
New technology will be added into the Equipment Index (which will only ever be a PDF) and when there is enough 'contact sheet' types then I'll make a printable book. The contents of version 4 won't change regularly - it'll wait for a big revision. My aim is to keep version 4 rock solid and add more settings and tech.
Do you think the changes I've outlined are a good idea or dreadful? I've not done it yet (will be one of the last things I do) so there is time to change!
