Hiya Primus,
 PLEASE don't give a copy of this to anyone else. I don't mind if you tell anyone you have it or not,
 or who you discuss it's merits/deficiencies with, I'm happy to leave that entirely at your discretion,
 but please don't spread it, it was never meant for anyone other than League Administrators, and
 members of the MeX team, which I for one consider you to be a vital part of. Without you chassis builders
 there would have be less need, less interest, and much less point in writing MeX.

Corrections to the Manual (specific to this distribution):
  I know it says MeX uses ".gif" logos in the manual, but this version doesn't. You have to use windows bitmaps
  (".bmp") 'cos this mex.dll is older than the manual (even Fozz doesn't have a manual this up to date),  and I
  don't wanna give anyone my current mex.dll 'cos I haven't made very many noticable changes, only a few
  that should be unnoticeable to the user but not all of the new code has been fully tested.
  
Custom Insignia File Format Requirements:
 File Type: Windows Bitmap (.BMP). Uncompressed, 256 colour palettized, 64 x 64 pixels.
 Of those 256 colours, only the first 63 colours in the palette can be used, the first palette entry (entry zero)
 will be made totally transparent by MeX when it converts it to the format required by Mercenaries 1.1.
 You can use any colours you like, there are no palette restrictions other than the ones I have already specified.

Installation instructions:

1:
 Back up (optional) then remove any previous copy of MeX from your Mercenaries folder,
  if you have it currently installed. You don't need to backup/delete everything, just delete
   the files "mercsw.dll" and "mex.ini", and rename "mexmercs.dll"  back to "mercsw.dll"
   (as it was before MeX was installed).

2:
 Unzip "MeX Admin Preview 1L.zip" to your Mercenaries folder.

3:
 You may wish to back up the two files mentioned in part a before proceeding with this step
  (it's easier to unzip them rather than editing them again, if you need / want to remove this version of MeX later).
 a:
  Load MercNet.exe and/or MercsWin.exe into a binary editor

 b:
  Search for the string "mercsw.dll" within the executable, when you find it type "mex.dll" over it,
  and replace any trailing characters (the "dll" from the end of "mercsw.dll") after that with zeros.

********NOTE********
Step 3: is redundant if this zip file includes the already patched MercNet.zip !
   
4:
 Have a quick look at the manual (<Your Mercs Folder>\MeXManual.html) using your favourite browser,
 and then have a peek at the mex.ini file.
  While you've got the Mercs folder open, you might want to make a shortcut to the drop log
 (<Your Mercs Folder>\MeXDropLog.html) on your desktop, or somewhere else  convenient.
 But don't bother opening it until after you've dropped with with this version of MeX installed.

Before I get to step 5, I'd better say this, "Yes I know there's no user interface when you drop.
That's because I've compiled it out for now, the new U.I. code is more complex than the last beta's was so it's
more likely to have a bug in it somewhere. So doing things this way means that when I finally remove the
'IFDEF GUI ... etc.' statements from the source code, I'll know that if mex starts to behave strangely it's caused
by screwed up U.I. code, and I won't have to worry about the MeX 'engine' code being buggy because it will
already be fully tested, or at least as fully tested as software can get >;O). In the event that the new U.I. looks like
it will take a while to debug, I can always write a relatively plain simple and plain U.I. like the Beta 3 U.I.
(which didn't take very long to code, less than a whole evening including testing, debugging and minor tweeks)
and just release that rather than keep everyone waiting any longer."
 The unfortunate side effect of the U.I. being missing is that you can't see for yourself whether or not the
 "ItemLimit" warning levels work, you'll just have to trust me on that one.

5:
 Try it and see what you think.

6:
 If you have any questions, comments, suggestions, etc., be they good, bad, or profane, get in touch with me,
 but it would be a good idea to read step 7 first.

 You can take your time over this next step, if you haven't done it by the time MeX Public Release 1  is ready
 I'll try and get in touch with you.
 
 7:
 Load the credits section of the manual (<Your Mercs Folder>\MeX\Manual\credits.html) into your favourite
 html editor and add your own credit/message. Mail the edited version back to me preferably c/o mjk@callnetuk.com,
 mex@callnetuk.com is o.k. too but I don't check that mailbox as often as the first one. If you like, you can just tell
 me what to write and I'll edit it myself, and add my own few words.
 
 Have Fun,
                    .MaJiK.
			>:O>
