The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1190

Ves settled on designing a high-impact mech without too many frills. Aside from its dual weapon systems, he didn’t think it was wise to overcomplicate his design any further.

"Hero mechs are already gimmicks by themselves." He snorted. "Adding a gimmick to a hero mech is like putting lipstick on a pig."

After determining the mech concept for his design, he moved on to fleshing out his vision for his mech.

A mech was more than just a collection of parts that fit with its mech concept. A good design attempted to tie them all together in a holistic manner. Synergy, fit, ease of use and more all depended on how a mech designer fashioned their designs.

When it came to his own design style, Ves exhibited a strong preference towards ease of use.

Influenced by his Mastery experiences, he designed his mechs around their pilots.

He developed a strong focus towards enabling the mech pilots of his products to showcase their maximum potential when paired together.

This inevitably meant that he sacrificed some optimization geared towards pulling more synergy and performance out of his mechs.

The question Ves faced right now was whether he should adopt the same approach to his current design project.

"Previously, I designed my mechs with moderately-skilled mech pilots in mind." He recalled.

The Blackbeak and Crystal Lord were both premium products, so Ves designed them with advanced pilots in mind.

However, the range of skill between an average advanced pilot and one who trained to the level of elites was quite substantial.

The latter displayed much greater skill and pulled out a lot more potential out of their mechs. This difference sometimes grew so large that their mechs couldn’t keep up with their skill level!

"I’m not designing a mass market product this time. The only mech pilots that I need to take into account are the six elites I met before!"

The six members of the Kronon Dynasty graduated from the best Ylvainan mech academies with honors. They possessed a strong mastery in both swordsmanship and marksmanship despite their young ages.

All in all, Ves could expect so much more from their performance. Due to the narrow scope of his commision, he didn’t need to take any other mech pilots into account.

If one of the six Kronons retired or transferred away for any reason, then Calabast could easily obtain another elite mech pilot from the Kronon Dynasty to occupy the freed-up machine.

"There’s really no chance that a lesser-skilled mech pilot will pilot my hero mech."

This was an important realization. It liberated him from the invisible shackles that long constrained his mech designs.

Another way to describe his situation was that he didn’t have to adhere to market demand. Unlike his commercial mech designs, this time he didn’t have to place too much emphasis on the competition.

"I don’t have to make design choices that increases the appeal of my mechs at the cost of practicality or performance."

That didn’t mean that Ves had a license to design an uncompetitive mech that performed awfully compared to similar mech models on the market. He would be tarnishing his reputation instead of redeeming it if he exploited the commission in this fashion.

What actually mattered was that Ves only needed to design a mech for a very miniscule target audience.

However, a big complication arose when Ves thought about the complexity of hero mechs. This mech type was already very difficult to pilot.

A Terran mech pilot like Axelar Streon didn’t exhibit much strain when piloting the Ouroboros. Ves could not expect a third-class mech pilot from the galactic rim to exhibit the same ease when piloting a ’simple’ hero mech.

"I need more data." He concluded.

To that end, he made a brief comm call to Calabast. He requested a copy of the telemetry and combat footage of the recent simulation battles.

"No problem, Ves. The data is too sensitive to be transmitted over the galactic net, so I’ll dispatch a courier. Be sure to treat the data carefully. You’ll only be able to read the secure data chip from a restricted terminal at the mech workshop I’ve set aside for you. Don’t lose it and don’t let anyone else take it away. Destroy it once you’re done."

Calabast treated the data very seriously because it could be disastrous for her if they fell in the wrong hands.

Ves hadn’t visited the mech workshop yet, but he looked forward to working there. From what he heard, the site used to belong to another mech company that became defunct. Calabast took it over and transferred it to their new joint venture.

The idea was that the local mech designer they partnered up with would reside in the mech workshop most of the time. Such a well-equipped workplace enabled them to adapt the LMC’s designs for the local market.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t proceed with this part of the plan. Even the mech technicians that Calabast inherited from the defunct mech company all resigned from their jobs once they heard they worked for Ves now!

"I don’t need them anyway." He sneered.

Ves accepted the fact that he was a pariah in Protectorate space. The only reason why he didn’t make a big deal out of it was because he possessed the confidence to redeem his reputation.

Everything hinged on his results! As long as he dazzled the Ylvainans with a fantastic mech design, he could make them forget about all the accusations that had been thrown in his way!

Afterwards, he expected no further trouble in recruiting local mech designers and mech technicians.

"They shouldn’t expect to receive generous conditions when that happens."

Ves prized loyalty. He hoped he could find someone motivated and dedicated enough to work with him to expand the LMC’s reach.

Sadly, no one wanted to take the risk. With so many mech designers reluctant to associate with him, he no longer placed high expectations on the local mech designers.