The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1332

The advantage of resorting to nanomachines rather than uncontrollable atoms and molecules was that they could be ordered around to change shapes. This was the principal advantage of smart metal.

Yet for this single property, smart metal gave up a lot.

"The limitations of smart metal tech are many." He reminded himself.

Instead of consisting of solid slabs of metal, they could better be described as a collection of tiny little machines that hold themselves together on the microscopic level.

As Ves had already witnessed beforehand, applying brute force could easily overwhelm those ’active’ defenses.

In addition, the forces the nanomachines exert on each other in order to hold themselves together needed to be powered. Once they ran out of juice, they were held together by very weak physical bonds which could easily be snapped after suffering some light hits.

The third limitation of smart metal was that they were more expensive and provided less significantly less performance than an equivalent solid material. The effective strength of smart metal vastly improved when they incorporated exotics, but this rapidly increased the cost.

"A smart metal mech can easily cost twice or thrice as much as a regular alloy mech despite sharing comparable specs!"

In essence, a smart metal mech at least doubled the price in exchange for gaining the option to transform!

Whether this function was worth the cost or not depended on the needs of the customer.

However, the general consensus in much of the Komodo Star Sector was that smart metal mechs were gimmicks at best and a trap at worst.

"It’s easy to see why everyone considers them to be traps with the amount of money they consume."

A state that converted its mech military entirely to smart metal mechs would basically be committing suicide. They were only able to field half as many mechs as before, but those machines weren’t necessarily twice as good to compensate for their reduced numbers.

For this reason, fielding smart metal mechs simply didn’t make any sense from a macro perspective. They only truly showcased their value during exceptional circumstances where a flexible mech might survive where a rigid mech may not. They also might be able to achieve surprising results in the mech games.

Yet for most parts of human space, smart metal mechs firmly acquired an awful reputation in the mech community.

"It’s going to be a real challenge trying to design a smart metal tiger mech. While I’m known to design some whacky mechs, this will be pushing it too far."

Unless he designed a compelling mech design that achieved a level of performance far above the industry standard, he might as well forget about aiming to bring his work to the market.

The market simply expressed no demand for mechs that were twice as expensive, required constant power to maintain integrity and would falter easily against heavy impacts.

His solution? Aim to minimize the inclusion of smart metal. By applying it only to the parts which benefited from the additional flexibility, Ves could avoid weakening its essential structural support.

Yet as much as he wanted to, the System limited how far he could go. He recalled the wording of the upgrade mission and it stated that he had to design a ’smart metal mech’.

While the definition of a smart metal mech was not entirely precise, the nerds over at the MTA literally debated for decades on this very topic.

No smart metal mech completely consisted of smart metal. It required at least some solid components to perform essential functions. For example, the power reactor and the cockpit really did not fare very well when they were made out of smart metal.

It didn’t help that the average proportion of smart metal in this mech classification varied greatly. Some only possessed as low as fifteen percent while others incorporated eighty percent.

Eventually, the MTA set down its foot and came to the consensus. A proper smart metal mech incorporated at least twenty-five percent of this remarkable material.

"Twenty-five percent is a good threshold." Ves noted. "That’s the point where smart metal significantly shifts the mech concept of the design in question."

A floor of twenty-five percent was a lot more than Ves was comfortable with. If he had to replace twenty-five percent of a conventional tiger mech frame with smart metal, it would definitely perform like a cripple on the battlefield!

For this reason, Ves saw the need to abandon the standard convention of tiger mechs. Instead of blindly adopting this bestial mech type, he instead went back to the drawing board.

"It feels as if I’m reinventing the wheel again. In an age where solid wooden or metal wheels are common, can I invent an inflatable tire?"

Many mech designers tried and failed to develop a mech type that did justice to smart metal tech. Even Masters ran aground when they tried to square the circle.

"The most successful attempts are actually partial failures." He muttered.

"Meow."

Lucky floated down on his desk and curiously poked the projection of various smart metal mechs in action.

Ves chuckled. "No, Lucky. Eating smart metal is a bad idea. You’ll just grow weaker in exchange for some mild transformation abilities. Do you really want to become more vulnerable?"

"Meow."

"Even if you have all of your stealth tricks at your disposal, you’re too precious to risk it. Be content with what you have!"

"Meow!"

As Lucky grumpily jumped away, Ves gloomingly crossed his arms. His reluctance to see Lucky turn into a smart metal cat exemplified his own misgivings on this matter.

"If I don’t want Lucky to incorporate smart metal, then how can I ever impose this indignity on a mech pilot?"

As Ves puzzled over this issue, he simply found it too difficult to come up with an altered mech concept that added real value.

"Perhaps it can’t be done."

Ves possessed a lot of confidence in his abilities, but that didn’t necessarily mean he disrespected every rule in the book. When he initially came up with a vision for his Aurora Titan design, he spotted a flaw in common convention.

This time, he lacked an obvious direction he could pursue to design a smart metal mech that at least maintained parity with regular mechs.