The Mech Touch novel Chapter 1490

"All of this looks great, but I feel like you are missing something." Gavin commented after Ves explained his mech concept. "Compared to your previous mechs, the budget mech you want to design sounds.. generic. It lacks the distinctive flair that your products are known for. I know it’s hard to make your mech stand out in the budget mech category, but you should really find a way to make your product stand out from the crowd."

Ves rested his chin against his fist while he thought. "I know, Benny. I am aiming to design an affordable and simple mech. That doesn’t give me a lot of room for maneuver. I’ve been spending days on trying to figure out a way to make my rifleman mech unique in one of the most saturated product categories in the mech market. All I can count on for now is my specialty."

"About that.. do you remember the problem the LMC faces back home?"

"My mechs aren’t brainwashing my customers! They just like my mechs! That’s not a crime!"

"You sound just like the chief culprit of the Farund Affair. You’re repeating the exact same excuse!"

"That’s different! The Farund Affair literally involved rewiring the brains of mech pilots. My mechs do no such thing! The MTA can attest that the neural interfaces of my mechs are completely standard and unmodified!"

"That’s what the company has been telling the public over and over again, but you know how people are. Rumors and conspiracy theories have more sway than facts and expert opinion."

Both of them looked cross at this. No matter how they disliked this tendency, this was the nature of human behavior.

Companies exploited the emotions and biases of their customers all the time in order to milk as much money from them as possible.

The LMC could hardly complain when they were on the receiving end of irrational human behavior!

"I think the proof is in the pudding." Ves eventually spoke. "As long as my mechs continue to perform well in battle, I think much of the market will eventually lose their apprehension towards my products. A portion of the market will always be opposed to the LMC. That’s fine. As long as there are enough customers left who are receptive to our brand, we’ll sell plenty of more mechs."

"You have to make sure your mech finds a receptive audience in other markets as well."

Ves smirked. "I think we can at least count on the Ylvaine Protectorate to buy my new mech in droves."

Though he hadn’t engaged with the religious state since the three leading dynasties kicked him out, that didn’t mean his influence had subsided. The reforms he instigated were still going strong. No one forgot about the Bright Martyr, especially when the six Transcendent Messengers resonated so effectively with their faith.

"Bright Martyr or not, the Ylvaine Protectorate will only really adopt your mech if you adapt it to their tastes."

"Don’t worry. After I complete the base model, it won’t take much effort for me to develop a variant that we can exclusively market towards the Ylvainans."

Ves preferred to outsource this chore to others, but he didn’t have any subordinates he could trust to do a good job. His previous plan to recruit a local Ylvainan mech designer to develop variants of his base model had stalled.

Hiring skilled, competent and obedient mech designers was a lot harder than it sounded!

"If you adhere to your current design style, then I think your work will do just as well as your previous mech designs in most foreign markets." Gavin predicted. "We don’t have a major presence there anyway, so it doesn’t take much effort to surpass our current sales figures."

"Selling my new mechs in foreign markets is nice, but I won’t shed any tears if that isn’t possible. My biggest priority is servicing the Bright Republic’s mech market. Every other market comes second."

Ves knew that most of his mech designs possessed wide appeal. It was a trait he had been developing from the start.

Even so, he did not wish to stray from Brighter design principles in a misguided attempt to make his rifleman mech more universal.

After an extensive discussion, Ves collected a lot of feedback as well as a few tips and suggestions. Talking with Gavin always helped him gain a better perspective on how his mechs might fare on the market.

However, his assistant couldn’t help with every problem. Ves had to handle some of them on his own or with his fellow mech designers.

The initial criticism that Gavin brought up continued to linger after the assistant left the stateroom. Ves leaned back on his chair and tried to figure out how he could turn a generic mech concept into a compelling vision.

"Each of my mech designs is driven by a theme that gives them a unique personality."

The Blackbeak personified aggression and rebirth. The Crystal Lord yearned for power and dominance. The Aurora Titan exemplified defense and protection.

Even without the X-Factor, the overall design aspects of his prior works already reflected their strengths.

"The heart of a mech conforms to the strengths of a mech."

Since Ves hadn’t figured out the heart of his upcoming mech design, he should first look at its strengths to figure out his premise.

So what were the strengths of his upcoming mech?

"Cheap. Easy to pilot. Easy to produce. Easy to maintain. Specialized against fighting sandmen. And uhhh... what else?"

That didn’t really sound like much, but Ves had worked with worse. The Enduring Protector came to mind.

The issue that Ves had with this list of traits was that it all sounded rather weak. It was very difficult to boast about designing a cheap and easy mech that offered an attractive price-to-performance ratio against sandman fleets!

"At least with the Blackbeak I can point out how suited it is for long engagements." He muttered. "As for my upcoming rifleman mech, what am I supposed to say? My mech is the best cannon fodder in the market? That won’t go over well."

Ves had to paint his new mech design in a good light without detracting from its basic qualities. The strengths he listed out were always going to be the fundamental selling points of his upcoming product.