The Mech Touch novel Chapter 202

Chapter 202: Vision

Ves had seen a lot of knight designs in his mech career. Besides studying the classics, he also had hands-on experience with a couple of different models.

The Caesar Augustus bore no introduction. The overstuffed hybrid knight tried to to everything at once and made a decent attempt at it by virtue of its excellent armor system. Ves captured some of the majesty of this ambitious design with the Marc Antony, but the cheap HRF armor plating hobbled the core purpose of a knight, which was to be a defensive bulwark. _{ƒгeewebnovёl.com}

"It's rather decent design for its price range."

For a design that utilized uncompressed armor, the Marc Antony Mark II functioned well enough to those who couldn't afford anything better. Its cheap composition meant that replacing broken armor plating should be cheap and easy.

"The greatest strength of the Mark II is its cost-effectiveness."

That wasn't always a good thing. It basically meant that the Mark II had no other distinguishing features that allowed Ves to set a premium on his product. He had keep his prices low in order to sustain the handful of sales he made each month.

Competing on price always ended up as a race to the bottom.

The current circumstances in which he had to gradually decrease the price on his mech reflected this reality. Though some of the blame also lay on the generational gap, it couldn't be concealed that the Marc Antony series lacked a distinguishing feature that it excelled at. A jack of all trades was a master of none.

The second knight he had an intimate relationship with was the Hoplite and the Young Blood he derived from the classic model. The spear-wielding knight possessed a number of interesting innovations that he partially incorporated in his sword-wielding variant.

Both models emphasized the offensive nature of a knight. While they fulfilled the defensive role well, they excelled at keeping up with an offensive push as they possessed a bit more mobility than usual.

"An offensive knight is harder to design than a defensive knight."

Both had their own strengths, but an offensive knight had to fulfill multiple criteria. It had to maintain a high level of defense while simultaneously possess a higher level of mobility. Since mech designers usually had to decide between speed and armor, striking the right balance could be challenging.

"It's an interesting one, and one that fits my interests."

Ves had never aimed to design the fastest mech, nor the sturdiest one. He knew of mech designers who dedicated their entire lives to pursuing one extreme.

Raul Mendoza, known as 'The Armorer', had become an inspiration to every mech designer for relentlessly developing the best-protected mechs in the galaxy. Ves read his biography when he studied at Rittersberg and knew that while he faced many temptations to branch out in other paths, he stuck to his creed and continued to focus on armor and armor alone.

Another model that struck him deeply was the Ajax Olympian. The massive heavy knights possessed a boundless amount of strength and sturdiness that allowed them to resist the monstrous Kaius.

His intimate work on studying its design and tweaking it for greater performance gave him an inside look in the mind of a knight designer. Though he couldn't apply all the lessons he learned from a heavy knight to a medium knight design, some aspects remained common to every weight class.

However, there was one more knight that struck a very profound image to Ves. His ancestor's customized mech the Valiant had been through a lot and outlived the death of its pilot. Whenever Ves thought back on the ancient knight, he could practically taste the history radiating off its frame.

Of all the mechs he had seen in his life, only the Valiant showed him a possible way forward. Beyond its exquisite design and rugged durability, the knight developed an extremely potent X-Factor by virtue of its hallowed history.

"I want to design a mech like that."

He wanted to design a mech that became increasingly more compatible with its pilot. Those who bonded with such machines gained increasingly more substantial benefits the longer they used it. Ves hoped to embody the ideals of the Living Mech Corporation with such products.

"It's not going to be easy bringing this dream to life."

Ves activated his terminal and wrote a quick list of demands.

First, it had to be durable. Its internal architecture should be robust enough to keep going even under the most hellish circumstances.

More importantly, Ves had to invest in a good quality armor system composed of compressed alloys. A lot of different formulas and armor systems existed on the market, but only a few would be appropriate for his purposes. The resources required to form the armor plating should be abundantly available in the Bright Republic.

Secondly, his mech had to possess a decent amount of mobility. Ves did not plan to experiment with gimmicks this time. Overcomplicated gadgets often introduced vulnerabilities in the core design, and with his skills he couldn't guarantee he'd catch them all.

No, Ves simply planned to balance the weight of the frame with a strong engine and efficient artificial musculature. Master Olson happened to be an expert in this field, so he hoped to pick up something good in Leemar.

"Offensive knights are characterized by their ability to leverage their aggression into shock attacks."

In that regard, his intended design should barely be able to meet that standard if Ves managed to get his hands on the right components. Besides getting his hands on a powerful engine model, he also had to trim the armor scheme to keep down its bulk.

"It's going to be hard to accomplish all of these wishes without breaking the bank."

Cheaper components generally performed worse than more expensive ones. However, the market only cared about how well the final design fulfilled its purpose at a given price level.