The Mech Touch novel Chapter 648

Reno Jimenez developed a style of designing mechs where he attempted to extract the maximum level of performance at the cost of stability, control and longevity. This increased the parameters of his design’s spec sheet, but customers weren’t fooled. They knew his latest designs came with poor value for money. Many of his mechs broke down in five years or less.

"This is the attitude of a scientist and a pioneer. He pursues his own interests over that of the market and his customers. It’s not that his designs are bad, but they are outright ignoring the trends of the market."

Different from the Senior, Ves had always adopted a market-based approach to his design work. Every time he designed a mech, he looked at the actual situation of the market and moved on from there. Essentially, he let his market research dictate the basic parameters of his next design.

He rested his finger on his chin. The contrast between their priorities formed an interesting comparison. "The Skull Architect already knows from the start what kind of mech he wants to design. As for me, the exact shape and form doesn’t matter to me. All I want is to design a mech that sells well. Everything is a means to an end."

That didn’t mean Ves cared nothing about his own advancements. His hoarding for knowledge and his experimentation with the X-Factor all proved that he possessed an inquisitive mind. It was just that an Apprentice Mech Designer operated under far less pressure than a Senior Mech Designer.

One was a youth in the mech design profession. They weren’t expected to come up with anything radical. The other represented an elder in the craft. The mech industry and mech market expected more from their results. Their designs had to push against the envelope.

If their newer designs didn’t one-up their older designs by a fair margin, then they were considered stagnant!

"Mech designers that are stagnant don’t have a bright future anymore. They’ve given up on blazing a trail and are instead content with ending their journey halfway."

Ves pegged Professor Velten as a person who had already given up on her life and the opportunity to advance. Instead of working at some prestigious institution, she instead took up an upscore posting with the Flagrant Vandals.

"It’s different with Jimenez. His designs are burning with ambition. I don’t think getting exiled to the frontier is going to stop him from his research."

Certainly, getting kicked off the membership rolls of the MTA and being exiled to the frontier hampered him a lot. After receiving the fear-inducing moniker of Skull Architect, the man probably wasn’t in the best situation right now.

His story served as a strong warning to Ves of what could happen if he breached ethical lines.

"At least my own spin on the Leiner Grey won’t let me to that point."

In contrast to the original design, the Leiner Grey completed by Ves went into a completely different direction. While Ves valued performance just like any other mech designer, he really didn’t wish to sacrifice stability for a small boost in power and other attributes.

"A mech is the steed and armor of the mech pilot. Mech designers like us owe it to the mech pilots to fashion a war machine that can lead them through a battle without any sign of faltering. A mech that is so unstable that it will fall apart at the slightest misstep is a greater enemy to the mech pilot than his opponents on the battlefield."

This was his conviction. Certainly, prioritizing stability never led to exciting mechs on their own, but Ves had no doubt he could solve this problem in another way, such as resorting to the X-Factor or various technological gimmicks. If nothing else, Ves could always lower his price standards in order to provide better value for money to his customers.

He did recognize that his approach may not be a daring one, at least when it came to stability. Innovation demanded a daring approach to exploring the unknown. Taking risks came with the job.

"In that sense, I’ve disappointed the Skull Architect’s expectations."

The Leiner Grey design came with an unspoken challenge. It challenged Ves to match its wild extremes, to push its performance to its limits, stability be damned. Doing so would mean that Ves agreed with the Skull Architect’s standpoint.

That was unacceptable to him. Philosophically, he believed that mechs had to fit the mech pilots, not the other way around.

Some mech designers pursued their calling by pushing the limits of the technology and materials at hand to deliver a superior mech. To be fair, most of the innovation and advancement in the field of mech design came from their many contributions.

Yet a mech was inexplicably connected with their mech pilots. Mech designers had complete control over the design and construction of a mech, but possessed no influence at all on the mech pilots who actually used them. This lack of control over the latter led to a tendency for mech designers to forget about mech pilots, treating them as an outside variable in the background.

A different school of mech designers adopted a very different perspective. Usually by necessity, they needed to design mechs that pilots were comfortable with piloting, otherwise they wouldn’t be able to sell any mechs.

Faced with a choice between higher performance and more comfort, many mech pilots actually chose the latter.

"It’s not that they enjoy missing out on that extra margin of power, speed or defense, but if the mech becomes too difficult to pilot, those hardware gains are entirely wasted."

A mech that performed ten percent better but became twice as hard to control for a specific mech pilot might eventually perform twenty percent worse. So the net performance change was actually a reduction of ten percent!

Naturally, this consideration varied wildly depending on which mech pilot got to pilot the mech. A skilled mech pilot possessed a much larger tolerance for difficult mechs, while average mech pilots with more modest genetic aptitudes could only settle for simpler mechs.