The High Tide Tournament provided Ves with his first proper introduction to more advanced human technology.
The tech and systems that were available to mech designers heavily depended on the environment.
In a place as sparse, underdeveloped and resource poor as the galactic rim, the tech that companies offered to users was relatively basic.
In general, the parts that mech designers sought after were affordable, efficient and easy to build and maintain.
While there were plenty of component developers who offered better and higher-performing technological products, they were too expensive or onerous to market.
There was little point in adopting an energy rifle developed in the galactic heartland even if it was easy to obtain the design parameters from the galactic net.
The first problem was that its material requirements were too harsh. The materials needed to build the energy rifle were either unavailable or way too expensive.
The second problem was the much greater complexity and sophistication of an advanced energy rifle. The equivalent weapon models of the galactic rim had to be simple enough for local manufacturers to be able to produce them in great numbers.
This was difficult to accomplish if their production machines were too rudimentary and if the production crews were not competent enough!
In short, even if a mech designer from the galactic rim was able to obtain component designs from the galactic heartland or the galactic center, they could only be applied to a couple of mechs at most.
It was different in the Red Ocean.
Even though a lot of materials were still unavailable to many people, a lot of companies imported huge quantities of exotics and rare materials that were common in the more prosperous parts of the old galaxy.
That made it possible for powerful organizations such as Hysphalin Industries to provide a lot of powerful materials for occasions such as these.
When Ves looked into a handful of the component designs available to him, he noticed that the majority originated from the galactic heartland. This was a good balance that avoided the excessive power and complexity of parts from the galactic center while also avoiding the rather unspectacular performance of parts developed in the galactic rim.
On average, the parts developed for the galactic heartland market were comprehensively more powerful. They were also more diverse as a number of them possessed new and unusual features derived from more potent exotics that were not as prevalent in the galactic rim.
“There are also downsides, though.”
The heartland parts were more miniaturized, more technology-intensive and less efficient. Ves would have difficulty producing them in his personal workshop aboard the Spirit of Bentheim because his ELKINE production line was too limited.
He also had to work his mind a lot harder because these parts were more intricate. Some of them even contained high technology that only specialists or highly knowledgeable mech designers were able to utilize properly!
Though Ves had picked up a lot of System Skills and Sub-Skills over the years, he was unaccustomed to working with this kind of tech.
Although he was confident he could adapt quickly to this more advanced tech, he did not think it was wise to push his limits at this time.
“I need to keep my design under my control. It does me little good to play around with forces that I cannot fully harness.”
This was especially critical when it came to designing lancer mechs!
These machines were so extreme and so dependent on short, critical bursts of power that a single unstable factor could easily botch their results!
He eventually settled for a fairly normal flight system developed by a company called Shockblast Labs.
As its name suggested, Shockblast Labs was a component developer that preferred to release products that were powerful, impactful or kinetic.
There were no gentle products in its catalog!
The Virtus Forza AX34-X was a flight system model that ticked most of the boxes. It was a beefy flight system that featured a robust construction and was capable of enduring the high stresses generated by its oversized thrusters.
Due to its size, the Virtus Forza was able to guarantee a formidable degree of acceleration for even larger and more massive mechs.
Of course, its size also made it impossible to mount it on smaller and lighter mechs. They simply required too much space and a sufficient degree of mass in order to support its placement.
“That’s not a problem.”
As Ves delved deeper into the Virtus Forza flight system, he soon found out that it wasn’t a coincidence his search ended up with this powerful system. Shockblast Labs specifically designed it for lancer mechs employed in duels or short skirmishes.
Due to its extreme configuration, the Virtus Forza was not suitable for extended engagements.
The main reason for that was that it generated its powerful thrust by burning an extremely powerful proprietary fuel type. Shockblast Labs specifically developed a special propellant formula that burned quickly and released a huge amount of energy in an instant.
Ves became shocked as he read through the parameters of this special propellant. “This stuff is more powerful than anything I’ve handled before!”
Although the fuel used to power the Virtus Forza flight system fully met his requirements, it came with one huge weakness.
It was incredibly inefficient!
A bucket of propellant only lasted for a fraction of a second!
That was not enough to push an entire lancer mech towards an opposing mech!
In order to propel a massive machine across a sufficient distance, Ves had to load his mech with a lot of fuel. This took up precious capacity that could have been used to reinforce the structure or increase the dogfighting capabilities of his machine.
“It’s worth it, though.”
So what if he added a large fuel tank to his lancer mech? With how fast this propellant burned and how much impulse it could generate, his competition mech didn’t need to circle around for a long amount of time in order to build up speed!
Ves quickly performed a number of calculations.
According to the results, his proposed lancer mech would only be able to accelerate forward at maximum power for just 25 seconds in total.
“If the mech pilot of my lancer mech can’t put these 25 seconds to good use, he might as well forfeit the match!”
The lancer mech still possessed a couple of legs, but Ves did not intend to place much emphasis on them. It took too much time and too many design resources to turn his lancer mech into a sprinter as well as a flier.
His answer would be different if he could take his time on designing his lancer mech. For now, he needed to budget his time and sacrifice any elements that weren’t vital to accomplishing victory.
With all of the mass he loaded onto the mech design, it was inevitable for his lancer mech to turn into a lumbering beast on land.
With the powerful and demanding Virtus Forza as the base, Ves selected numerous other parts that accommodated or complemented his chosen flight system.
He then proceeded to integrate them into the framework of his lancer mech design.
This was a familiar process to Ves. He soon entered the zone and set aside all irrelevant distractions in order to quickly build up his mech design.
He estimated he needed to allocate three hours to fabricating his lancer mech with the Korok Alpha superfab at his disposal.
To be honest, a proficient fabricator should be able to finish it at least 30 minutes faster because the production machine was that fast.
“This is my first real time working with a superfab, though. I shouldn’t overestimate my capabilities.”
Although the Korok Alpha was arguably the easiest superfab model for sale in the Red Ocean, it still demanded a huge amount of expertise in order to make proper use of its capabilities!
It was true that Ves already got in a fair amount of simulation practice, but he did not dare to assume he could seamlessly translate his results into reality. He felt it was prudent to give him an additional hour of fabrication time. This way, he enjoyed a generous margin for error!
Aside from being able to redo any failed production tasks, Ves also wanted to take his time with fabricating his mech. Crafting mechs was one of his strengths and he was certain he could produce a high-quality competition mech if he devoted a proper amount of time.
“The issue is that a high-quality copy of a low-quality mech design isn’t actually that strong.”
If he had a choice, Ves would have preferred to develop a high-quality mech design. This way, the base parameters of his competition mech would be significantly higher. Even if he rushed its production, its performance would still be able to reach an impressive level!
Ves was sure that many of his current competitors were pursuing this particular strategy. Designing mechs was their strong point, and the strongest among them were probably further ahead of him in this regard.
“If I try to match their design prowess, I’ll just get a middling result.”
The right way to approach this competition was to lean on his strengths rather than compensate for his weaknesses.
That said, Ves was not a slouch when it came to technical mech design. His basics were solids and he possessed plenty of design experience. Even the use of more complex and advanced mech parts such as the Virtus Forza flight system didn’t hinder him too much.
He also possessed an additional advantage. Although he never really needed to make use of it in his collaboration projects, he hadn’t forgotten about Gloriana’s dormant spiritual fragment that he had parked in his mind.
Ves briefly touched his wedding ring as he lightly connected with an aspect of his wife.
The boost he gained wasn’t anything too drastic. He merely gained an increased sensitivity and perception towards flaws and inefficient implementations.
In fact, he knew that if he immersed himself deeper into Gloriana’s perspective, he would likely get disgusted with his rushed design work!
That would do more harm than good. Ves merely wanted to spot and quickly address the easier flaws. As long as fixing them didn’t require a lot of time, he was fine with smoothing out light mistakes.
Hours went by as his lancer mech slowly took shape. Compared to the other 93 competitors, Ves did not attract attention from the crowd.
Even the commentators didn’t observe anything remarkable from his work.
[Mr. Ves Larkinson has chosen to design a short-lasting but impactful lancer mech. It is a powerful machine that can deliver a quick and overwhelming victory if it works.]
[You don’t sound particularly impressed.]
[True. While this lancer mech design is certainly sound, Mr. Larkinson isn’t working fast enough. There is only so much he can do to lift the performance of his lancer mech. While his work can easily overpower the work of weaker competitors, if his lancer mech is matched against the machines designed by his stronger rivals, it is too easy to mitigate its short-lasting attacks.]
[So how do you rank his lancer mech based on everyone’s current progress?]
[His lancer mech is fairly basic, but it is remarkably solid and free of sloppy design solutions. It should definitely secure its place in the middle, but it is difficult to climb any higher. The mechs designed by many of Mr. Larkinson’s other competitors are simply more impressive. As long as they survive the initial attack run, they can easily clean up the spent lancer mech.]
[So there you have it, folks. Mr. Larkinson’s lancer mech is a bold and powerful machine, but it is too basic and one-dimensional to win against more formidable opponents.]
It was good that none of the contestants were able to hear the commentary, because he would surely protest against the judgment of the ignorant analysts!
There was more to his lancer mech than a solid base.. Even as he fleshed out its mech frame, Ves also began to work on its spiritual design.
