<h4>Chapter 3456 - Virtus Forza AX34 X</h4>
The High Tide Tournament provided Ves with his first proper introduction to more advanced human technology.
The tech and systems that were avable to mech designers heavily depended on the environment.
In a ce as sparse, underdeveloped and resource poor as the gctic rim, the tech thatpanies offered to users was rtively basic.
In general, the parts that mech designers sought after were affordable, efficient and easy to build and maintain.
While there were plenty ofponent 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 gctic hearnd even if it was easy to obtain the design parameters from the gctic.
The first problem was that its material requirements were too harsh. The materials needed to build the energy rifle were either unavable or way too expensive.
The second problem was the much greaterplexity and sophistication of an advanced energy rifle. The equivalent weapon models of the gctic rim had to be simple enough for local manufacturers to be able to produce them in great numbers.
This was difficult to aplish if their production machines were too rudimentary and if the production crews were notpetent enough!
In short, even if a mech designer from the gctic rim was able to obtainponent designs from the gctic hearnd or the gctic 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 unavable to many people, a lot ofpanies imported huge quantities of exotics and rare materials that weremon in the more prosperous parts of the old gxy.
That made it possible for powerful organizations such as Hysphalin Industries to provide a lot of powerful materials for asions such as these.
When Ves looked into a handful of theponent designs avable to him, he noticed that the majority originated from the gctic hearnd. This was a good bnce that avoided the excessive power andplexity of parts from the gctic center while also avoiding the rather unspectacr performance of parts developed in the gctic rim.
On average, the parts developed for the gctic hearnd market wereprehensively 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 gctic rim.
"There are also downsides, though."
The hearnd 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 unustomed 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 y around with forces that I cannot fully harness."
This was especially critical when it came to designingncer 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 apany called Shockst Labs.
As its name suggested, Shockst Labs was aponent developer that preferred to release products that were powerful, impactful or kic.
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 eleration for evenrger 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 cement.
"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. Shockst Labs specifically designed it forncer 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. Shockst Labs specifically developed a special propent form 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 propent. "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 propent onlysted for a fraction of a second!
That was not enough to push an entirencer 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 arge fuel tank to hisncer mech? With how fast this propent burned and how much impulse it could generate, hispetition 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 calctions.
ording to the results, his proposedncer mech would only be able to elerate forward at maximum power for just 25 seconds in total.
"If the mech pilot of myncer mech can''t put these 25 seconds to good use, he might as well forfeit the match!"
Thencer mech still possessed a couple of legs, but Ves did not intend to ce much emphasis on them. It took too much time and too many design resources to turn hisncer mech into a sprinter as well as a flier.
His answer would be different if he could take his time on designing hisncer mech. For now, he needed to budget his time and sacrifice any elements that weren''t vital to aplishing victory.
With all of the mass he loaded onto the mech design, it was inevitable for hisncer mech to turn into a lumbering beast onnd.
With the powerful and demanding Virtus Forza as the base, Ves selected numerous other parts that amodated orplemented his chosen flight system.
He then proceeded to integrate them into the framework of hisncer 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 hisncer 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 simtion practice, but he did not dare to assume he could seamlessly trante 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-qualitypetition 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 hispetition 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 currentpetitors were pursuing this particr 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 thispetition was to lean on his strengths rather thanpensate 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 moreplex 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 coboration 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 ws 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 ws. As long as fixing them didn''t require a lot of time, he was fine with smoothing out light mistakes.
Hours went by as hisncer mech slowly took shape. Compared to the other 93petitors, Ves did not attract attention from the crowd.
Even thementators didn''t observe anything remarkable from his work.
[Mr. Ves Larkinson has chosen to design a shortsting but impactfulncer mech. It is a powerful machine that can deliver a quick and overwhelming victory if it works.]
[You don''t sound particrly impressed.]
[True. While thisncer 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 hisncer mech. While his work can easily overpower the work of weakerpetitors, if hisncer mech is matched against the machines designed by his stronger rivals, it is too easy to mitigate its shortsting attacks.]
[So how do you rank hisncer mech based on everyone''s current progress?]
[Hisncer mech is fairly basic, but it is remarkably solid and free of sloppy design solutions. It should definitely secure its ce in the middle, but it is difficult to climb any higher. The mechs designed by many of Mr. Larkinson''s otherpetitors are simply more impressive. As long as they survive the initial attack run, they can easily clean up the spentncer mech.]
[So there you have it, folks. Mr. Larkinson''sncer 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 thementary, because he would surely protest against the judgment of the ignorant analysts!
There was more to hisncer mech than a solid base.. Even as he fleshed out its mech frame, Ves also began to work on its spiritual design.