Ves revisited the CA-1A Nero. He was never proud of the mech, even if he learned a lot about the Caesar Augustus when working on it. The small solutions he implemented in the Nero only helped him fabricate a less horrible Caesar Augustus. In that regard, he succeeded modestly. When Ves checked his sales again, he saw that the Nero had already been sold once for a whole 60,000 credits.
"At least I don't have to worry about paying for the raw materials of my next model."
The Nero always felt like a half-finished job to Ves. Now that he came back with a lot of new ideas, he wanted to revisit its design and see whether he could transform it into a mech that enables pilots to reach the X-Factor.
Ves opened up the Mech Designer System and switched to the Designer page. The Designer stored all of his old designs, so he pulled up the Nero effortlessly.
When he modified the CA-1's design, he made changes based on reducing its cost and increasing its efficiency. He treated the Caesar Augustus as a robot and rearranged its internals without any regards to its presumably non-existent feelings.
Ves wasn't sure working like that was the right approach. In his beliefs about the X-Factor, emotions played an important role. While he still wasn't certain how to engender these emotions in a giant machine, he had some guesses he could try.
First, he theorized a mech designer's emotions and intentions played an enabling role. In other words, his own feelings bled over into the design and fabrication of a new mech. The clues to this idea came from remembering the circumstances of designing the Seraphim.
Ice-cold designers who barely put any passion in their designs could never spark a semblance of life in these mechs. When Ves worked on the Phantasm, Nomad and Nero, he constantly tried to maximize his gains while minimizing his losses. Though he was upbeat, he didn't put in an excessive amount of passion in his work.
Despite being overburdened with toys, the Seraphim had been designed in a fit of passion. Ves vaguely remembered the emotions he experienced back then. He became elated at his first sale, and the completion of his second ever tutorial missions. He received a windfall of resources and also got drunk on purchasing a lot of virtual component licenses. With such an affected mind, he got straight to work at designing a colorful mech that embodied extreme joy and passion.
"These all happened to be the same emotions TheSeventhSnake felt when he performed at his best."
Ves formed a bold idea. The alignment of the emotions expressed by the designer, mech and pilot determined whether they could produce the X-Factor. Almost every speculation about the X-Factor Ves had read on the galactic net only focused on the mech and its pilot. It almost never included the designer. Even if they did, they focused on the designer's physical objectives, not his emotional demands.
How can a sword in the hands of a warrior shine bright when the blacksmith forged it casually?
There was no proof for Ves' assertion that the craftsman mattered. As far as humanity knew, emotions weren't bundles of energy that had a definable existence in the material universe. It certainly sounded highly unlikely that when Ves designed and fabricated the Seraphim, he somehow embedded it with some sort of voodoo mental energy.
No. Perhaps the mystery lay in purpose and intent. The strong emotions of the mech designer sharpened his intent. A mech designed to break through fortifications would not only possess the physical qualities that enabled it to perform such a task, it would also be built carrying the designer's intent to succeed. Paired with a pilot who carries the same wish, such a mech crystallized the intent of all three entities in a single machine.
In order to gift the new Nero with a purpose, Ves first had to look back on the intent of its base model.
"The Caesar Augustus is a product of a young, spoiled mech designer's desire to show off." Ves concluded as he recalled the debut of Jason Kozlowski. "At the time, it was built to be the best all-rounder currentgen mech."
Jason obviously hadn't been modest in his demands. However, he possessed one thing many other mech designers lacked. "He was incredibly passionate when he designed the Caesar Augustus."
The heir to National Aeromotives made a bet that he'd produce the design in a month. If Jason spent only one month to come up with a completely original design with so much pressure hanging over him, the emotions that he carried over in his creations would be immense.
"I've done a disservice to the Caesar Augustus." Ves realized as he recalled the times when he fabricated the virtual versions of the stock model and the Nero. Even though he crafted them in a simulation, the life-like circumstances meant that the frustrations and difficulties he felt must have bled over to his end products.
"I need to adjust my mood. Redesigning the new Nero without emulating Jason's passion will just deliver another half-assed result."
Ves felt as if he was forced to go up to a stage and begin acting while he had zero experience. The only thing he could do is recall the times when he was still young and bright, before his moody teenage years set in. He used to dream of following in his father's footsteps and become a mech pilot.
"I was naive back then. Naive but happy." Much like how Jason felt thirty years ago when he just graduated from Estelon.
While he didn't succeed in summoning up a youthful and arrogant mood, Ves somewhat managed to instill confidence in himself. "I don't have anything great to draw upon in my past, but with the help of the System I can still dream of the wonders I'll experience in the future."
The Caesar Augustus' main attribute was exuding absolute confidence. Jason believed the mech he designed was a stellar product of the current generation. It surpassed any premium mech within the same technological boundary.
In other words, the Caesar Augustus had reasons to be arrogant.
After matching his confident mood with the arrogant and narcissistic mindset behind the Caesar Augustus, Ves went to work making adjustments to the Nero. Naturally, in the perspective of improving the Nero's physical capabilities, he only had limited options. He hadn't learn any new sub-skills since the time he designed the Nero, after all. He also couldn't undo all of his work in the misguided intention to emulate Jason.
Instead, he sought to bring back the charm of the base model. Ves had originally smoothed out the minute incongruities Jason incorporated in CA-1's armor. He used to regard them as sloppy flourishes that added nothing of value. Now he noted the seemingly useless contours enhanced its domineering image.
Next, he payed attention to its internals. The changes he made to produce the original Nero were minor optimizations. They reduced the risk of catastrophic faults and made the mech easier to maintain, but the underlying idea behind the changes was that he made the mech more timid.
Jason designed the CA-1 to be a showstopping elite, focusing purely on its martial prowess and not nearly enough attention to its practicality. Ves somehow had to reconcile two opposite intents. One was the need to make the Nero more practical to maintain and repair. The other was to retain the Caesar Augustus' aggressive edge.
The way Ves decided to go about it was to revert a couple of changes and implement a couple of new ones. The Caesar Augustus emphasized confidence to the point of recklessness. The Nero emphasized self-preservation to the point of timidity. Therefore, the Nero Redivivus should be focused on competence that its systems could take a better beating. Essentially, Ves left out much of the arrogance embedded in the base model.
Since he hadn't made any major changes, Ves finished updating his Nero after only half a day. After Ves added in the finishing touches, he let the System evaluate his redesigned variant. He aptly named it the Nero Redivivus, after a somewhat dubious legends that the Ancient Roman emperor rose from the dead. Ves imagined he succeeded in bringing his older work back to life.
[Design Evaluation: CA-1B Nero Redivivus.]
Variant name: CA-1B Nero Redivivus
Base model: Caesar Augustus CA-1
Original Manufacturer: National Aeromotives
Weight Classification: Medium-Heavy
Recommended Role: Elite Vanguard
Armor: A
Carrying Capacity: C-
Aesthetics: B
Endurance: D
Energy Efficiency: D+
Flexibility: E
Firepower: B+
Integrity: E
Mobility: D+
Spotting: C-
X-Factor: E-
Deviance: 4%
Performance improvement: 3%
Overall evaluation: A customized design that barely improves on the original. While it is slightly easier to fabricate and repair, this variant offers barely any benefits. Rare among other variants, this design has not butchered the base model's X-Factor. Instead, it has retained a shadow of its presence.
[You have received 50 Design Points completing an original design of a last generation mech.]
[You have received 100 Design Points for designing a mech with a trace of X-Factor.]
"Yes! I did just enough to get it to work." Ves rejoiced, happy for reaching the finish line just as he put in so much work. The windfall of DP he received also helped. At least Ves received some indication from the System that his attempts to recreate the vaunted X-Factor succeeded. "I haven't wasted all of my time."
Ves waited for a moment, but nothing else had happened. "Uh, System. I've completed the mission. Won't you give me the rewards?"
[Please continue fabricating your design in order to complete the mission.]
Regardless of the Nero Redivivus' inadequacies, it offered the possibility to unleash the X-Factor, but evidently the possibility wasn't enough. He had to prove its existence by making the design come to life.
"I'm pretty sure the mission stated that designing a mech should be enough. Do you just want me to finish what I started?"
It didn't hurt to practice. "I might as well do it. But first, let's spend my DP."
Enough time had passed for his Fantasia variants to sell several hundred times, though their sales trend started to decline. And while Ves only managed to sell the Caesar Augustus and the Nero once, their higher tiers resulted in more DP when they were sold. Together with the DP he received as a reward for designing the Nero Redivivus, Ves saved enough points to purchase the Mediumweight Armor Optimization I sub-skill in the Skill Tree.
"I'd rather purchase the 3D Printer Proficiency II upgrade since I still have trouble reproducing the Caesar Augustus' parts, but I really need to learn how to work with armor once I receive the new licence."
It was a matter of priorities. Without becoming more proficient in modifying armor, he might fail in adapting the new armor to the Caesar Augustus. He'd be wasting the valuable license if he botched the design.
He checked his Status again to see if anything else had changed.
[Status]
Name: Ves Larkinson
Profession: Novice Mech Designer
Specializations: None
Design Points: 74
Attributes
Strength: 0.7
Dexterity: 0.7
Endurance: 0.6
Intelligence: 1.2
Creativity: 1
Concentration: 1.1
Neural Aptitude: F
Skills
[Assembly]: Novice - [3D Printer Proficiency I] [Assembler Proficiency I]
[Business]: Apprentice
[Computer Science]: Incompetent
[Electrical Engineering]: Novice
[Mathematics]: Incompetent
[Mechanics]: Apprentice - [Jury Rigging I] [Speed Tuning I]
[Metallurgy]: Apprentice
[Metaphysics]: Incompetent
[Physics]: Novice - [Lightweight Armor Optimization I] [Mediumweight Armor Optimization I]
Evaluation: Achieved a step into novice territory.
Surprisingly, he gained some benefits from his focused research. The long hours he spent reading and watching interviews rose his Concentration by 0.1 points. The scattered but varied theories he learned and formulated by himself also gained acknowledgement by the System, resulting in a new sub-skill called Metaphysics.
"Seems like you acknowledge that metaphysics has merit." Ves remarked coyly at the System. It didn't deign to reply.
Shrugging, Ves switched back to his Skill Tree and saw that the Metaphysics sub-trees were under a special condition. He spotted plenty of icons, but fog shrouded their names and descriptions. He also couldn't spend his DP to unlock them. He wasn't allowed to cheat his way into mastering the X-Factor.
This only underscored its value.
Well, he could figure it out later. First he had to fabricate the Nero Redivivus in order to prove his assumptions and complete the mission.
"First, I need to get in the right mindset again. I can't treat the fabrication process as a chore."
He began work on fabricating the new Nero whilst keeping a confident, trusting attitude. This wasn't always easy to keep up for hours. Ves frequently took breaks in order to keep his mood fresh. This caused him to take twice as long to finish the Nero Redivivus, but when he finally read through the testing and diagnostics of the completed model, he gained a pleasant surprise.
Despite his fumbling, the Nero Redivivus had actually improved. Its construction went a little smoother, causing less sub-standard parts to pop up. This improvement helped along the assembly process, where Ves spent much less time wrangling ill-fitting parts into a whole.
"I'm finally done with this." Ves sighed. He visited his store page, removed the first Nero from his catalog, and added in the Nero Redivivus to take its place.
The System finally gave Ves what he deserved.
[Congratulations for completing the mission. The road to understanding the X-Factor is long and bumpy. There are many destinations at the end of the road. Believe in yourself and advance towards the end point unique to you.]
[You have received a 10-year random medium armor production license lottery ticket. Please visit the Lottery page to redeem your ticket.]
[You have received a 200 ton medium armor raw materials package. Please visit your Inventory to open the package.]
Ves was already filled with glee. "My luck's been bad lately. The heavens must surely compensate me this time. Hopefully I won't encounter another pagoda."
Ves waited for a long time to receive an armor production license. The good ones cost at least as much as an advanced mech license, but even bargain bin armor cost a pretty penny. Demanding a 100 million bright credits to license a decent armor system was considered reasonable.
Of course, if Ves was really desperate, he could license outdated armor or even stuff that was so old, its owners didn't even bother charging a license for its use.
The latter was useful if Ves made a civilian mech, such as a machine designed to lift containers in warehouses or sow crops in a farm. There was no way he'd ever implement such rotten armor in a combat mech. Any pilot that chose to bring such a poorly armored mech to the battlefield was asking to be sniped in a single shot.
Over the 400-year development cycle of mechs, the components that accompanied their designs also evolved over time. Lasers got more efficient, enabling them to deal more damage with less heat. Ballistic weaponry featured new iterations of propellants and explosives. Energy cells provided more energy to the mech with the implementation of highly energetic fuels and advanced batteries.
In the face of progressing weapons, a mech's armor had to match their pace. There were certain moments in mech history where firepower dominated over that period's armor level. Those were miserable times, where wars caused immense casualties to all the parties involved. In other times when armor easily endured against stagnating weapons, conflicts often dragged on into exhausting wars of attrition, draining much more resources than anticipated.
Only when the level of firepower matched the level of armor could mech battles remain short and limited. More wars started during this period, but they also ended quicker.
"Hopefully the lottery will bring me something average."
Ves had no desire to 'win' another good license. The Caesar Augustus was already bad enough. He did not want to compound his expenses with some kind of super deluxe armor plating that required special machinery to produce.
When the wheel of fortune showed up, Ves let out a relieved breath. "At least it's not the fucking pagoda again."
The only thing Ves had to worry about was getting an awfully cheap armor license. The Caesar Augustus required a certain standard of armor to work. Anything older than last generation was useless in the battlefield. Even certain newer alloys might not work if they aimed at the bottom segment of the market.
"Wish me luck, Lucky."
His gem cat meowed disinterestedly, not even deigning to glance at the holographic prize wheel. Despite his name, Lucky hadn't helped Ves gather much luck so far. He still had his uses though, so Ves just ruffled his cat's head and spun the wheel.
Clacking sounds echoed in the workshop as the wheel's pins clacked against the pointer. Various different plates of armor spun past too quickly for Ves to recognize their names.
After about thirty seconds of solid spinning, the wheel slowed down. Ves was able to read the labels now, but he failed to recognize their brands. "Way too many products are introduced each year. The names don't really matter. I only care about their capabilities."
The wheel dragged its heels for a couple of suspenseful seconds before it stopped. The pointer landed on a grey-ish piece of plate.
[Congratulations! You have received a 10-year production license of the following armor component:
Marlin Solutions 1004-HRF 5th Generation.]
"It looks a little cheap."
All Ves had to say it could be worse. As he studied the armor's specifications and sought more information on the galactic net, he realized his bad luck struck again. At least he hadn't suffered critical damage. The 1004-HRF was actually a bog standard piece of armor. It was also popular, seeing as Marlin opted to renew its formula for five generations. A favorite of small and medium-sized mech manufacturers, the HRF required a complicated manufacturing process to produce decent quality armor plating.
Decent quality for average second-line mechs, like law enforcement or planetary guard regiments. The 5th generation of the HRF thankfully qualified as current generation armor, so its fundamental specs weren't inferior to the mechs his cousin Melinda piloted at the Bentheim Planetary Guard.
The HRF's performance actually featured no unique strong points. Neither did it have any glaring weaknesses. It's main advantage was cost. Its formula used no exotic raw materials, just a large amount of widely available minerals and ingots. The HR in its name stood for highly refined, which meant it took a lot of energy to extract the useful parts of all those materials and combine them into a single plate. Thus, the production of the armor generated a lot of waste products.
Ves' comm unit pinged with the arrival of a new message. Just like with the Caesar Augustus, one of the System's shell companies sent him the production license for the HRF via the galactic net. After combing over the license agreement and finding nothing amiss, he signed it and sent it back to the fake institute. The System would take care of the rest of the paperwork, like registering his license at Marlin Solutions and the local branch of the Mech Trade Association.
He unpacked his virtual box of raw materials next. A huge set of containers got dumped in Ves' storage area, practically filling it up halfway. Opening them to take a look inside revealed neat boxes filled with ingots, minerals and powders.
"Damn. 200 tons should be enough for a couple of mechs with plenty to spare, if I had any other armor license. But the HRF wastes so much input that I'm not even certain I can produce enough plates for two mechs."
If Ves bought the 200 tons from the open market, he'd have to cough up almost twenty million bright credits. Processing them into finished plates of armor used up a lot of energy and a fair amount of time, so Ves also needed to pay tens of thousands of credits in his next electricity bill.
This was also why he appreciated the System's rewards for this mission. The materials gifted to him saved an enormous amount of trouble. For most mechs, armor plating cost the most, due to its excessively high material needs. Other components such as the power reactor and engines demanded a lot of precision in its manufacturing, but asked a lot less of its materials. Their main value lay in their sophisticated architecture, which fell under intellectual property that the license already covered.
Ves had checked the price of a 10-year Caesar Augustus production license shortly after he first got it. Such prices weren't made public, so he had to visit a couple of mech fan sites to find a couple of estimates. The license's price supposedly ranged from 500 million to up to 2 billion bright credits.
"Jason stuffed his mech full with goodies from different companies. It's no wonder they all want a piece of the pie when he licenses out his mech."
That was the way business worked. It was extremely fortunate that Ves had earned the licenses through the System. If he had to resort to other means, he might have been forced to sign away his independence. For example, a competing manufacturer might 'lend' his leftover licenses if Ves sold a majority stake of his company's stock.
To any other mech designer, they'd feel fortunate if someone decides to invest in their startups. To someone who has the System like Ves, it'd be satisfying thirst by drinking poison. He refused to be shackled by anyone.
With only about four weeks left until the start of the Young Tigers Exhibition, Ves wanted to complete a viable design that he could show off to the elites attending the event. The manufacture and sale of any model based on the Caesar Augustus was still too difficult for Ves to achieve by himself in the limited time before he had to meet his interest payment.
Even though the base model could still compete with currentgen models, the Caesar Augustus only had a very small circle of customers. It was not viable to produce the mech first and put out a few ads on the galactic net to sell later. It might take years for some random pilot looking to buy a cheap elite mech to stumble upon his work. By then he'd already be bankrupt.
"No. It's better to seek out a customer first. I won't be wasting the remaining half month I have left. I don't want to do a fruitless job manufacturing a mech if I'll never earn anything from its sale."
"Hopefully a lot of wealthy people will visit this year's YTE. Anyway, let's not put the cart before the horse. I need to get to work with the new design."
Ves loaded the Mech Designer System's exclusive Designer and looked at his available models. He considered iterating on the Nero Redivivus, which would save him a lot of time, or start over from the base model. Both choices had their pros and cons.
"While I'm rather short on time, four weeks should still be plenty. What's more important is that I start designing a variant with the X-Factor in mind from the beginning. If I keep working on the Nero, I'll just muddle it further by blending in different emotions and intents."
He'd certainly be able to design a decent mech, just not one with a strong X-Factor.
"The X-Factor doesn't matter very much if I'm designing a mass production model. But if I want to sell something based off the Caesar Augustus, I need to tailor it to an elite who treasures his mech as a partner. I absolutely can't be casual about this point."
With the base model loaded, Ves wasn't in a hurry to fiddle around. According to his self-made theory about actualizing the X-Factor, the intents of the designer, mech and pilot had to align. This sounded simple, but Ves wasn't designing an original mech. Instead, he adapted from another designer's existing work.
"What really happens to the X-Factor if a mech has multiple designers?"
The Nero Redivivus showed that the X-Factor hadn't disappeared from the base model, unlike with the first edition of the Nero. This meant that if the intents and emotions of the two designers overlapped, the X-Factor would be preserved.
This fit in with his theory. But what if he had an opposite intent from the original designer? Say designer 1 has developed a mech design that emphasizes defense. Designer 2 comes along and makes a variant of the design that focuses heavily on offense. Would the opposing intents neutralize themselves, or would designer 2's intentions overwrite designer 1's original imprint? The truth might be a mix of the two, where designer 2's intent becomes predominant but in a diluted form.
"I don't have enough time to experiment with intents."
Ves chose to keep his intent simple, one that did not clash with the base model. "I want a mech that retains its dominance. Though it's too outdated to become a mainstay in a modern battlefield, it can still rule over civilian and mercenary mechs."
A warhorse. An aggressive mech that needs to perform at its best when the pilot needed to show off his prowess. It didn't need to stick around in extended engagements and try to outlast the enemy. It preferred to break through and smash any obstacles in its way.
He already had a name in mind for his new variant. The Marc Antony. A rogue and a bastard, he nonetheless served as a daring cavalry commander under some dude called Julius Caesar. He later became rivals with the guy who eventually got called Caesar Augustus, and died because he wasn't as competent.
"Sucks to be you, but I got to thank you for providing a fitting story to your name."
Marc Antony's history paralleled with how Ves envisioned his mech both in its role and its relation to the base model. The Marc Antony would be a cheaper and less armored version of the Caesar Augustus. It should retain or even expand on the aggressive arrogance of its base model in order to prevent its opponents from exploiting its weaknesses.
Now that Ves formed a strong image of his future design's purpose, he could finally begin working for real this time.
"Let's start with the armor. It's the biggest job by far, and I need to replace the original model's armor wholesale. This is going to take a while."
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