The Mech Touch

Chapter 4049 Barebones Product

Ves did not work on the Pacifier Project on a continuous basis. He spent much of his time on his numerous other mech design projects.

With so many mech designs on his plate, he was forced to ration his time as efficiently as possible. He was happy that Professor Taigen Voiken was both willing and capable of taking on the majority of the workload.

This way, Ves could spend much of his time on the works that fully reflected his design style and vision.

During the early stages of the Pacifier Project, Ves did not provide too much input on the ongoing design efforts. Professor Taigen pretty much designed the internal architecture as well as much of the armor layout by himself.

The Senior also picked out the various mech parts or designed them himself in case he wasn’t satisfied with the available licenses.

One of the most important elements of a law enforcement mech was its suppression method.

While it was possible for a humanoid mech like the Pacifier Project to pick up a sword or a laser rifle, it was not supposed to participate in lethal battles in the first place.

The situation on a planet must truly deteriorate to an awful level for the Planetary Guard to take up lethal arms!

Most of the time, a law enforcement mech utilized non-lethal equipment instead. Whether it was noise generators that could instantly deafen and paralyze an unruly mob or a fluid projector that could gunk up the limbs of a rogue machine, there were many different solutions to disable a target without causing any excessive damage.

Naturally, Professor Taigen designed the Pacifier Project around a fluid projector system, which was the most standard solution for these kinds of mechs.

Fluid projectors were similar to flamethrowers but they spat out a special formula of foam or goo instead.

While it was difficult for a single fluid projector to disable a mech straight away, they had an advantage in that multiple mechs armed with the same system could rapidly disable a target mech.

The more fluid projectors in action, the faster and easier it was to disable a rogue mech!

This was why Planetary Guard units often conducted patrols with multiple mechs. Two machines were considered the minimum but it was much better to have four of them acting in unison.

Pretty much any rogue mech could be subdued in as little as half a minute when four fluid projectors were brought to bear!

The time needed to pacify a dangerous machine could be even faster if the target happened to be standing still!

“It would be great if fluid projectors were also effective in actual battle.” Ves sighed.

He understood why they didn’t show up in actual battles. The capacity of fluid projectors were too low. A typical law enforcement mech might deplete a third to a half of its capacity to disable just a single opposing mech.

This was not a big deal when it came to law enforcement. Unless an outright riot or insurrection took place, most incidents that required the intervention of Planetary Guard mechs usually amounted to a single mech going on a rampage or a couple of mechs having a scuffle against each other.

Even a more budget-conscious mech like the Pacifier Project would have sufficient capacity to handle these isolated incidents!

As for larger incidents such as explosive fights between rival gangs, that was where the heavier and more expensive products of LaVoi System were for! The bigger peacekeeping mechs either relied on high-capacity fluid projectors or more advanced subjugation solutions to suppress and capture larger amounts of mechs going to town against each other.

Mechs like these were outside of the scope of the Pacifier Project, so Ves did not waste any further thought on them. It was enough to know that they existed and the roles they fulfilled in a standard law enforcement agency.

“At a design budget of 1 MTA credit, it becomes difficult to design a law enforcement mech that can satisfy the most basic role of a first responder mech.” Professor Taigen told him during one of their scheduled meetings. “The performance of the Pacifier Project can only remain on par with the generic models on the market, but will never be able to exceed them. We will have to make considerable sacrifices in terms of defense and endurance. It will ever be a true powerhouse in any form of combat.”

That was true. While the Pacifier Project wasn’t actually that bad of a mech when deployed in an environment like the Yeina Star Cluster, the overall tech and strength level of second-class mechs was higher in most parts of the Red Ocean.

The expected standard of mechs employed in the Red Ocean were all equivalent to the mechs used in the galactic heartland. This meant that the Planetary Guard units at least had to be powerful enough to handle incidents involving machines at that strength level.

In this regard, a law enforcement mech that cost just 1 MTA credit would definitely struggle to suppress rogue mechs even if it worked in unison with a similar machine!

Ves did not worry too much about this, though. He believed that Lufa’s glow would be able to make all of the difference. The Pacifier Project might be an inadequate product when judged by its technical performance alone, but once he added his own touch to it, the affordability of the end product would seem like a great bargain when it came paired with the perfect glow for peacekeeping purposes!

Professor Taigen Voiken understood this as well. He was willing to go along with the gamble that Ves wanted to make.

Of course, Taigen did not make this decision based on his collaboration partner’s claims.

As soon as their two organizations signed a business agreement, Ves had shipped over a spare Sanctuary mech to the Magair Middle Zone where the Voikens in the Red Ocean had settled.

Many doubts went away as soon as Taigen was able to experience the Sanctuary mech’s glow in person. Ves even gave him permission to perform as many tests as he liked in order to determine the possibilities and limitations of Lufa’s glow!

After Professor Taigen thoroughly familiarized himself with this unique design solution, he started to ask whether Ves could tweak its expression in different forms.

“About the glow, can you turn it off or adjust its strength based on pilot input? It is too strong and can cause serious harm to nearby people if used without any restraint.”

Ves nodded. “I have already started to include this function in my mech designs.”

“Is it possible to concentrate the energy field and extend its range?”

“That is possible, but I do not think we should include this function for the Pacifier Project?”

“What is your reasoning for this decision?”

“The normal version of the glow is already sufficient. Most law enforcement mechs need to get fairly close to their targets in order to hit anything with their fluid projectors. It just so happens that the effective range of a glow and a fluid projector happens to match fairly well.”

“It is still a useful function to add the ability to extend the range of a glow. We can even pair the Pacifier Project with an alternate weapon system that is more effective at longer ranges.”

“We should reserve these possibilities for a future project.” Ves replied. “If we do this, then the Pacifier Project will get a little complicated and be able to do too much relative to its price. We would miss an opportunity to enrich our pockets later on after many clients have become annoyed at the limitations of our initial product.”

Professor Taigen frowned. He understood quite well what Ves was suggesting. It was a greedy, capitalistic approach towards product design.

“If we pursue this route, then we need to make certain that the Pacifier Project is valuable and useful enough with only the basic version of its glow.”

“Relax, professor. I am confident that it will work out. We do not need to pile up any additional functions onto our law enforcement mech in order to increase its market appeal. Its value proposition is already high enough in my eyes.”

“For what it is worth, I agree with you, Mr. Larkinson. However, it will be more difficult to persuade our clients that our Pacifier Project is worth that much if its only defining function is relatively limited in application. We will need to put more effort into marketing and promoting our product in order to generate enough interest and awareness.”

The reason why they held different opinions on this matter was because the significance of the Pacifier Project varied between their two organizations.

To the Larkinson Can, the Pacifier Project was just one of many commercial mech design projects. Even if it was tied to a complicated collaboration agreement that possessed an elaborate profit-sharing arrangement, the Larkinsons were completely fine if this product turned out to be a flop!

The Voikens couldn’t afford to make this gamble. The ones that had entered the Red Ocean needed to build a market presence from scratch but did not possess any design solutions that were compelling enough to stand out among the competition.

There were a lot of mech designers in the Red Ocean who used to be geniuses or authorities back in their home galaxy!

After so many ambitious and capable people passed through the beyonder gate, they intensified their efforts so that they could get ahead of their peers!

It was too difficult for the Voikens to stand out in this cruel and cutthroat environment if they could not rely on the work of Master Barnard Voiken.

In short, Professor Taigen would find it a lot more difficult to establish himself in the Red Ocean if he did release a successful product in the near future!

The two held repeated discussions about the glow of the Pacifier Project, but Ves was not willing to make too many changes.

“This is only the first complete iteration of this mech design.” Ves stated. “We should leave room for improvement for future interactions. We can also add them to more premium mech designs in the future. This is a good way to revitalize interest in the LaVoi System after several years have passed.”

“Can you at least implement smaller additions that can make the glow of the Pacifier Project more unique? I believe it is necessary to give the pilot the ability to control its range. We may also need to be ready to give a central dispatcher or a commanding officer in the rear the ability to change and disable the glows from a distance.”

Ves furrowed his brows. “I do not think the latter is a good idea. That part about being able to control the range of the glow is a lot more useful, though. There will probably be many situations where the Pacifier Project is operating in an urban area and needs to be careful not to affect office workers.”

In the end, the glow features of the Pacifier Project weren’t anything fancy or complicated. It did the job and provided a bit of control to the mech pilot but that was all. Both Ves and Professor Taigen planned to listen to user feedback in order to determine their unmet needs.

Once they learned what their clients were missing, they could design another law enforcement mech that addressed the most prevailing demands!

Months passed by as Professor Taigen slowly fleshed out the Pacifier Project.

Ves also met and worked on the mech design on an infrequent basis in order to make sure it was alive and could carry a glow.

As the mech began to approach its final shape, Ves became progressively more involved. His main goal was to make his mark on the visual design of the product.

He had always believed that he could make a mech a lot more popular if he dressed up its design!

The question now was how he could add more interest to a budget law enforcement mech. He wanted it to be more than a boring and functional machine.