The Mech Touch

Chapter 6200  The Expanded Swarm Project

"This is… an interesting interpretation of a Carmine mech." Professor Vector Loban uttered. "You have made numerous daring design choices. Can you clarify your reasoning for adopting an insectile shape for the subordinate model of your Swarm Project? I can recognize the obvious advantages in terms of modularity, but that alone is not enough to explain why you insist on making your first commercial Carmine mech resemble a wasp."

Ves smiled. "I have already shared the central premise of this mech concept to you earlier. All of the other mechs that I have designed as of late are targeted towards skilled and professional mech pilots. The Fey Fianna may be easier to pilot than a traditional drone mech, but it is not a machine that is suitable for beginners. The Ultimatum is a much more powerful and sophisticated heavy artillery mech than the norm. It can only reach its full potential when piloted by a highly skilled and experienced artillery mech specialist."

"What is your point?"

"I'm getting there, Vector. What I wanted to convey is that since I am targeting a completely different audience this time, I can't copy my old design approach and need to start from scratch by taking my new target audience into account. I truly do not expect to see a lot of competence from the first Carmine mech pilots to emerge. After all, we can't let them study in the mech academy for 10 years. If they have to be mobilized as soon as possible, then it is better to design the controls and limit the complexity of the subordinate mech to make them as dummy proof as possible."

"You are… expecting the worst from your customers."

"I do." Ves admitted. "Unless your Association is willing to heavily regulate who gets to pilot a Carmine mech, I think a lot of accidents will occur when Carmine pilots find out that controlling a real machine is very different from piloting a virtual mech that is heavily simplified and automated."

He just happened to understand this difference a lot better than most people.

He had piloted virtual mechs before in various virtual reality games during his childhood.

He also completed multiple Mastery experiences where he was able to witness multiple different professional mech pilots control their respective machines with great skill and judgment.

Of course, Rion Aaden was the obvious exception here, but Ves managed to make a lot of gains as well by watching the amateur self-trained dwarf fumble with his stolen human mech. He at least managed to gain more insight on what sort of factors strained a mech pilot that attempted to control a machine that was slightly beyond his level of competence.

In short, Ves considered himself to be a small authority on the subject of piloting difficulty. After contemplating many different shapes for his initial Carmine mechs, he believed that no other mech shape could match his needs as best as this one.

Jovy recognized another angle to this approach. "I recognize three additional advantages to this wasp mech concept. The unconventional wasp shape makes a clear separation from the virtual mechs that many amateurs have piloted in their mech simulation games. The probability that any Carmine pilot has piloted an insectile mech of this type in the past is almost zero. This will allow the pilots to truly approach this duty with a fresh and less biased approach."

The Transhumanist mech designer looked skeptical. "Those diehard mech fans won't shake their bad habits that easily. Wasp mech or not, they will still fall back to the same acquired instincts that have earned them a measure of success in their virtual reality games."

"It is better than nothing." Jovy shrugged. "Another advantage to committing to the Swarm Project is that we can temper the demand for Carmine mechs in the beginning. While we want to reignite the optimism and enthusiasm of the general population, we do not want to cause major disruptions in our society by releasing a Carmine mech that is too popular. A versatile humanoid mech design may definitely cause more harm than good in the short term. By releasing the Swarm Project first, only the most desperate, fanatical and those who lack confidence in their own skills are prone to adopting this frontline mech first. The potential customers who desire to pilot a more advanced Carmine mech should be willing to wait for a couple of years until a more premium option has become available."

That happened to be an accurate description of Ves' product strategy for his Carmine mechs.

He wanted to start out by releasing a foolproof low-end budget module at the start.

After that, he intended to expand his catalog of Carmine mechs with mid-range and premium options over the next few years.

A lot of mech companies actually tended to do the reverse. They introduced a mech based on fancy new technologies by releasing an overpriced device so that they could earn insane profit margins by catering to the impulsive needs of wealthy idiots.

Only after the mech companies were done with fleecing the rich and gullible fools would they begin to release more sensibly priced products. The profit margins became smaller as the price got lower, but the expanding sales volume of more affordable products compensated for this dynamic.

Ves actually missed out on a fantastic opportunity to earn a huge amount of profits by releasing a low-end product first.

This was because he was not aiming to maximize his products.

He was aiming for mass adoption.

The original intention for the base version of the Carmine System was to make mech piloting more accessible to humans. Ves wanted to create a proper first impression for his Carmine mechs by making them cheap and accessible to the 'common folk'.

Of course, cheap was a relative term here. The price of a subordinate mech would still exceed that of a typical shuttle. It was only cheap for large organizations to buy the Carmine mechs in bulk.

"The third advantage of the Swarm Project is that it is quick in every way." Jovy continued. "I can already tell from the draft design that its complexity will remain low regardless of tech level. When you think about it, the subordinate mech shares more similarities with fighter craft than mechs. They just have the option of slotting in additional arms. The simplicity of this design also makes it fast and easy to mass produce it under suboptimal conditions. Furthermore, the difficulty for Carmine pilots to gain enough proficiency in the most basic modular configurations is low. It should only take a couple of months for these soldiers to learn enough not to crash into each other or commit friendly fire by accident. Of course, that does not clear them for independent operation, but I suppose that is why the command mech exists."

Ves grinned. "You hit the nail on the head. The reason why I felt it was necessary to add in a command mech was because I knew that a lot of people simply don't have the patience to go through 5 years of accelerated training or 10 years of proper training. By letting a mech pilot that knows his business make all of the important decisions, the Carmine mech pilots don't have to worry about any of the big picture stuff. Their only job is to follow orders and fight on command, which is pretty easy because the subordinate model is expressly designed to possess the lowest possible skill ceiling in a flight-capable mech."

The less moving parts, the less could go wrong. The wasp form was ideal for finetuning the level of complexity that each individual mech pilot could handle.

The less skilled and experienced Carmine pilots could start by mounting just one weapon system in one of the 6 modular sockets.

In order to avoid wasting the 5 remaining sockets, the pilot or his superior could choose to fill them up with defensive or auxiliary modules such as energy shield generators, ECM systems, communication arrays, space suppressors and more.

Once the Carmine pilot mastered the art of piloting the wasp mech with just one weapon system, he could increase his agency on the battlefield by mounting a second weapon system in a socket.

This could continue onwards until he or she reached the desired proportion of offensive power.

There were also other ways to upgrade the subordinate mech as the Carmine mech pilot outgrew the old configuration.

The possible options ranged from increasing the thickness of the armor plating to adding living fey!

"This is a mech concept that is perfect for the third-class mech market." Vector Loban commented. "However, translating the same concept to the second-class mech market may not work out as well. Second-raters are not as… humble as third-raters. They will look down on piloting a wasp-shaped frontline mech."

Ves crossed his arms. "Then that is their business. I can only work on so many projects at a time. They can wait until I release a humanoid Carmine mech like their third-class counterparts. Besides, if you are really concerned about this problem, then your Association can impose a demand that they acquire training certifications that proves they are competent enough to pilot anything more complex than a frontline mech."

"That is an interesting suggestion. We will take it under advisement. Our Association will have to draft an extensive set of legislation around Carmine mechs alone. First-raters will be especially difficult to please. The notion that they must condescend to piloting simplified versions of mechs is an insult to them. They will demand that we supply them with a Carmine version of a proper first-class multipurpose mech."

Ves rolled his eyes. "I am not ready to design a big mech like that. Also, first-class mech pilots have to meet a punishing amount of requirements in order to earn the qualifications to make use of those bad boys. Their genetic aptitudes have to be either A or B, and they need to cram a huge amount of knowledge in their heads. Then they also have to practice their skills until they have reached excellent proficiency in the use of at least two dozen weapon systems and a bunch of auxiliary modules. How can first-class norms possibly cram 15 years worth of high-intensity training in just a few months?"

"It's not possible." Jovy plainly stated. "The virtual mechs that first-raters have purportedly mastered through years of gaming are nothing compared to the real thing. The degree of automation and simplification of those advanced mechs are by far the highest. Even if you release a first-class multipurpose Carmine mech tomorrow, our Association will never permit amateurs to recklessly play around them. Their energy levels are too high. Their ordnance is too destructive. Professional training is mandatory in order to legally pilot any first-class mech. As far as we are concerned, this rule should be extended to first-class Carmine mechs as well."

If that was the case, then there was enough justification for a first-class variant of the subordinate mech to exist.

There were definitely a lot of busy and impatient mech fanatics among the first-raters. Ves was not afraid that no one would bite.

After a bit more discussion, the three mutually agreed to go ahead with the expanded version of the Swarm Project.

Ves had cleared out most of his design schedule in favor of spending most of his time on this expansive and ambitious rush job.

Aside from his existing commitments to the Amaranto Mark III Project, the Riot Mark III Project and a few other minor obligations, there were no other design projects that could distract him from designing his first proper set of Carmine mechs!

"I take it that the two of you intend to participate in the Swarm Project." Ves said.

"We would be happy to help if you are willing to have us." Jovy said with a smile. "It is a great honor to be able to work on the very first public Carmine mech. Our names will be in the history books. That said, if you prefer to work with Master Mech Designers, you can say so. I can check whether they are available and willing to collaborate with you on this unprecedented design project."

"That won't be necessary, Jovy. I want to retain as much control over this project as possible. I don't mind too much about letting other highly competent mech designers take the lead in subsequent Carmine mech designs, but the first one has to be a strong representation of my work and my design philosophy. It will serve as the base and the starting point for a brand new category of mechs."