The Larkinson mech was probably one of the most cost-inefficient mechs he ever designed.
Ves felt ashamed at how he let himself go. When presented with difficult design choices, he became more and more inclined to pick the lazy option and rely on his financial superiority rather than his ingenuity in mech design.
"It's as if I was previously rationing my meals because I couldn't afford any better, but then start to gorge myself once I can buy all the food I want!"
From this analogy, Ves was practically binging himself right now! The Larkinson mech became more and more stuffed with wonderful but extremely expensive features!
Fortunately, Ves did not set out to design a commercial mech from the start. Cost efficiency was one of the lowest priorities of a private mech, a mech developed for his own use!
If he was tasked with designing a commissioned mech, then he at least needed to abide by the budget of the client.
"I'm my own client right now." He grinned.
Being able to answer to no one to himself was a liberating experience. Neither the mech market nor the whimsical desires of a capricious client interfered with his demands. He had no need to take the expected product margin into account, nor did he have to add a codpiece onto his mech against his will!
Well, a small part of him wanted to add a subtle 'belt' onto the base platform of the Larkinson mech.
He quickly squashed down that impulse. He was not Vincent Ricklin! He did not need to emphasize his masculinity every second of the day!
Besides, he wasn't designing this mech alone. Gloriana also had a say, though her voice mattered less this time because it was mainly his pet project.
He never lost sight of his goal.
The Larkinson mech was meant to provide as much added value as possible to the Larkinson Clan. The mech had to provide his mech forces with benefits beyond what the market could provide!
This was why he didn't mind that the production cost of the mech rose to astronomic levels. Even with the cost of the Breyer alloy taken out of the equation, the unit price of a single copy might very well exceed the price of an Aurora Titan!
The culprits responsible for ballooning the cost of the mech was the various expensive components and materials Ves had added. While essential components such as the power reactor, flight system and the cockpit failed to attract much attention, they were very expensive compared to other components on the market!
"They're worth it. I don't regret licensing any of these overpriced components!"
All of these goodies served to elevate the Larkinson mech to the limits of third-class mechs or beyond. Ves fully embraced the notion of treating the Larkinson mech as his passion project.
Ves not only wanted to incorporate all of the features and nuances in the Larkinson mech that he refrained from adding to his other designs. He also wanted to take this opportunity a step further and push through some 'spicy' innovations!
In many subtle ways, the Larkinson mech design departed from his previous products by a significant margin. Not even the Deliverer, which was already extreme for a mech design, contained as many radical elements as his current project!
One of the subtler innovations he pushed through was adding various ways for the design spirit to 'nudge' the mech to move or act in a certain direction.
He did so during a design session when he became particularly inspired. He didn't quite know what he was doing, but he was adding several optional control methods to the various components that seemed redundant.
The neural interface was the key. As long as the neural interface outputted a signal from a second source, the mech would obey as long as the first source did not object!
Ordinarily, there was no reason to add these tweaks to the mech design. It added a vulnerability to the mech as the second source could very well take the form of tampering or outside interference!
Nonetheless, Ves believed the chances of that happening were low. The benefits were well worth the risk in his eyes. This was essentially incorporating an innovation that he already applied to the Devil Tiger.
Back then, Ves gave Zeigra, its design spirit, full control over the movements of its tail!
"This time, the control goes beyond just a balancing component."
The tail of a tiger mech only played a marginal role in its functioning. This contrasted sharply with how extensively Ves embedded backdoors throughout the base platform and individual configurations.
He did all of this to provide the Golden Cat with agency on the battlefield!
As the progenitor of the Golden Cat, he believed in his own product. He had faith that the ancestral spirit was completely dedicated to the Larkinson Clan and would never abuse her access to the systems of the Larkinson mech!
That said, Ves made sure the Golden Cat only had enough authority to 'nudge' the mech. Taking over outright control was a step too far even to Ves.
As a principle, the mech pilot should always be in control of the mech. No one else. Not the mech designer, not the mech, not the design spirit should ever interfere with the primacy of the mech pilot!
"A mech is not a mech if the mech pilot is not in control anymore." He muttered.
He dubbed this new feature Ancestral Assistance to reflect that the Golden Cat should only ever play an assisting role. There should never be a case where she would have to take control directly!
"I don't even know if that's even possible." He mused. "It's an interesting experiment, though."
Once he was done with these novel adjustments, he showed off his work to Gloriana as if he was a kid running to his mother.
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