The Mech Touch novel Chapter 4387

One of the greatest advantages of humanoid mechs was that they could change their external equipment with minimal fuss.

It was not an advantage that the Larkinson Clan utilized often. Ves designed most of his mechs with a singular purpose in mind where they only had to do great in their own intended roles.

There was nothing wrong with this approach, but the emergence of mechs such as the latest generation of Bright Warriors showed that there was still a huge amount of value in providing more choice of loadouts.

From a mech designer's perspective, the ability for humanoid mechs to utilize their limbs to grab any pieces of equipment they could was the oldest modular mech system in existence.

The modular connection system was virtually universal, allowing for any mech to pick up any weapon or gear no matter whether their purposes matched.

A rifleman mech could theoretically hold a tower shield while a swordsman mech could wield a cannon.

The mechs might even be able to achieve acceptable results under the right circumstances!

However, there was a big difference in being able to hold a weapon and being able to utilize it well!

If Ketis wielded a sword, then she could probably slaughter an entire infantry battalion by herself!

However, if she was armed with an assault rifle instead, then it was questionable whether she could defeat an infantry squad!

The same dynamic applied to mechs.

Mechs designed for melee combat usually featured great mechanical strength but did not possess enough stability and fine control to facilitate accurate shooting.

Mechs designed for ranged combat were the opposite in this regard.

What was relevant in this case was that rifleman mechs and cannoneer mechs were not identical to each other.

Perhaps laymen assumed that they were almost exactly the same and only truly differed by the size of their primary armaments, but there were many deep and fundamental differences in their designs.

Rifleman mechs occupied the middle ground among ranged mechs. They were decently fast, accurate, agile and possessed good staying power.

Cannoneer mechs leaned towards the more hard-hitting and cumbersome side of ranged mechs. Their mobility was usually low to average but their armor was a bit better to compensate for their lower evasion ability.

Mechs such as the Eternal Redemption line designed for the Penitent Sisters also featured large to monstrously-sized cannons.

While heavy artillery mechs generally relied on multiple cannons to sustain a high consistent output of damage, cannoneer mechs expressly relied on one immensely powerful gun to deliver piercing shots.

While big and heavy cannons most certainly had their uses, they were not as accurate or as efficient as smaller and more controllable rifles. It was difficult to maintain perfect accuracy at long range unless the target was a fortress or a huge and lumbering starship.

Therefore, different ranged mechs equipped with different weapons generally excelled in diverging modes of combat.

Rifleman mechs just happened to be the most popular in both spaceborn and landbound combat due to their excellent combination of traits.

Cannoneer mechs were less common but there were certain mech forces that succeeded in maximizing their value.

When Ves studied this topic on the galactic net, he found that cannoneer mechs worked best in large, set piece battles like the previous engagement.

That was because there were a lot of rigid formations and large, static targets such as orbital space fortresses where the cannoneer mechs could unleash their firepower without worrying too much about missing their shots.

Their huge but relatively inefficient cannons would not waste their firepower in such a target-rich environment!

However, cannoneer mechs performed progressively worse when the scale of an engagement grew smaller.

Their lack of flexibility and other faults increasingly weighed them down.

All of this was interesting information and helped him put the Amaranto's second weapon into context.

Ves gained a much clearer idea on how he wanted to expand the masterwork expert mech's weapon options.

"The Instrument of Vengeance rifle is a good general purpose sniper rifle for a marksman mech. It is already sufficient against most targets, but it still has trouble with taking down the biggest or the most well protected targets."

The Amaranto's current weapon was not a sieging weapon and it didn't have to function like one. Ves originally envisioned it as a powerful precision weapon that could take down its targets by focusing on their weak points.

This was why the weapon integrated the resonating exotic known as Opticonium. The express purpose of this exotic was to enable the Amaranto to bend its energy beams, which would enable Venerable Stark to avoid the strongest frontal protection of her targets and strike their weaker sides instead!

However, there were situations in battle where precision and flexibility couldn't cut it anymore.

Replacing a sniper rifle with a cannon provided Venerable Stark with a different set of advantages that worked especially great against large astral beasts such as the Titania or alien warships like the ones that regularly roamed the deep frontier!

In fact, granting the Amaranto the ability to effectively deal with non-human enemies was the primary reason why Ves decided to embrace the cannon as the basis of its second weapon.

"This way, the Amaranto can still stick to the Instrument of Vengeance rifle when fighting against human mech forces but switch over to its new cannon when fighting against alien forces.

The indigenous alien races still fought their battles in a similar fashion to humanity before the Age of Mechs.

Warships and large guns were ubiquitous among their warfleets. Though it was not unheard of for certain alien races to employ small craft such as starfighters, their roles were often supportive in nature.

"In short, it is better to carry a bigger gun in battle that can more effectively overcome the thick hull plating of the most threatening warships." Ves concluded. pand(a-n0vel.c)om

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