[201-400] THE MECH'S TOUCH

Chapter 222: Eternal Edition

Ves successfully blended his new vision onto a very slightly tweaked design. With this, the Caesar Augustus Eternal Edition should be ready for fabrication once he got the raw materials.

This time, Ves had to wince as he ordered another batch of materials to add to his existing orders. Compressed armor always used up more exotics. With the rising cost of resources, his total cost had ballooned to 50 million credits!

"I can barely make a profit out of this model if I only charge a normal price."

At least he gained something from this effort. His understanding of this old design had deepened, which should prove useful for his next project.

With two Eternal Editions down, Ves turned his attention to the third design, a comech variant of the Caesar Augustus. Having worked on several different variants of this design gave him a unique impression of what it could do.

"It's a mech designed for heroic leaders. It's not a coincidence the coating is brilliant white. This mech is designed to inspire."

While that sounded great, Ves put some questions on whether this scenario actually occurred since the model's release.

What mech designers cook up in their imagination might not translate into practical designs. The Caesar Augustus embodied this phenomenon. The model became larger than life due to the hopeful dreams that propelled its design. In a certain perspective, it represented a high note of the last generation of mechs.

Figuring this out reignited his own passion and love for mech design. He summed up the underlying intent of this design. "Mechs don't always have to be realistic. What's wrong with a little fantasy?"

Granted, such a naive approach to mech design rarely led to critical success. The mech market centered around fulfilling their practical demands such as delivering high performance for a reasonable cost. The bloated Caesar Augustus failed to reach the heights its designer originally aimed for, and suffered for it upon its debut.

Ves wanted to chart his own path.

The Mark II had been designed with practicality and cost-efficiency in mind, while the Caesar Augustus revolved around hope. Ves wished to design a variant that embodied his own ideals instead of adhering to the demands of the market or the original designer.

An inkling of magnitude crept up in his mind. Ves faintly realized this decision affected his design philosophy. Even though Ves only grasped a glimpse of what seniors and masters referred to as design philosophy, he knew its development formed the key to advancing to their level.

"The way these people talk about design philosophy makes it clear it's not about mentality alone." Ves surmised after he recalled the few instances where older mech designers stressed the importance of developing a design philosophy. "It involves some sort of higher state of being."

Ves had the sense that it functioned similar to the X-Factor and that it involved some sort of metaphysics. From what he heard, a well-developed design philosophy enabled a mech designer to develop a design that functioned beyond the boundaries of common science. The more advanced Journeyman-level textbooks occasionally hinted at such.

"Design philosophy and the X-Factor may even be different roads that lead to the same destination. Is this why AIs haven't taken over the job of designing mechs?" He mused.

The technology to allow computers to design mechs on their own existed for a long time. Even then, it never caught on. Design philosophy should be one of the main reasons why AIs could never match a human mind.

"Enough distractions."

Ves shook his head and turned his attention back to his design. For his third model, Ves wanted to embody his own principles. So far, his principles aspired to bring mechs to life.