Designing an armor sche for a ch took a lot of skills and knowledge. Ves was frankly impressed by the young Jason Kozlowski’s work in making the armor of Caesar Augustus look majestic while still doing its job. Of course, he also enjoyed limitless resources and help. With an abundance of processing power, Jason could easily layer the armor plates in a way that minimized the gaps.
Ves lacked a room full of processors ready to solve any problems by brute force, but the ch Designer System ca with its own perks. The Designer offered a number of simulations that showed how certain sections responded to laser fire or other types of damage. It simulated a ch’s maximum capacity for damage. It also had a tool that showed how to disable the ch with the least amount of effort.
Using these aids saved Ves a lot of effort. Together with his newly gained diumweight Armor Optimization I sub-skill, he felt competent enough to start his job as an armorer. Rather than copying Jason’s armor contours, Ves decided to remove most of it and start from the bare minimum, only keeping the ingenious ways Jason and his helpers kept the joints protected.
He started with the legs. For chs, legs not only provided movent, they made sure the ch stayed stable. While the ch’s engines devoted most of its power to supporting the legs, the limbs had to bear the entire ch’s weight in addition to its own armor. The ch’s legs were absolutely crucial to a ch’s operation. Crippling even one of them might immobilize a ch, effectively achieving the sa results as killing it. Protecting the legs was a top priority.
The Caesar Augustus enjoyed luxurious armor on its legs. National Aeromotives knew their business when they developed its proprietary armor. It offered excellent protection at a decent weight. Now Ves sohow had to keep his Marc Antony’s legs protected while not piling up too much armor. Excessive bulk reduced a ch’s flexibility and speed.
"The Marc Antony is a spear that breaks through obstacles. It needs mobility more than armor. The legs has to facilitate a charge. It doesn’t need to be excessively nimble. The Antony doesn’t pretend to be a light ch in that regard."
The Marc Antony featured slightly thicker armor, especially on its front axis. While it made the legs vulnerable to crippling strikes from the rear, it could take about 75% of a beating the base model’s legs could endure. This was already very generous considering the enormous differences in price between Ves’ newly acquired HRF and the original armor plating.
Next ca the torso. The core of any ch, it features by far the most space for its systems. The cockpit, power reactor and engines all resided in the torso. This placed unparalleled importance on its protection, especially with regards to shielding the pilot inside.
chs were expensive, but potentates were rarer. Only 3.5% of the total population of humans possessed the potential to pilot a ch, but not everyone of them actively pursued a military career. chs could be gained fairly easy by spending enough credits, but pilots represented a limited resource that replenished slowly. Thus most countries treated pilots like gold but chs like silver. The armor sches of most chs reflected this demand, making it the thickest part of their armor.
In keeping up with the Marc Antony’s indomitable intent, Ves beca bold when working on the torso. He pursued aggressive lines that largely mirrored Jason’s own sche, but added more bulk to the lower torso and shaved a bit of armor from the upper torso.
The upper torso of a ch usually housed the cockpit and so other delicate components that could fit by the side. Surrounded by the shoulders and arms, it took a lot to excavate the cockpit from the heavily armored chest. The lower torso housed the power reactor and engines. Their central position ensured energy and motive power could flow in all directions of a ch equally. Naturally, not all chs followed this sche. So lighter chs such as the Fantasia 2R swapped the positions around.
In the Marc Antony’s case, Ves decided keeping its engines and power reactor working his main priority. The mobility of the ch must not be compromised. The cockpit still enjoyed adequate protection, but not to the exaggerated extent of the base model. The cockpit’s frontal protection got reduced by as much as 50%, an inevitability considering the HRF armor plating’s lack of exceptional attributes. Layering too many plates on top of each other not only wasted Ves’ armor budget, it also threatened to upset the ch’s balance.
Still, considering the HRF’s much cheaper cost, it was a price worth paying in so situations.
Ves spent so ti with the rear torso, but not too much except for thickening it a little bit. The Caesar Augustus possessed above average rear armor, but if Ves replaced it the sa thickness in HRF plating, he’d turn the Marc Antony in a ch with its rear section dangerously naked. He had no choice to bulk up the rear, choosing to incorporate so subtle angles that helped deflect damage aid at the cockpit or engines, but otherwise keeping it plain.
The shoulders deserved special attention. Jason’s CA-1 employed shoulder launchers for long-ranged missiles. This wasn’t anything unusual for ch designers who wanted to offer a long-ranged solution to round out their ch’s deficiencies in that area, but Jason very clearly half-assed the attempt. The Caesar Augustus was not a ch that specialized in lengthier engagents at longer ranges, so it carried no room for additional missiles. In short, the launchers only fired the missiles in its tubes before they beca useless ornants.
He considered removing them. Sure, the launchers were relatively small and light, and didn’t hinder the ch’s mobility all that much. On the other hand, it added little firepower beyond its initial salvo and the addition of the system and its chs ant its logistical footprint grew larger than what could be justified.
"Well, it’s not like anyone has to stick to these missiles. They can easily change them to sothing to their liking."
These days, missile systems beca a lot more standardized than in the past, where each manufacturer used different sizes to monopolize the sale of refills. The missile launchers employed by Jason ca from a reputable manufacturer, so plenty of missile types could fit in. Shorter ranged missiles that lacked sophisticated guidance options packed a lot of punch, which might be crucial when employed with great timing.
He spent a lot of ti refining the torso before moving on to the arms. Most humanoid chs employed arms as their primary weapon platform. They required protection from harm due to their essential role in a ch’s offense, but they also had to retain their nimbleness in order to operate their weapons as smoothly as real human arms.
Regarding the use of arms, ch designers generally chose from three different options. One was to keep the arms articulated like a human’s, letting the ch depend on external weapons like pistols and rifles. Great importance is placed on mimicking the arms to its biological equivalent, sotis achieving a synchronization of up to 99%. This allowed marksn to fire their weapons as accurately as they could in real life without depending on aim assist and other guided aids, which provides a remarkable advantage in certain tis.
Another route was to embed weapons in the wrists. Usually smaller and less powerful than handheld weapons, it kept the arms free to wield weapons while simultaneously offered additional firepower without detrintally affecting weight and carrying capacity all that much. However, such weapons systems needed to be fed energy or other resources from the torso. Accommodating these needs weakened the arms internally and created more weak points. The wrist-mounted weapons also unbalanced the arms and made hand-mounted weaponry less accurate.
The third, most extre way of employing arms was to replace the lower arm or even the entire arm for a dedicated weapon emplacent. This made chs lose the ability to hold external equipnt, but they gained a powerful weapon affixed to a stable platform. ch designers generally regarded these designs as trying to marry a tank into a ch. Such a solution is generally employed on frontline mass production models. Larger ch Corps made the best use of large numbers of uniformly equipped chs and also had the most need for large-caliber weaponry that the weapon arms usually affixed.
In the case of the Caesar Augustus, Jason went with the wrist-mounted weapons. The laser cannons were actually high quality weapons even in the current generation. They provided a substantial amount of short-to-dium ranged firepower as long as the ch’s energy lasted. They did have a tendency to overheat the ch, and with Ves’ HRF replacing the base model’s heat-resistant armor, the Marc Antony had a much smaller capacity to absorb the heat. Ves could only tune down the cannons to a lower default setting, allowing it to last a little longer.
The base model employed a sword and a shield as the ch’s lee weapon. This lowered the demand for articulation, so Ves happily bulked up the arms in order to improve its armor and heat absorption. It stiffened the arms, but Ves did not place excessive demands on the ch’s accuracy. Its laser cannons remained effective in dium range, only having trouble in closer ranges due to the ability for lighter chs to circle swifter than a ch’s ability to rotate.
This left Ves with the armants. Made with the sa materials as the armor, the heavy shield could endure a lot of damage at an acceptable weight. The valiant-looking sword possessed enough qualities to cut through enemy armor when it was treated slightly differently at the end of the manufacturing process.
Ves wouldn’t be able to retain the original shield’s design. It offered too little protection for too much weight. At its current state, Ves could either increase or decrease the size of the shield.
"The HRF plating is cheap, so I should employ the shield as a disposable object. The Marc Antony’s main feature is its ability to charge and break through the enemy line, so I’ll make it longer and thicker."
With the Designer’s helpful tools, he reconstructed the bulky kite shield of the base model into a longer and slightly thicker tower shield. Taking inspiration from the equipnt of the historical Ancient Ro, Ves emulating the iconic curved rectangular shields. When held in its ard position, the ch could cover almost the entire ch’s length, protecting it from the knees to the lower half of its head. The specific length prevented the lower edge of the shield from bumping into terrain and also left the ch’s eyes unobstructed by the upper edge.
The shield turned out to be incredibly heavy and was difficult to move, but it also covered a lot more area so it didn’t need to. Made entirely out of cheap HRF plating, pilots wouldn’t feel any heartache when they threw it away if it sustained too much damage or if the ch required a burst of speed. Ves was highly satisfied with the end result. The big rectangular shield fit heavy infantryn more than cavalry, but Ves didn’t bother reconciling these contradictions. He only borrowed the Ancient Roman the to make his ch look cooler.
As for the weapon, the HRF was distinctly unsuited to serve as a sword material. Its composition focused fully on frontal protection, and couldn’t retain an edge suitable for bladed weaponry. It also broke much easier when struck hard. He’d either have to change to a different weapon or keep the arm empty.
"The HRF only excels at cost."
Ves took the sa approach as with the shield. He bulked up the ch’s weapon and didn’t bother adding any edge. He eventually ended up with a short mace with a bulky rounded end. Since the ch already carried quite a bit of weight from its armor and shield, Ves hadn’t opted for sothing larger like a hamr or staff. Despite the mace’s simple looks, it still dealt a fair bit of damage if the pilot put its weight behind its attacks.
"It kind of sucks. Too bad I can’t afford another production license."
Even the virtual licenses cost too many credits for Ves to bother buying them. He had to hoard money for now in preparation for producing a real ch.
Only the head remained now. In modern chs, the head housed the best sensors of a ch. It was a rather poor position for sothing so important. It stuck out too much. However, most humanoid chs retained the head due to pilots massively preferring their main view to co from such an elevated position. chs that hadn’t bothered with heads and moved their main sensors to the torso, the so-called ’Pangu’ types, never really caught on in the market.
The Caesar Augustus featured an ornate head design that appealed to Jason’s aesthetics. It housed fairly good sensors behind enough armor and embellishnts to make them difficult to pick off by a stray shot. Ves hadn’t ssed around with the head too much, but he did add a dramatic touch by adding a vertical helt crest, much like the cool helts worn by the soldiers of Ancient Ro and Greece.
For its plu, Ves embedded the small Festive Cloud Generator at its neck. With so creative plumbing, he ensured the cloud generator’s red vapor to erupt from the head crest in an even fashion. He put enough power in the ejection of vapor that it held onto its semicircular shape in the wind even if the ch moved around.
Having finished working on the exterior, Ves stepped back and beheld the entire ch. It matched what Ves envisioned for the Marc Antony. A dium ch carrying a heavy shield to facilitate its tendency for head-on and charges and collisions. Discarding the shield allowed the ch to regain its mobility, enhancing its maneuverability in lee combat and leaving a hand free for a spare pistol or knife.
Despite the long hours of fiddling with armor plates and figuring out the best arrangents, Ves enjoyed the entire process with the enthusiasm of a kid trying a new toy. The Designer’s many tools allowed him to waste less ti with boring calculations, leaving him more ti to utilize his sharpened creativity to co up with aggressive designs. His work culminated in a ch that embodied Ves’ intent of aggression, montum, burst power and a little bit of flamboyance.
Whilst Ves expected the armoring process to be the most challenging job, his thod of channeling his intent while he made his designs paid off. He was sure that others could have done a much better job, but he did a decent enough attempt that he could confidently say he hadn’t wasted his ti.
"Now, it’s ti to revisit the internals."
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