Ves appreciated the Valkyrie Huntress variant quite a lot. Whoever developed it provided him with a ready-made concept. If the Hex Army succeeded in leveraging its potential, then he would have all the information he needed to design sothing better for the Larkinson Clan.
The potential power of the Valkyrie Huntress was quite considerable. While the Valkyrie Redeer was a lot more flashy, swooping straight down into a large formation of Fridayman chs was bound to cause so attrition! The Huntress variant was a lot safer because the lethality of ranged combat was not as high.
The potential value of the Valkyrie Huntress made him reconsider his stance towards variants.
Designing an original ch was incomparable to designing a variant. ch designers gained much more out of doing the forr than the latter.
Yet that did not an that variants were worthless. On the contrary. Sotis they might even surpass the original ch model.
When it ca to ch designs with fairly common traits, it was common for competitors to copy the works. Sotis, they were worse, but the ones that mattered either represented sidegrades or upgrades.
Sidegrades weren't necessarily better than the original design, but they were still worth developing due to the different options it presented.
The Valkyrie Huntress was an excellent example of one. By changing the offensive capabilities of the Valkyrie Redeer, the ranged variant presented Hexer ch pilots with a very useful alternative.
"Now, even a ranged specialist can pilot a Valkyrie ch!"
Best of all, Ves didn't have to spend more than a small portion of his day to stabilize the spiritual foundation of the ch.
This was a very cost-effective transaction in his book.
"My design ti is limited. If I want to keep progressing, I can't waste too much of my ti on reinterpreting the sa chs over and over again."
He considered designing variants and designing successors of his existing models to be too ti-consuming. Yet they were too valuable for him to give up on entirely.
It would be great if he could completely off-load their developnt to other ch designers, not just his assistants but also external ch designers!
Perhaps in the future, he could start so kind of program whereby third-party ch designers were allowed to present their variants to the LMC. As long as their variants were useful enough, Ves would spend his ti on them to restore their spiritual foundation to the best possible condition so that they would still retain much of their glow!
"If the drop in glow efficiency doesn't exceed 20 percent, hardly anyone will notice I think."
This way, he could benefit from more situations like the one he was in right now. The modern ch industry was fairly open and largely revolved around sharing knowledge, know-how and designs.
By adopting a possessive and overly-insular stance towards his own designs, Ves missed out on this interaction. Now that he started to interact with both Fridayman and Hexer Master ch Designers through his designs, he realized he may need to open himself up to the wisdom of other ch designers.
Of course, Ves knew that he was in a rather exceptional circumstance right now. It wasn't every day that a Journeyn got schooled by a bunch of Masters!
What was even more important was that his interaction with these high-ranking ch designers was both cooperative and competitive.
Hostile ch designers such as Master Olson and Master Katzenberg drove him to redy the flaws of his design philosophy.
Friendly ch designers were able to point out several areas of improvents while simultaneously taking over the burden of developing variants.
In either case, Ves derived nurous benefits that he wouldn't be able to obtain so easily by himself.
As his thoughts on this matter shifted, he directed his attention to the final variant developed by the Hexers.
[Valkyrie Hurricane - VR-HU-01]
The final variant gave up space combat capabilities in order to improve its fighting performance in the air. While the base model was already decent at tussling against enemy aerial chs, the Valkyrie Hurricane excelled at dogfighting.
Ves admired the way the designer of the Valkyrie Hurricane vastly improved its aerial maneuvering capabilities. The ch also gained so minor tweaks that considerably improved its ability to fight up close against other aerial chs.
The drop in glow efficiency for this variant was 15 percent, which was rather moderate.
In total, each of the 5 variants the Hexers ca up with were impressive in their own right.
He found it interesting that the Hex Army demanded variants that excelled at fighting in a single environnt. The Valkyrie Interceptor and the Valkyrie Hurricane straightforwardly gave up their versatility in order to obtain a moderate boost when fighting in a single environnt.
"It makes sense for the huge Hex Army to pursue this degree of specialization."
The performance gains from specialization trumped the logistical advantages of relying on flexible ch designs.
Only smaller forces with limited manpower and carrier capacity preferred to adopt the latter approach. Ves always found it rather annoying that he had to split his own ch forces up into landbound and spaceborn forces. In most cases, this ant that the Larkinson Clan could only effectively deploy half of its total combat strength in any given battle!
Therefore, Ves still hadn't given up on his goal to provide his clan with multi-environntal chs.
"Our circumstances are different."
That said, he still recognized the value of mono-environntal chs. They were cheaper, less complex, offered more capacity and were easier to pilot. Custors obtained substantially more value for their money if they employed the chs correctly.
Once he reviewed the work he perford for a final ti, he transmitted them back to Gloriana.
Hopefully, the Hex Army would begin to field the new variants soon. Ves genuinely looked forward to seeing whether the reduction in glow efficiency materially impacted the performance of the new chs. He also wanted to see whether any of the variants lived up to their promise.
"They should, since they're clearly developed by the best." Ves guessed.
Witnessing the work of Master ch Designers fueled his yearning to reach their level. He knew he still had a long way to go before he was able to realize his design philosophy, but that day would certainly co.
His eyes burned hot with ambition.
"I can't slow down!"
In the final mont before the combined fleet reached the Cinach System, Ves quickly checked whether he had missed anything.
Ves took out the finished wedding rings he prepared a few days ago. He smiled as he admired his craftsmanship.
The rings no longer looked as bare and plain as before. Ves weaved in so layers of Unending Alloy and other exotics. The elegant curves and the distinguishable tals gave the rings a sophisticated look. It looked pleasing without making it seem it was trying too hard.
Three small jewels were recessed in each ring. These were the portions of the Unstable Chaos Essence gems he successfully split up so ti ago. He made sure to perform this experint remotely on another ship.
It turned out that the gems didn't necessarily explode when they were parted. At the very least, the Unstable Chaos Essence gems were actually a bit more stable than he thought.
This was good, as Ves did not believe they would blow up anyti soon.
It was also bad because it was harder than he thought to draw out the energy locked within the pieces. So far, the gems only served an ornantal purpose.
While Ves was fine with this outco, he was greedy for more. Fortunately, he developed a possible plan to make the gems useful. He just had to reunite with Gloriana first so that he could proceed to harvest a small portion of her spiritual energy.
His only regret was that he failed to turn his rings into masterworks. While the base quality level of the wedding bands were already high after he borrowed so of Master Willix's production equipnt, he was not a professional ring-maker.
"Well, I hope Gloriana won't mind that much." Ves hoped.
Once he completed his check, he was satisfied that he hadn't missed anything.
As long as no further problems erged, Ves expected his wedding to proceed smoothly.
Since Gloriana told him that a large number of guests had traveled to Cinach, Ves decided to et with Calabast in order to get any insight on them. He knew that many of the foreign visitors probably wanted sothing from him. Perhaps he might be able to make so new deals.
"So what do I need to know first?" He asked after summoning Calabast to his stateroom.
His spymaster sat down on his coach. "Ever since you conducted your last press conference, you've gained the attention of a lot more powerful forces. I'm sure you know why. What's important is that we have received nurous offers to form an alliance or cooperative relationship."
"Our clan is independent." He said. "I have no intentions of forging too many lasting bonds in this part of the galaxy. We'll be leaving in the near future anyway."
"I know. I'm not talking about that. These offers are different from the ones that only aim to take advantage of you. They co from powers or organizations that are also aiming to travel to the Red Ocean."
Now that caught his attention!
"Tell more."
"It's no secret that you have earned an astronomical amount of rits through your recent exploits. Just bringing back the Gravada Knarlax and her escort warships is enough to signal that you're tens of millions rits richer. This ans that you have beco a very attractive choice to those who also desire to travel to the Red Ocean."
Ves sowhat expected this to happen, but not so quickly and to this extent. "Are these potential partners worth our ti?"
"So of them are, or I wouldn't have brought up this topic. There are different family clans, companies and even noble houses who are all accomplished in their own right. For different reasons, they also wish to climb up the ladder by scrambling for gains in the Red Ocean. It's just that earning 100 million MTA rits is a tall order for any second-class organization."
"Even the Wodin Dynasty?"
She grinned. "Yes. So of these powerful individuals or organizations propose to bring in additional partners. By splitting the burden at least five ways, every partner only has to contribute 20 million MTA credits at most. Of course, if you can contribute more, you'll get more say in the partnership."
"This.. doesn't sound very attractive to . You know I don't like to surrender control."
"How else do you plan to earn more rits, Ves? Will you take on another high-risk mission like now? Our clan won't easily jump into the abyss the next ti. Not after suffering such traumatic losses."
"This…" Ves grimaced. "I'll find a way. There are peaceful ans of earning a lot of rits, you know."
Calabast obviously didn't have faith in this course of action. "It doesn't hurt to try, but the clock is ticking. I believe it is worth reaching the Red Ocean sooner by joining forces with other powerful partners. You won't have to work yourself to bone to earn a huge amount of rits.
He could see the logic in her suggestion. With almost 40 million MTA rits under his belt, it was already viable for him to partner up with at least two roughly-equal partners. Not only would he be able to skip a lot of effort, he might also obtain other benefits from cooperating with a strong ally.
When it ca to trying to explore a completely unknown frontier like the Red Ocean, traveling together with others might be better!
Of course, Ves had to be able to trust his potential partners. This was always a big hurdle to him. He didn't want to expose himself and his clan to betrayal.
"Tell about the most interesting offers."
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