When Ves chose to design a lancer ch for the High Tide Tournant, he knew he would be riding a powerful shuttle that was barely under control.
If he made just a single mistake, his ride could instantly crash into a structure!
"I certainly haven't made things easy for myself." He muttered.
However, the added pressure on his shoulders motivated him to work harder. He beca determined to turn his unusual interpretation for a competition ch into a success!
This was not an easy task. Lancer chs possessed clear strengths but also a number of very obvious shortcomings.
Aside from their difficulty to nail down fast and elusive light chs, their fighting style was also too monotonous. They usually weren't good at anything else outside of launching devastating charges.
The main reason for that was because of the configuration of their ch fras. Due to all of the armoring, cushioning and compensation systems loaded onto their physical forms, there was hardly any space for design elents that increased their agility, their reaction speeds and other traits relevant to close-ranged brawling.
What this ant in practice was that lancer chs usually got their butts kicked by offensive chs such as light skirmishers, swordsman chs or spearman chs!
As long as the opposition was able to dodge or mitigate a charge, their superior dueling capabilities allowed them to quickly dismantle a lumbering lancer ch that had lost its montum!
For these reasons, Ves was very clear about the win condition of his lancer ch.
"First, it has to hit its opponent. Second, it has to make sure this hit is damaging enough to finish the deed."
If he specialized in designing lancer chs, he could probably implent nurous clever systems and solutions that could straightforwardly improve these aspects.
The big problem he faced at the mont was that he didn't possess any relevant technological advantages that could amplify the performance of a lancer ch!
Ves never really minded this absence before, but ever since he worked alongside Ketis, he understood how powerful a relevant specialty could strengthen a ch design in so many ways.
Ves was certain his competitors were in the process of translating their advantages into ch designs with increased battle power, so Ves could not remain behind!
"The solution is to leverage my own specialty into a more effective ch design."
He already planned to do so by turning his lancer ch into a living machine that should interface a lot better with its ch pilot. Yet Ves found it difficult to imagine that these added features could deliver a significant boost in effective performance.
He knew quite well that the greatest advantage of living chs was that they grew over ti and adapted themselves better to their ch pilots. All of this required months or years of continuous use, sothing which was obviously impossible to realize in a ch design tournant that only lasted a single day!
Ves had to leverage his design philosophy in a different way in order to provide his competition ch with an imdiate combat boost.
"I have to implent the right glow." He concluded.
Aside from making a third order living ch, which was virtually impossible for him to do in this challenging setting, only glows were able to make the difference.
The support of the right design spirit not only helped put the ch pilot into a better mindset, but could manipulate various other variables that could shift the course of a battle.
Ves briefly ran his thoughts through all of his available design spirits.
The most obvious option would be to employ the Superior Mother. The Valkyrie Redeer already proved that it was able to make good use of the female ancestral spirit's death aspect.
Yet was it truly the best solution in this context?
He had serious doubts about that. On one hand, the ch pilots in the Red Ocean shouldn't be familiar with his glows. When subjected to a new and sudden ntal influence, they should definitely beco affected, enough for a lancer ch to take advantage of a short opening!
However, there were two reasons why Ves did not have much confidence that this would work this ti.
"The ch pilots employed by a company as powerful as Hysphalin Industries shouldn't be too shabby. Their ntal resilience might not match up against the military ch pilots of powerful states, but they shouldn't be much worse."
Any negative ntal pressure could already impose a significant burden to their performance, but frankly speaking Ves was not sure if it was enough to make a crucial difference.
Rather than gambling on his competition ch's ability to ss with the mind of an opponent, Ves would rather resort to the more reliable option of boosting the performance of his own ch pilot.
As long as the pilot trusted the lancer ch, then he or she would surely fight more effectively.
Ves just had to pick the right glow for this situation.
First, he ruled out the Golden Cat. Technically, he could convince her to temporarily help out a stranger, but it was not the best use of her capabilities. She worked so much better with other Larkinson ch pilots.
More generic design spirits such as the Solemn Guardian, Qilanxo, the Illustrious One or Bravo weren't suitable either. Each of them were quite helpful in their own ways, but none of them provided any solid and concrete benefits to lancer chs.
Part of this was because the glow of his competition ch wouldn't be that strong. Though Ves had improved his ability to design living chs by a lot since he initially broke through to Journeyn, there was only so much he could do for a ch that he had to rush to completion in just 12 hours.
The spiritual foundation of such a hastily-developed ch simply couldn't match up against a project that Ves had been working on for several months.
"What glow is strong enough to make a real difference under all of these limitations?"
In fact, he already had an answer in his heart. He just avoided it because he didn't really like it. He was desperately trying to co up with alternatives in order to evade this obvious solution.
I was too bad he failed in his attempt.
"Trisk might help a ch pilot perform better when moving quickly, but this is too vague of a boost." Ves muttered as he thought about employing the new avian design spirit.
The young speed-oriented design spirit was also too young and underdeveloped for Ves to have confidence in her ability.
He planned to solve that when he designed the second light ch for the Flagrant Vandals, but that would take a couple of months.
For now, he had to opt for a more reliable solution.
In the end, he reluctantly turned his attention back to the only design spirit that possessed a much higher reliability in boosting effective combat performance.
"Ylvaine…" He hissed.
He hated to be reminded about it, but what the so-called Living Prophet told him before he died still rang clear.
Jas Ylvaine claid that Ves would definitely design an Ylvainan lancer ch in the future.
At the ti, Ves did not see why he would ever do so. The Transcendent Punisher concept showed that the Ylvainans could beco the best ranged specialists of the Larkinson Clan. Their ability to borrow Ylvaine's guidance provided them with unparalleled accuracy and judgnt, thereby ensuring that each of their attacks landed in the right places!
Though Ves still thought that the Eye of Ylvaine should beco a ranged ch legion, the idea of adding lancer chs to its ch roster sounded increasingly more compelling over ti.
Ever since Jas initially planted the idea in his mind, Ves simply couldn't ignore the great potential of such a lancer ch.
As a ch designer, he knew that the effectiveness of a lancer ch was actually quite variable. Even against slower and more heavily armored chs, these powerful charging machines could still botch their singular attack attempts if they happened to drive their lances through the wrong sections of opposing chs!
Every ch design was different from each other. They featured varied armor layouts and possessed different damage mitigation properties.
For example, a ch that might not feature the thickest armor may possess a high degree of redundancy and compartntalization. Even if a spear was driving straight through its abdon, the damaged ch would still retain enough functionality to launch counterattacks!
There were also many instances where lancer chs inflicted glancing blows. For example, instead of striking the torso and destroying a number of critical systems, a lancer ch might drive its spear through an arm or a leg.
While a ch certainly lost a lot of strength if it lost a limb, it was not necessarily down for the count!
Lancer chs weren't the only ones who had to pay close attention to where they landed their strikes.
Ranged chs could down a target a lot faster if they struck the weak points. If that wasn't possible, then they should at least be able to gain the upper hand by ensuring that none of heir attacks missed and that every blow avoided the strongest and most resilient surfaces of their opponents.
It didn't matter if a ranged ch misplaced their hits. They could easily fire their weapons multiple tis, so they just had to adjust their aim and make sure the next pull of the trigger dealt more effective damage!
"Lancer chs rarely enjoy second chances." Ves muttered.
They invested most of their efforts on their first and sotis only charge.
Perhaps lancer chs were able to perform subsequent charges in actual battlefields, but in an arena setting there were a lot more constraints!
All of this ant that Ves had to maximize the success rate of its initial charge, and there was no better design spirit for the job than Ylvaine!
Of course, there was no way that the ch pilot provided by Hysphalin System would be a faithful believer of the Great Prophet, but this was not an insurmountable problem. Ves just had to negotiate a quick deal with the intelligent design spirit.
With no better option available to him at the mont, Ves had no choice but to settle for Ylaine as his competition ch's principal design spirit. The only other way he could settle for a different design spirit was if he abandoned his intention to design a lancer ch.
"That's not acceptable."
Ves didn't think he could design a stronger ch for this specific tournant. A lancer ch was a risky choice, but also a powerful one as long as it was able to succeed in its charge attacks!
Once he embraced this design direction, he began to work with gusto. He no longer entertained any doubts and beca fully invested in developing a lancer ch that received guidance from a predictive design spirit.
He browsed the component library and selected a number of appropriate parts. He paid special attention to maintaining a delicate relation between acceleration, defense, impact power and agility.
He had to make a lot of painful tradeoffs in order to increase the ability for his lancer ch to build up montum in a short amount of ti. However, that didn't an that he was willing to design a ch that wasn't even able to shift its direction while building up a charge!
Since the High Tide Tournant allowed the contestants to design either a landbound or aerial ch, his lancer ch had to possess a flight system as well.
"Otherwise, how can my competition ch possibly win against a ch that is hovering above its head?"
Although the addition of a flight system took up a lot of capacity, the increase in thrust provided a lot of advantages to a lancer ch.
Ves had to make a careful selection of flight systems.
"It doesn't have to be efficient or long-lasting. As long as it can give my lancer ch a powerful shove forward, that is all I need!"
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