After studying the performance of both expert chs and the standard chs that confronted them, Ves gained a much better idea on how to balance out the Fearless Project's performance paraters.
Of course, he could not derive all of his conclusions from the Battle of Fordilla Zentra alone. This battle may be representative of the galactic rim, but the caliber of opponents in the Red Ocean was considerably higher!
"There's also aliens to consider!"
It was difficult to account for alien forces. There were so many different species that all fought according to vastly different paradigms. They also relied on warships to wage war.
Against enemies like these, it was best to either run away from them as fast as possible! If that wasn't possible, then the Larkinson Army needed to bring as much firepower to bear as possible in order to pound alien warships into scrap!
Ves shook his head. "I'll consider them later. There shouldn't be too many alien warfleets roaming around in conquered territory."
Human enemies were much more nurous and threatening to the Larkinson Clan. If his people couldn't even survive against human aggressors, then it was useless to think about defending against alien threats!
He conducted further research into combat between expert chs and standard chs.
He mainly sought out recent footage of such confrontations that had taken place in the Red Ocean.
Even though the dwarf galaxy had only opened up relatively recently, the friction between different pioneering organizations had already produced many different clashes!
The chs involved in these battles were clearly superior than that of the chs employed in the Fordilla Zentra. The heartland-level chs all incorporated superior parts and materials that granted them a comprehensive advantage against rim-level chs.
Though the Larkinson Clan already obtained limited access to superior tech and resources during its productive stay in Vulit, Ves knew he still needed to close the gap by raising the design budget of his Fearless Project.
After a bit of wrangling, he decided to aim high and set a generous figure.
"The Fearless Project won't be a pushover if it has an average production cost of around 4 MTA credits."
This made the Fearless Project substantially more expensive than the Bright Warrior. Its latest iteration had a design budget of 500 million hex credits, which was roughly equivalent to 2.6 MTA credits.
By spending more money on the Fearless Project and completely dedicating it to ranged combat against expert chs, Ves hoped that this ambitious design project would truly beco a permanent staple in the Larkinson Army's ch roster.
He glanced at the loose sketch of his rifleman ch's contours and decided to fatten it up a little.
"A little extra armor will force enemy expert chs to consu more energy and effort to eliminate them." He determined.
Just because any expert ch could easily slice, crush or shoot apart standard chs didn't an that it was useless to bolster the defenses of the latter!
The tougher the target, the more an expert ch had to put serious effort into destroying the annoying flies!
Over the course of a battle, this not only left the expert ch with less resources to defeat other expert chs, but also kept more of the standard chs alive since they couldn't be destroyed as quickly!
To that end, Ves began to sketch out an armor sche that uniquely suited the needs of the Fearless Project.
He bolstered its frontal armor to a substantial degree and did not hesitate to sacrifice its side and rear armor to stay within his mass limit.
The rationale for amping up its frontal armor was simple. The rifleman chs would mostly be engaging their targets from a respectable distance. This ant that it was unlikely for the rifleman chs to get attacked from the flanks.
Even if there were other attackers harassing the Fearless Project from different angles, there should be friendly Larkinson machines around in order to handle those threats.
"I can't account for every scenario, but a typical confrontation against an enemy expert ch is not that complicated."
Would the Fearless Project chs still get destroyed by a single attack from an expert ch? Probably. At the very least, they would certainly get crippled after eating a powerful resonance-empowered blow.
Yet expert pilots weren't able to unleash resonance-empowered attacks without limit! It took quite a lot of ntal strain to form true resonance with an expert ch, so even they would get exhausted if they had to launch the sa powerful attacks against a thousand sturdy machines!
"Of course, lee expert chs can just circle around a Fearless Project ch and easily take it out from the side."
That still took a bit of ti and effort though, which ant the Fearless Project's radical armor sche still served its purpose.
As Ves sketched out this change, he began to place a bit more emphasis on the chest and cockpit area of his draft design. He concentrated the most armor in that area in order to make sure that the ch pilot had a higher chance of staying alive!
"I can stomach the loss of these chs, but broken lives cannot never be put back together!"
If an expert ch not only wanted to destroy the Fearless Project chs but also slaughter their pilots, then this powerful foe would have to expend significantly more ti and energy than usual.
As long as the expert pilot wasn't stupid and consud by irrationality, he or she shouldn't waste so much extra effort on killing the people controlling the Fearless Project chs.
Anyone who did do so would just give the Battle Criers a greater advantage by slowing down their loss rate!
As Ves continued to beef up the armor of his draft design, it did not escape his notice that his ch beca more sluggish and less maneuverable.
Typical rifleman chs tended to be maneuverable enough to beco dogfighters. They needed to be light and maneuverable enough to reposition quickly and maneuver around enemies at varying distances.
The Fearless Project gave up this capability due to all of the additional armor plating installed on its front.
"It's almost as sluggish as a cannoneer ch."
Ves still wanted the Fearless Project to be a rifleman ch, though. It needed to retain enough maneuverability to reach its positions in a tily manner and also had to be able to retreat against most incoming enemy units.
He already knew what it was like to handle cannoneer chs on the battlefield. The Eternal Redemption model possessed a lot of firepower but it required a lot of assistance in order to fulfill its job!
The Fearless Project shouldn't need too much babysitting in his opinion. They needed to complete their jobs without involving other precious chs that were better off fighting against other units.
"The entire purpose of this ch is to unburden other chs with the responsibility to fight against expert chs. We can't keep throwing Bright Warriors, Ferocious Piranhas and Valkyrie Redeers against these monstrous machines."
Each of those ch models were much better suited to fight against other chs! None of them were optimized to fight against expert chs quite like the Fearless Project.
Once Ves finished drafting the armor layout of his rifleman ch, he turned his attention to its offensive capabilities.
The luminar crystal rifle was the most important part about the Fearless Project. Without a weapon that was considerably more effective at dismantling resonance shields than the alternatives, it beca a lot more difficult to turn this ch design into an expert ch killer!
As Ves sketched out the luminar crystal rifle, he quickly figured out that it needed at least two different firing modes.
"The luminar crystal rifle needs a rapid-fire mode to make it easier to track and hit maneuverable expert chs. It becos a lot harder to land a hit against an expert ch like the Dark Zephyr if the rifle's firing rate isn't fast enough!"
A faster firing rate was a lot more forgiving to the ch pilots. It made the price of a miss less severe while also making it easier to track a fast-moving opponent.
This was particularly useful for stripping expert chs of their resonance shields.
However, what then?
Expert chs did not solely rely on resonance shields to protect them against massed attacks. Their armor systems were also resilient against lots of ordinary fire!
The problem here was that weak, rapid-fire attacks were substantially less efficient at damaging armor. Harder defenses could easily bounce away weak attacks.
"The luminar crystal rifle needs to be able to switch its firing mode to a hard-hitting setting that can output substantially more powerful energy beams per salvo." Ves determined.
The hit rate of these shots might not be as high as before, but as long as they were powerful enough, a single successful strike could deal significant damage to an expert ch!
In addition, expert chs without the protection of a resonance shield beca vulnerable to crippling strikes.
While their torsos were usually heavily-protected, their flight systems and weapon systems were much more vulnerable to damage!
A viable way for the Fearless Project chs to rapidly render an expert ch ineffective was to focus all of their fire on its flight system. Once its wings beca clipped, the powerful machine could no longer utilize its excellent mobility to evade as many incoming attacks!
"It will beco a lot easier for the Fearless Project chs to concentrate their fire on other specific sections!"
Penetration power was key to this second firing mode. Ves therefore amped up the maximum firepower of the luminar crystal rifle until he could not go further without excessively burdening the Fearless Project.
The result of trying to combine these two potent firing modes in a single weapon was a new luminar crystal rifle that was larger and more massive than the model that the Larkinson chs currently utilized!
Though this rifle model was also capable of inflicting heavy damage against other kinds of chs, that was not the best use of its capabilities.
"The biggest downside to implenting all of these intensive firing modes is that this rifle model will consu a lot more energy!"
There was always a price for everything!
Though Ves tried to make sure his Fearless Project carried a respectable amount of energy cells, there was only so much a rifleman could accommodate.
Unless he was able to get his hands on superior energy cells, the Fearless Project would have a limited upti per deploynt. It might need to return to its mothership and replenish its energy reserves in order to continue participating in large and expansive engagent!
This was certainly not ideal, but as long as the Fearless Project chs managed to fell at least one expert ch during a single deploynt, then this was a worthy tradeoff!
When Ves took a good look at his current draft design, its oversized rifle clearly stood out. Even layn would be able to recognize that this beefy rifleman ch packed a an punch!
"Hm, now that I've designed a new luminar crystal rifle, I should start naming them instead of just settling for calling them by their serial number."
This would certainly not be the last ti he ca up with a new luminar crystal weapon for his ch designs.
After thinking about the role this weapon would play in battle, Ves initially wanted to call it by a na that would leave no question to its purpose.
"Expert ch Killer."
"ow." Lucky swished his tail as the cat looked skeptically at Ves.
"Yeah. That's a bit too blunt. What about Demigod Killer?"
"ow."
"I agree. It actually sounds worse. What about… Saint Killer? That certainly rolls off the tongue a bit better."
"ow ow."
"Well, I guess you're right. If I want to be hyperbolic, I might as well go all the way."
Ves decided to add a new database entry for his yet-to-be-designed luminar crystal rifle.
The na he decided to settle upon for this model?
"Godkiller Heavy Luminar Crystal Rifle."
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