None of the weapons integrated in his hybrid ch were particularly powerful so far, and that was a deliberate design choice on his part.
Ves wanted his hybrid ch to leverage its versatility and massed firepower to overwhelm the opposition.
The general idea was that his hybrid ch would throw everything it had at a target ch all at once and see what worked!
Even if a particular weapon system proved ineffective against a specific enemy, using it still exerted a lot of pressure onto the target ch's defensive systems, so it was not completely useless.
In no way should his hybrid ch ever be put in a situation where none of its weapon systems could harm the opposing machine!
No matter whether it was a blazingly fast light skirmisher or an indomitable knight ch, the versatile arsenal of his hybrid ch should always have an effective solution at hand!
This was one of the defining strengths of the hybrid ch archetype. The ch type traded away the possibility to wield a singular powerful weapon in order to mount multiple smaller ones.
Of course, this also highlighted its weaknesses. There was always a dilemma involved with configuring the weapons loadout of a hybrid ch.
The general rule was that the greater the quantity of weapon systems, the weaker and more constrained they beca.
No hybrid ch could completely escape this dilemma.
This also applied to first-class multipurpose chs, which many people equated to hybrid chs on steroids!
The reason why multipurpose chs beca mainstream at the first-class level was because relying on single weapon systems did more harm than good at that level.
ch combat at this height operated by substantially different rules. The ordinary paradigms that were valid in third-class and second-class combat no longer applied anymore. Extre miniaturization along with the abundant use of high-grade exotics and high technologies allowed many ch designers to avoid a lot of tradeoffs and simply have it all as long as they could afford the exorbitant prices!
Naturally, the hybrid ch that Ves was working on did not co close to matching the standards of first-class multipurpose chs.
This was physically impossible given the rather poor tech and relatively weak materials at his disposal.
Ves even had to fall back to his dormant third-class ch design expertise in order to reduce the load that various design elents exerted onto his ch design!
For example, the compact integrated chest-mounted luminar crystal weapons were able to fire highly efficient laser beams without too much fuss because Ves fell back to outdated third-class luminar crystal technology!
Although it pained Ves a lot to go back in ti and recreate luminar crystals that looked more at ho in the original iteration of the Crystal Lord rather than the upgraded second-class version of this ch line.
It was as if he was a nouveau riche entrepreneur who lived in a mansion, only to go back to living in a rotten shack for whatever reason!
Nonetheless, a mansion and a rotten shack both served their purposes. The latter made more sense in specific circumstances.
In the case of the Twin Weapons Tournant, Ves needed a variation of luminar crystal guns that were compact, low-powered and easy to design and fabricate.
It didn't matter that the luminar crystals he designed for his hybrid ch used a mix of third-class and second-class elents. They were the right tool for the job and that was what mattered the most.
Their burst damage was weak, but Ves believed that their sustained damage was not negligible. It could deal consistent and fairly precise damage onto slower chs at longer ranges.
Better yet, the luminar crystal guns did not drain the energy reserves of his hybrid ch too much.
This made it possible for his hybrid ch to kite slower lee chs over ti. Sure, winning a match by running circles around clumsy chs that did not possess the capacity to retaliate was one of the more pathetic ways to win a ch match, but a win was still a win.
What Ves found the most important was that the integrated luminar crystal weapons possessed enough power and precision to deal serious internal damage to a ch as long as the laser beams struck the frontal weak points of enemy machines.
If not for the existence of these weak points, Ves doubted whether he would have bothered to add these relatively lackluster integrated luminar crystal weapons to his ch design.
After completing this weapon module, he worked on the final weapon system.
As a humanoid ch, the hybrid ch was able to wield one or several handheld weapons.
Ves had considered many different possibilities, but eventually settled for a shotgun.
He had to admit that he was partially inspired by the Mars when he determined the weapon configuration of his competition ch.
There was no way to copy the full experience of piloting an absolute powerhouse ace ch like the Mars. It was packed full of so much advanced technologies and extrely valuable materials that its effective firepower could easily match that of a warship!
Ves did not even see his current ch design as a derivative or a little brother to the Mars. That would be an insult to the masterwork ace ch and strip his current work of its own identity.
The real reason why he opted to pair his hybrid ch with a shotgun was because it truly made the most sense under the circumstances.
His ch design already covered closer ranges with its flathrower and longer ranges with its integrated luminar crystal weapons.
A shotgun rounded out this weapon selection by offering a versatile and fairly powerful weapon that was most effective at dium ranges.
Of course, Ves utilized the term dium range in the context of the arena space inside Spencer Hall. The internal space of this structure was not cramped, but it was hardly the largest ch arena on Davute VII.
A shotgun configured in the right way should pose a decent threat towards light chs as well as other chs as long as they exposed their weak points.
Just as with the other weapon systems, Ves dove into the design of the shotgun and altered it to fit his vision.
Shotguns were fairly low-tech in nature as their basic working principles had roughly remained the sa for many millennia.
Certainly, human technology made a lot of different advances that Ves could apply to the weapon. From loading it with smart ammunition to making it so that it could fire a plasma spray, there were many different ways to spice up the weapon.
Ves had neither the ti nor the inclination to add all of those fancy functions to a simple weapon.
"A basic lightweight option will do the job."
The hybrid ch already carried a lot of different stuff that weighed it down and reduced its available capacity. Equipping it with an oversized shotgun might allow it to blast through thicker armor, but its ability to maneuver quickly in the arena would take too much of a hit as a response.
Ves constantly had to remind himself that he wanted to design an offensive shock unit, not a defensive bulwark. It was fine to sacrifice a bit of firepower in order to make his ch more flighty and nimble.
As such, he first made the shotgun lighter and replaced sturdy and robust materials with more lightweight alternatives. He also removed a few redundant options to shrink it even further.
Though the durability of the weapon took a substantial hit due to his design choices, it turned into a product of beauty.
"The ammunition is a little limited but its firepower makes up for it." Ves determined.
One of the downsides of a shotgun was that its shells were quite bulky and hefty. That was partially where it got its power from. If he wanted to be more frugal about it, he would have equipped his hybrid ch with a lightweight submachine gun, but that did not quite fit his vision for his hybrid ch.
"A submachine gun is an excellent complent to a harasser-style ranged ch, but it doesn't have the shock value of a shotgun."
This was a concept that Ves found important for his competition chs. He did not want them to win their matches by whittling down their targets in battles of attrition.
Lighter and more offense-oriented chs were too fragile and lacking in capacity to excel in this mode of combat.
What he wanted to see instead was his competition chs take over the offensive rhythm of the match from the start and keep overwhelming their targets with attack after attack!
This was a risky approach as his chs would definitely fare much worse as long as they were put on the defensive, but this was a price that he was willing to pay.
"With this many weapons, the chances that my ch will be forced to go on the defensive is slim."
A defensive pair of chs could still outlast his own pair of machines, but the existence of those weak points should make a turtle strategy a lot less effective.
No matter whether the opposing chs defended from their front or rears, they should always have at least one vulnerable side!
"Should I add more weapons to my hybrid ch?" Ves wondered. "I actually have a bit of ti to spare."
He was just too fast compared to his previous self half a year ago. One of the main reasons why he was able to design his ch so quickly was because his artificial cyborg leg actually possessed a smaller copy of his own brain!
This not only allowed him to process data faster, but also made it a lot easier for him to split his attention and work on separate problems at the sa ti!
Ves tallied the current weapon loadout of his hybrid ch.
Shoulder-mounted missile launchers. Wrist-mounted flathrowers. Chest-mounted integrated He decided to go all-in on this crazy and unconventional idea.
The throwing axes he designed were extrely simple and only featured basic alterations to make luminar crystal guns. Handheld shotgun.
"Hahaha! There is so much!"
There shouldn't be another competition in the Twin Weapons Tournant that could match the quantity of weapon systems of his ch design!
If not for the restriction that the ranged ch was not allowed to wield a lee weapon that was greater than a knife, then Ves would have felt tempted to equip his ch with a simple axe.
His eyes suddenly lit up. "Wait a minute. A throwing axe can also be classified as a ranged weapon!"
As long as it was obviously designed to the thrown, Ves should be able to get away with adding it to his design.
Although the addition of one or more throwing axes would significantly weigh down his hybrid ch, Ves didn't care all that much.
His machine just had to throw them all out at the start in order to unload its excess weight as quickly as possible!
He quickly called up the rulebook and skimd through the docunts at a rapid pace.
None of the rules explicitly prohibited the use of throwing weapons.
His grin widened as he imagined his hybrid ch ard with a bandolier of throwing axes.
"Hahahahaha! It's viable!"
He decided to go all-in on this crazy and unconventional idea.
The throwing axes he designed were extrely simple and only featured basic alterations to make them more aerodynamic and stable during 'flight'.
Ves wished that he could spend weeks on testing and optimizing the design of these handheld projectile weapons, but there was not much he could do in this regard.
He deliberately made the axes fairly hefty and thick so that they could definitely inflict significant damage upon a solid hit.
Their flight speeds weren't the best and they could easily be dodged by a fairly maneuverable opponent, but that was fine. The throwing axes could serve as distractions or a ans to cut off the escape route of enemy chs.
In order to prevent the opposition from throwing the axes back, Ves designed a chanism where the shaft automatically separated from the axehead several seconds after getting thrown. This was a fairly simple chanical solution and did not take much ti to integrate in the weapon design.
This ant that only the axe heads should remain after they had been thrown. It was possible to throw them back, but doing so was so difficult and awkward that most enemies simply wouldn't bother.
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