Master Teresa Norville managed to captivate most of the crowd with her brief but incredibly useful explanation of what her research group managed to uncover about archetech.
The Red Association still retained much of the strengths of the ch Trade Association that it had separated from. It employed many of the best human researchers and benefited from amply funding and resources to conduct their studies.
Not even a new and original tech base such as archetech could withhold its secrets from the hungry researchers of the Red Association.
Perhaps the native aliens of the Red Ocean always struggled a lot in their attempts to reverse engineer archetech, but that was because their starting points were just lower.
Humanity possessed a much more robust and developed scientific community. It also mastered a lot of high technology and other advanced knowledge. It could use its existing base to easily implent a lot of easy solutions on archetech that the aliens had never managed to conceive.
As Master Norville continued to detail the many advancents that the Red Association's researchers had successfully applied, it beca clear that the chers were closer to adapting archetech into chs than expected.
She even unveiled a relatively simple first-class multipurpose ch design that was completely made out of archetech in front of her audience!
A lot of people imdiately tried to decipher the design as much as their own expertise allowed. It beca clear that the vast majority of them couldn't understand it at all. This was because all of the design schematics portrayed large amounts of tal blocks that were sohow pushed together into the vague form of a humanoid machine!
Even the joints and other moving parts looked almost completely alien due to their complete lack of circuitry, power lines, communication lines and traditional structural sub-components.
The only parts that vaguely looked familiar and understandable were the ones that archetech could not fully replicate. The neural interface as well as an extrely potent power reactor were mostly conventional, though they utilized relatively inert archetal as structural reinforcent.
"This is the experintal design of a working prototype 'archech', to use the colloquial term for a ch that is not only predominantly integrated with archetal, but also functions almost entirely through archetech. In order to fit this definition, the entire fra, barring a number of unavoidable exceptions, is completely controlled and powered by electronic resonance."
What an amazing design. Even though it was clearly designed to be as barebones as possible due to the relative lack of modules and weapon systems, it already looked more advanced than the typical ch utilized by first-rate states!
A ch designed with a completely different tech base truly tested the analytical capabilities of ch designers. Many of the professionals in the crowd tried their best to decipher and understand the projected machine.
It was easy enough to figure out what the more obvious blocks of tal were supposed to do. Engines were engines, limbs were limbs and sensors were sensors. Just because they were made out of other materials such as crystal or archetal did not an that they suddenly had to look or behave completely differently.
However, the fact that archetal could perform the role of a lot of conventional components ant that the design offered far less details than Ves would have liked.
Sure, archetal also boasted intricate internal structures that substituted the role of circuitry, but the charm of this material was that it contained many functions that were solely generated by combining different combinations of exotics together in specific ways.
What was so brilliant about archetal was that programming its functions did not necessarily require the exact sa type of materials to make it do anything specific. It could take a large range of exotics, dynamically combine them together and still produce the sa effects, such as releasing a bolt of electricity or making a part glow at a precise luminosity.
All of this ant was that archetech beca fiendishly hard to decipher and figure out if one was not already an expert in their workings.
No matter whether it was a young 30-year old Journeyman or a 300-year old Master, none of them could fully understand how the archech worked just by studying its design for a long ti!
The only way to realistically analyze its workings was to fabricate the archech and test its individual capabilities, either as a whole, or by isolating its specific parts.
All of these boring data gathering activities took a lot of ti as well as a lot of expertise. The Larkinson Clan did not possess a research institute that could tackle this kind of experintal study, which was a major shortcoming now that he thought about it. The clan had never really put too much effort into deciphering most alien technologies it ca across.
"Compared to an equivalent first-class ch designed with conventional technological principles, this experintal archech possesses clear advantages and disadvantages. The archech is considerably denser as its internal volu is being utilized at a considerably higher proportion. It can withstand much more damage to its internals as much of it is as resilient as the external plating. The mobility of the ch has suffered, but that can partially be mitigated by integrating the archetal with phasewater."
Essentially, an archech was much more of a solid construct of tal than a more conventional ch. It made a lot of sense for it to beco a lot heavier and sluggish compared to a machine of the sa size.
"According to our preliminary investigations, an archech can maintain its combat effectiveness 3 tis longer on average. Its chance of surviving a typical battle where it would otherwise lose functionality is 65 percent higher, although this percentage is significantly lower when the opposing force consists of warships. What is especially important is that the chances that the ch pilot can survive an encounter increases by 187 percent, even when accounting for cockpit ejections and attempted interceptions."
Now that truly caused all of the gathered attendees to take note of this experintal archech concept!
While the numbers ntioned by Master Norville should be taken with a huge grain of salt due to the impossibility of using a handful of numbers to calculate the paraters of an endless variety of combat scenarios, they could still be used as rough asures.
If the subordinate of the Xenotechnician hadn't been exaggerating too much, then an archech could not only withstand a lot more damage and keep fighting, but its ch pilot also had a much higher chance of surviving!
Both of these factors were important to any serious ch force!
The increased resilience of an archech made it a lot easier to win a battle. After all, if an enemy had to invest several tis more firepower to take down a machine, then that ant that the archechs had a lot more ti to fulfill their objectives!
It also reduced the costs of maintaining a force of chs over ti as less machines needed to be replaced or restored at heavy cost.
However, what a lot of chers truly cared about was the drastically higher survival rate of ch pilots.
The use of archetal made a lot of previously necessary components obsolete and there was a lot more room to accommodate a stronger and sturdier cockpit.
Not only was it able to accommodate larger and stronger energy shield generators, but it could also integrate a lot more armor plating without reducing the performance of the archech too much!
A lot of weapons of modest power and caliber simply wouldn't be able to threaten the life of a ch pilot as easily anymore. It took a lot of effort or a lot of numbers in order to quickly down the pilot as well as the archech itself.
Even then, once the cockpit ejected and flew to the rear, it would beco a lot harder to destroy or knock down on account of its resilient archetal shell.
So long as archechs could be rolled out on a wider scale, this trend could completely revolutionize the ch community!
Archechs would gain a lot of resilience, allowing them to close the gap with warships to an extent.
However, the solution was not all that perfect. As much as archetal could make a ch more resilient, they also beca noticeably slower and less maneuverable due to their substantial increase in density.
Not only that, but the large primary gun batteries of typical alien warships could easily wipe out several archechs with a single shot due to their imnse power!
Master Teresa Norville was quite frank when it ca to the shortcomings of this design.
"Archechs remain experintal as they are not yet suitable to replace the use of conventional tallic chs. Their lower mobility is a major weakness. Archetal is currently difficult to produce with the use of materializers. It is better to utilize the hybrid production thod employed by the arche. This is an approach that simulated the organic archeshell growth thod of their own biologies. While this may be a tried and true thod to the aliens, it is also slow and inefficient. We are currently working to develop a more industrialized production thod, but it may take years to complete this project. The repair and maintenance of archetal is also a great issue. Only ch technicians and engineers with a moderate degree of understanding of archetal can effectively repair damaged archechs."
All of that dampened the enthusiasm of so of the gathered ch designers, but not all. They were all clever enough that archechs were not economical for low-tier chs, but that they were still viable enough to shake up the market for high-end chs!
Master Norville continued to ntion a few other points where the RA's researchers and ch designers encountered more problems and shortcomings of archechs.
It surprised Ves that she was being so frank about exposing the failures and the inability to make progress in all of these areas.
Then he realized what the Master was truly doing. She was trying to fish for specific solutions from her audience. She listed out all of the problems encountered by the research group and hoped that at least one of the attending guests just happened to possess a specialty that could play a role in solving a difficult technical problem!
Perhaps this was one of the correct ways to take advantage of a conference. An event like this sucked in a lot of smart and clever professionals that never t with each other under normal circumstances.
Compared to trying to solicit for help through a network or other channels, it was a lot easier to ask for help in person!
Ves even thought about adopting this approach himself. Master Norville's example taught him a lot on how he could potentially milk more benefits out of the people who chose to attend a session.
The underlying the of this conference was mutual exchange. Norville clearly withheld a lot of useful knowledge about archetech and archech. What she revealed was only the tip of the iceberg.
If Ves or any other attendee wanted to gain access to the good stuff, they had to offer valuable knowledge or assistance in return.
Ves inwardly sighed. Compared to all of the older and more established Masters in the crowd, he was not quite certain that his bargaining chips would suffice.
He thought that Master Norville might appreciate his full insights on luminar crystal technology, but then he rembered that he was already a senior contributor of restricted technology.
He had already traded away his knowledge on luminar crystal technology to the The Red Association in essence!
Ves would have to co up with new tech that the Association had yet to master for whatever reason. He looked down at his badge and spotted the two dots that visually identified his permissions.
"Why do I only have two dots?"
He had seen ch designers wearing badges that were adorned by 5, 6 or even 8 differently colored dots!
While Ves was not conceited enough to think he was just as knowledgeable as a centuries-old Master, he should at least be able to obtain permissions to take part in more varied sessions!
User Comments
0 comments from readers