Ves paused for a ti. He mulled over Gloriana's response and found that she had raised a good point.
He was already stretching his capabilities by setting a goal of designing a training ch and combat ch in a single package.
Since he had made such a difficult demand right at the start, the last thing he should do was to add another major complication.
High modularity was a demand that always added a huge amount of complexity to a ch design. The overall performance of the entire package dropped the more a ch designer wanted to branch out and add new possibilities.
Trying to tack on this burden to a Carmine ch design that was already troubleso to design was indeed pure hubris as Gloriana described.
The proposal she made therefore sounded quite reasonable. Ves did not like it that her suggestion massively reduced the scope and usability of the resulting end product, but his wife presented additional argunts to back up her position.
"Ves." She said as she turned around and pinned him with a judgntal stare. "You are trying to do too much at once. Carmine chs are new, so no one is demanding you to cater to everyone's needs right at the start. Learn how to walk before you learn how to run. It is much more sensible for you to increntally expand the lineup of Carmine chs with basic and familiar options over ti. Cover the basic ch archetypes first. according to the needs of the custors as well as our society. Considering that there are many people who aspire to beco 'part-ti Carmine ch pilots' such as Aurelia, it is best to satisfy their needs first. For these civilians who are not expected to devote all of their ti to polishing and perfecting their piloting skills, you need to give them a machine that they can easily learn and master."
The two started to form the sa brain wave. Now that Gloriana espoused her own thinking on the subject, Ves easily picked up the argunts that she had not yet voiced. "Of course!" He almost jumped to his feet! "You are right that I shouldn't aim so high at the start. Right now, a lot of civilians want to pilot a Carmine ch, but are unwilling to commit the life of a full-ti soldier. It may be better to train them as reserves that can form a planetary militia if the planet they are on is under attack by the native aliens. Given the needs of the Red War, we don't need to provide an abundant supply of Carmine chs that cover every ch archetype such as light skirmishers or heavy artillery chs. It is best to keep it simple. Rifleman chs are an ideal choice for a Carmine ch ant for reserve duty."
"It is the sort of Carmine ch that I would want my firstborn daughter to pilot." Gloriana nodded in agreent. "Piloting lee chs is more demanding to civilians who lack the mindset of a warrior. I am not concerned about letting Andraste pilot a swordsman ch because she is skilled with swords and possesses a fighter's mindset.
Aurelia is lacking in this aspect despite being older. Even if we arrange her to practice her swordsmanship, being able to execute sword techniques in a training ground is one thing, trying to utilize them in combat against other chs or deadly alien opponents is another thing! It is far too easy for inadequately trained and insufficiently tempered ch pilots to make mistakes or lose their courage far too easily. They will break too soon and cause a rout that can quickly go out of control."
As a ch designer who had fought enemies up close in a number of battles, Ves understood quite well how fearso it was to confront opponents at point-blank range.
While it was important to possess good fighting skills, ntality also played an outsized
role.
The braver the ch pilot, the greater the probability of overpowering an adversary and winning the bout.
ch pilots needed to suppress their instinctive fear of putting themselves in a lot of harm by putting their machines in front of dangerous enemies.
They needed to keep enough of their cool to maintain a bit of situational awareness and prevent themselves from getting ambushed from another direction.
If necessary, lee ch pilots might be asked to charge straight at a formidable enemy warship that was bristling with gun turrets that could swat them down in a flood of unrelenting firepower!
Not just anyone could fulfill these risky missions. This was not an age where peasants could be conscripted into shabby armies and be sent to the frontlines so that they could die in droves.
In contrast, ranged ch pilots had it much easier. Even though they also had to bear risks whenever they entered the battlefield, they usually weren't the priority targets. Rifleman ch units usually maintained a healthy distance from the enemy. It was much easier for them to maintain their situational awareness, and their ranged armants also allowed them to make moderately effective contributions without letting them get too close to the enemy.
By maintaining their distance from the enemy at all tis, it was also much easier for rifleman chs to disengage from the battlefield and retreat in good order. This should be an incredibly attractive condition to many part-ti ch pilots who lacked the courage to persist in the battlefield.
Ves rubbed his hairless chin in thought. "As far as most people are concerned, it is considerably easier to train their marksmanship as opposed to swordsmanship. Many civilians already undergo basic training in the operation of firearms as they are useful for self-defense purposes. It will be difficult for them to master more advanced operations such as firing while performing dynamic maneuvers or landing consistent hits at longer ranges, but it is not necessary to master these skills in order to turn these part-ti Carmine ch pilots combat effective. If we truly need to rely on a large amount of conscripts to help win our battles, it is not possible for them to perform advanced or
dangerous maneuvers."
The more he thought about it, the more he felt that the decision to design a premium Carmine ch that focused solely on mid-range ranged combat was the best choice he could make at this junction in ti.
Even though the limitation of sticking to a rifleman ch archetype denied a lot of potential custors the satisfaction of piloting the machines of their choice, Ves could not satisfy everyone all at once.
It was better to do one job well than many jobs poorly.
As Ves began to visualize how such a Carmine ch would look like, he roughly imagined a rifleman ch made of premium materials and enough adaptability to accommodate a moderate range of Carmine ch pilots.
Once a Carmine ch cadet had graduated from the ch academy or a qualified training program, he should be able to convert his 'training ch' into one of several standard configurations of rifleman chs, and many more unofficial conversion options created by third-party ch designers!
"By forgoing lee options first, you can be assured that you can design a good rifleman Carmine ch" Gloriana comnted. "It is a luxury to service every comprehensive need during the early stages of your Carmine revolution. Focusing on rifleman chs will most likely satisfy the imdiate demands of at least half of your potential custor base. It is not that the other ch archetypes are unimportant, but their priority is not as high, so you can take care of them later. In fact, it is better to delegate the design of a Carmine space knight and a Carmine light skirmisher to other design teams or even other ch companies. You only need to provide the base templates, which should at least co in the form of a basic ranged option and a basic lee option."
"I see. You make another good point. I do feel bothered with the lack of ti. I still want to design conventional chs as well. There are many ideas that are simply not suited to be turned into Carmine chs. I should develop a couple of good templates that other ch designers can adopt and alter to suit their own specializations."
He understood where Gloriana was going. It was impossible for Ves to devote so much ti and attention to designing the Carmine version of a spearman ch or whatever. As long as he and his design team already released a swordsman Carmine ch or whatever, a third-party ch designer could easily design a variant that was optimized for wielding spears or axes.
What mattered now was that Ves set the standards by developing those two initial
Carmine ch designs.
His wife made another remark.
"By the way, Ves, the terminology you have used is inconsistent. You ntion 'rifleman Carmine chs' in one instance, and 'Carmine light skirmisher' in another instance. If you want to be consistent, you should have referred to the latter as a 'light skirmisher Carmine ch; but this is awkward to use in practice as we normally do not attach the word 'ch' after 'light skirmisher'. Whatever the case, I suggest you simply place the word 'Carmine' in front of the ch archetype in order to remain consistent. So instead of using the phrase 'rifleman Carmine ch, it is much more convenient for everyone if you use the phrase 'Carmine rifleman ch'. The latter also rolls much easier off the
tongue."
Ves scratched his head for a mont. "You are right. To be honest, I never thought so much ahead that I would bump into this issue. Anyway, I agree that I should stick to designing two basic Carmine chs that can serve as templates for many different Carmine versions of other ch archetypes."
"You should consider who you should put in charge of those projects." Gloriana said. "You
may be able to do it, but your workload is already heavy. It is better to put your trust in your colleagues and let them take the initiative, My Design Departnt isn't as small and haphazardly organized as it was in the past. We have hired many competent Journeyman ch Designers, and while not all of them can adequately design first-class chs that can et the demand of first-raters, we can compensate for this by adding one or two first-class ch designers to the design team."
"Since you raised this subject, I suppose you already have a number of candidates in mind." Ves made a guess.
Gloriana impishly grinned. "That is correct. For the Carmine training and combat rifleman ch combination, I would like to put Harry Kaikkonen in charge. He is the most competent ranged weapon specialist in the Design Departnt. So far, he did not receive too many opportunities to stand out, but I believe he is competent enough to
lead this project."
"Are you confident enough in his work to let Aurelia pilot a Carmine rifleman ch of his
design?"
"Yes. As long as he has not made any major errors, I have no problem with this decision" Gloriana said. "Not that we will allow our precious daughter to remain bonded to a mass production model. Both of us must upgrade and customize her machine so that it best reflects her strengths and adequately compensates for her weaknesses. In fact, our daughter should not be the only person to receive this treatnt. I am interested in designing a custom Carmine rifleman ch for myself."
"Wait. You... want to beco a Carmine ch pilot?"
Ves beca stunned at her revelation. He never seriously thought that his wife, who couldn't even hurt a fly, actually wanted to pilot a Carmine ch herself!
As far as he knew, Gloriana had always thought that fighting in the mud was beneath a
woman of her station.
"Do not form any misunderstandings. His wife narrowed her eyes. "I am purely interested in piloting a Carmine ch for two reasons. First, I want to be able to defend
myself as a last resort. Our clan has a penchant for getting embroiled in conflicts, and I
am tired of lacking any sort of agency in any dangerous situations. Second, I am a ch designer. If I want to comprehend the authentic piloting experience as closely as possible, I will have to experience it first-hand. The Carmine System may not be completely identical to the neural interface, but there should be enough similarities to derive a large amount of useful lessons. You should design a Carmine ch for yourself
as well."
"I already thought about it. My idea for my own Carmine ch is not that simple, though. I will probably design it at a later date because I need it to work with my phase
lord physique..."
User Comments
0 comments from readers