[401-600] THE MECH'S TOUCH

Chapter 442: Calculus of War

Lieutenant Chandis had a complaint for practically every aspect of the Inheritor model. Much of the reason why was because its design had been tailored for what the higher ups thought what was best for the entire mech regiment.

The wishes of the individual mech pilots who would have to rely on these death traps to survive in space hardly registered in comparison. Every improvement needed to be weighed against more practical concerns such as cost and ease of fabrication. If either of these two factors became negatively impacted, then Professor Velten wouldn't approve of the changes.

Therefore, much of the complaints he heard from Chandis had already been echoed by the reports he read from the database.

Still, there was a huge difference between reading about the problems from a dry and succinct document compared to hearing it from a mech pilot who had to deal with the consequences on a day-to-day basis.

Chandis probably knew about some of the concerns that played in the background, but he made a persuasive case anyway, largely by employing his emotions.

"Too many comrades have died from this inadequate piece of dung!" Chandis kicked at the plating of the mech. Despite being relatively thin in the scale of mechs, a human foot could never leave a mark on its surface. "Look, just tell your bosses to invest some more money into quality mechs. These Inheritors aren't worth the materials they're built from!"

"It's actually the opposite." Chief Carmon remarked from the side. She maintained her jaded expression throughout the lieutenant's tirade. "The Inheritor is doing a great job in maximizing the strengths of its materials. The only problem with this approach is that there's a limit on how much we can optimize their strengths and create more synergies."

In other words, it was as as if the Vandals sculpted a miniature mech out of sand. No matter how exquisite they carved the model of a mech, one good kick could effortlessly blow it away.

Fiddling with the shape and dimensions of the sand model only affected its structural integrity by a minor degree. Such changes would never be able to provide a comprehensive boost in survivability.

The only way to do so was to carve the miniature mech model out of a stronger material such as stone or wood.

However, doing so demanded more money and effort from the Vandals. Ves had read the internal documents on the Inheritor, and in one of them Professor Velten brutally calculated the cost efficiency of switching the Inheritor's material composition to a stronger mix.

She concluded that increasing the costs by fifty percent would only raise the overall longevity of any random Inheritor mech by twenty-nine percent or so.

To Ves, that sounded very normal. Only at the lowest end of the mech design spectrum would the level of improvement be proportional to the increase in material costs. After that, the law of diminishing returns came into effect. Improvements became increasingly harder to achieve without spending a fortune.

In practical terms, an absolutely trashy mech that cost 3 million credits in raw materials to produce could be twice as good if the cost of materials was 6 million credits instead.

However, if a mech that cost 45 million credits got overhauled with materials that cost 90 million credits, the actual rate of improvement might only be around 10-35 percent. The range was rather large because it heavily depended on the skill and vision of the mech designer.

However, the point was clear. Every mech outfit or mech regiment needed to find a balance between their income and expenditures. Spending lots of money and resources on expensive mechs might sound good, as they often lasted longer on the battlefield, it might not be able to make up for the huge upfront costs.