The Mech Touch

Though Ves did not interact often with Professor Taigen, they worked together and exchanged enough opinions for him to develop an understanding of the Senior's style.

Professor Taigen developed a design language that matched his Preserver roots. He was the sort of mech designer who tried to be the consummate professional who wanted his products to reflect a high degree of efficiency and professionalism.

Professor Taigen had a lot in common with technical and detail-oriented mech designers such as Gloriana Wodin and Professor Benedict Cortez.

Having collaborated plenty of times with the latter two mech designers, Ves already knew how he should adapt his work to his new business partner's design inclinations.

The man would never put his name behind a mech that was too flamboyant or extravagant in appearance. Such a mech would contrast too sharply against his existing body of work.

When Ves browsed the archives and studied Taigen's mech designs from the start of his commercial career, he could see that the man had settled on a single visual style and stuck to it all the way to the present day.

While Professor Taigen gradually improved and developed his visual design language across many decades, the essence of his approach still remained constant no matter the context.

It was never his intention to distinguish his products by their appearance. To him, a professional law enforcement mech had to convey a sense of trust, reliability and peace. A flashy and attention-grabbing appearance ran counter to that goal.

In the end, Taigen's products became known for their performance and effectiveness in the field. They never won any appreciation and awards for their visual designs and that was completely okay to the Senior.

Ves did not exactly agree with this philosophy.

"It's too boring."

Mech design held a different meaning for him. While Professor Taigen was happy if his products were able to blend into the background, Ves wanted his mechs to stand out from the crowd!

There were so many mech designers already that were accustomed to designing and publishing mechs that hardly looked any different from each other. They embraced the image of a standard mech because they believed that a design that featured a deviating appearance was a sign of immaturity and amateurism.

Ves did not care for this opinion. He wanted to apply his own style to a mech that would carry his brand, but the difficult part was that he needed to take his collaboration partner into account as well.

Ultimately, Ves had to find a middle ground that would be distinctive enough to satisfy his artistic tastes while at the same time remain professional enough to meet his partner's approval.

"I have to do more with less. I can't let myself go as much as before."

In order to determine an acceptable visual design of the Pacifier Project, he first developed a look of his product that completely fit his style and preferences.

Taking inspiration from the Angel of Tranquility's theme and appearance, Ves transformed the Pacifier Project into an angel-like arbiter of justice.

While he couldn't add too many flamboyant elements to the design due to its relatively limited size and lower design budget, he had creatively altered the contours of its armor system to reflect both peace and justice in equal measure.

When Ves took a step back and admired his artistry, he could clearly imagine how it could reassure distressed citizens while deterring criminals from fooling around any further. Its silvery metal surface and its lack of distracting colors gave the impression that it was pure and incorruptible.

He put special attention in sculpting and carving numerous engravings on the armor as well as the optional riot shield. Motifs ranging from angel wings to the scales of justice made it seem as if the Pacifier Project descended from above in order to mete out justice to the guilty!

"This is the perfect look if I was solely in charge of this design project!"

Unfortunately, this wasn't the case!

Though Ves didn't see anything wrong with it, a more professional mech designer would think that it was no longer a functional product but rather a work of art.

Ves was of the opinion that products could be both functional while also serving as a piece of art.

Mech designers such as Professor Taigen were convinced that adding art to a product would only detract from its functional purpose!

What Ves needed to do at this point was to tone down the distinctive artistic elements of his design and make it so that the Pacifier Project looked clean and professional while at the same time preserving the essence of his touch.

"This is going to be difficult."

He had been working on many different design projects at this time, many of which presented a lot of difficult technical challenges.

Both the Mars Project and the Firestarter Project gave him a lot of headaches!

Yet despite all of those difficulties, the need to tone down the flair he wished to impart on the Pacifier Project was just as challenging!

Ves felt as if he was cutting a piece of his own flesh whenever he erased a distinctive design element from his interpretation of the Pacifier Project.

Each negation turned the Pacifier Project into a duller and less visually striking machine.

Even so, Ves had tried to adapt whenever he could. He began to treat this as a test of frugality. By replacing more complex and extravagant visual elements with simpler and more restrained alternatives, he was able to make the Pacifier Project look a lot cleaner while preserving much of its identity.

Visual cues such as the angel wings and the scales of justice became more abstract and less obvious. Ves had transformed them into clever background elements that did not scream out attention but would attract a lot of appreciation if people studied the mech for a longer period of time.

Over time, he began to develop a liking for this subtler and more restrained visual design approach.

"This is quite an appropriate design language for a budget mech that mainly needs to look as strong and reliable as possible."

When he showed off his work to Professor Taigen, the man had paused for a while before he issued his judgment.

"I would not have portrayed a first responder mech in this manner, but… it is not as bad as I feared. You did well to adhere to minimalism when you shaped the Pacifier Project's exterior."

Ves smiled. "I think the aesthetics of the mech will help enhance its performance. Think about how troublemakers will react when they see several copies of the Pacifier Project approaching from a distance."

Professor Taigen might not agree with all of the design elements that Ves had added to the mech, but he knew that he needed to make compromises as well.

This was far from his first collaboration, though usually the Senior tried to avoid working together with a mech designer whose design approach deviated too much from his own.

This was a special situation, though, so both of them had to make compromises that they ordinarily wished to avoid.

After Ves completed the visual design of the Pacifier Project, they had completed the substantive and creative design phases.

The remaining work that needed to be done mostly entailed optimization and testing work. Ves did not need to involve himself too much at these stages as Professor Taigen and Voiken Industries could handle this by themselves.

The mech company of the Voiken Family was just as well equipped if not more than the Design Department.

Professor Taigen Voiken was able to allocate a lot of simple but time-consuming simulation and optimization assignments to his own design teams.

Not only that, but the processing power and other design facilities they had brought over from their home galaxy were not any worse than the hardware of the Larkinso Clan!

The Voiken Family also possessed an additional advantage that the Larkinson Clan could not match.

"I will pass on our current progress to Master Barnard Voiken and collect his input on our design." Taigen told Ves one day.

That briefly caused Ves to be taken aback. "Is that necessary? The Pacifier Project is a rather simple mech, and I think we did a good job in designing it. While it hasn't reached its final form as of yet, the broad strokes are all great."

"I agree with you, my friend, but we cannot afford this mech to fail. The patriarch of my family has lived twice as long as myself and possessed an incomparably greater understanding and insights on mechs. I can understand the concerns you might have with allowing a Master to interfere with our work, but if his advice can improve the performance or the value proposition of our mech, then it is worth listening to what he has to say."

"...As long as Master Barnard's feedback is limited to advice and suggestions, then I guess it's okay."

Ves did not feel as concerned about this action as before. Now that he thought about it, what Taigen did was not that different from using the System's Superpublish function to give a mech design an extra boost.

Though Ves ordinarily valued his ownership in a design, the Pacifier Project was not completely his work to begin with. Professor Taigen was the lead designer and designed the bulk of the machine.

This meant that soliciting feedback from a Master would primarily affect Taigen's sense of ownership towards the Pacifier Project.

As for Ves, his contributions would remain just as limited as before!

"Well, if you are willing to make this move, then be my guest."

"Our patriarch knows how much feedback he should provide. You do not need to show too much concern. What is important here is that the performance and design of the Pacifier Project is as sound and optimized as it can reach. The future of the Voiken Family is at stake. Our product must succeed."

As Ves directed his attention to his other design projects, the Voikens quietly polished their collaborative mech design. They conducted multiple rounds of prototype testing as well as simulation testing before making use of the collected data to solve minor problems and improve many different design elements.

In order to make absolutely certain that its specs would not be too far behind compared to the competition, Professor Voikenn had even transferred the design files to the Voiken Family in the Milky Way!

While Master Barnard did not directly insert his own design solutions to the mech design, he allocated his own design teams and facilities to assist with the optimization process!

The greater might of the main Voiken Family had been brought to bear on the Pacifier Project!

In the end, the Voikens invested an untold amount of manpower and processing power in finalizing a law enforcement mech that had reached a degree of optimization that Ves had never seen in any of his other works up to his date outside of his Superpublished designs!

His eyes widened when he saw the final product!

Though the changes weren't obvious at first, when Ves compared the current iterations to the ones that were months old, the differences were like night and day!

If not for certain obvious design elements, any mech insider who looked at the Pacifier Project would probably think it was designed by a Master!

"This is better than expected. Even my wife would celebrate how close it is to reaching its perfect state!" Ves gasped.

"I am glad to hear you approve of this iteration. If there are no further problems and requirements, this will be the finalized version of the Pacifier Project."

"That is great to hear! I have been waiting so long for our collaborative work to be put to use. When will it be available for sale?"

"That is the issue, Mr. Larkinson. A law enforcement mech is a specialized offering that is usually produced and sold on commission. If we want our work to fulfill its purpose, we must approach and persuade Planetary Guard organizations to try out our new and unproven mech model."

Ves could see why this could be a problem.

"Weren't you guys supposed to take care of this matter?"

"We are, but our reach only extends to a limited area of the Magair Middle Zone at the moment. If we want to spread our products wider, we will need your clan's assistance in persuading the law enforcement agencies in your region to try out our new solution. Can you do that, Mr. Larkinson?"

"I… will see what I can do. It will be difficult as our brand is not famous yet. We will have to resort to different methods to catch the attention of potential clients."