Mech Designer course

The greatest failures

It is good for you to try to innovate, to push the boundaries and create new uses for old technology but always remember to be mindful about going too far, about the WHY you are doing something and then evaluate if it is truly worth it.

Today we are going to talk about some of the greatest failures in mech design history

First. The name Drago Madnar will be forever remembered as a wonderful designer and the creator of the worst protected mech ever. While the body was incredibly hard and it carried a Vulcan turret between the legs and 2 battery launchers, a 6-cannon launcher for heat missile and a 2-cannon launcher for smoke bomb however the legs were incredibly weak and the joint was destroyed by some random guy with grenades only.

Second, while the name of the designer is lost the Iron Monger mech is the most infamous one in history. One of the first human like mech that had lack of visual detection equipment and the possibility for the pilot to use their own sight to control it directly thanks to a window in both the capsule and the mech. After the visual equipment was destroyed the window opened and a penetration bullet tore through it, the one in the capsule and the pilot’s head.

Third, and another one for the pile of why WINDOWS ARE BAD. Technically not a mech but very good example of poor design The Enterprise.

Not only it had numerous windows along the body it had 3 very notable weak spots in the connecting areas between the primary and secondary hulls and between the secondary and the nacelles. Transparency in materials is a sure-fire way to direct all the laser attacks somewhere and to create a weakness. Remember, NEVER EVER PLACE WINDOWS in any mech or spaceship.

Finally, the one that most of you saw as children those mechs powered by friendship and all that is good were multiple vehicles mix to create the Megazord. This has so many problems that we will expose only some. Transforming parts are a pain to design and maintain, moving parts like that are an excellent way to get something broken. It has functioning arms that are used to grab a myriad of weapons. We already spoke about hands, arms, and the difficulty of design for something so complicated as we also spoke about having a head area. Let’s not forget that it was handled by many pilots which has only happened in science fiction. Lastly the final detail, your mech may look imposing, interesting or whatever but remember that looks are not the most important. Your main task is to PROTECT the pilots and allow them to do their job, not to stroke their ego.

The next day Marcus woke up with a small present. Both his mothers where in the hotel restaurant having breakfast, Anne looking perfectly rested and Mina with clear signs of being tired but her eyes were alert and sharp.

"Come Marcus, eat plenty, we have another ‘meeting’ with the Arbiter today and we are going to have some fun"

Marcus decided to follow her advice, he knew better than anyone how ‘digitally nimble’ Mina was. Her work is to hack parts and security when doing merc business. In a famously instance she digitally spoofed the control signal for a platoon of mechs putting them in repair mode basically stealing all the mechs with the pilots still inside.

"What did you do?" asked Marcus with some curiosity in his voice.

"Getting proof that someone was trying to play dirty" Her tone betrayed the calmness of her face but it was also final, she wouldn’t say anymore until the time that was required.

2 hours later they were in the same meeting room than before with the same participants.

The Arbiter started "I will skip the introduction. Today where are meeting under the request of Whilemina Caelum to study the ignoble accusation of corruption and graft of Designer Demetrio Claudius Flavianus to alter the proceedings of this contract so it would be earned by his nephew Designer Emil Claudius Flavianus. What do you declare Designer Demetrio?"

"It is a false accusation your honor, my uncle would never… " started Emil before he was abruptly cut by the Arbiter and brought down by his uncle.

"Please remember that lying to an Arbiter during a proceeding is considered a felony. As such your citizen score will be impacted and if you try to manipulate the appeal itself then you may earn yourself a demerit. Understood?" Emil blanched after hearing that and proceeded to remain seated perfectly still.

"Yes, your honor, we understand. I would like to ask what evidence is there about this crime committed"

"This is not a question of evidence yet Designer Demetrio. If you declare yourself innocent then all the evidence will be presented and will be questioned, in case your statement was a lie then it would be an additional charge."

"I declare that I have bribed an official to change the record of the contract to give an undue benefit to my nephew"

"Do you want to make any other confession?"

"I don’t understand your honor?"

"Very well, as no further confession nor declaration is given, I would accept the silence of the defendant as that he is innocent of all the other charges. Any comment?" Fulvia looked at the white-faced Demetrio who didn’t give any response "Very well then, Whilemina Caelum shall start with the allegations of the crime and present proof of them"

Mina smiled and started bringing several documents in the virtual display.

"I will start in chronological order as it will be understood more completely.

Minerva’s Lab found the beneficial properties of the fibers from the Rupes trees almost 2 years ago. 9 months ago, they finalized their study into it and found out how to harvest it and convert it into useable materials.

Then they tried to open their contract but it was stopped multiple times due to minor technical problems, all to delay the publication of the contract until the nephew of the accused could reach the planet of Quintus and get his legal address to be changed to this planet, then the contract was released with a specific limitation of being planet wide only, as the benefit it would bring to the Roman society was minor and the technical specifications would be good for new talents to develop.

Then the same Roman government official made the changes seen previously to give undue advantage to Designer Emil. This crime shall not be explained any further as the criminal has already confessed.

Once my son schematic was chosen as the winner another technicality was noted. Under old Roman laws all schematics had to be sent with a functioning prototype from when simulation cores where not widespread and simulations would be tampered to deliver incorrect assessments. This is used only for military combat mechs nowadays and is not required for other type of mechs. While direct proof has not been found the correlation is unmistakable. Mere 6 hours after the contract was granted then this change applied to all contracts to prevent tampered simulations. This was quickly rolled back for most contracts but not for this one.

I believe that the accused manipulated the investigative AI in some way for that. It also affects the contract by requiring the previous proceedings as personal proceedings are not used or enforced except where classified information is used.

While this is completely legal, get an AI to investigate a legal contract that may be unlawful or not follow proper procedures, the intention behind it was not to improve the Roman society but to give more chances to his nephew Emil. Not happy with that he also managed to get the penalty for failing a common contract to include a demerit mark as if a bad design in a competition for a harvester mech should deserve one.

After that we had a case of bad luck that we just want it mentioned. While there is no proof it is highly suspicious that a bird just attacked us in a common transportation route that the Vigile guards regularly use.

Afterwards he accused my son once more in this very room to having lied about designing the schematic by himself.

While, as a Mech Designer, his presence should be to help and further improve our society he tried to manipulate the previous proceedings to give undue advantage to his nephew which is deplorable and unfit for a man of such renown"

Mina spoke passionately showing multiple chat logs, money transference orders and all related information.

The Observant had started with a neutral face but, by the end her face had a certain rictus and a small but noticeable frown.

Evander was openly aghast; he couldn’t believe any of that, on the other hand Albus was smiling faintly.

Both Demetrio and Emil kept their faces schooled and tried to show no emotions though Emil was looking more and more guilty.

Anne was smiling with a predatory gaze and Marcus was looking at Mina with gratitude in his eyes.

"The full set of accusations has been given. How do you Demetrio plead yourself?"

"Guilty your honor, but it was with the best intentions to the betterment of our Roman civilization"

"Explain yourself"

"My nephew Emil is young and smart, by manipulating these events he would win both experience and renown faster which would allow him to better serve the Roman society improving it faster and, in normal circumstances, it would simply deny some opportunity to less deserving Mech Designers" He smiled smoothly.

The Arbiter looked for a few moments to be in deep consideration. Finally, she said "While the first crime can be adjudicated to that laudable goal further crimes completely negate your statement as Designer Marcus was chosen due to the quality of his work. If he improved faster, he would serve better than your nephew"

"Care to back up your statement your honor? How can you say with surety that Designer Marcus would serve better than my nephew Designer Emil?"

"Very simply, Designer Marcus is 33, he has the highest marks in the last few years considering that he took only short 12 years to graduate, he further designed a mech in 2 months which was picked as the superior mech by the review of the experts at Minerva’s Lab using less given information.

You nephew took 15 years with lower general notes and multiple disciplinary actions against him, he took the full 3 months and didn’t bother to contact Minerva’s Lab for more information. Moreover, his first design was rejected and it was only because Designer Marcus failed to meet the delivery date that your nephew had the chance to send a revised design which was barely approved.

The comparison is simple your nephew at this moment is less talented or helpful for the society than Designer Marcus"

"Your honor that is… " "You cannot say… "

The Arbiter made a gesture and two fields of noise isolation locked onto both unruly protesters. "Silence gentleman, though I use the term loosely, the proceedings have gone for far too long for such a thing and the society has been impacted negatively enough by wasting precious time in such way.

Designer Emil, you are not directly accused and there is no proof that you helped in any way with these crimes but you were directly benefited by them and you had to have knowledge. Your citizen score will be lowered by 1000 points. You have defrauded this society and its government. You cannot take any further governmental contracts for 10 years and your time to prove yourself is reduced by 1 year. You have 2 more years to complete 3 more tasks or your title shall be stripped.

Designer Demetrio, you claim to try to further develop the Roman civilization through bribery and graft, you manipulated events to remove fairness in our society and then lied when questioning. As such your penalties are.

An AI shall be dedicated to scrutinize all your activity for the next 40 years.

All damage caused directly or indirectly including the fallen plane, the costs for the mechs created by Designer Marcus, the cost of the testing facility and my personal time will be accounted and you shall pay for all of that.

Your citizen score has reached the level of patrician as you have helped our society multiple times so your title shall be marked for now and you won’t be able to use it as freely as before. Any further repetition and your title shall be stripped.

Your citizen score will suffer a reduction after careful consideration of charges that will be at the bare minimum of 5000 points.

Finally, you will be forced to accept 3 governmental contracts with reduced payment and no possibility of cancellation" Demetrio blanched and gagged visibly after hearing that, his title was something he protected fiercely.

"Minerva’s Lab has been wronged in this and they shall be compensated, if they require a new governmental sanctioned contract open to anyone within the solar system shall be created for a new design and extra funds shall be provided for the time lost"

"800 points shall be added to Whilemina Caelum citizen score for finding proof of bribery and graft and for bringing multiple crimes to light, also 500 points shall be deducted from Whilemina Caelum since she resorted to hacking the personal account of governmental officials for proof"

"Finally Designer Caelum shall receive further 200 points to his citizen score for working constantly for the betterment of the Roman Society.

These proceedings are finished" Fulvia rose from her seat and waved her hand calling 2 guards to take Demetrio and Emil.

Evander and Albus rose to leave together with the Caelums "Please follow me" spoke Albus quietly and directed them into another meeting room a few meters down the hall. Once they were inside, he gestured for them to take a seat around a small table.

"Thank you for coming with us" started Albus "First, I wanted to personally congratulate young Designer Marcus here on his design but also on the work he placed to keep going after all the problems.

Second, I have to apologize for our previous communication" he finished and bowed his head

Marcus was a bit shocked; he never expected the Head Researched to say anything like that but looking at his mothers they both had small smiles "It’s OK Head Researcher Albus. This is not your fault and you even left enough clues in your message that helped me reach this conclusion, albeit with lots of help" admitted Marcus while looking at his mothers and thinking about Val and the others in the workshop.

"I was very intrigued when Evander contacted me after you spoke with him but I didn’t bother to actually check the contract though I did believe that there was something strange going on. Our society is not perfect and such things do happen from time to time so this would serve as a learning experience that would help you develop or to serve as a lesson and let you abandon this path. Too late I realized that it would grow to such proportions, therefore I do have to apologize, for not doing my work properly and for potentially placing your life in danger"

Marcus frowned "You knew?"

Albus smiled weakly "I may be old and always focused in research but I still know how the game is played. The contract being delayed and being restricted to the planet was strange. You contacting Evander for basic information was not normal. Only receiving 2 schematics from probationary designers when Talia Australes, a specialist in harvesting mechs, was traveling through the planet here was even more suspicious.

I do admit I had my doubts about you, but your design was excellent.

I digress, I wanted to express my congratulations and my sincere apologies for all of this. I shall leave you in the good company of Researcher Evander, I do have some pending tasks here"

Seeing Albus prepare to leave, Marcus quickly said "Before you leave Head Researcher Albus I would ask one moment of your time.

When the contract demanded to present a prototype, I did incur into a debt of sorts. The prototype was made by Val’s Workshop in the city of Quintus 6. If you don’t have a workshop already to assemble the mechs they can handle the fabrication for you as the already have the experience and you can see the quality of their work in the already made prototype" Marcus finished with a smile.

Albus looked a bit surprised at first but then smiled at the end "Very well, we still have to finish some details and production is one of them, Evander here will contact the workshop for further details, please send all the information to him.

Now if you excuse me there are still some things for me to do here" Albus rose, politely nodded to all and left the room.

Marcus introduced Evander to Anne and Mina and counted the story of him contacting Evander, the questions, how Evander had given him all the needed information including their techniques and his own personal recollection. Marcus sent all the contact details and eventually they all left.

On the hotel after dinner Mina called Marcus to their room and started setting a small privacy protection, after it was done, she said "Marcus what did you learn today?"