It was some weeks along, that early month in '25 that you got accepted for the job at Hotchkiss et Cie's mecha development works. You'd have to move out to the factory at Saint-Denis, but that was just life: what was far more annoying was the amount of forms and paperwork you had to fill out!
Still, once all that unpleasantness was completed, you found yourself as the lead of one of three prototype and design teams. Your coworkers were all reasonably pleasant men, and the pool of workers you could pull from wasn't badly sized either. Since the main factory was spinning up by applying a simple upgrade package to the old Great War-era Araignée-series mecha, you could poach from the main line without too many direct problems.
Your design team was a simple four people. First was Gregory du Sale, the main structural designer. The skeleton of the chassis was his responsibility: no small job, considering the number of mountings and attachments that would hitch to it. Second was Matthew Javiers, your power specialist. He handled the engine, transmission, and the gyroscope. This also meant he handled the miniscule electrical system in the mecha, along with some other odds and ends. Conrad Moreau was third, taking up the position of the controls designer. The control mains for a mecha were an incredibly complicated arrangement, and his work would be invaluable to make sure that the mecha moved safely, as well as failed safely if a control was lost. Finally was Yves Petiet, your motive designer. While Matthew made sure the system had power, it was Yves who turned that power into motion by designing and controlling the arrangement of the actuators and feet.
Of course, all this was useless without a quote from the government on what they wanted. Fortunately, the current refurbishment to the Ardenéenes wasn't stopping work. The government was looking for a new model of scout mech, to weigh no more than 35 tons, and to be equipped with a dedicated radio, and between one and three machine guns. Speed and endurance weren't mentioned either, but since this was going to be a recon vehicle, it wasn't expected to engage in long combats or survive much fire and as a recon unit it could be expected to get resupply often.
When Hotchkiss got the contract, though, they added some riders to it before passing it on down to you. First off, to save cost all three design units were going to be using some of the same components: a Hispano-Suiza 12X engine, the related mecha transmission (H-S 60G transmission), and a Foucault 2,000 RPM gyro. Naturally, your design team had some suggestions on where to start.
Gregory, in the spirit of adventure, had a pretty advanced design to put forward. A hexapod, this mecha would be extremely stable at any operational speed, but wouldn't get up to a high maximum speed due to the need to run six legs. However, it could use more forgiving all-terrain feet. To fulfill requirements, Gregory called for a pilot, and a radio operator/gunner, to man a two-position fighting nest operating a miniature turret above and the radio below. After discussion with the rest of the team, it was determined that likely problem points would be with the cockpit and limb actuation, but the mech would be incredibly steady in use and not suffer much speed loss.
Matthew was much more traditional, and was proposing a very light bipedal mecha. Using digitigrade legs, it would have a very high sprint speed, if not the highest sustained cruising speed. To fulfill requirements, the mech would have a crew of two: a pilot and a radio operator. Weapons-wise, it would have a single machine gun in a fixed mount for the pilot, as well as a ring and pintle mount for the radio operator. To continue weight savings measure, the crew compartment wouldn't be fully enclosed, but instead open-topped to facilitate dismount and reconnaissance in the field. After discussion with the rest of the team, the problem points would be in the feet and armament to keep the vehicle in weight without having ground penetration issues.
Finally, Yves had the single most creative concept you'd ever seen, as well as an oddly fizzy absinthe cocktail that tasted something like a sweet hammer to the head. His design was a quadrupedal design with plantigrade forelegs and digitigrade rear legs, much like a horse. Managing to take the minimalism a step further than Matthew, Yves' plan called for a single universalist crew member, who would be in charge of the entire mecha. By ditching an enclosed cockpit and heavy weapons, he thought he could get weight down to ten tons. The costs, however, were numerous: starting with the fact the pilot's only real weapon would be a pair of MAS-22 submachine guns, and ending with the fact any of his jobs would need his full attention at any one time. To actually prototype, the team felt the problems would be in the actuation system and weapons systems.
Of course, you could also put together your own plan to talk about. It wouldn't be too hard to put something together, since it would be a few weeks until you cut steel. You haven't put a proposal together yourself before, but it can't be that bad.
Still, time to at least see what plan would be going forward to talking with suppliers. If worst came to worst, you could pitch a design before cutting steel and building the physical prototype, although it would be an open question how far ahead of you the other two prototype teams would be.
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VOTE (choose one)
[] Gregory's Design (hexapod)
[] Matthew's Design (digitigrade biped)
[] Yves' Design (mixed plantigrade/digitigrade quadraped)
[] PLAN WRITE IN
-[] Write in number and style of legs (even number only)
-[] Write in number of crew
-[] Write in weapons
-[] Write in special equipment (radio goes here FYI)
-[] Write in any further specifications
QM Note- we're not at the stage of the quest when you're supposed to get write-ins, but I figure I should give you the option. I HIGHLY RECCOMEND going with one of your designer's concept plans.
