Level 3 was considered the limit of what small children could handle without needing to learn any math, science or engineering. They could slot in big mech parts such as different power reactors and mech engines into the torso of a toy mech.
Levels 4, 5 and 6 was where Mekano started to become less of a game and more of a training tool for budding teenagers that were hoping to attend a mech design university in the future.
This was the range where they started with progressively smaller components, so much so that they could no longer assemble their toy mechs by hand. They needed to make use of specialized assembly equipment to put all of the tiny parts in place.
They could assemble mech rifles out of individual components.
They could customize the internal architecture of a toy mech to an increasingly finer degree.
They could even start with programming custom instructions that determined the behavior of the mech in a selective fashion.
Level 6 was the maximum degree of complexity that Mekano could initially accommodate. A child with a good understanding of high school-level science and engineering should be able to piece together a reasonably functional toy mech.
The Machine Emporium even set up entire tournament circuits where teenagers and other young prodigy publically competed against each other! It was as if they were all participating in the kids version of a mech design competition!
In practice, any child that could already handle level 6 was pretty much a half-way into becoming a decent mech designer. They just needed to attend a number of advanced university-level courses before they could move on to designing actual mechs!
When the Polymath initially released Mekano, it quickly took the mech industry and the toy industry by storm!
Toy mech building systems already existed by that time. One of the most popular franchises was an old one that had been producing colorful composite building blocks long before the Age of Stars commenced!
Yet when the Polymath entered this market, she quickly conquered a lot of fans because Mekano was simply better than its immediate competitors!
The Polymath had worked hard to make Mekano as complex and intricate as the consumers wanted it to be. A typical Mekano Set started out at Level 1, but by transmitting a special command, the large mech parts automatically broke up into smaller parts as they switched to Level 2.
The owner of the Mekano Set could keep doing this until the toy parts reached the maximum level determined by the tier of the products.
Tier 3 Mekano Sets were by far the most common ones sold throughout human space. They could only reach Level 3 at most, but that made them cheap and easy to produce. Pretty much every toy store in every third-rate state sold a small range of sets at this tier!
Tier 6 Mekano Sets were more commonly seen in second-rate states. They were indistinguishable from the prior products up to Level 3. It was only when a parent transmitted a command that switched the mover to Level 4, Level 5 or Level 6 that they started to get a lot more interesting!
Originally, Mekano Sets could go no further than Tier 6. Going any further would mean that the consumer had to be a fully-fledged Novice Mech Designer in order to work with parts at such a fine level!
However, for reasons that no one could figure out, the Polymath soon came out with Tier 7, Tier 8 and even Tier 9 sets, each of which became exponentially more expensive and demanding!
When Mekano reached Level 7, then the only people who could make functional toy mechs out of the parts were those who already possessed the skills of a third-class Novice Mech Designer.
At Level 8, only people who reached the standard of a second-class Novice Mech Designer could still have fun with Mekano.
Level 9 was exclusively reserved for first-raters who had already become talented and knowledgeable enough to qualify as first-class Novice Mech Designers!
If that wasn't enough, there were even rumors that the Polymath developed Tier 10 Mekano Sets, which contained parts that were supposedly made out of nanomachines that could provide maximum control and design freedom to the few consumers who were lucky to play with these secret toys!
Ves didn't dare to dream about buying the two highest tiers of Mekano Sets. He had gone for the highest possible tiers that he could access and afford at the time.
Each of the 5 sets that he had bought for Marvaine were Tier 8 Mekano Sets, and the cheapest one was priced at 999 MTA credits!
Though the toy store where he bought the initial Mekano Sets also offered more elaborate and advanced products, their prices became increasingly more exorbitant!
It didn't matter too much for the time being. Marvaine was still too young to be able to make good use of the advanced sets. The beginner sets were more than adequate enough to keep him busy for a few years.