Says the one with Homuficer for an avatar...
Meguca Micro Empire Quest (PMMM)
- Thread starter inverted_helix
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Says the one with Homuficer for an avatar...
In PMMM, it seemed like the primary source of negentropic energy collection was the witchout. In that case, the most likely reason for the incubators' creation of the soul gem would be to make the body more durable so that other things don't kill magical girls before they have a chance to witchout. I'm not sure why they would do the same thing in a universe without witchouts, though.
[X] Elder Haman
Because if most meguca didn't survive their first demon fight they'd never get a chance to even fill a single grief cube.
That's probably part of it. The incubators get negentropy from wishes (somehow) as well as directly from grief cubes. There's probably some sort of balance there. Or maybe the incubators are worried about causing too many deaths and therefore causing muggles to take notice (more than they already are).
I find it amusing that there's like half a page of people quoting each other basically saying the same thing about their collective beliefs about how wishes work. It's how you usually see arguments written in this forum, but instead they're pretty much all in agreement.
Going to work on finishing event and then computing end results of turn including event. Hopefully will finish today. Expect ludicrous amount of computation errors from not having done this in months.
Going to work on finishing event and then computing end results of turn including event. Hopefully will finish today. Expect ludicrous amount of computation errors from not having done this in months.
Well, maybe, maybe not. I'm of the opinion that the incubators really don't get any profit from the Wish itself at all, that it's just a mechanism that they exploit in order to remove a girl's soul from their body and turn them into Grief engines. Heck, it might even be a loss for them, which would explain why they bother making the meguca's body more durable: they want to protect their investment as much as they can without unduly straining the masquerade. If that's the case then an organization like the Serene is like a bonanza for them, since so many of our members have lasted for many times their projected lifetime already.
On the other hand, Madokami is watching out for us.
Turn 28
Turn 28
Diplomacy
Diplomacy this month doesn't go as well as you'd like. Area 11 is cagey about meeting with you directly for much of the month and you have some growing suspicions that they might be hiding something. Eventually after a lot of notes passed back and forth from across rooftops, in an exchange as much comical as it is paranoid, you get a face to face. It alleviates some concerns but raises others.
It connects itself with the lack of response to your various communications with the girls in area 1. The lack of communication was because they were stalling while they negotiated amongst themselves. Apparently they've come to some sort of agreement amongst themselves and have formed some sort of coalition together with the girls in the area in between them. You have an urge to sigh as they indicate that it was driven by a need to protect themselves.
They are not particularly interested in picking a fight despite that though. Therefore they'll continue to allow and even give you actual permission to move forces through their territory so long as the numbers are low or you warn them of larger movements.
While the why is a bit off-putting, being the cause of other girls grouping together isn't itself a bad thing you suppose, and there might be some opportunities to be had as well.
The scouting of the girls in the nomadic area doesn't reveal as much as you'd like, but they do seem to be a bit rundown and barely scraping by. There's really only so much you can gain by watching them for a bit. You're pretty sure they're four veterans and you haven't seen any rotation of them or them meeting with other groups for exchanges, so you're reasonably sure they aren't scouts for a larger movement by the time you decide to contact them.
You meet up with them in as non-confrontational a manner as you can, just settling in along their expected route in an area where not many humans normally pass through with your magic on full display so they aren't surprised.
They're wary about meeting you and they take a while after they get close enough to notice you before they decide to approach at all. You greet them warmly nonetheless and that seems to put the ragged girl approaching off her game even as the others wait at a distance.
As you expected they're in dire straits. They know they can gather enough cubes from the nomadic lifestyle very well, and they're well aware of the dangers. They do come from what they colloquially refer to as the Tokyo containment zone, which apparently is not the easiest of tasks. They're more than suspicious of your offer of free grief cubes, but she laughs at you giving them information on Class 3 demons. The apparent leader thinks your pamphlets probably complete propaganda, but given their status they don't really have options, and if you'll have them they'll gladly join.
The meeting with area 13 goes about as well as can be expected, they're willing to talk, but when probed about the events you've been dealing with don't admit to having anything to do with it. Not that you expected them to. They claim it's probably Hino from Nagoya doing it; they're technically a vassal state at this point though it doesn't affect them too much.
Mundane Economy
Your restaurant continues to return upon its investment, even with much of the money it makes going towards paying for its own costs. You fold the greens that Seto had working part time jobs into your courier business without issue. The efforts to expand into Fujinomiya fail pretty terribly though. The possible customer base in the area is pretty tightly locked down by existing services and didn't seem terribly interested in a new company.
On the plus side though Akeno seems to have managed to express her boredom productively and tapped a new market share, managing to convince an existing restaurant of the sort that doesn't usually deliver to allow her to run deliveries for them. Apparently she demonstrated that she can deliver food in the condition it is given to her to a degree they really didn't think possible for someone carrying a box on a bicycle, or really even if they were using a car.
Given that she is totally cheating using her unique abilities to do this, it's really only something she can do, but it pays quite well. (Akeno delivers! She can now do this for $3000/month, but it takes her out of the courier pool, nicely filled by the vet you added in expectation of expansion though if you like.)
Information Gathering
Ask Kyuubey what conditions cause a Class 3 demon to be created. How much overhunting? Does a demon need to kill a magical girl need to die in order for one to form? What can he tell us about the Class 3 demons currently in Tokyo?
Cost: ?? cubes
Kyuubey is finding the increased data on Class 3s over the past two years quite fascinating. There appears to be significant degree of uncertainty to it such that it is difficult for Incubators to model very precisely. At present they have no pressing need for aggressive and expensive research into the field which would clarify it further.
Based on past data, they believe that demon strength as measured in your terms must be at minimum +10 for it to be possible for a Class 3 demon to originate from native population, though meiosis of a migratory one can still produce more in such areas. Chance of one spawning starts off low and increases exponentially. It is projected that by +40 strength the number of Class 3 demons reaches an average one per territory unit per month, though there is a lack of data at the high end to determine accuracy, and at that level differentiation can be difficult.
Origination of Class 3 demons does not require termination of a contracted, but that does seem to be requisite to their reproduction via meiosis.
The currently active Class 3 demons in Tokyo are typically stronger than the one you faced, values previously given were for newborn demons of the indicated classes. The one you faced had undergone meiosis as it broke out of the Tokyo area resulting in its strength being similar to that of a newborn.
53 Class 3 demons originated in Tokyo during the initial upward swing in their spawning, at that time there were 107 Grade 3 Contracted countering them and 1693 total Contracted in the Tokyo Metropolitan Area. Early losses were substantial. Coordination and force concentration improved survival rate after initial losses. Currently there is an estimated 37 Class 3 demons in the region and 45 Grade 3 Contracted with 1200 total Contracted despite unusually aggressive recruitment. Remaining Contracted have switched to mostly guerrilla activity with few fixed concentrations.
The Class 3 demons have mostly remained concentrated as a result of the more plentiful food supply there than the immediate surroundings. When this ceases to be the case intervention to starve them may be required. A Grade 4 Contracted clearing the area would be preferable due to the short term impact on harvests of such an action. However there are many locations requiring their intervention at this time and it is difficult in the best of times to convince them to act.
Morale
Aiko takes up the offer of more closely tracking grief cube use, being as it's as much a psychologist position as a matter of accounting, though she ropes in some hours of the more mathematical members when she needs it. Most of her time though is spent with chatting with all the girls to see how they're doing. She's a bit concerned that there might be a negative impression when she chooses to mark people down for a bit fewer or a bit more though.
You also take the time this month for a normal day in the park to help promote cohesion, especially with the Seto's group. You don't exactly force them to play with the other girls instead of their own group, but you do encourage it.
Research
Tandem Casting, Basic
Interfacing the magic of two separate girls, even those with similar abilities is not so simple as you'd like. You've done combo attacks with Kyouko in the distant past, but that's more setting up an enemy for your partner, not really putting your power directly together.
Keiko did some research into the matter this turn. There's a lot of destructive interference from two people trying to apply the same effect. She has some ideas on how to cut it down though.
Improved Rotating Tactics + Demon Hunting Diary
Your unofficial-official quant team puts together the various route changes and adaptations needed to test all sorts of variations on your current rotating tactics in short order based off the list of various ideas on how it might be improved.
You also set aside more time for your hunters to do paperwork and set them to recording much more details about the demons they face than they have in the past: detailed accounts of abilities, strength of those abilities, time and location where they were encountered and more.
This information is then contributed to the hunting planning to serve as a better basis for adjustments to the rotating tactics. Unfortunately the information doesn't really give much good news. So far you're getting insignificant improvement over your current systems.
Combat
Hunting goes about as well as normal, barring the incident in Iwata at the end of the month.
That was aggravating and more than a bit confusing. You end up getting Sora and Mariko's soul gems back without any resistance, they're on the specified roof when you arrived along with an apology note and a sort of strange reflection of your own recruitment pamphlets.
After you withdrawal and reunite Sora and Mariko's gems with their bodies you take the time to read it. It really doesn't reveal too much about them, being more a manifesto and about the problems of not being in a group and the dangers of uncontrolled hunting than extoling the virtues of the group like yours. It seems focused on the virtue of bringing absolute order to an otherwise dangerous system. Imposing safety for the collective at any cost.
Sora and Mariko are a little jumbled on what happened. Perspective on time very skewed. One moment they were fighting the next they were tied down and asked a bunch of questions about the group: their size, their hunting habits, and their territory. But it was pretty fuzzy and their bodies weren't right. They both claim they didn't answer the questions but that didn't seem to bother the people asking. And then they were here back with their bodies.
General
You manage to purchase additional armor this month in your new realization that you actually have use for it even if you don't need it against normal demons. Inspecting your stockpiles of gear and equipment though you realize you're probably going to need to find some long term acquisition method as they will need steady replacements if you end up relying on them heavily.
Taura points out you might want to consider allotting money towards maintenance of things like the bicycles and shields as well. They've actually taken far more of a beating than the Kevlar. Some of the girls without families have also suggested an additional amount of money be given to them for the food they need that those with homes don't.
Two of your greens make it to a point they can be called veteran this month.
You had five grief spirals this month. Ayako's was the most severe and for obvious reasons and required 4 units of grief cubes to arrest. Though oddly neither Sora nor Mariko spiraled, it doesn't seem to have actually been that traumatic, more of a blur really. Akeno had a bit of a crisis of usefulness before she got her new job and required two units to stabilize but thereafter seemed to work harder than ever. Kaoru had a minor spiral due to her lingering issues of self-doubt, but helped reduce the severity of Katsuko's spiral with her music, which seemed to cheer Kaoru at least. Sayaka also had a minor spiral this month because of other meguca hurting your girls when they should be protecting people, you're oddly happy to have made such a safe place that that she can have such ideals.
Rumors
War is brewing in the human world, saber rattling between the Koreas has reached a peak not seen in many years and it's not clear that any of the world powers will be able to put a stop to it. Internal unrest around the world has been unpredictable and soaring and left many nations focusing on their own problems.
You gather from the girls in Area 13 that the Nagoya Magocracy which you've dealt with this turn are some vast group run by a girl named Hino. They can't really tell you much details on their size, but they control much of the Nagoya area either directly or through vassal groups. They vigorously attack anyone that might cause a Class 3 demon to spawn. None of them have been around long enough, but they've heard that there was an outbreak of them a while ago that the NM put down at great cost.
It's said that Tokyo is ringed by groups which spread out from Tokyo early on and then boxed in their former brethren with barriers tuned to other magical girls. The situation within is said to have devolved into a role reversal with the demons hunting the magical girls.
Resources
- 4 (5) Elite Meguca: Mami (+20% persuasive), Kyouko (can act as if two Elites), Taya (Scouting Bonus), Seto (Elite teleporter)
- 48 Veteran Meguca, 4 Green Meguca, 1 Associate
- Upkeep: 21.5 Veteran, 4 Green, 1 Associate
- Support/Training (8.5 Vet)
- 3 vet demon finding training (+20% grief cubes)
- 3 vets on dispatch service (+30% grief cubes additive with demon finding, -1% casualties)
- 1.5 vet on telepathic communication (-2% pair hunting, -1% pack hunting)
- 1 Veteran, Paperpushing
- Jobs (12 Vet, 4 Green, 1 Associate)
- 1 veteran (Hainako) Translation service
- 6 veteran + 3 green working courier business (Minimum 3 vets)
- 1 Akeno Delivery
- 4 Vets (Akane), 1 Green, 1 Associate Restaurant
- Support/Training (8.5 Vet)
- Upkeep: 21.5 Veteran, 4 Green, 1 Associate
- Grief Cubes 53.2
- Money: $36,350
- Upkeep $23,520
- $1120 upkeep on cellphones (-2% solo hunting, -1% pair hunting)
- $500 upkeep on cable (increased due to new housing)
- $2500 upkeep on apartments
- $8000 upkeep on house
- $11400 upkeep on stipend
- Income $29,000
- Translator: +$3000 per turn
- Courier Business, Mitakihara: +$9500 per turn
- Courier Business, Kasamino: +$4500 per turn
- Restaurant +$9000 per turn
- Delivery +$3000 per turn (was only $1500 bonus this turn)
- Upkeep $23,520
- Morale: [3 of 10] Morale held pretty steady this month, so many problems keep appearing from outside and you're not sure how to keep your girls spirits up.
- Assets
- Tiny household shrine: Somewhat reduces losses to morale from deaths. (Bonus Increased by omake)
- Shields: -3% Casualties
- Basic General Combat Training: -2% Casualties (May decay with losses or recruitment).
- Basic Solo Combat Training: -1% Pack Hunting, -2% pair hunting, -3% Solo Hunting
- Defending Others Training: -2% Pair Hunting, -1% Pack Hunting
- Pack Tactics Training: -4% pack hunting, -2% pair hunting
- 57 Bicycles (Mobility Bonus)
- 18 Bulletproof vest (-2% casualty)
- 17.8? Sets of Kevlar Clothing (-4% casualty)
- 3 Sets of Leather (-2% casualty)
- 9 sets hardened leather (-3% casualty)
- Housing (56/73)
- Apartments (20 capacity)
- House (50 capacity)
- Mami's Apartment (HQ of sorts) (Can be traded for $1200 per turn)
- Territory
- Urban
- North
- Demon Status: Strong 9.9
- Sustainable Harvest: 37
- South
- Demon Status: Average 0
- Sustainable Harvest: 28
- Demon Status: Average 0
- North
- Rural
- Demon Status: Average +0
- Sustainable Harvest: 7
- Urban
Bring on the million errors and mistakes you detect. I'm way out of practice.
You can recruit the 4 nomads as a free action if you want to and use them for this coming turn. It's essentially just as if you agreed for them to join.
Also as a freebie for being such a terrible length without updating I mitigated your worst grief spiral this month.
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Aranfan
Team Plasma Grunt
Um, didn't we under-hunt South this month (which kind of makes the assault by the Nagoya group a little weird)? Or did that kind of go to pot thanks to mini-turn events?
Aranfan
Team Plasma Grunt
This is interseting and has implications.
No Homura though. Damn.
-
Nagoya seems to be run by a conquest group, going by the pamphlet they gave us.
Godwinson
"Well, I've got nothing."
Wait, does this mean they can't find Homura, or that Homura was killed off-screen?
Yeah that was one of the many errors you are bound to find. I'll fix that.
Nagoya scouted your demon strength earlier during the overhunt phase.
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Aranfan
Team Plasma Grunt
Just that she isn't in Tokyo.
so why would they box the magical girls in with the demons? For that matter HOW did they do that? There's miles upon miles upon miles of perimeter to block, and that has to take both a lot of incredibly powerful magical girls, and a massive amount of cubes to maintain. Especially since with magical girls you have to make the barrier really high to prevent jumping over. And every square foot of it has to be able to resist concerted attack by a team of trapped girls.
For that matter, I doubt the incubators appreciate the masquerade breaches from train riding puella going splat
For that matter, I doubt the incubators appreciate the masquerade breaches from train riding puella going splat
They're also absurdly huge compared to us, if they make up most of the city. No wonder their assault team smashed us; they must have their pick of dozens of Elite and specialized capture units. Keeping a group like that from conquering us is going to be a daunting task, sort of like the Ukraine trying to fend off Russia, only without the prospect of joining NATO.
But how'd they get so huge? I mean IIRC wasn't Mami supposed to be the first one to start forming groups or something at the start?
Aranfan
Team Plasma Grunt
Mami was one of the first. But if I'm right the Nagoya group has been expanding through conquest, and even a diplomacy group that is less conservative with their puella's lives would expand faster than we have.
A lot of it is probably luck; we seem to have miserable luck with everything from scouting to recruiting, despite that +20% persuasive bonus. Part of that's our own fault; we've been busy optimizing for "Nobody dies" and "Keep our people happy" rather than "Expand at all costs".
But then wouldn't they be having Grief Spiral problems and implode? Ah well...
Oh wait, we have Priscilla dice for expanding, how could I forget lol. It's been a while. Now it all makes sense.
Godwinson
"Well, I've got nothing."
Nah, the AI cheats in strategy games.
Certainly. And players have had an incredibly cautious route minimizing casualties at pretty much any cost. But that comes at a cost.
There's a big range between nobody dies, and group implosion. You're living at the nobody dies end of the spectrum, most groups are going to be in the range between the two.