Remove ads

Meguca Micro Empire Quest (PMMM)

What should I do regarding a change in system?

  • Notgreat's proposed simplification of hunting, leave rest intact.

    Votes: 5 55.6%

  • Chapter system vastly simplifying everything.

    Votes: 4 44.4%
  • Total voters
    9
  • Poll closed .
Reader mode
Elder Haman said:
Trade Deal with Nagoya:
Offer our Duration Research technology, and a few samples of tandem charms
-- don't explain why the charms are so much more powerful than theirs.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
While I'm a little hesitant on this, it might be sufficient to mostly replace the cube sales.

Looking at the delayed plan, I'm concerned about our cube resources. If we go for a DS0 hunt next month to free up meguca, we're only going to be getting about 60 cubes. Meanwhile, we're adding 5 new members, so our baseline cube costs go up to 74, plus another ~4 for spirals.

Edit: A less complete DS0 hunt could give us about 70 cubes for 16 meguca. But at that point we're not gaining much in meguca time.

If we do the 20 cube sale this month, next month we're going to end up at about 52 cubes, before considering how much we'll need to spend during the Tokyo run itself. We'll probably recover a ton of cubes from the demon hunt, but we might just as easily be spending most of those on keeping the Tokyo girls alive.

So, for our own purposes, we should probably go for trading tech for money, instead of cubes for money.

On the other hand, this could get us $88k to $100k, significantly more than the cube sales would have been.
 
Last edited:
Also... for some reason the idea of us telling others about our plan to clear Tokyo got me thinking that the rumor next month is going to be that the Serenes are going to release their secret weapon to save Tokyo.

And that made me think of this:

"Wewease the secwet weapon!"

Powerofmind said:
I'm not saying teleport that close and run in. I'm saying base that close and run in.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

How would we base our support that close? It would tie up a lot of resources doing nothing...

I just don't think we can predict the behavior of the beholder that accurately, and that any plan that requires that is insufficiently flexible.

Kinematics said:
Looking at the delayed plan, I'm concerned about our cube resources. If we go for a DS0 hunt next month to free up meguca, we're only going to be getting about 60 cubes. Meanwhile, we're adding 5 new members, so our baseline cube costs go up to 74, plus another ~4 for spirals.

If we do the 20 cube sale this month, next month we're going to end up at about 52 cubes, before considering how much we'll need to spend during the Tokyo run itself. We'll probably recover a ton of cubes from the demon hunt, but we might just as easily be spending most of those on keeping the Tokyo girls alive.

So, for our own purposes, we should probably go for trading tech for money, instead of cubes for money.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

helix confirmed that we would be getting a bounty on the class 3 demons, but that he might halve it.

That would still be 100 cubes for all the class 3 demons.
 
Elder Haman said:
How would we base our support that close? It would tie up a lot of resources doing nothing...

I just don't think we can predict the behavior of the beholder that accurately, and that any plan that requires that is insufficiently flexible.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I don't even know what you're trying to advocate here. You want to keep our support and big guns 5 km away when it's completely unnecessary to do so? We can either have help less than a minute away, or five minutes away, and in either case you plan to hold back everything but Serena until they start getting teleported on. Can you give me one reason why it'd be smarter to put the vast majority of our firepower further from the front when the entire point of bringing them is to be a fast-response aid to Serena?
 
Powerofmind said:
I don't even know what you're trying to advocate here. You want to keep our support and big guns 5 km away when it's completely unnecessary to do so? We can either have help less than a minute away, or five minutes away, and in either case you plan to hold back everything but Serena until they start getting teleported on. Can you give me one reason why it'd be smarter to put the vast majority of our firepower further from the front when the entire point of bringing them is to be a fast-response aid to Serena?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

No... I saying that we don't know when the beholder is going to attack, so our forces are likely to be doing something else somewhere not near Serena when our clairvoyants see the beholder suddenly moving to attack us. At that point we rally, teleport to within 5 kilometers of Serena, and attack with all our forces.
 
Elder Haman said:
No... I saying that we don't know when the beholder is going to attack, so our forces are likely to be doing something else somewhere not near Serena when our clairvoyants see the beholder suddenly moving to attack us. At that point we rally, teleport to within 5 kilometers of Serena, and attack with all our forces.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
What are we going to do that's so far away, but at the same time so unimportant that we can drop it on a dime to go help Serena? That's the problem. You've got this vague as hell 'we can't be that close because' but I don't see what that reason could be. Can you give me anything other than 'likely be doing something else' as an excuse? Because if 'something else' is trivial enough to drop, then it's trivial enough to save for later.
 
Oh, wait, duh! We're getting hunting assistance this month from the Coalition. That frees up 2 vets for us. Sort of. They won't have the XP bonus, so I'll have to fiddle with the spreadsheet a little.

Edit: They were provided as a pack, so I'll assume I have to use them as such.
 
Last edited:
I am now imagining that Kyoclone encounters the beholder, and decides to hold him off to give the other girls time to run.

Then she manages to kill it via incredibly lucky rolls.

Probably, in fact almost certainly, won't happen. But I can dream.
 
landcollector said:
:???: I'm not understanding this.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Haman argues that we'll have Serena's dedicated support more than 5 km away from her, 'doing something else,' and that this is the reason we can't be just outside the range of Serena's aura waiting to swoop in and play counter-reinforcement to the demon clair-porters. I argue that there is nothing else dedicated support should be doing except waiting to support the team they're tied to, especially if whatever they're doing is so trivial they can drop it immediately to go do their jobs.
 
Turn 32:
Without PvP/Tokyo/Kaoru training, but including the Tech research because it only needs one month to complete, and the monthly morale action because we're prepping for something potentially nasty, and most of the stuff Haman had. Currently at 2 elite and 5 vets free.

Expect to sell 20 cubes ($58,500 net profit after buying 5 from the Coalition and 15/16). Expected cubes left after spirals is ~75 (better than 1x). (I think I made an error in the earlier calculations.)

Turn 33:
Dropping all projects except basic hunting, support and jobs, plus the third month of general training, and 3 meguca making charms. Harvests 65 cubes from hunting. All elites plus 16.5 vets free. Can we build a fulltime support team (or two) on 16 vets? (or 32 half-time)

Expected cubes at end of month 33, not counting cubes recovered while hunting in Tokyo, is about 63. A bit low, but not horrible, and should be easily made up for from the demons and bounties.

If we can sell the duration research for $100k to Nagoya (50 points), we'll be sitting at $234k, and then spending a ton on business expansions and such. We could conceivably have enough leftover to buy the church.
 
Elder Haman said:
Things to do in the following month:

Distribute cellphones to all the Elites in Tokyo via Incubators, get in contact with them.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Maybe we should do that this month, and have Mami (or representative) make contact with those Elites, tell them about our plan for the Big Cleanse the following month, and make sure they and whatever vets they can gather are ready?

Powerofmind said:
Haman argues that we'll have Serena's dedicated support more than 5 km away from her, 'doing something else,' and that this is the reason we can't be just outside the range of Serena's aura waiting to swoop in and play counter-reinforcement to the demon clair-porters. I argue that there is nothing else dedicated support should be doing except waiting to support the team they're tied to, especially if whatever they're doing is so trivial they can drop it immediately to go do their jobs.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
I think we'll have them diplomancing Tokyo.

Mami's Bavarian Fire Drill plan kind of depends on us showing up in force. Having two dozen girls--including four other Elites--backing her up, all wearing kevlar (NOTE @Kinematics do we have enough armor?) and carrying shields will lend us a big air of legitimacy.

And, if on one of those presentation days we get a text-blast from Serena and have to suddenly bug out to deal with a flood of Class 3s or a Beholder, well that just demonstrates our organization and planning skills.
 
TheEyes said:
Maybe we should do that this month, and have Mami (or representative) make contact with those Elites, tell them about our plan for the Big Cleanse the following month, and make sure they and whatever vets they can gather are ready?


I think we'll have them diplomancing Tokyo.

Mami's Bavarian Fire Drill plan kind of depends on us showing up in force. Having two dozen girls--including four other Elites--backing her up, all wearing kevlar (NOTE @Kinematics do we have enough armor?) and carrying shields will lend us a big air of legitimacy.

And, if on one of those presentation days we get a text-blast from Serena and have to suddenly bug out to deal with a flood of Class 3s or a Beholder, well that just demonstrates our organization and planning skills.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Then this is where we differ. I am of the opinion that we cannot and should not attempt to do the diplomacy game until the class 4 is dead, and any first strike should be focused wholly on baiting it out and killing it (or at least a good chunk of the tele-seers).
 
We need to grab as much of Tokyo before anyone else does. Recruiting in Tokyo is probably our second priority in this outing.
 
Aranfan said:
We need to grab as much of Tokyo before anyone else does. Recruiting in Tokyo is probably our second priority in this outing.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
For at least the first few days of putting Tokyo to siege, our entire focus should be on supporting Serena's attacks. If we've killed off a good chunk of their teleport clairvoyant patrol demons, then maybe I can acquiesce to a diplomatic mission behind enemy lines, but until the line is broken, I'd rather stay on our side of it, thank you very much.
 
Powerofmind said:
For at least the first few days of putting Tokyo to siege, our entire focus should be on supporting Serena's attacks. If we've killed off a good chunk of their teleport clairvoyant patrol demons, then maybe I can acquiesce to a diplomatic mission behind enemy lines, but until the line is broken, I'd rather stay on our side of it, thank you very much.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...

Considering the teleport clairvoyant rapid response team of demons is overwhelmingly likely to be literally the second fight, I think you're making much ado about nothing.
 
Powerofmind said:
Then this is where we differ. I am of the opinion that we cannot and should not attempt to do the diplomacy game until the class 4 is dead, and any first strike should be focused wholly on baiting it out and killing it (or at least a good chunk of the tele-seers).
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Oh I agree we should, but if the Class 4 doesn't want to come out and play on Day 1 we have to have something else for our ready reaction force to do, once we've taken out their ready reaction force of teleporting Class 3s. After all, if the Beholder showed up every single time a force of meguca showed up then Nagoya would never have gotten anything done. That other thing they're going to do? Diplomancing with Mami; that way they're in the city, within teleporting distance of Serena's Class 3-clearing group.

According to @Kinematics we have 5 Elites and 16 Vets to play with, right? Well, after Day 1-3 of the Great Cleanse, where we'll probably want that whole force within 5km of Serena's group to deal with teleporting Class 3 incursions, we'll have to move on to patrol phase:
  • Serena and her four backup dancers (and Kyoclone, if having her there doesn't cause addiction problems) go around clearing Class 3s.
  • Taya+Clairvoyant, 2 tandem barrier girls and a healer (and Kyoclone, if she can't be in the aura 24/7) are on backstop, >1km away, using tandem spells to check the area, carrying the spare tandem barrier charms.
  • Mami, Kyoko, Seto, and 12 vets (preferably at least one clairvoyant, to check for an assault by the Beholder) are on Tokyo diplomancing duty.
  • If Beholder is spotted by any group, everyone is to converge immediately and dogpile it.
 
Last edited:
Aranfan said:
Considering the teleport clairvoyant rapid response team of demons is overwhelmingly likely to be literally the second fight, I think you're making much ado about nothing.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
There's something like forty class 3 demons with a likely 4 (possibly more that we haven't seen). I don't want to wander around behind the lines recruiting while Serena is taking on the risk of getting swarmed, with the possibility that the beholder doesn't show up, making it too risky to teleport out to save her when we could be more than 10 km away. There's even a possibility that we can't escape the class 3's that might drop on the diplomacy team for just that reason, forcing them to fight and get swarmed themselves.

We have one point of force projection. Leaving it behind to make a good impression, putting both forces at risk, is stupid, and falls under that 'pinning your hopes on one die roll' thing that Haman didn't want to do in the first place.
 
TheEyes said:
Having two dozen girls--including four other Elites--backing her up, all wearing kevlar (NOTE @Kinematics do we have enough armor?) and carrying shields will lend us a big air of legitimacy.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
We have 20 kevlar vests and 19 sets of clothing. We could replace the missing set of clothing with hard leather and it would be adequate, though it might look a little out of place.

Max people available would be 5 elites and 16 vets, which would need 21 sets. So 14 vets if we want to be sure everyone is wearing full kevlar, for a consistent impression, or 15 vets if one using heavy leather (5% total instead of 6%) is OK.

Note that that doesn't include Serena's group. Serena certainly doesn't need armor against normal demons, but we may need to provide armor for this run. If that's the case, then we're dropping to 9 or 10 vets with Mami that could be fully suited up.

We may want to see about picking up sufficient spare kevlar vests this month to outfit the remaining vets we have that would just be getting hard leather.

And speaking of which, looking at normal hunting assignments, 4.5 vets would be assigned hard leather armor for safety out there, which means only 4.5 additional vets would have that available in Tokyo.


Considering everything:
Serena + companions: full kevlar (5)
Mami et al (elites): full kevlar (5)
Support vets that may get in the line of fire: full kevlar (9)
Additional support vets: (7) [available: 1 kevlar vest, 4.5 hard leather, 3 leather]
Regular hunters: 4.5 hard leather

6 kevlar vests and 3 hard leather outfits would be adequate. 7 more kevlar clothing sets would be nice, but would be hard to get on short notice.
 
On the diplomacy issue: I don't think we should be doing the full BFD plan until the city is solidly under control. Everything about the plan is explaining how to live after the demons are gone, and if the demons aren't gone, people aren't going to listen.

On the other hand, we can do light diplomatic actions as we sort of sweep behind Serena, in between demon kills. Get everyone aware of us, hand out some basic info, pass out cell phones so we can keep in contact and arrange the more elaborate meetings later, etc.

Basically, Mami should be all about crowd control until the active threat is over, and should be actively waiting to assist with the beholder fight, and on her toes about the possibility of the support group or nearby meguca being attacked by a stealth-spec class 3. She should not be doing full diplomancing until everything is over and safe.
 
It looks like if we go all out on purchases, we'll be spending over $100k between this month and next.

Collecting some stuff from Haman's post, plus other things.

@32:

Assuming we go for the Akiya home, we need $30k to get it cleaned up. It would be hard to get a loan, but might be feasible if we pay $10k up front, and get a 1 year loan on the remainder.

Food will go in under food upkeep ($500 for Serena's group)

Buy several computers, cameras, mics, and set up video conferencing between all the houses. Figure 2 video setups per house, and 1 setup each for Mami's apartment, and the two apartment blocks we have. Total of 9 video conference setups. Netbooks, camera, mic. Maybe $350 each? (based on $200 for the netbooks alone) $3150 total. Also, upgrade on internet, plus satellite for Serena's place (will go into upkeep).

$8000 for Serena's travel

$1000 for welcome packet

$1000 for delivery service advertising

Serene propaganda write-ups:

— Training Manual: Demon Finding Training, Dispatch Teams, Pack Tactics, Solo Tactics, General Combat Training, Defending Others, Telepathic Communication, Evacuation Team.
1000x copies, 25 pages, B&W, color cover = $1500

— Hunting Research: Crop Rotation, Rotating Tactics(partial), Improved Rotating Tactics, Various numbers on Solo/Pairs/Pack safety and efficiency. Armor and other casualty reduction options. Dispatch Team effects, Demon Forecasting.
1000x copies, 25 pages, B&W, color cover = $1500

(For propaganda material, should probably just note Rotating Tactics as an advanced hunting methodology to be applied when they've gotten a handle on all the basics. Don't put details in the basic handout, or people will likely try it and get themselves killed. Also, IRT is proprietary for now.)

— Serene Research: Magical Effects on Materials, Secondary Effects, Effect on Technology, Duration Effects, Spell Anchoring, Tandem Casting, other misc research
50x copies, 50 pages, B&W, 3 ring binder binding (so we can more easily trade just portions of this) = $200

(Research packet is so that the info is done up in a nice presentation for when we trade with others.)

— Serene Propaganda: (Whitewashed) History of Serenissima Imperium Magicum Puella. Safety record of the Serene approach. Testimonials of various girls (some who joined as vets, some who joined as greens, Seto, at least two of the Tokyo girls we took in). Essay by Mami on the Importance of an Education, and having a normal life outside Magical Girl work. Information about various Serene businesses. Contact Information.
100x copies, 25 pages, B&W w/ some color pages, color cover, better binding/paper = $300
1000x copies, 25 pages, B&W w/ some color pages, color cover, better binding/paper = $1800

(Going to use the full 1000 copies.)

Armor:

See where Seto picked up the hardened leather armor, and have her go get 3 more sets. $350 each? (normal leather is $250) $1050 total

See what we can do on the matter of picking up kevlar vests. Kevlar vests were less problematic than the full clothing sets, right? Need 6 @ $600 each, for $3600 total. Do we need another anonymous PO Box? (was $500 + 1 cube last time, for 3 months)

Trade:

Purchase 3 GCU from the Coalition for $2500 each. $7500

Purchase 2 GCU from 15/16 for $2000 each. $4000

Other:

Cell phones for Tokyo girls. Minimum 32 for the elites. Figure another 68 for random distribution to vets. $2000 upkeep.


Total: $46,300

Normal net income: $6,130 - $500 (food) - $300 (internet)(?) - $100 (new cell phones)(?) - $300 (rent) - $1700 (loan) = $3,230
Cube sales: $70,000
Research sale: $50,000-$100,000 (unknown)

Net income: $26,930


@33:

$20,000 (max) for one month cellphones for Tokyo girls (including 100 from previous month)

$50,000 for expansion of courier service into the core of Yokohama and downtown Tokyo.

Housing purchase in Yokohama depends on expansion progress.

Total: $70,000+

If we got money from the research sale, we should be OK. If we did not, we could go as low as $25k in the bank after this. However recouping from the courier business expansion should be pretty quick. We pretty much have to hire Tokyo natives on this. If they hadn't been absorbed into our group, we can take a 20% cut (ie: pay them $1200/month) and earn $10k to $20k per month, putting us back in the black in 3 to 6 months. If we do actually get them joined up, we could easily make $50k per month, and we're in a position to get the church in just a few months.
 
Last edited:
Kinematics said:
Assuming we go for the Akiya home, we need $30k to get it cleaned up. It would be hard to get a loan, but might be feasible if we pay $10k up front, and get a 1 year loan on the remainder.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
You know, the $30k in renovations really should be the landlord's responsibility: even if they're renting it "as-is" there needs to be basic renovations just to keep a place up to code, otherwise it's not safe to rent in the first place and it opens the landlord up to some pretty severe lawsuits. There's also the issue that they get to keep the upgrades if/when we move out. That said, we're looking to move in fast, so really what we ought to be able to get away with is splitting the bill up front, and getting reimbursed for the remainder when we move out, so long as we keep all the receipts and let either the landlord or property management company inspect the property to ensure that, yes, all the renovations were actually done.
 
Reader mode
You must login or register to reply here.
Remove ads
Back
Top