I'm not sure that the Coalition actually researched tandem casting; it might have just been those two girls who developed it between themselves. I vaguely recall @inverted_helix saying that was the case; do we know that for sure?
Meguca Micro Empire Quest (PMMM)
- Thread starter inverted_helix
- Start date
Our last talk with them had it as something they actually researched — they were curious whether our research differed from theirs — so it's not just an isolated element, though it probably won't give us much of anything new, either.
It only removes that threat if we can kill it, which is far from guaranteed. Given current demon behavior, I'd rate our chances of killing it at less than 10% at this point.
It does not open up teleport transport if it doesn't actually scare the beholder away from Serena. Between its barriers and its healing, it can easily make periodic attempts on Serena's group, with a chance of killing one of them each time (such as what nearly happened with Seto in our first fight).
Which is why I'm aiming for the research. Successfully completing fusion research opens up huge numbers of possibilities for us.
I was actually wondering whether Teleportation+Clairvoyance fusion might allow for this.
I'm not against these options. The Osaka option would be an instant win, but I can't imagine successful negotiations on something they've already refused to support. But... If it's not that they're unwilling to help Tokyo, but that they're unwilling to help Nagoya deal with Tokyo (as well as not being interested in dealing with Tokyo themselves), it might be possible. I don't know that we'd have anything we could really offer in trade, though, to a 150-year-old magical girl.
[X] Revised Elder Haman Plan
@inverted_helix We would like the input of Kyouko, Seto, and Serena into these plans, as well as the thoughts anyone else has.
No matter what, this means we ought to have 3/4 of our girls time back to work on the backlog so...
~2 elites
~14.5 vets (including the new recruit)
This triples down on the Fusion Research, but it also approaches the Coalition (in case their tandem research might help with our research), and approaches the Heaven's Chosen, so that if we don't get Fusion Tandem Casting, we can try trading with them for it. It also tries to get Teleporter Tracking research as a possible alternative.
I think we should try multiple angles to get the information we need.
@inverted_helix We would like the input of Kyouko, Seto, and Serena into these plans, as well as the thoughts anyone else has.
Give everyone a day's rest. Followed by a day reviewing, practicing, and improving the plan bellow (without aura exposure). Attack on the third day.
During this preparation time, prepare barrier bomb charms, that we can try to affix to the demon. (Hooks if possible).
During the day of rest, Mami can take some time to talk with Seto and see how she's holding up. Express some concern over how Seto was effected by Serena's aura, and make sure she knows that Mami is there to talk to if she needs someone.
Get the eyeball location from Kyubey. Move into teleportation range protected by Serena's aura. Have her clear out any non-teleporting demons.
Teleporters and Clairvoyants determine the exact safe range to teleport in around the Eyeball. (Should be able to do this quickly).
Teleport just outside the interdiction zone with clairvoyants and support team (and at least far enough out that Serena's aura does not reach the Eyeball). Teleporters teleport back to safe territory, but remain on call.
Serena is transformed. Triple Tandem Barrier the whole party. Vet Tandem Stealth over the whole party. Elite Tandem Stealth over the support team (ie everyone but Serena & Co). Approach the eyeball.
Scenario 1: It immediately flees Serena's Aura:
Stop for confirmation, but tentative plan will be to stop attempting to kill the teleporters (including the eyeball) and for Serena begin clearing all the non-teleporters, while everyone else goes and does other things to try and get other things done. (Note significant changes to the backlog planned).
Scenario 2: It stays and fights:
Have Serena & Co. fight defensively while the stealthed support team gets ready. Once the demon takes significant damage, or if Serena's team starts to have any problems, all out surprise attack on the Eyeball from stealth, including barrier bomb charms. Use several of the elite illusion distractions charms (Kyouko in a can!) to keep the eyeball confused. Continue attacking until it flees or dies.
Would like a point to stop and decide if we should pursue if it decides to flee. However, we have made preparations so that we can pursue if we decide to:
Have Kyubey prepared tell us the new location (including how many other demons are around it) and call the teleporters back to teleport us as close as possible.
If surrounded by demons, approach using the same method as previously (Serena transformed).
If no demons are around it, approach with Serena untransformed, triple tandem barrier setup with vet stealth over the whole party, and the Elite Stealth field placed over Serena, plus Betty Rae protecting her with her barriers. Upon reaching the eyeball, have Serena transform just as we launch our major attack.
During this preparation time, prepare barrier bomb charms, that we can try to affix to the demon. (Hooks if possible).
During the day of rest, Mami can take some time to talk with Seto and see how she's holding up. Express some concern over how Seto was effected by Serena's aura, and make sure she knows that Mami is there to talk to if she needs someone.
100 tandem barrier charms (distribute 3x to each non barrier girl = 72, and 2x to each barrier girl = 14, with 14 left to distribute to those needing replacements).
67 tandem healing charms (2x to each non-healer = 58, 1x to each healer = 2, with 7 left for replacements)
14 elite illusion charms (1 to 6 designated vet support group leads and second leads, 2 for Mami, and 2 for Serena, 1 to each teleporter)
86 elite stealth charms (3x to non-stealth girls = 84, 1x to each vet stealth girl = 2)
67 tandem healing charms (2x to each non-healer = 58, 1x to each healer = 2, with 7 left for replacements)
14 elite illusion charms (1 to 6 designated vet support group leads and second leads, 2 for Mami, and 2 for Serena, 1 to each teleporter)
86 elite stealth charms (3x to non-stealth girls = 84, 1x to each vet stealth girl = 2)
Get the eyeball location from Kyubey. Move into teleportation range protected by Serena's aura. Have her clear out any non-teleporting demons.
Teleporters and Clairvoyants determine the exact safe range to teleport in around the Eyeball. (Should be able to do this quickly).
Teleport just outside the interdiction zone with clairvoyants and support team (and at least far enough out that Serena's aura does not reach the Eyeball). Teleporters teleport back to safe territory, but remain on call.
Serena is transformed. Triple Tandem Barrier the whole party. Vet Tandem Stealth over the whole party. Elite Tandem Stealth over the support team (ie everyone but Serena & Co). Approach the eyeball.
Scenario 1: It immediately flees Serena's Aura:
Stop for confirmation, but tentative plan will be to stop attempting to kill the teleporters (including the eyeball) and for Serena begin clearing all the non-teleporters, while everyone else goes and does other things to try and get other things done. (Note significant changes to the backlog planned).
Scenario 2: It stays and fights:
Have Serena & Co. fight defensively while the stealthed support team gets ready. Once the demon takes significant damage, or if Serena's team starts to have any problems, all out surprise attack on the Eyeball from stealth, including barrier bomb charms. Use several of the elite illusion distractions charms (Kyouko in a can!) to keep the eyeball confused. Continue attacking until it flees or dies.
Would like a point to stop and decide if we should pursue if it decides to flee. However, we have made preparations so that we can pursue if we decide to:
Have Kyubey prepared tell us the new location (including how many other demons are around it) and call the teleporters back to teleport us as close as possible.
If surrounded by demons, approach using the same method as previously (Serena transformed).
If no demons are around it, approach with Serena untransformed, triple tandem barrier setup with vet stealth over the whole party, and the Elite Stealth field placed over Serena, plus Betty Rae protecting her with her barriers. Upon reaching the eyeball, have Serena transform just as we launch our major attack.
No matter what, this means we ought to have 3/4 of our girls time back to work on the backlog so...
~2 elites
~14.5 vets (including the new recruit)
Tandem Casting, Fusion: Allows dissimilar abilities to be combined to produce more exotic results.
Cost: 3 Veteran, 3 grief cubes; Chance of Success: 5% +5% per month researched
Month 3
Tandem Casting, Fusion x2: Intensified research.
Cost: 1.5x base cost (4 vets. 0.5 elite, 4.5 cubes); Chance of Success: 5% +5% per month researched
Month 3
Tandem Casting, Fusion x3: Intensified research.
Cost: 2.25x base cost (5.5 vets/1 elites, 6.3 cubes); Chance of Success: 5% +5% per month researched
Month 3
Tracking Teleporters Research: (0.5 vet, $500, 0.5 cubes) Work on figuring out a way to track teleporters after they teleport. Attempt hooking things onto the teleporter - what needs to be done so that they go along for the ride? Teleport charms? How do we signal on the other side? Illusion charms? Mundane tracking devices?
Open Formal Relations (Heaven's Chosen): (0.5 Mami) Set places for safe contact, methods (phone numbers, email) for setting up a meeting, etc; note that this is only valid for other groups, when against a single person it's effectively attempt to recruit.
Cost: 0.5 Meguca (since we already have their contact info); Reward: Price reduction on further options (-1)
Open Formal Relations (Magical Republic of Japan): Set places for safe contact, methods (phone numbers, email) for setting up a meeting, etc; note that this is only valid for other groups, when against a single person it's effectively attempt to recruit.
Cost: 0.5 Meguca (since we already have their contact info); Reward: Price reduction on further options (-1)
Trade Deal (Coalition): (1 Vet): Attempt to trade for their Tandem Casting research. Explain that we need to improve our Tandem Casting to help with the clean up of Tokyo. Be willing to offer more in addition to our own Tandem Casting research if necessary. Consider suggesting Fusion Casting Research to them if we fail in our own research this month (sharing our progress so far with them in exchange for whatever they figure out researching themselves).
Cost: 3 Veteran, 3 grief cubes; Chance of Success: 5% +5% per month researched
Month 3
Tandem Casting, Fusion x2: Intensified research.
Cost: 1.5x base cost (4 vets. 0.5 elite, 4.5 cubes); Chance of Success: 5% +5% per month researched
Month 3
Tandem Casting, Fusion x3: Intensified research.
Cost: 2.25x base cost (5.5 vets/1 elites, 6.3 cubes); Chance of Success: 5% +5% per month researched
Month 3
Tracking Teleporters Research: (0.5 vet, $500, 0.5 cubes) Work on figuring out a way to track teleporters after they teleport. Attempt hooking things onto the teleporter - what needs to be done so that they go along for the ride? Teleport charms? How do we signal on the other side? Illusion charms? Mundane tracking devices?
Open Formal Relations (Heaven's Chosen): (0.5 Mami) Set places for safe contact, methods (phone numbers, email) for setting up a meeting, etc; note that this is only valid for other groups, when against a single person it's effectively attempt to recruit.
Cost: 0.5 Meguca (since we already have their contact info); Reward: Price reduction on further options (-1)
Open Formal Relations (Magical Republic of Japan): Set places for safe contact, methods (phone numbers, email) for setting up a meeting, etc; note that this is only valid for other groups, when against a single person it's effectively attempt to recruit.
Cost: 0.5 Meguca (since we already have their contact info); Reward: Price reduction on further options (-1)
Trade Deal (Coalition): (1 Vet): Attempt to trade for their Tandem Casting research. Explain that we need to improve our Tandem Casting to help with the clean up of Tokyo. Be willing to offer more in addition to our own Tandem Casting research if necessary. Consider suggesting Fusion Casting Research to them if we fail in our own research this month (sharing our progress so far with them in exchange for whatever they figure out researching themselves).
This triples down on the Fusion Research, but it also approaches the Coalition (in case their tandem research might help with our research), and approaches the Heaven's Chosen, so that if we don't get Fusion Tandem Casting, we can try trading with them for it. It also tries to get Teleporter Tracking research as a possible alternative.
I think we should try multiple angles to get the information we need.
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And we only have 3.5 weeks left. There just isn't time for Serena to figure this out and do the other stuff we want.
I don't think we have a good chance of killing it. I do think we have a good chance of training it.
This is where the Class 4's animal-level intelligence will work against it. If we can train it to flee whenever it senses Serena's aura, by randomly beating the hell out of it on exposure to her aura (importantly not every time it's exposed to the aura, so we need to have Serena come within sight range once in awhile and not attack) then we can force it into Chiba with the rest of the teleporting Class 3s. After all, again these are animal-level intelligences, so they won't think to break out of a cordon by running towards or over the scary Hope aura; they will mostly run away, which allows us to herd them, at least a majority of the time, if we're careful.
Notably this doesn't preclude any of the other research into alternative methods; it's just something that we can do while we're already going to be running around the perimeter of Tokyo killing things anyway.
Learning anchoring is normally a free action. It really shouldn't be all that hard for Serena to adapt the idea to making Hope bombs. What's your take @inverted_helix?
Aranfan
Team Plasma Grunt
@Kinematics
Would you be willing to put Serena on making hope anchors? They are supposed to be a free action, but if @inverted_helix says it would take more than a free action to make Hope Bombs we could cut the language training? Thanks to Hianako we should be fine without it for a month.
Would you be willing to put Serena on making hope anchors? They are supposed to be a free action, but if @inverted_helix says it would take more than a free action to make Hope Bombs we could cut the language training? Thanks to Hianako we should be fine without it for a month.
This teleportation tracking is a bit sketchy. Not much I can really say from IC knowledge, but you can cheaply check a few various methods for even half that price. So like if you can just hook a tracking device on them that would be cheap. If it takes actual magical research though it's going to be far more expensive.
Negotiating with the Coalition I'll allow you to try at that price.
It's annoying; I've got some details on each of these groups fleshed out at this point, but no way for you guys to readily find out
.Learning anchoring is a free action in general. The issue here is that your current tech only allows for anchoring of active effects that you invoke. The caster kind of shapes the spell and then locks it up in a cage of magic right before it fires. This doesn't work for passive effects that are always on. Serena doesn't cast her aura. No more than you cast being tougher or faster.
From your diplomatic efforts with them you know that it is something they have done research into, though you don't know much beyond that.
The level of magic use in this plan is going to be significant enough to actually register as a few GCUs.
That reminds me: how many cubes did we get from the Class 3s we did kill so far?
The GM has repeatedly said no, that this will take significant research.
Okay... so only 0.5 to do that then... but that suggests to me that success is unlikely. What about hooking an illusion charm on them that will go off in a short amount of time? (ie 1 minute insulation).
Does this imply that adding more girls to this will make it more likely to succeed?
That's fine.
Agreed.
That's sort of the backup plan. Though of course, I hope to get a lucky shot in. You never know.
I might point out though that you are voting for the plan that does not in fact attack the eyeball.
I'm still considering. One thing I'd like to have is a bonus or two to higher-level demon combat before we take on the Class 4; a month's worth of felling Class 3s should be worth a bit of a bonus, wouldn't you think?
The honeytrap idea is okay; it's just really risky, so I'd rather wait until our safer options are off the table first.All my ideas seem to be no good this miniturn.
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Potentially, but note that it would only go to Serena & Co. Also, that would mean expending more resources to back up Serena. Note that my plan not only triples down on fusion research, it also includes the diplomatic openings that might allow us to trade for interdiction tech. I can do this since I don't have to back Serena up after attacking the eyeball, allowing me to get back 3/4 of the support force, rather than just 1/2.
@inverted_helix
Would Serena gain a bonus to combat against the eyeball after spending the month hunting class 3 demons?
It's not going to forget it can teleport. Herding teleporters is impossible without some way to stop them from teleporting.
While @inverted_helix rated your post Insightful, the key here is that the Class 3s will teleport, but they're not going to instinctively teleport in a random direction; they will preferentially teleport away from the big scary predator, rather than over it. That means that after many teleports you will see the Class 3s going in the direction you herd them, unless they are much more intelligent than we've seen them act so far.
Call it net 25 GCU. Counting your excessive magic use, the reduced bounties (whether from him paying you less or taxing the payout towards paying back the services he's done for you, whatever you want to believe), and the fact that these dropped somewhat more when they died.
A small amount.
Some.
They can teleport 35 kilometers at a time. Every direction is away, and there's not much difference between being 29 km away and 31 km away.
Agreed that teleporting to the other side of Serena is virtually certain. I have no hope of herding teleporters.
Just making it learn to run away however ought to be possible, and that would give Serena an edge of protection when fighting the non-teleporters.
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Oh good. Cubes are not a major worry then,
Based on this, reducing teleporter tracking research to 0.5 vets, and adding 0.5 Seto to the Coalition Trade deal action. Hopefully as a former leader she can help persuade them. (Have to keep Mami on the Heaven's Chosen diplomacy).
Hmmm... in consideration of this.
What do people think about sending Serena around to hunt the non-teleporting demons with just her team, and just avoiding the location the eyeball is in?
That might mean we don't get all the non-teleporters, but it's probably safe as long as we avoid the eyeball's location.
I don't want to do the half time plan because that reduces the number of girls available by quite a bit. We can't do a bunch of things we should this month if we want anti-teleporter tech.
Yes, it would. Any ideas on how to invent those?