Meguca Micro Empire Quest (PMMM)

[inverted_helix]

We actually ended up with more grief cubes then we used.

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Your rolls were pretty bullshit. Based on PMMM magic system I assume you must be powered off a legion of tortured kittens or something.

Do note that you'll be losing morale for low grief stockpiles again if you don't follow through on your promised hunt to boost them up. Also in case it's not obvious (though it should be) you take a morale pen anytime your stockpile of grief cubes is less than your number of girls. And the morale pen gets worse at certain points below that.

Those dice. Eesh. Nat 100 on spirals? This is hilarious. Every other Madoka Quest has rolls averaging thirty and below, while this sits - rough guesstimate - around eighty. Did someone promise Africa to the RNG?

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I don't know. I'm using invisiblecastle which is pretty standard. I've rolled a couple hundred dice by now I think. You guys are averaging like 55-60ish. At least on the rolls that matter. Though in large part I think it's that the rolls mostly only matter if they're high or low. Differences in the midrange don't matter on most of the rolls for this quest. Hence a lot of "everything normal" type posts. I've actually been keeping track of all the rolls for this quest in case anyone ever questions if I'm rigging them, lol.

The quality of each update is creeping upwards

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Thanks. Mostly just focusing on making sure it at least stays level.

 

[Elder Haman]

Hmm... based on this new information, maybe we ought to have the major hunt after all...

Morale is pretty important in this Quest. @LightMage - what do you think?

Also, we probably ought to have Mami have another meeting to let introduce the new girls, welcome them into the group, and announce the purchase of Cable TV.

EDIT: Also, note to self: Get more kittens for sacrifice to the Dice Gods.

 

[LightMage]

We better over hunt then. Let's not increase our income this week and put the greens on hunting duty. That should get us another 6~ grief cubes. Next month we can increase income, and see what our new research lets us do.

 

[mastigos]

Do the meguca have internet access?

 

[notgreat]

I definitely don't mind having a major hunt, but going 13 over the sustainable rate is a bit much IMHO. We're still at above-average strength, we don't want to start losing people.

We currently have 18 cubes in reserve, and 24 people. We eliminate our penalty (people>cubes) if we harvest just 30 cubes. We also need to add an average of 3 more for grief spirals, and 1 or 2 more for safety. That puts my goal at 34.5, which is still way over our hunting limit but not by as much. I moved 2 vets to enchantment research and 1 green to getting us more money.

For the record we're currently at 1.875 cubes per green MG that we pack hunt with (Vets are 2.8125 and Mami is 3.75)

edit: replaced research action with 1 scouting+2 more searching for jobs, and increased stipend for extra morale since it's likely that we'll get a job with 3 searching for them. (since the grief cost of doing the research is significant and we do need to get the other things done)

[X] Upkeep: 4 Greens, 4 Vets

[X] Pack Hunting: Magical Girls will hunt in groups vastly reducing the danger, but because they are not covering as much area their efficiency is reduced. Death is significantly less likely. 1 Green, 10 Vets, 1 Mami = expected Grief Cube Harvest 34.6875

[X] Increased Stipend: Giving the girls more money will further improve their morale a little bit.
Cost: $100 per Meguca; Reward: Increased morale. Chance of success: 100%

[X] Gather money, legally: There are not a great number of jobs that will take young girls as workers: working as a bike courier, waitress, or maid are likely options. This project benefits from regularity, and discontinuous execution may have negative side effects. Chance of success 25% per Meguca, following up on a previous month's success brings the chance to 100%. (3 Green)
Cost: Variable, specify number of Meguca dedicated; Reward: $1,000 per month per Meguca assigned.

[X] Scout Area WEST: You can deploy a veteran to scout out one of the territories around you stealthily. They should be able to gauge the demon strength there and the magical girls status there without tipping them off, hopefully.
Cost: 1 Veteran; Chance of success: 70%; Reward: information on demon strength, support capacity of the territory, and status of current magical girls in the territory, bonus to diplomatic efforts.

[X] Cable TV: It might be nice for the girls to have something to do in their downtime. The appeal of being alive as the thing to consider in your downtime isn't quite so high after so many months of relative safety.
Cost: $200 a month; Reward: Entertainment


PS. @inverted_helix there's a problem with rotating tactics being in the illegal money gathering section

 

[Elder Haman]

I definitely don't mind having a major hunt, but going 13 over the sustainable rate is a bit much IMHO. We're still at above-average strength, we don't want to start losing people.

We currently have 18 cubes in reserve, and 24 people. We eliminate our penalty (people>cubes) if we harvest just 30 cubes. We also need to add an average of 3 more for grief spirals, and 1 or 2 more for safety. That puts my goal at 34.5, which is still way over our hunting limit but not by as much. I moved 2 vets to enchantment research and 1 green to getting us more money.

For the record we're currently at 1.875 cubes per green MG that we pack hunt with (Vets are 2.8125 and Mami is 3.75)


[X] Upkeep: 4 Greens, 4 Vets

[X] Pack Hunting: Magical Girls will hunt in groups vastly reducing the danger, but because they are not covering as much area their efficiency is reduced. Death is significantly less likely. 3 Greens, 9 Vets, 1 Mami = expected Grief Cube Harvest 34.6875

[X] Stipend: Giving your magical girls a small amount of money to spend on themselves. At their current level of lifestyle this no longer really further boosts their morale, but will help prevent its decay.
Cost: $50 per Meguca; Reward: Maintained morale. Chance of success: 100%

[X] Gather money, legally: There are not a great number of jobs that will take young girls as workers: working as a bike courier, waitress, or maid are likely options. This project benefits from regularity, and discontinuous execution may have negative side effects. Chance of success 25% per Meguca, following up on a previous month's success brings the chance to 100%. (1 Green)
Cost: Variable, specify number of Meguca dedicated; Reward: $1,000 per month per Meguca assigned.

[X] Enchanting, Duration/Charge: It was noticed that the effects of enchanting rapidly faded when the object was set down. Also the stronger magical girls could produce somewhat greater effects. Perhaps you could investigate ways to extend the charge period, or allow Mami to charge effects that other girls could maintain so that others might benefit from the stronger characteristics she could imbue.
Cost:1 month remaining of: 2 Veteran Meguca, 3 Grief Cube, $500; Reward: Allow Mami's grade of enchanting to be carried by all girls, step towards long term enchantments.

[X] Cable TV: It might be nice for the girls to have something to do in their downtime. The appeal of being alive as the thing to consider in your downtime isn't quite so high after so many months of relative safety.
Cost: $200 a month; Reward: Entertainment


PS. @inverted_helix there's a problem with rotating tactics being in the illegal money gathering section

Click to shrink...

I understand that idea, but remember that the dice might have something to say in how many cubes we get. Even at the expected rate of 42 in a massive hunt scenario, that puts us at 60 total - 24 upkeep. So we'll have 36 cubes in our stockpile. The Demons will get pushed up to Strong, but this means that next month we can target only 14 Grief cubes, so only 4 vets and Mami need to go hunting. (Or maybe 6 Vets and Mami tries to work some diplomagic on the Northwest girls). That should be pretty safe even with Strong Demons.

There's also a big benefit from this, it pushes our morale higher. The higher our morale, the less grief spirals, which reduces our expended grief cubes. It's a big deal.

 

[notgreat]

I understand that idea, but remember that the dice might have something to say in how many cubes we get. Even at the expected rate of 42 in a massive hunt scenario, that puts us at 60 total - 24 upkeep. So we'll have 36 cubes in our stockpile. The Demons will get pushed up to Strong, but this means that next month we can target only 14 Grief cubes, so only 4 vets and Mami need to go hunting. (Or maybe 6 Vets and Mami tries to work some diplomagic on the Northwest girls). That should be pretty safe even with Strong Demons.

There's also a big benefit from this, it pushes our morale higher. The higher our morale, the less grief spirals, which reduces our expended grief cubes. It's a big deal.

Click to shrink...

Do you have anything that suggests doing a massive hunt will push our morale up? I agree that morale is crucial, which is why my plan gets us enough to entirely cancel the morale penalty and keeping a few to spare.

We take a massive morale hit when someone dies, and pushing the demon strength even further will only increase the chances of someone getting killed. IIRC, inverted_helix implied that hunting at a sustainable rate is more efficient than letting it oscillate. My plan should give all of the morale benefits yours does while also not pushing up our demons quite as much.

On that note I just realized that I forgot to account for the research's cost in cubes. I am replacing that with a scouting action and more money (and increasing stipend for additional morale)

 

[Elder Haman]

Do you have anything that suggests doing a massive hunt will push our morale up? I agree that morale is crucial, which is why my plan gets us enough to entirely cancel the morale penalty and keeping a few to spare.

We take a massive morale hit when someone dies, and pushing the demon strength even further will only increase the chances of someone getting killed. IIRC, inverted_helix implied that hunting at a sustainable rate is more efficient than letting it oscillate. My plan should give all of the morale benefits yours does while also not pushing up our demons quite as much.

On that note I just realized that I forgot to account for the research's cost in cubes. I am replacing that with a scouting action and more money (and increasing stipend for additional morale)

Click to shrink...

It's pretty clear that grief cube stockpile size has an effect on morale.

 

[notgreat]

It's pretty clear that grief cube stockpile size has an effect on morale.

Click to shrink...

It was stated that if the Grief Cube count is less than the number of Magical Girls we have then there is a penalty. I don't remember any bonuses beyond that though. And mine also gives us additional morale through the increased money option, which is counteracted by my job search actions.

edit: improved grammar/readability and added further reasoning

 

[inverted_helix]

There's a morale pen if your grief cube supply is too low, but other than eliminating that there isn't a bonus for having more. (Well besides the obvious bonus involved of having them available to do things with.)

IIRC, inverted_helix implied that hunting at a sustainable rate is more efficient than letting it oscillate.

Click to shrink...

Not quite. Someone said oscillating it was the basic scenario, I mentioned that just hunting at the sustainable rate is the basic scenario. It's not particularly more efficient either way.

PS. @inverted_helix there's a problem with rotating tactics being in the illegal money gathering section

Click to shrink...

Whoops, I'll fix that.

 

[inverted_helix]

Turn 9​

Once again Mami gathers the girls at the start of the month, having found the start of the previous month a nice way to touch base with the girls. She introduces the new girls to the whole group first. The veteran seemed quite surprised that the group was so large; she obviously hadn't thought your group so developed. She seems a bit hesitant to interact with them, but the other girls are very encouraging and grateful for her contribution of grief cubes last month. The other two girls you recruited more forcefully are even less open, and they were surprisingly middle class and living with still alive parents as well. There's a severe divide there between the bulk of your forces and them. Though they'd been magical girls for around two months when you recruited them, having apparently gone into it together. They had some close calls already though, so you expect in time they'll come to appreciate being in a larger stronger group.

You tell the girls that this month you'll all be out in force across your entire expanded territory in a massive hunt meant to replenish your dwindling grief cube reserves. You assign them each to shifts and areas, redrawing patrol maps to account for the increased territory as best you can. You also let them know that you heard about some of them being bored and decided you could afford to get them some television so they'd at least have something to entertain them. The quick response is a bit surprising and they take it with a dose of good cheer. You hand out their allowance as they go out the door. You feel this month is a much less precarious situation than the last. (-$1400)

There's nothing to report on the job front, they handle their duties with a smile. Some of them joke a bit about how they once worried watching too much tv would make them gain weight, but they never have to worry about their weight at least with all the exercise they all get. (+$5200)

The great hunt pushes your dispatch team to the limit this month. Only their experience and skill carrying them through the fast paced days. You might have to assign them another worker if you try a deployment this large again, as they tend to collapse in bed the moment they return. Demon sensing might be free of cost in magic, and not terribly taxing in general, but running all across the city as fast as they can over a larger area than before trying to find enough demons for this grand hunt has left their bodies exhausted.

The largest force of magical girls you've ever deployed to a single task is out in force patrolling the city with high speed, the area they're spread over quite large now. You rake in grief cubes hand over fist it seems, quickly restocking your supplies to the highest point they've ever been. Most of your force being veterans now keeps casualties fairly low even as the demons rapidly adapt to your standard spread of tactics. One of the new greens you recruited is actually injured this turn, a little too slow and out of sync with the rest of your crew. The injury is relatively minor though and the veterans in her group get her out of there without real danger to her life. She seems a little more grateful for the support of the group now. One of the veterans had a real close call as well but managed to scrape through without notable injury, dragging her shield along her body in front of a blade in a spray of sparks just as the blade touched her skin and spinning away down the street with the energy it imparted. (+43 grief cubes)

You celebrate the successful month of hunting by trying to start a movie night. It ends up a fiasco though. Just cramming that many people into the biggest room you had for a 15 minute briefing at the start of the month was hard enough, trying it for a whole movie was just clown car comedy. It was fairly amusing once, but you'll likely not try to repeat that particular experience until you get someplace with a bit more room. Though you hear that your girls have already started to watch movies and such together anyways in smaller groups being quite close in general after months of spending so much time and combat together, but your attempt to organize it for the full group has become a bit of an inside joke.

With how well the last month went and how well this one did there was not much concern that there would be any grief spirals this month, you'd have thought them practically walking on air. (Auto-success)

Three more girls from your original group have made it to veteran status, including most of your mundane workers. It took them the longest for the most part since they weren't involved in much combat, but just the simply training you have them doing outside of their jobs is enough to slowly gain experience. (-3 Green, +3 Veteran)

________________________________________________________________________________________
Resources

• 5 Green Meguca, 18 Veteran Meguca, 1 Elite Meguca (Mami)
  • Upkeep: 6 Veteran, 2 Green
    • demon finding training (+20% grief cubes)
    • on pack tactics (-4% pack hunting)
    • Dispatch service (+30% grief cubes, -1% hunting casualties)
    • 3 veterans and 1 green working jobs (+$5200)
• Grief Cubes 35
• Money: $8200
  • $400 upkeep on cellphones (-2% solo hunting)
  • $200 upkeep on cable
  • $3000 upkeep on apartments
• Morale: [Medium] Morale climbed a bit this month as you followed through on the promise from the previous month and raised the grief cube stockpile to a higher level than ever before. The quick response to a half joking statement about needing entertainment also helped boost the general opinion. The mood was a bit dampened by the new girls, but you think they've mostly warmed up to the group as a result of the hunt together.
• Assets
  • Tiny household shrine: Somewhat reduces losses to morale from deaths.
  • Basic Shields: -2% Casualties
  • Basic General Combat Training: -2% Casualties (May decay with losses or recruitment).
  • Basic Solo Combat Training: -1% Pack Hunting, -3% Solo Hunting (May decay with losses or recruitment).
• Territory
  • Demon Status: Strong
  • Sustainable Harvest: 27

Turn 10 Options

Spoiler: Demon Hunting, Specify amount dedicated

[] Dispersed Hunting: Magical Girl will individually hunt demons throughout your territory and gather the grief cubes for the central supply. This can be dangerous.
Cost: Variable, specify number of Meguca dedicated; Reward: 2 grief cubes per Meguca assigned. 20% base casualty (significant injury or death) chance.


[] Pack Hunting: Magical Girls will hunt in groups vastly reducing the danger, but because they are not covering as much area their efficiency is reduced. Death is significantly less likely.
Cost: Variable, specify number of Meguca dedicated; Reward 1.25 Grief Cubes per Meguca assigned; 10% base casualty chance

[] Optional addon, Rotating Tactics: You could have your meguca rotate their ability use week by week in order to reduce the level of adaptation the demons develop. While it would result in an immediate increase in casualty rate due to loss of effectiveness compared to the current approach, it would reduce the ability of the demons to adapt.
Cost: +5% casualty rate; Reward: Reduction in rate of demon strength increase from overhunting, exact value unknown

Spoiler: Money Gathering, Specify amount dedicated

[] Gather money, illegally: Magical Girls assigned to this role will commit crime to gather mundane currency which can be used to improve living conditions, using powers to commit simple burglaries or cheat in games of chance. Your Magical Girls have joined in search of a better life they are unlikely to much enjoy this and wish to avoid harsher crimes. You also lack connections with the criminal underworld, so the take is not all that good. There might also be complications with other criminals or the law.
Cost: Variable, specify number of Meguca dedicated; Reward: ~$3,000 per month per Meguca assigned, but it is highly variable


[] Gather money, legally: There are not a great number of jobs that will take young girls as workers: working as a bike courier, waitress, or maid are likely options. This project benefits from regularity, and discontinuous execution may have negative side effects. Chance of success 25% per Meguca, following up on a previous month's success brings the chance to 100%.
Cost: Variable, specify number of Meguca dedicated; Reward: $1,000 per month per Meguca assigned.

Spoiler: Money Spending

[] Improve Housing: More Apartments: Currently the girls are packed in around 5 to an apartment. You could get some more apartments and reduce the crowding.
Cost: $6,000 and 1 Veteran Meguca; Reward Normal Apartment minimum housing level (for up to 25 Meguca), ongoing cost +3000$ per month or you get kicked out. Payable at the begining of the month. (not repeatable)

[] Improve Housing: Small house: Instead of a dinky apartment you could pool your resources for a small house, giving everyone a bit more room. Will still be quite a few people per bedroom, but gives more of a feeling of home.
Cost: $10,000 and 3 Veteran Meguca; Reward Cramped Small House instead of homeless as minimum housing level (for up to 25 Meguca), ongoing cost 5000$ per month or you get kicked out. Payable at the begining of the month. (not repeatable)

[] Stipend: Giving your magical girls a small amount of money to spend on themselves. At their current level of lifestyle this no longer really further boosts their morale, but will help prevent its decay.
Cost: $50 per Meguca; Reward: Maintained morale. Chance of success: 100%

[] Increased Stipend: Giving the girls more money will further improve their morale a little bit.
Cost: $100 per Meguca; Reward: Increased morale. Chance of success: 100%

[] Purchase Bicycles: While getting bicycles for everyone is quite expensive given you have so many people and so little income; it would make your girls somewhat more mobile. You could of course have them share bicycles as well, since it's likely that you won't need them all at the same time much.
Cost: $150 per bicycle, specify amount; Reward: More mobility

[] Makeshift skateboards: It also occurs to you that you could probably get by with just whipping up some basic skateboards by hand. It would save a lot of money but cost a little labor, it's also not something anyone has experience with doing, so success is chancy.
Cost: $1000, 2 Meguca; Chance of success 50% (only part of monetary cost lost on failure); Reward: Makeshift skateboards for everyone, more mobility

[] Start your own business: It will take more than a bit of creativity to start a real business, and some significant startup funds. You'd likely also need some help from Kyuubey to cover up the details with some false identies. It would provide a much greater ability to rotate girls through the roles though and more flexibility in how much to provide each month as well though.
Cost: $20,000, 4 grief cubes, 3 Veteran Meguca; Reward: Your own business, more ability to rotate roles, slowly increasing income starting below the current legal income but able to go higher. Chance of Success: 60% (future attempts build on this and are only ¼ the resource cost)

Spoiler: Training

[]Training, Raise Veteran: Raise one of the Green Girls to be a veteran
Cost: 3 Meguca, 1 Veteran Meguca; Reward: Raises one Green Meguca to veteran status.

Spoiler: Miscellaneous

[] Group sports day: You'll take the time to organize a full group outing to have some fun in a park and play some games, it will have to be fully mundane though as going out to somewhere secluded likely would take too much time.
Cost: 1 Veteran Meguca (representative of one day for everyone essentially, since you are now mostly vets); Reward: Increase to morale (group cohesion)

[] Fun with magic: It's kind of a sad statement about magical girl life that you don't really get to play with your magic, it's too costly to use it much beyond what you need to use to get grief cubes. You might be able to afford to ease up on such restrictions and let people have fun with magic for once.
Cost: +0.1 grief cube to upkeep cost per girl; Reward: Increase to morale, you actually get to play with magic a little rather than just use it to fight, possible other effects

[] Enchanting, Secondary Properties: Further investigate the secondary properties that individual materials exhibit. Including buying some simple tools to test more properties.
Cost:2 months of: 2 Veteran Meguca, 1 Grief Cube, $1000; Reward: Information on deeper effects of enchanting.

[] Enchanting, Duration/Charge: It was noticed that the effects of enchanting rapidly faded when the object was set down. Also the stronger magical girls could produce somewhat greater effects. Perhaps you could investigate ways to extend the charge period, or allow Mami to charge effects that other girls could maintain so that others might benefit from the stronger characteristics she could imbue.
Cost:1 month remaining of: 2 Veteran Meguca, 3 Grief Cube, $500; Reward: Allow Mami's grade of enchanting to be carried by all girls, step towards long term enchantments.

[] Demon strength meter: It should be possible to compose a set of guidelines and record keeping standards to allow you to more accurately gauge the current strength of the demon population.
Cost: 1 Veteran, 1 Green; Reward: Demon strength listed as a specific number (the modifier to the casualty rate) so long as some sensing action is done that month (currently the dispatch action)

[] Scout Area X: You can deploy a veteran to scout out one of the territories around you stealthily. They should be able to gauge the demon strength there and the magical girls status there without tipping them off, hopefully.
Cost: 1 Veteran; Chance of success: 70%; Reward: information on demon strength, support capacity of the territory, and status of current magical girls in the territory, bonus to diplomatic efforts.

[] Expand territory X, by force: The demons in Mitakihara have grown strong, but you could try to take over adjacent territories where they aren't as strong. The magical girls in those areas probably won't take kindly to this.
Cost: PvP combat; Reward: New territory with weaker demons

[] Expand territory X, by diplomacy: If you can convince them to join your group you may be able to safely incorporate others' territories. (Replaces normal recruitment option)
Cost: 1 Green, 1 Veteran; Reward: Meguca from territory recruited, new territory; Chance of Success: 30% (Mami bonus applicable)

-[] Addon, Bribery: Giving the girls some money might help them realize just how good for them cooperation could be.
Cost: $150 per girl in the territory; Reward: +1d10% success chance

-[] Addon, Intimidate: Bring additional Veterans to intimidate the other girls into accepting if they know what is good for them
Cost 1 extra Veteran, -morale of new girls if successfully recruited; Reward: +5% chance of success. Can be chosen repeatedly.


[] Recruitment, via Kyuubey: Ask Kyuubey to tell other Magical Girls in the area about you. He'll want something in return though, and he makes no promises of the efficacy.
Cost: 2 grief cubes; Reward: 1-3 girls; Chance of success: 50%

________________________________________________________________________________________
Turn options to follow in a bit, looking through the posts by players for possible additional options to add.

Also your rolls this month averaged to 60. Just look at your bullshit:

http://[MALICIOUS WEBSITE]/roller/view/4652339/
4d100; 11d100; 1d100+10 → [55,92,10,92] = (249)
4d100; 11d100; 1d100+10 → [95,77,14,9,42,55,67,97,73,53,99] = (681)
4d100; 11d100; 1d100+10 → [6,10] = (16)

Though I have actually changed Mami's modifier to +15 from +10 after some thought, so that's a mistake there. (The veterans I just mentally add +5 as to save on dice complexity).

 

[Elder Haman]

Okay... now I'm starting to get worried about what happens when we get 5 critical failures in one turn...

Also, those are amazing rolls for our workers. Seems that if we hadn't told them to stop showing off they would have gotten some more raises, and probably pulled even more attention to themselves. We are surely going in the boring direction aren't we? Well, boring in the life of a magical girl army is actually an amazing achievement.

You said Mami is now +15 instead of +10. Does that mean Mami now has a 2.5 base instead of the 2 originally on the first page?

Tentative, subject to change once I see what the new options are:

[X] Upkeep: 2 Greens, 6 Vets

[X] Pack Hunting: Magical Girls will hunt in groups vastly reducing the danger, but because they are not covering as much area their efficiency is reduced. Death is significantly less likely. 7 Vets, 1 Mami = expected Grief Cube Harvest ~23

[X] Gather money, legally: There are not a great number of jobs that will take young girls as workers: working as a bike courier, waitress, or maid are likely options. This project benefits from regularity, and discontinuous execution may have negative side effects. Chance of success 25% per Meguca, following up on a previous month's success brings the chance to 100%. 2 newest Greens and 1 Veteran are assigned to hunt for jobs. Can we have the Veteran use their illusion skills to make our applicants (at least herself no doubt) look older (say about 16) in order to get a job more easily?
-[X] At the start of the month Mami calls the three girls she is assigning to hunt for jobs together. She congratulates them on how well they did during the massive hunt last month. Mami then tells them that the group should now be safe on the grief cube front, so the group needs to increase their monthly income. Mami tells the three girls that she is counting on them, and wishes them good luck.

EDIT: Removed the promise. Reran the math and it won't work out.

Time to build up our money and get to where we can buy a house next month and then save up to establish our own business. Hopefully our pep-talk will inspire the girls to give extra effort. I figure if at least two of them find jobs, perhaps we can drop Mami's apartment for the $1200 extra income and move Mami to the HQ house. That shouldn't cause a drop in morale now since we are replacing the HQ element with a new bigger HQ.

[X] Stipend: Giving your magical girls a small amount of money to spend on themselves. At their current level of lifestyle this no longer really further boosts their morale, but will help prevent its decay.
Cost: $50 per Meguca; Reward: Maintained morale. Chance of success: 100%

[X] Demon strength meter: It should be possible to compose a set of guidelines and record keeping standards to allow you to more accurately gauge the current strength of the demon population.
Cost: 1 Veteran, 1 Green; 1 Green upkeep; Reward: Demon strength listed as a specific number (the modifier to the casualty rate) so long as some sensing action is done that month (currently the dispatch action)

[X] Enchanting, Duration/Charge: It was noticed that the effects of enchanting rapidly faded when the object was set down. Also the stronger magical girls could produce somewhat greater effects. Perhaps you could investigate ways to extend the charge period, or allow Mami to charge effects that other girls could maintain so that others might benefit from the stronger characteristics she could imbue.
Cost:1 month remaining of: 2 Veteran Meguca, 3 Grief Cube, $500; Reward: Allow Mami's grade of enchanting to be carried by all girls, step towards long term enchantments.

[X] Scout South Western Area (darker green): You can deploy a veteran to scout out one of the territories around you stealthily. They should be able to gauge the demon strength there and the magical girls status there without tipping them off, hopefully.
Cost: 1 Veteran; Chance of success: 70%; Reward: information on demon strength, support capacity of the territory, and status of current magical girls in the territory, bonus to diplomatic efforts.


Total Costs:
-24 Grief cubes for Upkeep
-3 Grief cubes for research
-~3 Grief Cubes for Grief Spirals
SubTotal: ~ -30 Grief Cubes
-$1200 for Stipend
-$200 for Cable TV
-$3000 for Apartments
-$500 for research
SubTotal: -$4900

EXPECTED INCOME:
23 Grief Cubes
$5200 Income

Results:
28 Grief Cube stockpile
$8500 savings

 

[inverted_helix]

Also, those are amazing rolls for our workers. Seems that if we hadn't told them to stop showing off they would have gotten some more raises, and probably pulled even more attention to themselves. We are surely going in the boring direction aren't we? Well, boring in the life of a magical girl army is actually an amazing achievement.

Click to shrink...

That was actually for the 4 greens on the hunt. You had 4 greens, 11 vets, and Mami on the hunt this turn. And no I'm keeping her hunting ratio at the same 2x just decided that -15% was a bit better given that I don't want her to actually die from hunting and she's been your lowest roller on hunting for like 3 turns straight, plus I figure it makes more sense with how strongly I balanced her against vets in PvP. The past 4 times you've had her hunting I believe she's rolled 8, 2, 10, and 6. She's like your spiritual counterweight to everyone else rolling well I guess.

Your job rolls were a different roll. Since you have barred them from performing well it basically only matters what they roll if it's <15.

Also yes, boring in the life of a magical girl is a major achievement founded on Mami's suffering and I assume legions of tortured kittens or something.

Writing new option ideas is tough because it's hard to quantify their bonuses for somethings, like getting bicycles.

 

[Diomedea]

I'm pretty sure we're shunting all the bad luck and despair onto all the other quest's Mamis. We should be good until one of them does something amazing.

 

[inverted_helix]

Added the options. Just a couple more I cribbed from Mastigos list of ideas. Though I should note that at this point a lot of options are starting to get to the point of having less crunch effect because my mechanics system can't quite account for everything perfectly.

Okay... now I'm starting to get worried about what happens when we get 5 critical failures in one turn...

Click to shrink...

I will come down on you like a sack of bricks just to finally make you suffer as you were supposed to way back in like month 2.

Incidentally you should be aware that each turn you've always had a "we're alive still" bonus to morale which has accounted for much of your steadily improving morale, without it you'd have probably lost. That's tapering off as a result of changing expectations and generally better morale to the point where just being alive another month is expected, rather than a pleasant bonus. Though it's still going to be there, just slowly less of a factor. (Though if you suddenly start having major deaths it will of course reappear as a result of continued life not being as expected.)

 

[drake_azathoth]

Also yes, boring in the life of a magical girl is a major achievement founded on Mami's suffering and I assume legions of tortured kittens or something.

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Grief spiral text:
-3 Grief Cubes: The entire group is unsettled as it is discovered that one of your original veterans, Keiko, has an unsavory habit of torturing kittens using her magical girl abilities. When questioned, she claims that she doesn't enjoy it, but is forced to keep hurting them to 'maintain the balance of despair' or something crazy like that. Breaking up the fight that resulted and healing injuries cost 2 grief cubes, and the girl who discovered Keiko's 'habit' needed another to get past the nightmares. You've assigned another Veteran to keep an eye on Keiko for now and prevent further kitten-torture.

[x] Elder Haman

 

[Elder Haman]

So I reran the math, and I just don't think we can afford the small house even if all three get jobs. We need more money, and our grief cube income is just barely stable.

I think we need to expand even more and add more girls and territory so that we have a nice cushion on the grief cube front, and more girls to work so we can save money.

I still think we ought to get the enchantment duration as that will start to open up our tech tree, and hopefully we can find something in there that will help us.

My rough thoughts are:

This turn: Research, Scouting and get jobs
Next Turn: Expand (I think we should at least try diplomacy on the Northwest girls, Keiko may have to torture a dozen kittens to make it work out, but one good roll and we get +5 to sustainable harvest and 3 new vets).
Following turn: Expand by force (if diplomacy didn't work), jobs, research.

 

[drake_azathoth]

Veterans are more capable at bringing in grief cubes IIRC. Can't we send more people into the money-making jobs now that we have more veterans? Right now we're already assigning a fair number to research and scouting.

I understand that expanding is desirable in any case, but thinking it'll solve our grief cube 'economy' seems strange. If we want to boost our income, it might be wiser to go for the 'start your own business' choice BEFORE the house.

 

[Elder Haman]

Veterans are more capable at bringing in grief cubes IIRC. Can't we send more people into the money-making jobs now that we have more veterans? Right now we're already assigning a fair number to research and scouting.

I understand that expanding is desirable in any case, but thinking it'll solve our grief cube 'economy' seems strange. If we want to boost our income, it might be wiser to go for the 'start your own business' choice BEFORE the house.

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I am assigning 3 girls to look for jobs this month. Saving up to get our own business before a house is an option, but I don't think it's the best.

There are four main stats in this Quest:

Grief Cubes
Morale
Income
Demon Strength

Grief Cubes are the most important, without them we die. They are also needed for research.
Morale is the second most important, it protects against grief spirals which cost grief cubes, and can kill our girls.
Income is important mainly in how it can contribute to Morale.
Demon Strength can increase the risk to injury and death during hunting. Over-hunting causes it to increase.

Right now our grief cube upkeep is 24 a month with an expected grief spiral cost of around 3. That means we need to harvest at least 27 grief cubes a month. Currently we can safely harvest 27 a month. This leaves no margin for error, and nothing for research.

The constraint right now is not so much number of girls, as it is the territory size and demon strength. If we add territory we will be able to hunt more safely and stockpile extra grief cubes for research. It will also allow us to support more girls so that we can devote more of them to job hunting and research.

On the question of a house vs a business, I think the house is the more urgent need, as it can improve morale and allows us to increase our number of girls without morale hits. Once we have more leeway on the other number we can start working on the long term project of our own business.

 

[inverted_helix]

There are four main stats in this Quest:

Grief Cubes
Morale
Income
Demon Strength

Grief Cubes are the most important, without them we die. They are also needed for research.
Morale is the second most important, it protects against grief spirals which cost grief cubes, and can kill our girls.
Income is important mainly in how it can contribute to Morale.
Demon Strength can increase the risk to injury and death during hunting. Over-hunting causes it to increase.

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A very good summary, though your manpower (girlpower? meguca power?) is also another stat to be concerned with.

It seems like a lot of stats to track on the surface, but overall they all interact with each other pretty well I think, and collectively I'm pleased with how well they balance proper simulation vs complexity. Though I think most people think it a bit too complex.

 

[Elder Haman]

A very good summary, though your manpower (girlpower? meguca power?) is also another stat to be concerned with.

It seems like a lot of stats to track on the surface, but overall they all interact with each other pretty well I think, and collectively I'm pleased with how well they balance proper simulation vs complexity. Though I think most people think it a bit too complex.

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Really? I thought this was a rather simple model, if very well tuned and setup. I can tell a lot of thought went into making this a difficult but winnable quest - we just have rolled so well that everything is pretty much sunshine for us.

I was assuming that this is just the early stages, and once we break out into our own business and it looks like the sky is the limit sudden complexities will crop up.

 

[inverted_helix]

Really? I thought this was a rather simple model, if very well tuned and setup. I can tell a lot of thought went into making this a difficult but winnable quest - we just have rolled so well that everything is pretty much sunshine for us.

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Yes this so much. I spent days doing careful tuning so that it would difficult and borderline all the way. But I carefully tuned around average rolls. Not your Madokami intervened rolls. I blame Keiko and possibly Homura.

I was assuming that this is just the early stages, and once we break out into our own business and it looks like the sky is the limit sudden complexities will crop up.

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Well actually there's two more mechanics I had planned that haven't engaged yet. Haven't been sure if I will use them at all though. Increasing complexity pushes out voters, and I have few enough as it is.

[X] Demon strength meter: It should be possible to compose a set of guidelines and record keeping standards to allow you to more accurately gauge the current strength of the demon population.
Cost: 1 Veteran, 1 Green; 1 Green upkeep; Reward: Demon strength listed as a specific number (the modifier to the casualty rate) so long as some sensing action is done that month (currently the dispatch action)

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I keep meaning to remove this thing's upkeep cost, and somehow it reappears.

Also somewhat surprised you're only doing one scouting mission considering you're talking about expanding territory as precursor to other things.

Edit: And that just reminded me that Territory size is a 6th stat. Also very important.

 

[notgreat]

We should be getting more jobs, and I think it's worthwhile to eliminate the restrictions on our workers. It might draw a bit of attention, but the incubators are more likely than not going to contain it (because if we start interacting with major government-funded labs the whole genre changes anyway and we should be able to escape any kidnapping attempts thanks to being, y'know, magic)

[X] Upkeep: 2 Greens, 6 Vets

[X] Pack Hunting: Magical Girls will hunt in groups vastly reducing the danger, but because they are not covering as much area their efficiency is reduced. Death is significantly less likely. 7 Vets, 1 Mami = expected Grief Cube Harvest ~23

[X] Gather money, legally: There are not a great number of jobs that will take young girls as workers: working as a bike courier, waitress, or maid are likely options. This project benefits from regularity, and discontinuous execution may have negative side effects. Chance of success 25% per Meguca, following up on a previous month's success brings the chance to 100%. 2 newest Greens and 1 Veteran are assigned to hunt for jobs. Can we have the Veteran use their illusion skills to make our applicants (at least herself no doubt) look older (say about 16) in order to get a job more easily?
-[X] Remove restrictions on workers

[X] Stipend: Giving your magical girls a small amount of money to spend on themselves. At their current level of lifestyle this no longer really further boosts their morale, but will help prevent its decay.
Cost: $50 per Meguca; Reward: Maintained morale. Chance of success: 100%

[X] Demon strength meter: It should be possible to compose a set of guidelines and record keeping standards to allow you to more accurately gauge the current strength of the demon population.
Cost: 1 Veteran, 1 Green; Reward: Demon strength listed as a specific number (the modifier to the casualty rate) so long as some sensing action is done that month (currently the dispatch action)

[X] Scout 3 Areas (North, East, Southwest): You can deploy a veteran to scout out one of the territories around you stealthily. They should be able to gauge the demon strength there and the magical girls status there without tipping them off, hopefully.
Cost: 1 Veteran per area; Chance of success: 70%; Reward: information on demon strength, support capacity of the territory, and status of current magical girls in the territory, bonus to diplomatic efforts.

[X] Fun with magic: It's kind of a sad statement about magical girl life that you don't really get to play with your magic, it's too costly to use it much beyond what you need to use to get grief cubes. You might be able to afford to ease up on such restrictions and let people have fun with magic for once.
Cost: +0.1 grief cube to upkeep cost per girl; Reward: Increase to morale, you actually get to play with magic a little rather than just use it to fight, possible other effects


I removed the research because, while it does look useful, it's long-term useful. Getting bonuses to enchanting will help once we start building our own business, but anyone fighting will just used summoned weapons so it's not important now. I reassigned the people to go scouting, since we need to expand our territory. I reassigned the GCs that would've been put into that into "Fun with magic" since it gives a noticeable morale bonus, and there's the possibility of "other effects" which intrigues me.
Scouting more territory is the main thing, since we really need more territory ASAP so we can up of GC income without facing demons of doom.

 

[LightMage]

I'd rather we get more research done within the next couple of turns while focusing on improving morale through cash.

Then once we get some more Research done we should be able to expand easier + hunt safer for more GC's.

Although I don't think we should lose Mami's Apartment. I really think we should keep it for now.

[X] Elder Haman

 

[notgreat]

Then once we get some more Research done we should be able to expand easier + hunt safer for more GC's.

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Do you really think "Allow Mami's grade of enchanting to be carried by all girls," will actually increase our combat or expansion ability? Why would we be using enchanted objects when we could just summon temporary objects instead? This research has significant long-term utility, but I think getting the immediate benefits of expansion is much better- it gives us additional sustainable GCs and recruits more girls.