Crystalwatcher's Magical Girl Quest!

Vote Tally : Original - Crystalwatcher's Magical Girl Quest! | Page 623 | Sufficient Velocity [Posts: 15571-15627]
##### NetTally 1.9.9

[X] Plan Thriller Night
-[X] Aquila, Sega, and James will focus on getting rid of the mooks while not being killed. Try to take up positions where they can duck behind cover quickly.
-[X] Red Rose and Insight can handle themselves, just try not to die.
-[X] You will activate Core Purge the second Grey Champion is within its range, aiming to destroy her Seal and not kill her. Be wary in case the purge doesn't work, like with the Radiances. Try to put yourself between Grey and any potential targets
-[X] If Core Purge doesn't get rid of the seal, try to figure out what's protecting it, and if possible, get rid of the protection and then the seal ASAP.
No. of Votes: 2

[X] Plan a Tank By Any Other Name
-[X] Red Rose takes the lead and tries to draw everyone's attention. Once Red gives the signal everyone else leaps into action.
--[X] Red Rose muderizes stuff that gets close to her.
--[X] James and Aquila find cover and take shots at the undead.
--[X] Insight does Insight things.
--[X] Solid Drive focuses on keeping Red Rose healed with Shield Charge while getting as little attention as possible.
--[X] Solid Core ducks out of sight while trying to look vulnerable.
-[X] Once the mob has been dispersed Insight should use her spell as Solid Core rushs out and try to headbutt/grapple Grey Champion. Ask Insight for the best method to deal with the seal.
No. of Votes: 2

[x] Plan riot control
-[x] Charge Gray full flight speed ahead. the instant we reach core range we hit her with it. hopefully our charge draws attention to us.
-[x] all range combatants should use their attacks to keep gray from moving away from us.
-[x] Red Rose handles the minions. If they get boosted before we get Gray she is the one best able to survive.
-[x] Insight can either join in the range group or throw a grenade at the minions which ever seems more viable on her turn.
No. of Votes: 1

[X]Save it~
No. of Votes: 1

Total No. of Voters: 6

Oh wow, all of 6 voters. And a tie too! What an excellent way to get back in the swing of things.
 
[X] Plan a Tank By Any Other Name
-[X] Red Rose takes the lead and tries to draw everyone's attention. Once Red gives the signal everyone else leaps into action.
--[X] Red Rose muderizes stuff that gets close to her.
--[X] James and Aquila find cover and take shots at the undead.
--[X] Insight does Insight things.
--[X] Solid Drive focuses on keeping Red Rose healed with Shield Charge while getting as little attention as possible.
--[X] Solid Core ducks out of sight while trying to look vulnerable.
-[X] Once the mob has been dispersed Insight should use her spell as Solid Core rushs out and try to headbutt/grapple Grey Champion. Ask Insight for the best method to deal with the seal.
 
Allow me to remind you all of something. Red Rose' power can't be turned to non-lethal at the moment, so she can't just pop the Seal for us. While James could potentially blast the seal off with his gun, the only previous instance of a gun damaging a Seal also inflicted damage on the person the Seal was on. Not to mention the fact that the person was in human form, not Magical Girl form. It's entirely possible that the tactic used then won't work.

Finally, again, we don't have Gabriel or Sam with us, so Core Purge is the only method to get rid of the Seal in a reasonable time frame.
 
I have to wonder how this is going to help, to be perfectly honest. What's the intention here?
So that Nep looks squishy and surprises Grey when she turns out to be a nigh-invincible ball of fluff. I also don't think Solid Core can avoid accidentally everything at range and don't want to trade blows with the superfans in melee. So staying out of sight it is.

Ideally Solid Core will tank a few hits while charging and hold her down while Solid Drive gently pokes the seal a few times with her weapon.
 
[X]Plan let it rain
-[X]Solid Core aims a Starshine to take out the mooks. And approach to core purge as soon. As it won't get her swatted
-[X] Aquila, and James will also focus on getting rid of the mooks while not being killed. Try to take up positions where they can duck behind cover quickly.
-[X]Solid drive is on over watch for healing and surprise murder.
-[X]Insight and red should hold back for surprises.
 
Ideally Solid Core will tank a few hits while charging and hold her down while Solid Drive gently pokes the seal a few times with her weapon.
I feel I should remind you that not only does Solid Drive NOT have a save-from-death ability like we do, her damage out is over 40,000 and is in fact 49,832, which is over double the threshold where even attacks and spells that don't have one of the three Collateral Damage tree abilities will start having splash damage.

Any spillover damage from your plan is all but 100% guaranteed to kill Grey Champion. I highly suggest that you just have Solid Core use Core Purge and be done with it.
 
[X]Plan let it rain
-[X]Solid Core aims a Starshine to take out the mooks. And approach to core purge as soon. As it won't get her swatted
-[X] Aquila, and James will also focus on getting rid of the mooks while not being killed. Try to take up positions where they can duck behind cover quickly.
-[X]Solid drive is on over watch for healing and surprise murder.
-[X]Insight and red should hold back for surprises.
 
Reminders of relevant information, some of which others have already mentioned:

—Anything that Grey buffs will likely be able to oneshot everyone but Red Rose and Nepgear (who only survives due to her save-from-death). James can dodge and parry, but might have trouble with Grey's attacks—can't parry sound or spells, and Blast ☆ Star! has Collateral Damage, so the AoE may be too big to dodge.
—For the above reason, letting her attack us in order to build up Health is very risky, especially considering her 6 APT and Level 2 Omni-Caster.
—Her *allies* are immune to status effects. She shouldn't be.
Core Purge has a range of 50 meters. We can fly at ~85m/s, with instant acceleration. 100m square would be a very big courtyard—this is about the size of the supposed largest enclosed courtyard in Europe, and the largest covered one is smaller. Core Purge should cover most of the courtyard from the center, and we should be able to get there in under a second. This also seems a reasonable estimate based on
The body that slithers across the ground alone takes up almost more than half of the courtyard, while each head is large enough to swallow an average semi-truck whole without unhinging.
—None of our enemies can fly, none of them are particularly fast, and only Grey has a ranged attack.
The only attacks which won't one-shot Grey are Red Rose and Insight's basic attacks, Aquila's Zone Blast, Core Purge, and Shirley's Grenades without surprise—even Team GEAR's basic attacks will kill her, because they have Juggernaut. Actually, with the buffs we have, any attack will one-shot her (unless someone drops the buffs, of course, or she gains more Health).
—The mooks are pretty easy to clear out with Celestial Severance, Sword Beam, Core Purge, Zone Blast, grenades, or basic attacks; the trick is not getting hit and not simultaneously killing Grey.
—Seals can be destroyed by normal damage, but you have to have good aim and even then there's bleedthrough.
—We have Grey's full sheet:
These are their maxed out sheets. No surprises.
(Also, crys has said that enemies won't suddenly spend XP on us, so no worries there.)


Given the immediate danger we're in from a buffed Blast ☆ Star! or regular attack from Grey, I have four battle plans which should prevent it from happening, although two of them rely on answers to mechanics questions being what I don't expect them to be.

1. Flight + Core Purge, with Insight using Your Next Words Will Be… on Grey if it has the range. Speed-blitz. Simple, effective, clears out the courtyard in under a second (in fact, they're probably already in range of Core Purge; 50m is a long way indoors), doesn't let the enemy do anything. Cons: does not account for potential hidden enemies with high HP, ineffective if Core Purge is negated (it shouldn't be—we have Grey's full sheet and she's unbuffed—but there could be an unknown enemy that can do it), nobody but Nepgear gets to do anything.

2. Insight uses Your Next Words Will Be… several turns in a row, keeping Grey stunned. Mooks are dealt with however we like, and Grey can be either Core Purged or hit with normal damage aimed at the Seal. Cons: Relies on Insight managing to keep Grey locked down with precisely-timed spells while the rest are fighting, relies on Your Next Words Will Be… having sufficient range, exposes people to danger while fighting mooks (particularly Insight, who would need to focus on Grey). Pros: gives time for Segarite Core to build up Health.

3. Sega casts Shield Charge on Grey, then either Red Rose uses Avatar of Victory or we take the Seal down with normal damage (Starshine, Sword Beam, or ranged normal attacks) and deal with any leftover mooks. Cons: relies on Shield Charge having the range and being able to give Grey lots of HP, Avatar of Victory would require Red Rose to get up close, which takes time. Pros: if we go for Avatar of Victory then Grey is rendered harmless but her Seal may be unaffected (Avatar of Victory did not target Solar Radiance's Seal in OVERWHELM DRIVE), so we might have time to talk to someone under the influence of a Control Seal and figure out more about how it works.

4. Plan Destructible Environment. She can't fly and is standing on an elevated platform. Use the Purifier Beam, Celestial Severance, or Starshine to hit the base of the platform and blow it up, along with any mooks we can catch in the attack. Hope that the fall, the explosion, and the reduced visibility from dust impairs her enough to implement other plans (Core Purge, probably). Cons: might not work, might kill Grey (unlikely), low visibility is bad for us, too. Pros: buys time, likely to screw with a hypothetical ambush.

These are mostly orthogonal and can be used in any combination, except that 1 and 4 cannot be used simultaneously because Nepgear starts both (possible workaround: use Sword Beam for 4, if it can do enough environmental damage).


So, @crystalwatcher, can we get answers to some relevant questions:
(i) Exactly how big is the courtyard? You said it's about the same as the others, but I don't think we ever got that in meters. Is Grey already in range of Core Purge?
(ii) What's the range on Your Next Words Will Be…, and is Insight good enough to lock someone down by spamming it?
(iii) What's the range on Shield Charge?
(iv) Since Grey Champion does not have a well-defined max Health, can Shield Charge just give her a ton of HP without the usual side-effects of overhealing?
(v) What is the platform that Grey is standing on made of, and can we blow it up enough to destabilize her without killing her?



I am not a fan of any plan which involves someone other than Red Rose being vulnerable after Grey casts her first spell, where "vulnerable" includes moving between cover—Grey pretty much just has to shout at anything that moves, and they're dead. And I'd prefer if Red Rose didn't get hit either—we've been told before that magical healing is not equivalent to proper rest and recuperation; there's a fatigue penalty. Amanda's veteran enough to weather it, but it's still a negative.

Really, I'm not a fan of any form of protracted battle. They have their place, but this is not it—we want to win on the first or second move, here.


Right now my biggest worry is what we don't know. I expected more mooks, and I'm still expecting a surprise of some sort. Another MG, twenty more pre-buffed mooks hiding somewhere we can't see, a bigger demon, something. This has been going much too smoothly—we've only been almost killed by not knowing the abilities of an expected opponent. A known unknown. Maybe I'm just being paranoid, but I can't help but think that "they know we're coming" plus "suspiciously little resistance" means "trap"—and any trap should be more effective with Miss Buffs-a-Lot supporting it, so now is a good time for it.

One possible trap: there might be something hidden between us and Grey, as a surprise for anyone who tries to blitz her. Just in case, I'll say we don't fly directly at her.


[x] Plan Just Do It (but make sure you have a backup plan, too)
-[x] Core Purge immediately (target Seals, do not target Grey Champion or any other MGs). Begin flying to activate Supremacy Zone, and adjust position to keep Grey Champion in range if necessary. Try to resist the urge to auto-intercept; unnecessary pyrotechnics are unnecessary.
-[x] If she thinks it will work, Insight stuns Grey Champion.
-[x] Solid Drive goes up and separates from the group a little, to prevent being caught by unexpected AoE, and casts Shield Charge on Grey Champion.
-[x] Everyone but Solid Core stays ready to intervene in case of surprises, or get to cover if Grey Champion lasts more than two seconds.
-[x] If Sega successfully healed Grey Champion and Core Purge was ineffective against her, shoot her with the Purifier Beam. Aim to minimize the effect of the blast on the walls while still hitting Grey (i.e. near the center of the room and downward) (also, do our best to minimize collateral damage, even if that isn't much). Anybody who can't weather the blast and shrapnel should be in cover.
-[x] Nepgear flies around quickly to make sure that any remaining enemies are caught by Core Purge. Others continue to be on watch for any problems and act according to their judgement. If Grey is somehow still conscious, they can fire on her; she now has way more HP than the Control Seal.

[x]Save it~

This is a combination of plans 1 and 3 above. If parts of it are impossible—not unlikely—I will remove the relevant portions [EDIT: Nope, looks like I got lucky with my guesses. Only dubious thing is Insight's stun, and I've rephrased that so that it's up to her judgement—she knows her own capabilities better than we do]. I'm open to modifications; if you can argue that, say, it's better for Sega to reserve her Spell for this turn for anything unexpected that might come up, I may change it. I'm definitely open to removing the last part, or adding a contingency for Core Purge failure in the case that Sega can't heal her—I'm just not sure what it should be, other than maybe "make sure to get any remaining mooks into range of Core Purge", or to use plan 4. [EDIT: Rephrased portions of the plan based on new information below: Shield Charge is confirmed to work, and Grey is confirmed to be in range of Core Purge. Also, thank you @justinkal for reminding me about Supremacy Zone; Nepgear's part of the plan has been adjusted to make sure she takes advantage of it. Why is it so easy to forget about a Super Ability?][EDIT 2: Removed Starshine per this post, replaced it with a Purifier Beam shot. Added mop-up step flying around with Core Purge][EDIT 3: Adjusted aim on the Purifier Beam. Forgot how fragile this place was.][EDIT 4: Added a note about resisting Supremacy Zone's auto-intercept—it would do more harm than good here]


without losing anyone
back into the maze from the way you had all come
This bit is awkward (what's the "from" about?), and "had all come" is a tense error—it should be "all came"
what's left of the assault team
the intervening space between them
These are redundant
Grey Champion is unique
Famous across the Akashic Pillar, she
Skeletal Assault Knights
her eyes having gone straight to the Assault team when the door had opened
Flight / APT reduced to 1

Oh, and here's a few miscellaneous mechanics questions, just for fun:

1. Known Synchronization bonuses are x2 for ≥3 synchronized attacks, and x5 for ≥10. Do they continue to go up? What would the Synch bonus be for, say, 100 synchronized attacks? (If you're thinking that 100 people would be too spread out to synch: army of ghosts, or other intangibles) I'm working on someone who does weird stuff with synchronization (she's quantum-themed, and the Ability in question is named Constructive Self-Interference), and I need to know how it scales.

2. Flight levels are given as determining speed. How does this interact with headwinds/tailwinds/crosswinds? Does it change depending on the local air pressure (i.e. you can go faster at higher altitude because there's less air to push against)? What about space, and Limitless Horizon? All motion is relative, and that's especially apparent once you're away from the Earth. Does she just get crazy acceleration? (She doesn't need it; once you're away from air resistance a little constant acceleration goes a long way)

3. Is there a good way to determine which buff spells are multi-target? I had thought that Boost-All implied AoE, but that's wrong, isn't it? It just means that it can apply to both self and other, and might be single-target, multi-target, or AoE.

4. Over in the Base Commander Quest, I noticed this:
going by Goddess White in ALIGNED GEAR and MECA Force in PROPHET DRIVE, a multiplier from a Weapon Ability such as Crush does not apply to damage bonuses given by personal Abilities, Modifier rolls, buff spells, or situational modifiers like Surprise, but multipliers given by personal Abilities do (Sixth Heaven in PROPHET DRIVE and UNIFIER DRIVE, Judgement Core in UNIFIER DRIVE)
How exactly does this work? This has two parts: which multipliers are restricted in their application, and what do they apply to? Are they only restricted if the Abilities describe a property of the weapon, like Crush and Anti-Infantry, or would e.g. Kingdom and Lethal Surprise also be restricted? They only multiply damage from weapon Abilities like Full Auto, but not modifier rolls, buffs, and environmental modifiers, but Crush did not multiply the damage bonus from Time Walk—which is admittedly related to Magic Modifiers. Would they multiply bonuses from things like Execute or Slayer Abilities, or only bonuses from "properties of the weapon" (e.g. multi-hit, Laser, Ordnance), or just multi-hit Abilities?(This is a very minor point of the combat system and has come up maybe five times total, but dammit I want to know!)
 
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[x] Plan Just Do It (but make sure you have a backup plan, too)

I don't think the tank plan really understands just how easily those mooks could mulch us. The central assumption seems to be they won't get boosted to the point of doing collateral damage, which to me is a delusionally optimistic assessment. Assuming no one gets past rose, or that she could survive being the sole focus of that many super heavy hitters strikes me as a fatal mistake. We are playing rocket tag right now, so any plan that involves anyone getting hit is unacceptably risky, and core purge is the only way we have to end the fight before someone gets hit.
 
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Magical Nukes and You
Or: How Humanity Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Black Magic


Pretty much everything we had evolved a lot after Humanity discovered magic. Rituals that allowed people to almost instantly build high-quality structures in minutes with materials that would have originally been considered sub-standard, to increasing crop yields on farms by several orders of magnitude. And researchers are still discovering more and more uses for Magic practically by the day. As it is right now, the only real thing keeping the Akashic Pillar's economy from imploding, or hell, keeping their entire governmental body from spontaneously collapsing, is the fact Humanity is embroiled in the Eternal War in a Good vs Evil death match that is drawing everyone's attention away from the bigger problems.

But none of that really matter in this post.

The Nuclear Warhead, Humanity's ultimate "Fuck you in particular" weapon of mass destruction, initially didn't benefit all that much from magic... until someone got the bright idea to introduce ritual sacrifice into the mix.

The Answerer, and in turn the Brahmastra, were designed on the idea that what they functionally make are short-lived stars. Which, when it comes to magic, is all that matters. Despite being so tiny as to have lifespans measures in seconds, the Answerer and Brahmastra deploy what amounts to a quick-make magical circle while descending towards the target via a complicated Brand-Craft array.

When the Nuke detonates, the array waits for the new 'star' to hit it's stride before ritually killing it off early. Functionally doing a "Sacrifice of a New Born Baby, right out of the mother's womb" to fuel a ritual that outright annihilates everything within the designated target zone with enough power to blow through planet-level morality barriers. A fact that scares a lot of Gaia's would-be killers shitless.
 
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(i) Exactly how big is the courtyard? You said it's about the same as the others, but I don't think we ever got that in meters. Is Grey already in range of Core Purge?
Nepgear can hit the entire thing with her Core Purge if she stands where Grey is standing.

(ii) What's the range on Your Next Words Will Be…, and is Insight good enough to lock someone down by spamming it?
Limited by her ability to recognize a target within line of sight, and hearing distance/how far she can throw her voice.

(iii) What's the range on Shield Charge?
Similar to above, but without the hearing limitation.

(iv) Since Grey Champion does not have a well-defined max Health, can Shield Charge just give her a ton of HP without the usual side-effects of overhealing?
Yes. That's a soft mechanic bonus her Dance To The Music ability grants her.

(v) What is the platform that Grey is standing on made of, and can we blow it up enough to destabilize her without killing her?
Stone like everything else around her, and yes. She's good enough not to get killed when the platform gets blown out from under her.

1. Known Synchronization bonuses are x2 for ≥3 synchronized attacks, and x5 for ≥10. Do they continue to go up? What would the Synch bonus be for, say, 100 synchronized attacks? (If you're thinking that 100 people would be too spread out to synch: army of ghosts, or other intangibles) I'm working on someone who does weird stuff with synchronization (she's quantum-themed, and the Ability in question is named Constructive Self-Interference), and I need to know how it scales.
They remain the same after ≥10.

2. Flight levels are given as determining speed. How does this interact with headwinds/tailwinds/crosswinds? Does it change depending on the local air pressure (i.e. you can go faster at higher altitude because there's less air to push against)? What about space, and Limitless Horizon? All motion is relative, and that's especially apparent once you're away from the Earth. Does she just get crazy acceleration? (She doesn't need it; once you're away from air resistance a little constant acceleration goes a long way)
Yes, stuff like that is covered in soft mechanics.

3. Is there a good way to determine which buff spells are multi-target? I had thought that Boost-All implied AoE, but that's wrong, isn't it? It just means that it can apply to both self and other, and might be single-target, multi-target, or AoE.
Buff spells are single-target. Other abilities are needed to make it AoE.

4. Over in the Base Commander Quest, I noticed this:
They act as properties of the weapon.
 
Magical Nukes and You
Or: How Humanity Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love Black Magic


Pretty much everything we had evolved a lot after Humanity discovered magic. Rituals that allowed people to almost instantly build high-quality structures in minutes with materials that would have originally been considered sub-standard, to increasing crop yields on farms by several orders of magnitude. And researchers are still discovering more and more uses for Magic practically by the day. As it is right now, the only real thing keeping the Akashic Pillar's economy from imploding, or hell, keeping their entire governmental body from spontaneously collapsing, is the fact Humanity is embroiled in the Eternal War in a Good vs Evil death match that is drawing everyone's attention away from the bigger problems.

But none of that really matter in this post.

The Nuclear Warhead, Humanity's ultimate "Fuck you in particular" weapon of mass destruction, initially didn't benefit all that much from magic... until someone got the bright idea to introduce ritual sacrifice into the mix.

The Answerer, and in turn the Brahmastra, were designed on the idea that what they functionally make are short-lived stars. Which, when it comes to magic, is all that matters. Despite being so tiny as to have lifespans measures in seconds, the Answerer and Brahmastra deploy what amounts to a quick-make magical circle while descending towards the target via a complicated Brand-Craft array.

When the Nuke detonates, the array waits for the new 'star' to hit it's stride before ritually killing it off early. Functionally doing a "Sacrifice of a New Born Baby, right out of the mother's womb" to fuel a ritual that outright annihilates everything within the designated target zone with enough power to blow through planet-level morality barriers. A fact that scares a lot of Gaia's would-be killers shitless.

Nukes: satan's gift to humanity. Bless'em.
 
Nepgear can hit the entire thing with her Core Purge if she stands where Grey is standing.


Limited by her ability to recognize a target within line of sight, and hearing distance/how far she can throw her voice.


Similar to above, but without the hearing limitation.


Yes. That's a soft mechanic bonus her Dance To The Music ability grants her.


Stone like everything else around her, and yes. She's good enough not to get killed when the platform gets blown out from under her.


They remain the same after ≥10.


Yes, stuff like that is covered in soft mechanics.


Buff spells are single-target. Other abilities are needed to make it AoE.


They act as properties of the weapon.
I'm gonna hate myself saying.

But isn't insight stun technically sonic and thus runs head long into the girl sonic immunity?

And we can star shine the mooks without wiping her right?
 
Limited by her ability to recognize a target within line of sight, and hearing distance/how far she can throw her voice.

So I guess the follow-up question is: does Grey Champion's (presumably loud) singing get loud enough that she couldn't hear Insight shouting at her? (I'm guessing Insight and Red can figure that out?)

I'm becoming increasingly convinced that we might just have to send in Nepgear to do everything alone for best results, which irks the part of me that wants other characters to be useful, but if the problem is a nail, sometimes the solution is a hammer.
 
Also, don't forget that Nepgear is invincible against attacks from things on the ground while she's airborne.

Pretty sure that applies to every single thing in this entire battle.
 
I'm gonna hate myself saying.

But isn't insight stun technically sonic and thus runs head long into the girl sonic immunity?

And we can star shine the mooks without wiping her right?
It's Prediction and Information. Since neither of those 'elements' rely or spring from sound I would expect it to work as well as it usually does.

Which, given the disparity in experience and Growth Affinity, is to work once and Grey recovering and reacting before Insight uses it again.

*looks at above post*

:V Right, Supremacy Zone. That fairly well does everything we want for tanking things doesn't it.
 
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