Aranfan
Team Plasma Grunt
Arg. Well, I guess that's the cost of not playing XCOM. Hopefully we can absorb all of Tokyo quickly.
Actually, they count as better than Elites.
-
Going forward, links to content from Twitter (now X) will no longer be embedded. Pre-existing links should not be affected.
Meguca Micro Empire Quest (PMMM)
- Thread starter inverted_helix
- Start date
Arg. Well, I guess that's the cost of not playing XCOM. Hopefully we can absorb all of Tokyo quickly.
Actually, they count as better than Elites.
Okay, that's... kind of spooky. I drew up three separate magics for Rae all barrier related:
-1st - Mirrors, she creates barriers that can reflect attacks, but they actually do operate on a mirror principle, they work better against energy attacks, worse against physical. As an elite+ this means that she's basically impervious to energy attacks (99% of the attack is reflected, 1% is absorbed), and her barriers are not weak to physical attacks. With this magic, she could also use the barriers to act as a clairvoyant-light - bounce light off her mirrors so she could see all around her. In my head I decided it was annoying for them to conveniently have someone with pseudo-clairvoyance so I decided to switch it to:
-2nd - This was what I ended up settling for in my head, her magic is called 'Workshop.' The gears behind her turn and they... create a layer of golden armor around her friends that make them look like magitech knights. Its special ability is to grow stronger over time: longer the battle runs, the stronger the armor becomes. It also acts like power armor, so it also will start increasing the base stats of the meguca - this is what gives their group the edge in PvP battles and lets them act mercifully. Unfortunately, even within Serena's aura the costs can grow to be prohibitive, though with sufficient resources, she can pretty much guarantee that none of them will die. To keep costs down she generally will 'reset' the armor after every five to ten minutes. She's never actually seen the upper bound of her magic, since the armor since she's never actually been pushed that far yet. Somewhat inspired by this RWBY fanart. No idea how to stat this as a bonus, but the visual is pretty sweet.
-3rd - A variant on workshop, instead of armor, she creates golden, force projection objects, Green Lantern style. I'm unclear what the upper bounds of what it is Green Lanterns can do, and I wasn't sure what to do with it to distinguish it from being a Green Lantern Wish Magic, so I defaulted back to option 2.
Aranfan
Team Plasma Grunt
@Elder Haman
I notice that your plan doesn't include getting started on the renovation for the village? Do we just not have the cash?
I notice that your plan doesn't include getting started on the renovation for the village? Do we just not have the cash?
Looks like both he and @Kinematics are overdrawn on meguca. The thing is that we really, really need to get a house in the village to a livable state within 2-3 months if we're going with the Getaway house to start, unless we want to roll the dice on Akiya: Getaway is $120k a year, and that's going to drain us dry really quickly, to the point that we wouldn't be able to afford the village at all.
Hmm... yeah I missed a .5 elite when adding up.
Dang... Well... probably have to cut back on the Kyouko charms... maybe hand out two per a group instead? Plus one for Serena's group?
Hmm... Hmm... going to have to recalculate this one again.
Or... I guess I could drop the tandem aspect, and only have 50 elite charms... that would still be pretty good. Could get 41 stealth charms, and 9 Kyouko illusion charms.
Give one stealth charms to each person in the combat groups, and one illusion charm to each group. When the leader calls out the order to retreat, she triggers the illusion charm, and then all the girls trigger their individual stealth charm...
We strong armed girls into joining. Itawa. Nothing really that bad, but of course we want to present ourselves in the best light.
Oh... dang it. Kyouko in different story almost always uses them together so I guess I thought of them as one spell, but they are probably two aren't they?
Hmm... hmmm... more difficulty in how to distribute those charms.
Yeah, essentially the emotional reaction was: "The vets in the area should have kept those greens under control." Combined with "We must make a safe place for Kaori!"
That then provided the emotional justification for the cold truth that we needed to expand to be able to support our population, and that Kaori was over exposed in Itawa without expanding there.
Hmm... barrier will be useful.
Actually, a bigger problem is that we do not have the cash to do the village, and also do one of the other options.
In fact, we'd have trouble just doing the village alone (that would require at least $10,000 more in cash on hand).
Basically, up until month 4 the Getaway House costs about the same as the Akiya House. It also gives us a little flexibility in the early months on unexpected expenses, as long as we can find a quick source of cash. (Trade with other large organizations?)
After month 4 the cost of the Getaway House escalates quickly above the Akiya house, but I don't think we can stay in the Akiya house much more than 4 or 5 months anyway.
So to me the big question is: How confident of our courier expansion into Tokyo are we?
If we are confident of that expansion, then we could actually probably afford the Getaway House as a permanent solution. Alternatively we renovate an abandoned village properly, but we are unlikely to have the cash on hand for a while. So we probably can't even start for five months.
Unless we can make a big trade with some other large organization (probably not Nagoya, cause if I were them I'd be getting wary about trading with us so much) to allow us to get started earlier.
So if we went that route we'd probably need to make contact this turn with Sendai and the Magical Republic of Japan and try to make a deal. (Or the Osaka Junta since I bet they have money, but I think long term we'd rather befriend the Republic).
That would probably take up Mami...
I guess we could try switching 0.5 Kyouko to hunting to free up a vet to take over for Mami in the Safe Passage deal? That would mean giving up the illusion charms. Or maybe cut the number of healing charms in half?
It's tight...
Another option would be to drop Tandem Casting Fusion and get 3 more vets available... Put 1 each on a trade deal with three of the large organizations? 1 approaches Sendai, one The Republic... etc.
Then we'd start on the village next month, and try to have it done in two months... yeah, it'd be tight.
I think I'd prefer to just save the money from any additional trades to continue spending money on expanding into Tokyo. Double down and go for broke.
Last edited:
Aranfan
Team Plasma Grunt
Yeah, that does sound like the best way to do the Tokyo thing. We should also tap Nagisa for pet whispering at some point.
Hmm, and I suppose if it doesn't work out we can then we're committing to Serena camping out in the village for 6-7 months while we build up enough of a nest egg to renovate a house for her? Well, if it comes to that we should be able to spare cash for a generator, high quality camping equipment, and some other essentials at least, but that's going to be quite a letdown after living in a corporate retreat and saving Tokyo.
Well the way I view that is that they are just abilities that have really good synergy with each other so she usually uses them together, but they're really different things so I think them separate abilities.
Funny how for a while you guys kept thinking money didn't have much use and now you're tight on funds.
Having to choose tradeoffs in what you can get is something I like to see, though really you are able to fulfill almost everything you want to do. I've given you too good of tools to deal with your problems. Though on that note I'll just be over here maniacally laughing behind my GM screen at your current optimism.
Last edited:
So... calculating the cost of buying armor:
16 set of hard leather (assuming a S350 cost) + 24 Kevlar Vests = $20,000
That would allow equipping 19 girls with full Kevlar and 25 girls with hard leather + vest. (35 Vets, 4 Elites, and 5 for Serena & Co.)
25 sets of Kevlar Clothing + 24 Kevlar Vests = $39,400
That would allow equipping all 39 girls with full kevlar.
$117,470 is available, $70,000 earmarked for Tokyo though, so we don't want to go below that.
Leaves $47,470, and we need at least $6,000 for the next month of the Getaway house ($10,000 - current $4000 net = expected loss each month)
That leaves $41,470.
One thing is clear, we can not afford the full kevlar and also get the Akiya house.
Even for the Getaway house we would be dependent on whatever we make in trade from Nagoya on the duration research to fund our deficit until Tokyo courier business becomes profitable.
I suppose we could make the armor purchase as part of the duration research deal, and therefor not decide which option to go for until we see what we are getting for the duration research.
@Kinematics I know I had concerns about dropping the Tandem Fusion research, but I'm beginning to think we ought to.
That would free up 3 Vets, we could put 1 on making trade deals with Kofu and Area 15/16, probably see if we could hire some of their girls for hunting in our area. (Try to get a better deal than we gave the coalition - maybe insist on pairs?)
That would give us some extra manpower next turn (at the cost of cubes, but I expect a lot of cubes from killing class 3 demons).
We could put another vet on contacting all the large organizations that Kyubey is going to tell us about and learning more about them. That should give us more trade options.
1 vet would fill your 1 vet hole (or alternatively fill my 0.5 elite, by switching around the hunting).
The GM is laughing maniacally! CODE RED!
16 set of hard leather (assuming a S350 cost) + 24 Kevlar Vests = $20,000
That would allow equipping 19 girls with full Kevlar and 25 girls with hard leather + vest. (35 Vets, 4 Elites, and 5 for Serena & Co.)
25 sets of Kevlar Clothing + 24 Kevlar Vests = $39,400
That would allow equipping all 39 girls with full kevlar.
$117,470 is available, $70,000 earmarked for Tokyo though, so we don't want to go below that.
Leaves $47,470, and we need at least $6,000 for the next month of the Getaway house ($10,000 - current $4000 net = expected loss each month)
That leaves $41,470.
One thing is clear, we can not afford the full kevlar and also get the Akiya house.
Even for the Getaway house we would be dependent on whatever we make in trade from Nagoya on the duration research to fund our deficit until Tokyo courier business becomes profitable.
I suppose we could make the armor purchase as part of the duration research deal, and therefor not decide which option to go for until we see what we are getting for the duration research.
@Kinematics I know I had concerns about dropping the Tandem Fusion research, but I'm beginning to think we ought to.
That would free up 3 Vets, we could put 1 on making trade deals with Kofu and Area 15/16, probably see if we could hire some of their girls for hunting in our area. (Try to get a better deal than we gave the coalition - maybe insist on pairs?)
That would give us some extra manpower next turn (at the cost of cubes, but I expect a lot of cubes from killing class 3 demons).
We could put another vet on contacting all the large organizations that Kyubey is going to tell us about and learning more about them. That should give us more trade options.
1 vet would fill your 1 vet hole (or alternatively fill my 0.5 elite, by switching around the hunting).
The GM is laughing maniacally! CODE RED!
Aranfan
Team Plasma Grunt
Poorly. Not even quite sure how I'll play it.
Plus I have to come up with all the different organizations, more than what you usually get even because I have to have some sort of idea how they're organized for later. Only one I've got generally done is Sendai, and there's going to be like 9ish other organizations around half your size or larger.
Plus the rumors, though I think I'll be a cheapskate and have one of the rumors be about you guys being a cult. Because that almost certainly is what people think about you.
One thing I think we're being wildly optimistic about is our ability to clear Tokyo single-handedly. At the very least we should consider contacting the Tokyo elites, informing them of our plans, and coordinating with them to clear out each section of the city, along with whatever vets each can bring along. I'd also like to try to enlist Area 15/16 and maybe Kofu if we can, though they're rather unlikely to stick their necks out.
The village would probably be the nicest in the long term, and the room for expansion would be primarily for future girls who are addicted to Serena's aura (it's quite likely that we'll pick up a few while cleaning up Tokyo, in point of fact).
I would lean towards getting the Akiya anyway. Even if Serena doesn't use it for long, it would still provide long term housing options for a low price compared to the apartments. Having a remote getaway location (independent from Serena's village) could come in useful later on.
@inverted_helix: Would new rates and availability for future trade options be included in these trades?
I guess the "Cult of Hope" just popped up earlier than expected :lol. It would be amusing (though rather meta) if they thought we worshiped a goddess of magical girls.
Last edited:
Aranfan
Team Plasma Grunt
Well, before now we've experienced cube and 'guca crunches, but not a money crunch, so we didn't properly appreciate how important money is. I believe that is now remedied.
Also, question, would we count as the smallest major power in Meguca Japan, or are we too small as yet to rate?
Powerofmind
In Madness Fallen
- Location
- United States
We're rated number 6 behind the three Kyotos, Nagoya, and one other that I've forgotten the name of that's further north than Tokyo. If we pick up even a tenth of Tokyo we would probably get as large as number 3.
You know... you could claim that organizations that much smaller than us just don't make the Incubator's list that they give us. Since the Incubators only intend to give us the contacts for organizations large enough to make a difference in Tokyo. Maybe if one of the smaller organizations is very elite heavy, maybe the Incubators would mention them, but otherwise they don't give us the info (beyond that the organizations aren't big enough).
Just keep the current info on unity and stat them out later when we meet them.
Buying Kyouko's church and making it our headquarters is not going to help with that.
I completely agree with contacting the Tokyo Elites and trying to convince them to help, but when I asked for their contact info from Kyubey we were flatly rejected. They are not organized, and it's every meguca for herself out there. They don't have time to talk to magical girls about plans for the future.
I'm hopeful we can still drop cellphones off with them at the start of next month and try to get them to join in in the fight, but I'm not going to count on it.
Not a chance. Though maybe we can recruit them to do some hunting for us while we fight.
It is a possible long run choice, but as I point out, we don't have the money to support the village plan and the Akiya house. That's $80,000 and we really only have around $40,000. Even the village without the Akiya is hard to afford (though we could maybe make it work). We certainly would not be able to afford more armor for our girls before the fight in Tokyo.
Now maybe we'd get some more in another trade at some point, but we would be dependent on that to pay for it.
Rumor next month: "The Serene Cult is planning to summon their goddess 'Serena' to save Tokyo from the demons."
And then after we save Tokyo, people outside our group start referring to Serena as Serena-kami. The mysterious kami of magical girls who radiates Hope whenever she appears.
Powerofmind
In Madness Fallen
- Location
- United States
We must commit to the shtick. It has become necessary.
You would be pretty penalized for trying to use it as normal housing considering it's specifically picked out for being in the middle of nothing. I mean that's a requirement for Serena, but for anyone else that's a pretty significant downside.
Depends how long your list is. I mean you're at number 6. So you aren't on the top 5 but you are on the top 10.
I can do that. Though preliminarily the main thing is that the coalition was saying they could sell that per month, while 15/16 were basically selling as a one off not something they could sustain.
Well you originally said that even small groups collectively could balance larger ones. So it seems like I should.
I perhaps gave the wrong, or too extreme an impression with that. It's not every single one for themselves individually. Your earlier assessment of some singletons, some small cells, and some loose organizations of cells is more accurate. The point of that was more that these people are operating on the brink and aren't checking their communications much. It's difficult to contact them.
..that's so hilarious I now have to do that. Normally I restrict my terrible humor to people's names. But this is probably pretty reasonable.
The top 5 organizations in Japan at this point are:
Nagoya Magocracy
Osaka Junta (Kyoto/Osaka area)
Heaven's Chosen (Kyoto/Osaka area)
Magical Republic of Japan (Kyoto/Osaka area)
Magical Queendom of Sendai
Debating if I want to give you any information at all beyond their names (and in universe contact information). The Incubators probably wouldn't due to their neutrality. But you might hear rumors. You actually have a fair bit to go on about Nagoya at this point, and they have some intelligence about the next three on the list they could be persuaded to share. The last one is on the other side of Tokyo though and they haven't really met.
Last edited:
Mini Omake: Lita Valenzuela Pérez
Running some more!
Lita Valenzuela Pérez - Is the 'idol' and dancer of the group, similar to Minako. Classic Latin beauty: tall, with dark eyes and a dancer's build.
Magic: healing
Lita is beautiful, and she's well aware of that. She's been trained in dance since she was very young, and has developed a solid poise and grace in her actions and movements. She comes off as aloof and arrogant (though that occasionally cracks, as she's starting to notice those who notice her, in a romantic light; awkward teenage years makes this awkward, though). She has a number of hangups about what is "proper", though not in the British nobility sense; they can be seen more as quirks than anything. (Pulling a personal example, one of my friends treats eating breakfast foods at any time other than morning hours as something like a sin against God. Eating breakfast at Denny's in the evening is heresy.)
She's actually the oldest of them, magical-girl wise. Combined with her normal personality, she'll often consider that the justification for telling others "how things should be done".
However, despite outer appearances, she gained healing magic. A certain core part of her, mostly hidden away by years of being told what was right and proper, cares deeply for the people close to her, and it carried through into her true desires when she made her wish.
In a lot of ways, it would not be completely inaccurate to view her as a bit like a classic tsundere. She will regularly criticize the others for a variety of perceived faults, but she would also never abandon them, and fusses over them like a mother hen. When a fight gets serious, she gets serious, as she refuses to allow them to be hurt if she can help it. They've been together long enough that they all recognize that underlying nature by now, though it was pretty rough in the earlier days.
Her magic is expressed as strongly derived from flamenco dance, wielding fire and roses as her weapons. Her costume is a stylized traditional flamenco dress.
Picture
Notes: This went in a rather different direction than I was originally expecting. The 'dance' aspect is different than Minako's, due to a different culture, and largely informed how the rest played out. Like Minako, she's the 'oldest' of them, as a magical girl. She doesn't have Minako's parody level of boy-crazy, but she's definitely noticing them. But underneath everything is her healing magic wish, which highlights a core very different than surface appearances.
Fire magic would normally be Rei's bailiwick, but oh well. And I guess someone needed the roses, since there's no Tuxedo Kamen. Like Sayaka, the surface appearance of her magic doesn't make it immediately obvious that her core power is healing.
notanautomaton
I've got 99 quests, I've finished one
How addicting is Serena's aura? If some of our girls grew addicted, would they be able to manage it by visiting her once a week, or would they have to go every day at a risk of grief spiral, or what? How long can her entourage be seperated from her before it gets to be a problem?
Obviously, if we went with the Akiya house, we couldn't start on the Village remodel right away. But it's not like the village is going anywhere; nobody else is going to up and buy it in the next few months.
Well, yeah, we definitely wouldn't want to use it as normal housing. But we could use it as emergency overflow in case of sudden unexpected overcrowding problems, and it would provide a getaway spot for anyone who wants to be alone for a day or two. The point is: the money used to buy and renovate the Akiya would result in a long-term asset, even after Serena moves to the village. Whereas the money used to rent the Getaway house would not result in a long-term asset.
- Pronouns
- He/Him
Her entourage will spiral to death in minutes if they leave the aura.
Other long term uses for the Akiya house:
- Housing for foreign/visiting meguca who aren't particularly friendly or well known to us, say this Queen of Sendai or a rep from the Kyoto Republic.
- A quarantine area for particularly dangerous magical research, like magical explosives, something we don't want going on near the Sakura Church.
- Any sort of research that requires isolation from other magical fields, because you can be sure that the Church is going to have a lot of random magic going on.
- We might be able to figure out some sort of teleportation pad eventually, and this place would make a good intermediate stop between Mitakihara and Kofu.