Corco's Villa

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by TGLS

That's true. I think we both (or at least I) kinda glossed over that. I don't have my books with me right now, but I'm fairly sure what Halcyone has (i.e. Vibroblades and rifles) isn't going to cut it against a flying swam. I don't recall specifically said about the drone swarms she had, but I was going with the impression those were mostly recon drones, not attacking drones.

I think we were more explicit about the swarms she had on a previous mission. Maybe the ice world?


EDIT: I've found that on the ice world you suggested that one of the swarms be stingers. On the submarine you expected a lot more combat and brought 100 swarms, 75 of which were devourerors. (you brought 500 lbs of gear that time). Your ability to carry gear this time is more limited.

[the_matrix_walker]

Originally Posted by ericthered

I think we were more explicit about the swarms she had on a previous mission. Maybe the ice world?


EDIT: I've found that on the ice world you suggested that one of the swarms be stingers. On the submarine you expected a lot more combat and brought 100 swarms, 75 of which were devourerors. (you brought 500 lbs of gear that time). Your ability to carry gear this time is more limited.

IDHMBWM... but that does not sound cheap!

[ericthered]

Originally Posted by the_matrix_walker

IDHMBWM... but that does not sound cheap!

No, that's $600,000. I was a little shocked when when I saw the price tag on devourer and the number that were brought.

[the_matrix_walker]

Is Halcyone wealthy? My budget for a magic sword 1K which was not enough to get one. :P

[ericthered]

I thought I gave you 2k... I suppose you were supposing that Halcyone might want to buy one.

Your larger point about gear for this game is correct: Halcyone does not have wealth. Now I need to sort things out. A few thoughts to start with.

• $600,000 worth of devourer swarms is incorrect. I either should have said no or mad a caveat that they were only for that mission, which was higher stakes than other missions because it involved a blatant cross-world invasion and you were allowed to operate openly
• I always have and will continue to privilege "home world" equipment, in terms of access. For V this has been Monster Hunters gear. For Halcyone this is a cyberpunkish TL10. Of course, we haven't really gone into details about what Vassarious's actual homeworld.
• You have a patron who kind of sort of provides gear. The Villa certainly provides mission specific equipment and expenses.
• I'm personally very scared of DF's tendency to allow any sort of enchantment as long as its mind-boggling expensive. I typically lean on equipment weight as a secondary limiting factor and DF can play havoc with that at higher wealth levels.
• Halcyone's character concept results is more gear-centric, but Vassarious does have favorite equipment (mostly concealed armor so far).
• I have a bias towards saying "Yes" to things that add capability but "No" to things that just make numbers bigger.

I'm continuing to think about making a more consistent and concrete way to handle gear access.

[the_matrix_walker]

I looked back, and it was 60% of a 3K budget, so $1,800. I'm not looking at the books right now, but a +1 sword to hit is like 5K IIRC, so the cost was prohibitive. I thought there was more stuff that could be done quick and dirty for a low cost when I originally asked, but I had misremembered.


I also now realize a magic sword would be pretty useless anyway, as Vassarious only has skill with their naturally manifested weapons.

[TGLS]

Originally Posted by ericthered

$600,000 worth of devourer swarms is incorrect. I either should have said no or mad a caveat that they were only for that mission, which was higher stakes than other missions because it involved a blatant cross-world invasion and you were allowed to operate openly

That's fine. I typically just want the swarms for recon and such. The recent mention is more a reflection that Halcyone has little ability to damage anything with IA Diffuse.

[ericthered]

swarms probably aren't even a good counter to other swarms: swarms tend to be tough and reliable but have low damage output.


I actually think Halcyone has fantastic tools for dealing with swarms, but we'll see.

[the_matrix_walker]

Even if diffuse, bullets cause a point of damage a round I believe... and it doesn't take much damage to disperse a swarm usually IIRC.

[ericthered]

More money and gear thoughts:

I'm trying to provide an amount of money relative to mission cost, which is mostly based on expected travel, who you expect to rub shoulders with, and what the local standard of living is.

• Local standard of living is weird in DF-land, because it has this weird double tier where everyone lives at one level and then fantastically expensive stuff is all over the place
• I'm going to try to be generous with requisitions before you come to the world, and stick to the budget after that
• You can negotiate with the villa to increase the budget or issued gear for specific reasons.
• You can generally access old gear. 75 devourer swarms not included.
• Money probably needs to be returned... though I'm split on that, because that could cause last minute shopping before you leave the world. Unless that's a reward of sorts.
• I should probably look at world wealth, and the wealth of the people you'll be dealing with to give you a budget for expenses. Probably based on one month. So a months pay for two people at the same wealth level you'll be dealing with.

Originally Posted by TGLS

"Maybe one of us should stick behind in case they're hostile? They are seemingly controlling the swarm as they march towards town."

you already have two NPCs doing that?