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[RAM]

Not much. We arrived, Alderaan didn't, random attack(My theory is pirates hunting for refugees...), and then we landed at a somewhat disreputable planet and sold our wares. Now we just have to figure out where to go next and what to take there. We seem to be doing the trader thing for now...

[Lucus Casius]

Not really enjoying playing a game where all the decisions are made over private messages...

..?

No one's made any decisions over private messages.  I did some stuff on the side to put us in contact with someone who can provide black market goods and can possibly get us some extra work, but that's about it.

[Lord Shonus]

Lucuis's character only met with one of his contacts. We did the same sort of thing dozens of times in the Mercenaries games. However, the journal entry certainly made it seem as if the decisions were made.


Barb, I thought that you realized the timing from the last mercs session. I'm sorry that things weren't clearer, but you know full well that I'm not the most organized of people.

[scriver]

So, to sum up, what kind of characters to people have now? Last I checked it seemed fighters was needed so I've been pondering one for the last few days. Oh, and sorry I wasn't able to finish a character yo for the first session, Shonus.

[Lord Shonus]

Right now, we have a fighter pilot, a freighter pilot, an insane droid, and a fighter.

[Lucus Casius]

#StarWarsShonus is open.

[Rolepgeek]

Speaking of Insane Droids.

>access mem_bank; droid.E4-X; des.T1; desig_#040294_
ACCESSING...
CHECK; 8031 ERROR
ACCESS LOCKED; PASSWORD REQUIRED
>**********************************_
ACCESS GRANTED
MEMORY BANK UPLOADED
PLEASE INPUT FILE ACCESS NUMBER
>access multiple files
PLEASE INPUT ADDITIONAL PARAMETERS
>most_recent; tag=imprtnt; trans=binary_basic; #files=5
FILE #0122550-1000.294.03.30; NAME=Abregado_Rae_Data_Thyferra
FILE #0122535-1000.293.20.00; NAME=Abregado_Rae_Arrival_Alderaan_Belt
FILE #0122456-1000.291.04.30; NAME=Suicidal_Meatbags_Pirates_Alderaan_Belt_Abregado_Rae
FILE #0122385-1000.289.17.00; NAME=Boarded_Stormtroopers_Alderaan_Belt
FILE #0122384-1000.289.16.30; NAME=Alderaan_Belt_Arrival_Ketaris
>read=all; order=oldest_newest
...
// Alderaan_Belt_Arrival_Ketaris;
  - Record: [stark presentation of events over time]
  - Commentary: The meatbags seemed unusually upset over the planet's absence, even for meatbags. It was strange. Perhaps they were fond of their employers? In any case, whatever could have done this is quite powerful, though inefficient. Were I theoretically to attempt to kill the inhabitants of a planet -for there can be no other purpose for this planet's destruction, at least; I detected no Imperial-owned mining vessels in the area- I would simply ignite the atmosphere, or perhaps flood it with a combination of toxic gases. A massive ion barrage would assist in stopping any lockdown measures that may be attempted once it is realized. Heavy kinetic weapons bombardment on shield generators and fortified positions would ensure non-electronic countermeasures would be useless. Of course, if the infrastructure is not desired, nuclear warheads can be used instead, combined with surgical strikes on bunker locations to prevent survivors, accidental or otherwise. Minerals can still be obtained without the cumbersome necessity of mining ships, although a theoretical harvester model would allow for more practical refining even with such drastic measures. But this has become a digression. I disapprove of the Empire's methods in this case.
...
// Boarded_Stormtroopers_Alderaan_Belt;
  - Record: [stark presentation of events]
  - Commentary: The Stormtroopers confirmed my theory that it was the Empire who did this. They were rather poor at concealing it, so I doubt the Empire cares whether it is known or not. In fact, they probably wish it to be known, if they are making a display of force. Beyond that, they seem simply to have upset the meatbag whom leads the pilots. I have little notion why, as he was once an Imperial pilot and should therefore have some idea of how the Empire functions.
...
// Suicidal_Meatbags_Pirates_Alderaan_Belt_Abregado_Rae
  - Record: [stark presentation of events]
  - Commentary: Organic life forms can't be repaired or salvaged as artificial life forms, so why are they so much less capable of self-preservation? The meatbags piloting our own fighters are decent at what they do, at least, making some very unlikely shots. I believe it would be prudent to enhance their engines once we have the funds and time available for me to work on them...I don't trust any of the meatbags not to break it beyond all repair.
...
// Abregado_Rae_Arrival_Alderaan_Belt
  - Record: [stark presentation of events]
  - Commentary: Now that we've arrived on this planet, I believe I will attempt to find a dealer trustworthy enough not to cheat or hijack me, and low enough to remove the combat inhibitor...I may siphon off some of the funds obtained from the sales of the durasteel, once it has been sold. The meatbags would not understand the necessity of this procedure.
...
// Abregado_Rae_Data_Thyferra
  - Record: [stark presentation of events]
  - Commentary: With solid possible trade routes, and extra income from smuggling, but no company to keep track of funds for us, I hope to become the cargo-master soon. That would allow me to be my own master, technically, whilst keeping the books more efficiently and discreetly than any of the organic minds here could hope to. It would also allow me to use some of the profits for the Plan with less risk of discovery.

[Lucus Casius]

Ah, couple more things I've been reminded of:

1.  Just some thoughts for Shonus.  You know how I controlled the actions of four y-wings in that battle, and you sent 16 DYE-fighters at us and all that?

In the future, can we just abstract the NPC pilots and excess DYE-fighters to the background?  Treat them as part of the setting, rather than dealing with ridiculous numbers of units in combat.  It'll make things go quicker and be far less tedious on both ends.  Like, rather than having sixteen enemy fighters and four y-wings, just have three/four enemy fighters and one y-wing.  The NPCs can be used for stunts and such, but we don't have them cluttering up the map.

Additional advantage is that I feel like I'm playing a unique character in battles, rather than just a collection of characters all with the same abilities.

Naturally, there are times and places where this could be changed, and it'd be better to have all of them involved at once.  But MOST of the time it's better to just abstract the actions of player-controlled NPCs, so that we don't have them detracting from the actions of the actual player characters.


2.  Our freighter, according to Shonus, costs 750,000 credits.  I'm, uh, going to suggest that be reduced by a factor of three-to-five.   All of the transports in the books are much, much cheaper than that (hell, a used YT costs around 25000 credits, which is 30x less than Serenity) and I really don't want to be tempted into trading our superexpensive ship in and buying something like that for so little.  750,000 is getting to the level of some military frigates.  Some older cruisers, too.

Incidentally, apparently fighters cost more than freighters.

Also incidentally, we can actually afford a cruiser now, if we want.  An old one, maybe, but we can still get it.

3.  Speaking of, are you sure giving us 750,000 credits right off the get go is a great idea?  I mean, if you're fine with that sure, we'll use them like crazy.  And sure, most of those profits don't need to be given back to a central agency now.  But we're level one, and I'd kind of like to not be able to afford a fleet after the first few missions.  Like I said, freighters are fairly cheap. We could buy a couple dozen of them with the money we just got.  We could buy a cruiser and a squadron of fighters with the money we just got.

Ergo, I'd suggest our ship has an effective cargo capacity of 200 tons (Incidentally, this is twice that of a YT series) and that we just sold 100 tons of durasteel plates.  We are then left with 250,000 credits, which, while a very respectable sum, is much more reasonable and doesn't let us upgrade everything right from the get-go.  That said, if Serenity is made cheaper, upgrading IT will be cheaper.


Edit:  Sweet lord, though.  I just looked up our ship on the wiki, and it really DOES cost that much/carry 700 tons.  Wow.  I'm probably in the wrong here, then.  At least on two and three.  I'd LIKE to get it reduced to something at least SLIGHTLY smaller and more... starter-y, but if you don't feel like changing the ship we're already stated to have, I'm fine with that.

Edit2:  Possible alternative, in this case, is to make the Durasteel plates somewhat cheaper as cargo.  Maybe worth 1500 a ton rather than 2500 a ton.  Or maybe to make future cargo runs not pay off NEAR as much as this first one did.  Smaller profit margins, etc.

[Lord Shonus]

The ship is directly from the Rebellion era sourcebook, page 68. 750,000 is the brand-new price (250,000 used). I very much wanted ship that WASN'T one of the iconic YT- series or too heavily linked to one side or the other like the Rebel transports from ESB. Such ships are rarely statted, and I liked the look of the Mobquet.


I honestly didn't expect you to go the legit route. I expected you to shoot it out with the TIEs and flee. Once you didn't I had to let things fall however they fell, so to speak. Don't worry, you'll probably be broke soon enough. (Also, I am tracking fuel, maintenance, repairs, and other upkeep. Just keeping your ship running is going to be a non-trivial expense). Besides that, you're probably going to want to sink a fair sum into upgrading the ship, as you've gone from a corporate ship travelling along mostly safe (with the occasional pirate) trade lanes in peacetime to a tramp hauler going wherever during wartime. (Just having your Y-wings refitted to stock would be a fair bit of change, if you wanted to do that).  As for making cargo runs pay less, what do you think will happen when you have a hold full of bacta (for example), and your cargo bay gets holed by a torpedo hit?

As for point #1, I very much wanted to test out the basic starship rules (incidentally, did you manage to understand what I was saying about facing? You seemed to have trouble with the idea, but you didn't make any moves that you shouldn't have either), and that required a decent-sized battle.

[Rolepgeek]

Also to note; we had a huge profit run on that because we're considering all of that is profit. But it isn't. We need to be careful with that, and not use them like crazy. We could indeed buy a lot of shit with that. But in future runs? We won't be buying stuff for free. This said, if we are unable to make a profit even after maintenance and expenses, I will be very disappointed in the economics of the universe.

Shonus, would you mind sharing any upkeep expenses with me? Intelligence 18 and being a droid should let me keep track of that fairly easily.

I'm thinking we should spend 500K on computer parts, another 100K worth on the thermal detonators, and spend the rest to upgrade the ship and/or emergency funds and/or miscellaneous expenses. The pilots and crew will understand not getting paid directly; they now have rather large shares in what is left of the company. Which is called what, by the way?
But I, at least, plan on us having a shipping empire by level seven, with which we can back the Rebellion and/or my Droid Uprising, which, coincidentally, you will all be high-ranking members of the new order that is established, even if it's just changing the Rebellion so droids aren't slaves. After all, what's the point of sitting by and letting history pass us when we can change it? (My first droid army will be ready to invade the second death star and will do so, and be just about to take full control when it explodes. My character will have a fit, everyone will mourn the loss of credits, and we go to Plan B.)

[Lucus Casius]

I'm just desperately ignoring the whole droid army thing for as long as I possibly can.

And yes, Shonus, I think I did get the facing thing.  I was just frustrated and tired at the time.
---

Anyway, in that case, I'm personally going to suggest going with a slight modification to what I previously said.


We currently have 750,000 credits.  Personally, I propose we spend 433000 credits on computer parts and 60000 credits on thermal detonators. 50000 credits will be tucked in the bank for a rainy day (like, maybe 35000 of that in a literal bank under the company name, and keep the other 15000 locked and safe in the ship). 

I disagree with Rolep's assumption that we don't have to pay the crew just because they're the only ones left in the company and have some presumed stake in it, and will go so far as to say that my character, at least, is willing to sell out now and sign on elsewhere if he's not getting anything but empty promises.  If the company goes under, he gets nothing.  If he's getting steady pay, he at least has some compensation should everything go under.  I assume the others of the crew feel the same. Split 9000 amongst the crew (so, we'll say 750 for each person, assuming a 12 member crew including the fighter pilots and not including the droid, which is company property).

The remaining 198000 can be used for improving our ships and/or buying new equipment.

Further, given we still have 100 tons of durasteel left, I'm going to say it's probably a better idea to /sell/ that than it is to use it to improve Serenity's armor.  Not enough of a bonus, and we lose cargo space for it.  This would give us an extra 250000 to work with (100000 of which goes to the bank, 100000 goes to additional cargo, and 50000 to additional upgrades).

[tryrar]

Sounds like a decent plan to use the money. I agree!

[Lord Shonus]

Not trying to influence you too much, but I'd suggest that your "rainy day" fund be large enough to purchase a decent ship if need be. This game will probably bog down quite a bit if you don't have one.

[Lucus Casius]

Well.  Some used freighters are fairly cheap.  That should be more than enough, particularly if we sell the remaining durasteel plates.

[Lord Shonus]

Also, and I am adding this to the OP, I'm going to require the IRC connection in future, just as we did last week. Using mibbit does not seem like an unreasonable demand on the player, and I found that much better for PMing than the /whisper function, and it also cut down on the OOC banter.


EDIT: Note the specified game name. Use that in future, please.