[Mail Call] 2017/04/11 – Random grab-bag of questions

Sune here. I’ve got a bunch of odd questions to answer since Morgane is busy.

“What kind of video games does shipgirls play?”

Which shipgirl? Ask a broad question, get a broad answer.

Tech has accelerated considerably. However we aren’t running around with 2017 tech in Pacific. If video games were easily available then of course STEC would purchase them. Though I will add when there are a lot of friends around there are a lot of things you can do that does not involve video games.

As it stands, at least in Pacific’s Japan, a massive, massive effort was taken to prop up the Arcade system. Rather than home consoles and personalized gaming most of Japanese gaming would be communal in nature. The Japanese government sees the necessity of preventing people from burning out from overwork and so built a large number of state-funded entertainment centers. Naturally the technology would follow.

People would be competing against each other for high scores, though cooperative games are all the craze nowadays. The Japanese government saw the usefulness of games as a way to further bolster its population. It’s no surprise, for instance, that many of the popular arcade games are simulators or war-related.

In other words many of the popular games found in Japan would be like simulators or some sort of war-related game. I will have to comment on Anime at a different time but it is sufficient to say that the Japanese government had in mind specific reasons when they created these things. Arcade games in Pacific’s time line resemble a little like primitive VR in terms of technology and a lot like modern day MMORPGs in their consistency and orientation towards playing with others. Specifically many elements found in VR can be already found in very basic form in some of Japan’s most popular games.

Have things accessible to people. Make it easily affordable. If you give delinquents something fun to do they will be less likely to turn to crime. Morgane mused to me that it may be revenue generating in a way similar to lotteries in America but I will have to do more research on that to see if it is feasible.


“How is Pacific coming along?”

Here are the statuses of all the Pacific books that I know of. This does not count Silent Service which should come out in a couple of months.

Volume One: Being sold in America. We have exceeded our estimates so it is doing well. Amazon link to your right. Be sure to download an electronic copy first to see what you are getting in the book.

Volume Two: Sold out I think pretty much everywhere. English translation pending. Release order is more likely to be Silent Service due to convenience or 2016.

Action Reports: I do not know if we actually have plans to sell physical copies of this in English. Morgane is heavily involved in patching it up for online stuff.

Volume Three: Summer Comiket.

Seriously we have a lot of stuff and it is not going to be all Midway-related.

For instance you have already seen our Saratoga back in 2015. Waiting on November to post her and I think you should see her soon in maybe a few days.

Same skimpy outfit (the way I like it :3), same twintails. We wrote and designed her explicitly in contrast to her more cool-headed sister Lexington and she will be a fun one to reveal. Very different in personality and temperament to what I have seen around as well.

What I will say is that I believe the little cardboard shipgirls are getting discontinued in favor of other goodies. Zero says that they are too easily damaged. That is why.

The other stuff like the navy foods book you will have to watch for another update.


“Why is the conventional navy so weak in Pacific? Why does shipgirls do all the work?”

Why is it that the one day I write mailbox duty I get all Morgane-tier questions. Also I feel like this has been answered somewhere in like Action Report #2.

From an out of universe perspective, because we like shipgirls.

From an in universe perspective it is a matter of efficiency. Missiles cost money and requires millions and billions of dollars of equipment and tens of thousands of men. Ignoring the military logistics, the supernatural powers of the Abyssals, and everything else, the question becomes why not use shipgirls?

Shipgirls are basically self-sufficient and are tailored to defeat Abyssals.

Ships are expensive and Abyssals are more or less tailored to defeat conventional human weapons.

Do you send out tanks against anti-tank weapons? No. So why would you send ships against Abyssals if they can be used to fight other things?


“How rightwing is Sune? I find her a very curious person and I can’t believe someone like her could exist in real life. She reminds me of anime caricatures of Japanese people.”

Compared to our legitimate rightwingers I am basically not. I am as rightwing as Donald Trump is Republican.

This doesn’t mean I don’t hold viewpoints very similar to the LDP or what is endorsed by the LDP. However specific policy issues should be left in private communication and I do not want to speak on behalf of the team or make an impression as if I was speaking on behalf of the team.


“But in all seriousness, I was asking from a reproduction point of view. Can they breed with muggles?”


“I think while lurking on SpaceBattles I saw some ideas discussing the transhuman/posthuman implications of shipgirls breeding true. Cause since ~40 years have passed since the first shipgirls appeared, that’s enough time for a second generation of shipgirls or shipgirl-human hybrids to reach maturity.”

English is not my first language. Breeding true? 

(Source of picture here)

MOOORGAAAANE COME TAKE THIS QUESTION I DON’T EVEN KNOW HOW I’M SUPPOSED TO ANSWER THAT

[Mail Call] 2017/04/10 – More Submarines

“Do the subgirls live underwater?”

No? We live on land, just like everyone else.


I actually wanted to take this opportunity to explain a bit about the structure of the submarine force during WW2. One thing that made the US exceptional was its logistical capabilities. Basically, each submarine squadron (comprised of two submarine divisions) gets its own tender or submarine base.

These dedicated tender ships or the submarine bases do basically everything that’s involved in making sure a submarine run properly. This means providing spare parts and doing repairwork (short of a complete overhaul almost everything can be fixed on base), providing office space for the officers and their staff, billet maintenance and repair personnel, and the supplying of all foods, fuel, clothing, parts, munitions, medical stores, and the like.

From what I’ve heard of submariner’s recollections, even something like changing a propeller can be done on base. That being said, however, typically a submarine is sent back to the US after five war patrols, so I would say that in general, US submarines (especially towards the later end of the war) are very well supplied and maintained.

As far as Pacific goes, though, dedicated submarine girl bases are not currently on STEC’s radar. Subgirls aren’t submarines. It makes more sense for the girls to fix and maintain their own equipment with the assistance of fairies, and the fairies tend to be more skillful when there are more of them around each other. Thus, while it is possible to take all of the submarine related fairies and house them separately, STEC found it more sensible to just leave them all at Avalon.

What is being created, however, is an intricate system designed to funnel materials out of the deep-sea and into Avalon and the continent proper. STEC’s came a long way from its early days where subgirls are sent out to collect resources from beneath the ocean floor. That job can now be passed around and shared with the entire organization thanks to technological breakthroughs.

In addition, there is thought about creating strategic caches accessible to subgirls where they can replenish their weapons mid-sortie. That discussion is on-going, however. For one thing, STEC is a bit leery when it comes to leaving shipgirl weapons hidden (and unguarded). It’s safe to say that humanity still doesn’t understand shipgirl weaponry very well, and leaving that stuff sitting around is probably a bad idea by anyone’s count. For the other, it runs against the general principles in which STEC wages war. If a subgirl is determined to have sortied with an optimized load, then it makes better sense for her to return for R&R rather than attempting to continue on in a haphazard fashion.

 

Lens of History (5)

STEC Archives, Print Document Division
Curator signature: Cusk, on behalf of Andrea Lawrence, Chief Science Officer, STEC
Format: Archival Records
Object: Lab notebook of Andrea Lawrence, Chief Science Officer, Special Task and Evaluation Command.
Location (if known): STEC Mobile Base 03, “Avalon”
Time (if known): Feb. 10th-13th, 1989

Note: All pages have the subheading “An Assessment of Shipgirl Clothing Durability, by Dr. Andrea L. Lawrence.”

Feb 10th:

Item tested: Helena’s dress
Object: Helena
Equipment Used: Beretta M9, 9x19mm NATO x5
Distance: 50 meters
Results: No effect. Bullet simply “bounced” off or fragmented upon impact.

Item tested: Helena’s dress
Object: Helena
Equipment Used: Beretta M9, 9x19mm NATO x5
Distance: 25 meters
Results: See above.
Comments: Wait, I have it! It’s got to be because Helena’s wearing it, right? I know what to do now…

Item tested: Helena’s dress
Object: Helena
Equipment Used: Beretta M9, 9x19mm NATO x5
Distance: 5 meters
Results: See above.
Comments: Nope, let me try the other thing.

Item tested: Helena’s dress
Object: Ballistic Dummy created in crude facsimile of Helena
Equipment Used: Beretta M9, 9x19mm NATO x5
Distance: 25 meters
Results: Round fully penetrated ballistic dummy, but the cloth remain completely undamaged.
Comments: Huuuuuuuuuuh. Well, I sort of knew this would be the case, but seriously, look at that flimsy thing! Just what is the stuff made out of anyways?

Feb 11th:

Item tested: Helena’s dress
Object: Helena
Equipment Used: M4 Carbine Prototype, 5.56×45mm NATO x5
Distance: 250 meters, 150m, 50m, 25m.
Results: None observed.

Item tested: Helena’s dress
Object: Helena
Equipment Used: Barrett Sniper Rifle Prototype, .338 Lapua Magnum x5
Distance: 250 meters
Results: Round fragmented upon contact. Otherwise no effect.

Item tested: Helena’s dress
Object: Helena
Equipment Used: M72LAW x5
Distance: 100 meters
Results: No visible effects.
Comments: Wow, well, time to bring out the big guns then.

Item tested: Helena’s dress
Object: Helena
Equipment Used: AAWS-M x 5
Distance: 1000 meters
Results: No visible effects.

Item tested: Helena’s dress and/or headpiece
Object: Helena
Equipment Used: M224 firing 10x M720A HE rounds.
Distance: 1000 meters
Results: Small crater around the otherwise unaffected Helena. Helena looking bored.
Comment: Was told that I needed to take experiments elsewhere, hmph. Well, someone should have done this stuff a LONG time ago, it’s just nobody ever took the time to do science PROPERLY!

Feb 12th:

Item tested: Helena’s dress
Object: Helena
Equipment Used: M198 howitzer firing 5x M-107 standard.
Distance: 10,000 meters
Results: No visible effects.

Item tested: Helena’s dress
Object: Helena
Equipment Used: M1 Abrams Tank, firing 10x Prototype M829A2 APFSDS rounds
Distance: 4,000 meters
Results: No visible effects.

Item tested: Helena’s dress
Object: Helena
Equipment Used: M109A6 “Paladin”, firing 2x M712 Copperhead.
Distance: 8,000 meters
Results: No visible effects.

Item tested: Helena’s dress
Object: Concrete facsimile of Helena “wearing” dress.
Equipment Used: M109A6 “Paladin”, firing 2x M712 Copperhead.
Distance: 8,000 meters
Results: Facsimile reduced to fine powder. Dress unharmed.

Feb 13th:

Item tested: Helena’s dress
Object: Helena, at sea.
Equipment Used: MGM-52 Lance launched from Avalon base.
Distance: ~25,000 meters
Results: No visible effects.

Item tested: Helena’s dress
Object: Helena, at sea.
Equipment Used: MGM-140B – Block IA launched from Avalon base.
Distance: ~25,000 meters
Results: Helena’s hair slightly out of order. Otherwise, no visible effects.

Item tested: Helena’s dress
Object: Boat with Helena’s dress placed on it.
Equipment Used: MGM-140B – Block IA launched from Avalon base.
Distance: ~25,000 meters
Results: Boat annilated. Helena’s dress completely unharmed.

Item tested: Helena’s dress
Object: Helena, at sea.
Equipment Used: BGM-109A w/W80 warhead launched from USN Destroyer – Requsition Pending DENIED
Distance: ~25,000 meters
Results: 

A note is found stapled to the crossed-out section above.

Cusk here. Mike would like to see you in his office tomorrow regarding unauthorized deployment of conventional weapons on Avalon base. Do you have any idea how much trouble you’re in?