Monday, January 2, 2023

Thank you for your Patronage! Dec 18 to 31 of 2022


Year End Statistics
  1. 4 people who got 3 of our Products
  2. 26 people who got 2 of our products
  3. total of 172 unique customers. Basically, 172 may be aware of the existence of Mneme. 
  4. Earnings are 417 USD for 2022. Much better than the 113 USD earned in 2021 with Mneme Variant Combat System. 

I hope for a similar performance gain of 4x for 1600 for 2023. I hope the ships and the space Stations both the Blender Models, The Renders, the Scenarios and the Spreadsheets will help the Users translate to 4,000usd in earnings. which is 1/10 of our way towards making this possibly a full-time job. 

(4,000 usd earnings is still below the Tax Threshold in the Philippines - which is about 5,000usd per year of earnings. I still don't need to pay taxes lolz. but in the Philippines, the BIR intentionally is ambiguous about it as I learned being part of an NGO non-stock corporation a Condominium Corporation). 

I'll be happy to settle with any GAIN, honestly - I doubt Delta-V spreadsheets, World Generators, and Orbital period spreadsheet is going to be as Enticing as the other things the Cepheus Engine publishers are making. 

Of course, We are working on an OPEN Setting - by open the Setting, will be released under Creative Commons, you can add your spin to it and download the copy and make your own world-building edits OR just use it as is. It will come with its own spreadsheet of World Building Calculations and Assumptions - like the cost of Orbital Tonnage, Launches, and Economic Assumptions needed to flesh out the world and make the economic forces make sense (You want it that you're applying some critical thought - Occams razor in breaking down what Forces the PCs want to mess with). 

Nicco and I would enjoy making Space Stations, Planets, Renders of Flight plans, Combat Scenarios, and Commercial Scenarios!  (CASE STUDIES!!! one of my sources of inspiration is reading biz articles - a discussion I have with my wife - right now she's enjoying Billions). I believe a TRPG will satisfy the jaded showgoer who wants more out of their entertainment. Mneme provides the infrastructure - the force Multiplier for the GM to come up with adventures for the jaded audience who can accept the compromises of a GM's limitation. 

Commercial Scenarios from ME - someone who had to deal with Gov't and Corporation corruption because I come from a 3rd world and regale my Friends with new outrageous forms of fleecing the public BUT the same me who is inspired by Louis Rossman and the Open Source and Futo guys fighting these forces. Imagining Stockdale paradox - the amount of Middle Fingers PCs are going to give to those who seek to exploit everyone and what it's going to cost. (sorry I love finding out how each governt and mega corp abuses its people because its in a TRPG can you have a Semi-Power fantasy of sticking it to them, even if overwhelming odds. I'm not after kicking the ass of Gods and Dragons, but forces far above human comprehension - pretty much Cthulhu-level Elder gods of Human self-destructive tendency). the Metal-ness of dealing with such forces, with SpaceShips and FTL! 😅 


Our Blender, Spreadsheets, amateur scripting*, and Science Consulting (Planetary physicist like Pecier Decierdo) resources and abilities would translate to a tiny Niche. Until someone who can figure all this out better than me - and the gamers who watch Anton Petrov, Scott Manley, Real engineering, Elina Charatsidou, Kurzgesagt etc... may find adventures written this way. 

Mneme World Generator with Currently 82 sales means there are at least 82 people interested in it willing to take a risk (Unless they are the type of took advantage of the Previews that show the Entire product - no buyers regret hopefully) . If I go by these channels' average viewership I think there are a GROWING number of people who want harder scifi that a TINY bit would be into TRPGs. (My analysis would point to a growing amount its just that I have to be conservative about the likeliness of people getting into TRPGs and of course my writing's ability to draw attention)

Hopefully the blender Models included and the ability to RENDER and customize their ships and space stations entice people to try it out even if it risks being idle in their shelf. I might not be as engaging as a writer but yeah people can appreciate a good 3d model and the ability to make it their own. 

*its affordable because its us doing it. I sit in a board of IT company for my parents (i don't get anything from this you can say this is one of the many non-profits I do like ERPnext DIY, teaching ojts, and being on the board of the Condo corp). software development costs in the Philippines is a 40,000-100,000 usd gamble. Making it a spreadsheet and feedback will give an idea of what people will need - and when we have that and we do meet our earning goals we can afford to Study and Train people in GODOT and do it all in GODOT. 

UPDATE proper. 

My delays are disappointing, but this is a part time gig. Anyway its so close to finish now. So Nicco and I can’t meet over the holiday week after Dec 23 because of all the obligations that was part of it. We're meeting tonight anyway. 

My main problem is when I think I’m finished, it takes me 2-3 weeks to figure out I’ve made a serious mistake. 

  1. Sample Test Scenario. yeah, I have to dry-run the rules. I have the sample ships. I just need to dry-run a scenario. I will start with the rules as written. Then proceed to make adjustments when the rules make it more difficult, and my experience with many other game systems and process improvement gives me options I will need to test out. I’ll have a session with Nicco where whe will go through the combat and Scenarios. 
    1. Scenarios - noncombat operations challenges on a ship. Like Ship Watches/Shifts, who detect the problems the ship will encounter. In hard sci-fi the problem is there it just gets more visible over time and its about feedback and CONTROLS (in my line of work it controls means to feedback to monitoring PDCA). 
    2. Combat - the combat scenario is not like WW2 dogfights. Some sci-fi novels get it right - where we have hours or days before the encounter. I remember the Expanse's first encounter to the mayday ship that sets off the adventure, and I remember Jack Campbel's Lost fleet combat scenarios (whichever their 10% the speed of light is an easy week of constant acceleration in Traveller Maneuver Drives) . 
    3. My benchmarks are X-33, Starship 2nd stage (the 50m ship that is roughly 170dtons). My stats should be a KNOWN difference from these performances. The way I know how a 10ft container is 15 cubic meters of volume - is the basis of my Dtons. Particularly I want to mention that the stats of the Starship with its 1200 tons of MethLOX fuel is conflicting with my calculations of how much volume it should take. 
    4. sounds like a two-week thing. If I can't think of anything I'll just run: F*Ck around and find out a method to keep it just a week. 
  2. After the test scenario, I have to write up my experience. And write up and rewrite the rules. My problem is usually mentally organizing the rules, and often REFERENCING the rules. Using hyperlinks to make sure everyone finds everything. 
  3. My limited scope is enough for the scenarios in 2-Parsec, i should take about a week to write it all up for Nicco to edit and see if I missed anything. (3rd week of Jan fingers crossed)
  4. Nicco will provide some needed follow-up Visuals as I want to make sure people get visual aids to key concepts. 
  5. Then talking to Arjuna of Arj's Game Room if he has everything he needs to run a Cepheus Engine scenario. I want it as easy as possible, Like Seth Skarkowsky probably making a bunch of Reference material to help him figure it all out (and including it). 
  6. With Visuals, Layouting, and Editing taken care of We Upload and will follow up with the Models. So people who Bought Mneme World Generator get treated with the 2-Parsec Adventure and we raise it to 13usd - to compensate for the cost of the work we put in from August to January lolz. There will be the ship-building spreadsheet. 
  7. A month later the PWYW of 2-Parsec featuring just 1 system at the same time the ?$?   Of the Stand Alone 2-Parsec. The Stand Alone will have more models and art and blender models of ships and more space stations that will be encountered in the adventure. 
  8. To follow are:
    1. PSEUDO Delta-V map as I struggle to figure it out. I will have ESCAPE velocity spreadsheet calculator developed and my best attempt at Gravitational Sphere of Influence calculations. 
    2. ORBITAL Period - a column to this Delta V budget per Gravity Well spreadsheet. It will say how much time it takes to orbit in this period, and how long the journey would take. (things I will need to budget if we do well: Star System Builder, Delta V map calculator, Hohmman Transfer Travel Calculator and all the Blender Models are imported so Gamers can just use the a GODOT made engine to visualize the science)
    3. SCENARIOS - months long or Years long journey can have Encounter Tables or Ship Tables. We will create tables and spreadsheets that generate scenarios  for the GM. As well as discuss when it is appropriate - if the audience is a FAN of the Martian, Project Hail Mary, Seveneves, Delta-V (Daniel Suarez) then we will give a Simple adventure structure to replicate these. I do admit its not - MURDER-hobo-ing but if the GM can pepper the stakes, scope, scale, costs and payoffs as they frame the Adventure of the PCs it can be just as engaging and maybe find a new group of people who will like the Martian, Project Hail Mary etc… (but thats like long odds if your sober about your GMing skills). 
    4. TL6.5/08 Ships like the X-33 (if was successful) and Starship (assuming success) to the “present day” of 2300 and TL 9/12. Because the PCs will encounter 300 years of ships - because of the OPEN repair movement and the energy it takes to fix things - PCs encountering 300-year-old bodies that have been refurbished so many times would be common place. Seeing the BURAN and challenger shuttles “Sold off” and refurbished by a Tech Start up in the 2050s in this alternate reality - and that developing world start-ups also started using those designed since their IP is not controlled anymore.
    5. MNEME SHIPS! (March-April) the most polished version you will find after 2-Parsec add-on and stand-alone! Feb. We will release a PWYW version without the Blender Models and first Version of the Spreadsheet. The latest version of the spreadsheet will in the Paid version.   Hopefully, we earn x4-x10 as World Generator because its a much larger Market Share and our Fellow Cepheus Engine publishers would take our Spreadsheet and Set up their OWN SHIP BUILDING system to include in their products since - we kinda made all our stuff Creative Commons. Or else MNEME will be the only one with a Shipbuilding Spreadsheet. 
    6. MNEME Equipment (April May) - we plan a ROLLING release. starting with probably 2usd and increasing the cost for every Batch of Equipment we will model (every 200 hours of LABOR we put into it). We WILL MODEL the equipment in BLENDER and create rendered images. probably increasing the cost every month as we add 100 hours of modeled equipment. 
      1. VEHICLES, MECHS, and SUITS are all going to be using the same Spreadsheet and Nicco and I will make 3d models for all these - FYI I graduated Multi Media Arts - Nicco and I had a friendly rivalry back in college regarding our art styles - re-igniting that and making great Products is pretty much how i do things (My brother and I were always helping each other and competing to be the best GM. The way Joben and I would break down another GMs style to hack the favorite parts for our own style. Unapologetic Borrowers and Learners - you have a Nice technique there... shame if you couldn't share it and let us make our own spin on it)  
      2. Speed modeling and having Ready Scifi Scene Templates - don't worry We will make videos of how we do it so Anyone Can do it. I always imagined someone who just graduated or in college with this dream just like us getting our stuff and making their own - building their own Worlds. If a washed-up artist who had to give up his dreams can do it, anyone can do it 😅 
      3. PWYW on the pure pdf - no models and early draft to the spreadsheet. 


Perspective in Risk

Fail Rate of 2022 launches. Around 3% fail rate of Launches of 2022 had a failure and 6% in 2021. This should be some helpful mental imagery of Early TL 8.5/11 Jump Tech. As we shift from TL6.5/08 to TL 7/09 - its in TL7 where we have a better than 90% success chance. We are looking at AIRplane reliability levels of 99.998 chance of success and safety.  TL 7/09 the next decade of 2030, as more Commercial space corporations go online we will see the climbing reliability numbers until people take it for granted. Probably in late 19C when flight was emerging technology there was a huge fail chance. And in the Age of SAIL the % chance of ships being Lost was something people had to accept for hundreds of years. With tens of Billions of people, the idea of TL 8/10 to TL 8.5/11 JUMP would always have people who have no choice but to take those risks. 
Fail Rate of 2022 launches  2021 Fail Rate

 

3rd world operation that hopefully would allow both Nicco and I to earn as much as a "poor" which would be enough for our families. 

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