The Gesellschaft's Construction Costs - What Gives?

[Kyle]

Yeaaaaah, this has been bugging me for a few years now. As the opening cutscenes of MoTB were gracious enough to inform us, Teisel took out a whopping loan of 1,000,000 Zenny in order to fund the Gesellschaft project. Now, compare this to any late-game weapon upgrades that Roll charges us for. Here's an example; A fully-upgraded Shining Laser costs around 18,249,999z. That's right. You could build eighteen state-of-the-art warships for the cost of pimping out one (albeit gamebreaker-tier) weapon in Volnutt's large arsenal.

For once, I'm going to be (let's hope) impartial about Roll's ludicrous prices for the sake of this thread. How much did the Gesellschaft really cost? Did Teisel cut corners during the development in order to squeeze into a budget? Was all the furniture purchased with said loan? One would think that; "Oh, Teisel just used cheap plating for the hull!" Sorry to burst your bubble there, but... WRONG. The 'Schaft was capable of taking a direct hit from the most powerful Reaverbot currently known on Terra. Clearly the materials were a cut above your average alloys.

[Dashe]

You've gotta wonder how many Colossus hits it would've taken for the Gesellschaft to go down--not to mention, how many hits out of a fully pimped out Shining Laser, too. For the latter, it'd have to be at least four hits, assuming the wings, the underbelly, and the skull emblem both take one hit.

I'm wondering how much of the Gesellschaft's materials were stolen, actually. Maybe they just used the loan to cover expenses that would be missed if they were stolen. I always thought the furniture was actually salvaged from wherever the Bonnes had been living before they wound up needing a massive airship, since Teisel still has a very large picture of his family in his room.

[Bowen Aero]

Perhaps they did indeed cut some corners. We don't get to visit the Deck, Engine Room, or Torture Room until we come back from one of the bigger missions, in which the Servbot giving us our mission report mentions that they've "finished" any one of the aforementioned rooms. This suggests that they weren't even done with the 'Schaft even after Teisel claims they were during the prologue. The only alternative reason would be that they were somehow damaged before the events of Teisel's visit to the Nakkai Desert. Either way, we may never know exactly what was bought, what was stolen, and what they already had at the start.

On a side note, they apparently abandoned the need for a bathroom anywhere on the damn thing in exchange for... What? A giant Tron-shaped mecha that they never had the sense to actually use against their foes.

[Servbot42]

I can't believe I never thought of this...

I like Dashe's reasoning, but here are some other possibilities:

• Roll is a greedy asshat. What is she doing with all that money? She could have built an armada of Gesellschafts, so don't tell me that all of that went into the Flutter. Somewhere in the world a bunch of oiled poolboys are building a giant mansion in the shape of her stupid hat. Out of gold.

• The Legends world has wicked horrible inflation.

• Game stuff

Mar 22, 2014 11:31:49 GMT -5 Bowen Aero said:

On a side note, they apparently abandoned the need for a bathroom anywhere on the damn thing in exchange for... What? A giant Tron-shaped mecha that they never had the sense to actually use against their foes.

I'm sure there are bathrooms. We just don't see them because why would we need to? Other than to have a disturbing scene with #40, that is...

[Kyle]

Mar 22, 2014 17:37:15 GMT -5 Servbot42 said:

Roll is a greedy asshat. What is she doing with all that money? She could have built an armada of Gesellschafts, so don't tell me that all of that went into the Flutter. Somewhere in the world a bunch of oiled poolboys are building a giant mansion in the shape of her stupid hat. Out of gold.

*Trembles with anxiety*

I-I promised to be i-impartial about Blondie's scams. D-damn you, Servbot42! Stop tempting meeeeeeeee!

[Servbot42]

I made no such promises! She's the devil! THE DEVILLLLLL!!!!!!!

[Dashe]

I can imagine Roll strutting around in a future-leopard-offspring fur coat with loads and loads of solid gold jewelry. I mean, according to the 5-island script the Flutter's an heirloom so that explains why she's stuck with it this long instead of blowing it all on ten Gesellschafts.

[Avegodro]

I wouldn't call the Gesellschaft a warship, it's more of a carrier than anything it's very lacking in the weapons department. Airships are commonplace and making a larger one would make it a bit more pricey. Just look at the Sulpher Bottom as an example, that thing cost a fortune. 


Tron: It's not that big of a deal, Teisel. I mean, you were able to get us the best kind of equipment, which let us finish the job a lot faster than it would have taken!



They were already building the Gesellsschaft when Teisel went out and took the loan out.



Tron: Wait a minute..The date on this IOU...It's from around the time we
were building the Gesellschaft! Teisel said not to worry about money...He
said we had plenty--and then he went out and bought everything...



Also the Gesellschaft took two direct hits from the Colossus, lost control due to wing damage and lost an engine. So about two to three more direct hits and the Gesellschaft would have been no more. 

So we don't even know exactly how much Zenny was spent in total construction costs, looks like that million was used to get equipment and parts to finish it off.

Only reason blondie isn't off in her hat mansion is that she is making digging weaponry from items scavenged from ruins. Making a personal weapons system is going to be expensive when you have to make it all from concept to completion.

I think I'll make a thread on weapons now. 

[Dashe]

At least they kept their Gesellschaft weak points consistent. It probably took a hit to the wing and a hit to the underbelly.

[HF]

The Bonnes have slave labor, which makes everything cheaper.

[Kyle]

Not slave labour, HF. It was a family-orientated project! Those Servbots have rights, albeit limited.

[demonfang178]

Of course Roll is hoarding money. She even makes slip-ups in her "pricing." To max out the Special on the Homing Missile costs what? Over a million zenny. You would think raising the Homing stat of a Homing Missile would be cheap.

[Kyle]

Mar 28, 2014 14:24:45 GMT -5 demonfang178 said:

Of course Roll is hoarding money. She even makes slip-ups in her "pricing." To max out the Special on the Homing Missile costs what? Over a million zenny. You would think raising the Homing stat of a Homing Missile would be cheap.

And let's not forget Blondie's "discounts" for giving her enough gifts.

DAMMIT. I SCREWED UP.