Rob, how does the transportation allocation work when we own transport? Are we pocketing that 19 million transportation allocation (minus the ~750 k of fuel, overhead and personnel costs, and again on return...)?
You...you're serious? It's right there on the bottom of the contract. What's confusing?
OK.
Base amount: We get handed a minimum amount of money we're paid for the contract, base on unit salaries per month multiplied by some values depended on several factors (employer, mission type, etc)
Overhead amount: we get handed an amount of money to cover a certain percentage of 3 months of Overhead costs
Straight Support: we get handed an amount of money to cover a certain percentage of 3 months of Maintenance costs
Transportation Amount: we get handed an amount of money to cover a certain percentage of ALL of our transportation-related costs (incl. fuel) to the mission site. If we didn't have our own transport, this is the *minimum* cost - assuming optimum DropShip and JumpShip usage - that it would take to get us where we're going. If we didn't have our own transport, we'd have to charter a DropShip and JumpShip and pay ALL OF THIS AMOUNT UP FRONT out of unit cash reserves. Fortunately, we *do* have our own transport.
Total Contract Amount: Add up all of the above to get the total amount of money we are being given for this mission, assuming zero salvage, ransoms or anything else.
Signing bonus: If we were cooler than we are, we'd get a flat extra amount paid to us for being cool.
MRBC fee: The Dragoons take a percentage of the Total Contract Amount because they have to pay for their Fiat factory on the Outback. This comes off the top, we'll never see it.
Net Amount: This is the amount of money that's left after the MRBC fee is taken away from the Total Contract Amount.
Advance Money: We get this many CBills completely up front to use however we want.
Monthly amount: Take the net amount, subtract the Advance Money, and divide what's left by the number of months in the contract. This is what we get paid each month.
Estimated Total Profit: Assuming you're using every dime the contract gives you to actually pay for a chartered flight, and you don't see any combat, and don't get any salvage, and don't have to make any repairs or unexpected expenses, this is the total profit the unit will make after maintenance, overhead, transportation, and support costs. Basically, take the Base Amount, subtract a percentage of the MRBC fee, and subtract unit salaries, uncovered overhead, and uncovered maintenance. Whatever's left is the ETP. It doesn't mean a whole lot, since salvage and loss of Mechs can make things differ *hugely*.
Also note that your transport costs is due
up front, and your transport pay is spread over a series of monthly payments. So the unit would have to come up with XX million CB up front to charter a flight, or go into debt for whatever isn't covered by the transport percentage and hope you can pay it all off by the end of the contract. This is what kills merc units.
Rob, would we execute a 24 month contract at the same time scale as a shorter contract? From a campaign play standpoint, 24 months would practically be a campaign unto itself.
Maybe. What would likely happen is that instead of 3-5 IRL games spread out with roughly 2-4 weeks (game time) between each IRL game, you'd end up with 5-10 IRL games, some of which have a very long time between games (game time) and some of which happen on an extremely compressed time schedule (game time). Assuming you didn't run out of steam and dissolve halfway in as supplies ran out.