100% possible, in fact, in the time frame if you're prepared with goods and troops you need.
I had to fight hard to get through the sector
If you find the quest too much hassle for the reward, that's entirely your call but you can't really complain in retrospect if you make that call.
Okay...I'm obviously running a very inefficient city
. I don't have an offensive army (only a defence force cobbled together from 'freebies'), and I'm not a guild member. Yup, my decisions and I'm not looking for sympathy or special treatment, and I'm
not going to become a rampaging militarist just to get ahead in the game. Similarly, I've no intention of joining a guild - 3 years without one, I ain't gonna start now.
As a result, the military option is out and negotiation is the only way. I've taken 7 sectors out of 15; to get the rest I would need (among others) 350 nutrition research and 330 papercrete, goods which are very scarce in my local market. I'll need them eventually, but is it worth breaking my donkey to get them
now?
I've no problem with working to gain prizes, deleting units, m/ping, spending fp, collecting, etc as long as the quest is really possible and the reward is appropriate to the difficulty involved. And there's the thing - I have the feeling that these quests are thrown together without thinking too much about the task-reward balance - you can get 50 diamonds for spending some fp and doing some polishing, yet something really challenging might bring you only 5 goods. It's like doing your driving test only to find that the instructor has just robbed a bank and you're in the getaway car...
Anyway, that's it from me on the subject...I'm going to the beach.