121
Discussion / Re: The Necromancy
« on: June 17, 2008, 02:48:23 am »
Will the UGV be "in addition to" or "in place of" the squad members?
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122
Discussion / Re: Grenade Launcher
« on: June 17, 2008, 02:43:02 am »
the scales are relative - sniper rifles are good for a little more that 250 meters, also. Laser and particle wepons should have no measurable spread at that distance. Maybe, muliply by 10 and apply "reality" that way?
123
Design / Re: Medikits
« on: June 14, 2008, 12:12:26 am »
I also think speed of recovery is OK, maybe it can be slowed down to the X-COM-ish speed - ~ a month for grave injuries.
The described JA2 medkit system makes a lot of sense to me. Stabilize in the field, heal up a bit, pump full of stimulants to keep 'em going with minimal degradation of abilities. After the battle they drop - if not from wounds, than from comedown off the chemicals, for sure.
AF pilos ('specially long range patrol folk) take "concentration enhancers" routinely, for what I hear. A chemist I work with says it is amphetamines, plain and simple, similar to Ritalin, what they prescribe to ADD patients. methamthetamine was used since WW2 for improved battlefield performance.
The described JA2 medkit system makes a lot of sense to me. Stabilize in the field, heal up a bit, pump full of stimulants to keep 'em going with minimal degradation of abilities. After the battle they drop - if not from wounds, than from comedown off the chemicals, for sure.
AF pilos ('specially long range patrol folk) take "concentration enhancers" routinely, for what I hear. A chemist I work with says it is amphetamines, plain and simple, similar to Ritalin, what they prescribe to ADD patients. methamthetamine was used since WW2 for improved battlefield performance.
124
Discussion / Re: Particle Beam Weapons: More Than Just Flashlights?
« on: June 14, 2008, 12:04:13 am »
DoctorJ: plasma is ionized gas, i.e. each nucleus is missing an electron. Since every molecule (nucleaus, actually, no?) has a charge "+e", they will be interacting via the Coulomb force (repulsion) which is long range. This has me worried that ideal gas law does not apply - or has to be modified. Either way, I am pretty sure that "plasma versions" of gas laws exist, since there is fair bit of plasma physics being done.
Please see the wikipedia article below. It states that
1. Equations describing plasma behavior MUST include electromagnetic fields, since everything is a charged soup (positively charge nuclei and negatively charged electrons floating about, all of this recombining and splitting again)
2. The fluid model treats plasma as a liquid, with density, flow, etc. - all described by Stokes equation. I know damn little about fluid dynamics and what I hear scares me.
So...I beleive I was one of the people earlier who tried to apply the ideal gas law to plasma. I am now ready to admit that it was a very rough approximation at best. I.e. it is likely I am full of sh@t.
Please see the wikipedia article below. It states that
1. Equations describing plasma behavior MUST include electromagnetic fields, since everything is a charged soup (positively charge nuclei and negatively charged electrons floating about, all of this recombining and splitting again)
2. The fluid model treats plasma as a liquid, with density, flow, etc. - all described by Stokes equation. I know damn little about fluid dynamics and what I hear scares me.
So...I beleive I was one of the people earlier who tried to apply the ideal gas law to plasma. I am now ready to admit that it was a very rough approximation at best. I.e. it is likely I am full of sh@t.
125
Offtopic / Re: News Story - UFOs in real life
« on: June 13, 2008, 09:51:46 pm »
that's one place to look
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal
and some more articles
http://www.bigear.org/wowmenu.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wow!_signal
and some more articles
http://www.bigear.org/wowmenu.htm
126
Tactics / Re: Your Tactics
« on: June 13, 2008, 09:48:38 pm »
Man, oh man! It sounds like I have two new weapons to practive with... HE specialist acting as a sniper... Flamethrower, too.
Ok, this is what bugs me about those two weapons: they are both narrowly specialized. A rockel launcher is no good at clearing rooms and a flamethrower is useless anywhere outside close range. A sniper can crouch and hold the coridir of a building and the SMG can actually score a kill at a signifocant distance (due to a large number number of bullets fired) or at least scare the crap out of the bad guys by sounding all loud and scary. My (somewhat irrational) tendency towards having everyone be at least decent at everything is keeping me from embracing those highly specialized weapons.
In my defense, the under-barrell grenade launcher employed by the US army replaced the M-80 grenade launcher (Vietnam time frame) for just that reason - a guy with a grenade launcher was one rifleman less.
Ok, this is what bugs me about those two weapons: they are both narrowly specialized. A rockel launcher is no good at clearing rooms and a flamethrower is useless anywhere outside close range. A sniper can crouch and hold the coridir of a building and the SMG can actually score a kill at a signifocant distance (due to a large number number of bullets fired) or at least scare the crap out of the bad guys by sounding all loud and scary. My (somewhat irrational) tendency towards having everyone be at least decent at everything is keeping me from embracing those highly specialized weapons.
In my defense, the under-barrell grenade launcher employed by the US army replaced the M-80 grenade launcher (Vietnam time frame) for just that reason - a guy with a grenade launcher was one rifleman less.
127
Tactics / Re: Help for beginner
« on: June 13, 2008, 08:33:40 pm »
I am with the TrashMan on all accounts: for the accuracy challenged infantrymen, laser weapons are the way to go. Between them and snipers you have a huge advantage over long distances.
Reaction fire shoudl be used (ok - in our doctrine) exactly as TrashMan described. I would only add: to be used when you have superior numbers and know exactly where the bad guys are. Such a line is vulenrable to grenade attack or to a rush by several armored aliens, as well as long distance sniping by particle beam weapons (the only alien long range tech).
The only situation where I use this routinely is while clearing a downed Harvester. 2-3 bad guys always try to walk out the broken side. Often they are picked off by sniper and machine gun (or heavy laser) fire before they even get off a shot. The remaining 1-2 bad guys can be hunted down and more easily taken alive if needed.
Reaction fire shoudl be used (ok - in our doctrine) exactly as TrashMan described. I would only add: to be used when you have superior numbers and know exactly where the bad guys are. Such a line is vulenrable to grenade attack or to a rush by several armored aliens, as well as long distance sniping by particle beam weapons (the only alien long range tech).
The only situation where I use this routinely is while clearing a downed Harvester. 2-3 bad guys always try to walk out the broken side. Often they are picked off by sniper and machine gun (or heavy laser) fire before they even get off a shot. The remaining 1-2 bad guys can be hunted down and more easily taken alive if needed.
128
Tactics / Re: Your Tactics
« on: June 13, 2008, 01:44:26 am »
one more thing. stun rods and gas grenades for convincing civilians to follow reason is an old, tried and true technique. Knocking out your own soldiers, however - now here is an unorthodox rescue technique.
129
Tactics / Re: Help for beginner
« on: June 13, 2008, 01:42:23 am »
"air burst" actually explodes on impact. "timed" bounces for a while and explodes once it stops. Choose accrodingly. Some folks already mentioned that grenades may roll off the edge of the map and straight into another dimension, evidently. That, on top of the usual "miss the doorway, grenade bounces right back under my feet oh shi..." kind of a deal.
130
Tactics / Re: Your Tactics
« on: June 13, 2008, 01:33:57 am »
Flamethrower - highest kills? Really? I am impressed. If you can toss a couple of grenades in the room, why burn, then?
Rocket L - wow. How many rockets do you take with you?
Is GL guy THAT much better that a SMG guy with many gas grenades? I would remove the GL guy in favor of two SMG + gas grenade specialists. Same guy, actually - now two can clear rooms, suppress across the map on reaction fire, and lob greandes.
on my squad the record for highest numebr of kills with one shot belongs to a GL guys, of all people. Mansion mission, 5 aliens were coming down the stairs in a perfect "+" formation. he poked his head in, placed 3 rounds, air-burst, smack in the middle of the group. 4 aliens were instant fertilizer, one more stood on his feet until a SMG guy poked his head in and put the last of the Ortnoks to sleep
Rocket L - wow. How many rockets do you take with you?
Is GL guy THAT much better that a SMG guy with many gas grenades? I would remove the GL guy in favor of two SMG + gas grenade specialists. Same guy, actually - now two can clear rooms, suppress across the map on reaction fire, and lob greandes.
on my squad the record for highest numebr of kills with one shot belongs to a GL guys, of all people. Mansion mission, 5 aliens were coming down the stairs in a perfect "+" formation. he poked his head in, placed 3 rounds, air-burst, smack in the middle of the group. 4 aliens were instant fertilizer, one more stood on his feet until a SMG guy poked his head in and put the last of the Ortnoks to sleep
131
Discussion / Re: regarding gatling/minigun
« on: June 13, 2008, 12:15:32 am »
Very cool rifle indeed and does propose and elegant solution to the recoil problem. This part of the way to making a gattling protable.
132
Feature Requests / Re: Can't walk up the stairs to UFO
« on: June 12, 2008, 11:39:20 pm »
A fragment or a whole grenade? This is important: a fragment is likely to cause a chipped tooth, while an entire greande, if biten down on, may cause a major, major headache.
133
Offtopic / Re: News Story - UFOs in real life
« on: June 12, 2008, 10:17:30 pm »
An interesting, if somewhat tangential, question is: what should they do if they find us. Given human race' perpensity for violence and frequent bouts of monumental intolerance... The safe thing would be to at least keep us restrained to the system, lest we export our violent ways.
134
Feature Requests / Re: New missions proposals
« on: June 12, 2008, 10:14:31 pm »
yea, defending an area other than your own base does sound like a lot of fun.
Recovering a PC was also a very fun element in UFO:Aftermath. Maybe something similar? It is a new thing not to have to kill every singlemotherf alien in the "room", just take the suitcase and leave.
Recovering a PC was also a very fun element in UFO:Aftermath. Maybe something similar? It is a new thing not to have to kill every single
135
Feature Requests / Re: Can't walk up the stairs to UFO
« on: June 12, 2008, 10:12:23 pm »
Why, absolutely, Sir. One well done USDA choice, hive-raised Taman coming right up. It is a bit gamy, the someliere suggests a nice Roja wine with the meat.