31
Discussion / Re: Hostile civilians?
« on: July 02, 2008, 09:55:37 pm »
Wow. cool. I think panicked soldiers can go beserk and kill team mates. did not know civilians can do same. KIDS SHOULD NOT PLAY WITH FIRE!
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32
Feature Requests / Re: Problem with living quarters
« on: July 02, 2008, 07:46:55 am »
just to be clear: by "latest" you mean 2.3 or 2.2.1?
33
Feature Requests / Re: Request: Headshot mode for sniper rifles
« on: July 02, 2008, 07:46:09 am »
Honestly - the somewhat rude response aside - I don't know! Does someone here have a medical degree or an anatomy degree? Maybe locations of organs are not random. Fine. But aside from that - what was so stupid?
34
Feature Requests / Re: Request: Headshot mode for sniper rifles
« on: July 02, 2008, 01:18:41 am »
Even a human brain has redundancy, i.e. parts of brain can take on roles of each other, at least to a degree. We have two kidneys and can live with one, same goes for anything else, pretty much, we have two of. transition from kidney 1 to kidney 2 is seemless...not sure why brain would be that different. maybe memory loss and eventually - high cognitive function. But not easily...
Now imagine you redesigned a human for maximum survivability. place all vitals in chest cavity and make ribs stronger. Feed 'em special goo, so that digestive system can be vastly simplified and the track shortened shortened. The remaining space can house the (second) brain, another liver, a third lung, second spleen... Any docs in here? What if there is no need to digest anything - just transfer from liquid to blood...No solid waste, either...How much room would be saved?
The extra space is packed with hard muscle that surrounds and compartmentalizes the extra organs. Compartments mean that bleeding is limited and fragments/bullets are less likely to damage multiple organs.
What else...Eyes - add a few more, some fixed around the head, a couple of flexible stocks. Expand the range of visible frequencies a little into infrared. Ears - screw it, two are enough, maybe three, but make 'em movable like those of a deer. Add hearing in frequencies bats use. In a pinch can be used for navigation. A couple of noses, two at the most - shooting by smell is not reliable, and two are plenty for tracking.
The head no longer houses the (only) brain. No brain - smaller head. At least thicker skull. Prefered "forward" is no longer needed. Periferal eyes + two on stocks guarantee that even with all eyes on one side burned off, the two stocks can still provide depth perception and allow to attack (shoot/strike/persue precisely) in the direction.
Speaking of direction. Three legs, at least 3-4 arms. 3-prong system is way more stable for shooting and even a complete loss of a leg "reduces" the creature to human mobility. 4 arms = 2 two-hand weapons. With full set of eyes - fixed perimeter eyes + two on stocks = depth perception in two directions at once, so aimed shooting in two directions at once. Hands: one thumb? Weak! two thumbs, three opposed fingers. I'd prefer all joints (at least sholders and elbows) to be omnidirectional. If that is too difficult muscle-wise, at least full range of motion in two directions - very double jointed. Makes hand-to-hand extra fun.
So, by my reckoning, with one leg and two arms blown off, half the torso a mess from a frag grenade or a rifle salvo, and side of the head burned to crisp - what is left will be equivalent to a pissed off PHALANX soldier.
how's that for ET?
Now imagine you redesigned a human for maximum survivability. place all vitals in chest cavity and make ribs stronger. Feed 'em special goo, so that digestive system can be vastly simplified and the track shortened shortened. The remaining space can house the (second) brain, another liver, a third lung, second spleen... Any docs in here? What if there is no need to digest anything - just transfer from liquid to blood...No solid waste, either...How much room would be saved?
The extra space is packed with hard muscle that surrounds and compartmentalizes the extra organs. Compartments mean that bleeding is limited and fragments/bullets are less likely to damage multiple organs.
What else...Eyes - add a few more, some fixed around the head, a couple of flexible stocks. Expand the range of visible frequencies a little into infrared. Ears - screw it, two are enough, maybe three, but make 'em movable like those of a deer. Add hearing in frequencies bats use. In a pinch can be used for navigation. A couple of noses, two at the most - shooting by smell is not reliable, and two are plenty for tracking.
The head no longer houses the (only) brain. No brain - smaller head. At least thicker skull. Prefered "forward" is no longer needed. Periferal eyes + two on stocks guarantee that even with all eyes on one side burned off, the two stocks can still provide depth perception and allow to attack (shoot/strike/persue precisely) in the direction.
Speaking of direction. Three legs, at least 3-4 arms. 3-prong system is way more stable for shooting and even a complete loss of a leg "reduces" the creature to human mobility. 4 arms = 2 two-hand weapons. With full set of eyes - fixed perimeter eyes + two on stocks = depth perception in two directions at once, so aimed shooting in two directions at once. Hands: one thumb? Weak! two thumbs, three opposed fingers. I'd prefer all joints (at least sholders and elbows) to be omnidirectional. If that is too difficult muscle-wise, at least full range of motion in two directions - very double jointed. Makes hand-to-hand extra fun.
So, by my reckoning, with one leg and two arms blown off, half the torso a mess from a frag grenade or a rifle salvo, and side of the head burned to crisp - what is left will be equivalent to a pissed off PHALANX soldier.
how's that for ET?
35
Feature Requests / Re: Request: Headshot mode for sniper rifles
« on: July 01, 2008, 10:52:21 pm »
Forget 7 brains - no brain centers at all - highly distributed processing - brain is, effectively, throughout the body cavity which is covered by the exosceleton. They need not be too smart, they are the top of the evolutionary chain because they are damn near impossible to kill - a whole in a body would hit some organs, and the functions are taken over by redundant ones. The way to kill such a thing is to either literally blow it to bits, pump it full of led (literal here), or burn it. Lasers hit well enough, but have almost no effect (self-cutterizing wounds - awesome!). Fire or explosive ammo, ot TONS of led slugs.
36
Feature Requests / Re: Auto-reload for Auto-shooters ?
« on: July 01, 2008, 10:47:34 pm »
ok, I would grudgingly submit that when set to reaction fire, and if the reaction check was passed, maybe then the soldier should reload... Agree.
37
Discussion / Re: Particle Beam Weapons: More Than Just Flashlights?
« on: July 01, 2008, 08:18:49 pm »
Oh, I know - I did not take offense. 
we're cool!
we're cool!
38
Discussion / Re: Machine gun / Autocannon Discussion
« on: July 01, 2008, 08:18:08 pm »
Doc J - or move them off a sniping position... I was thinking, if you can't kill a sniper, at least shove them off the roof, giving troups time to close in...
Sirg - alien without a brain was a joke, really. But they may very well have no single vulunrable brain. Place it in the chest cavity and it becomes much more resiliant. if Ortnoks are bread for war, that is not an unexpected solution.
* WARNING! Science stuff according to Dan *
Effects of impact...
Projectile (say, .50 cal bullet): It can either go thourgh a target, making a hole (think NATO .223 round on belly) but retaining a lot of it's energy or be stopped, not make a hole, but then you have an inelastic collision, i.e. almost all momentum and energy is transfered to the target (think .357 magnum or a .45 - stopping power, baby!). If alien armor protects the alien, we are in case B, no hole, momentum absorbed. Now, if alien was a solid chunk of diamond, straight conservation of momentum: m_bullet * v_bullet = M_target * V_target. If target is 10 times heavier than the bullet, it will acquire the velocity 1/10th that of a bullet, in same direction.
If the armor does not absorb the bullet but only behaves like a super-hard shell, that is what we are dealing with. Alien flies back. Now, soft alien tissue must be in contact with the armor. Which means that a shockwave will propagate from point of impat on in. This is what happens these days with a human wearing armor - huge bruises, broken ribs, in extreme cases - ruptured organs, even if there is no hole. The armor destributes the imact. Instead of a piercing needle, the hit is like with a sledgehammer or a cement bag. The alien armor may try to do a few things at once - "eat" some of the transfered energy by having a plate the shatters - thus taking some of the energy. May also have a gel-like layer, which absorbs momentum and the shockwave gets redirected throughout the armor itself, not the tissue. So, the "hard shell - shatter plate - soft absorbing lining - hard shell" design might help to reduce both the point impact and tissue damage. but still - momentum is conserved. Even if the organs are not liquified, significant enough momentum will shove the alien back.
Explotion: the flying pieces, for the most part, behave as bullets and we need not look at them. The shockwave, however, is a different story. In a nuke, btw, it is the shockwave, not the heat nor radiation that do the most immediate damage. It is the good old compressed air. The shockwave, in short, is the area of very high pressure traveling fast away from the center. The farther from center, the weaker the wave (falls as 1 / distance^3). This one need not be destributed by the armor - it affects every surface that the wavefront touches. It just transfers momentum, a solid wall of air. That feels like a cocrete wall. Again, the super-duper armor may keep the organs from liquifying, but being tosseed about is prety much mandatory.
Sirg - alien without a brain was a joke, really. But they may very well have no single vulunrable brain. Place it in the chest cavity and it becomes much more resiliant. if Ortnoks are bread for war, that is not an unexpected solution.
* WARNING! Science stuff according to Dan *
Effects of impact...
Projectile (say, .50 cal bullet): It can either go thourgh a target, making a hole (think NATO .223 round on belly) but retaining a lot of it's energy or be stopped, not make a hole, but then you have an inelastic collision, i.e. almost all momentum and energy is transfered to the target (think .357 magnum or a .45 - stopping power, baby!). If alien armor protects the alien, we are in case B, no hole, momentum absorbed. Now, if alien was a solid chunk of diamond, straight conservation of momentum: m_bullet * v_bullet = M_target * V_target. If target is 10 times heavier than the bullet, it will acquire the velocity 1/10th that of a bullet, in same direction.
If the armor does not absorb the bullet but only behaves like a super-hard shell, that is what we are dealing with. Alien flies back. Now, soft alien tissue must be in contact with the armor. Which means that a shockwave will propagate from point of impat on in. This is what happens these days with a human wearing armor - huge bruises, broken ribs, in extreme cases - ruptured organs, even if there is no hole. The armor destributes the imact. Instead of a piercing needle, the hit is like with a sledgehammer or a cement bag. The alien armor may try to do a few things at once - "eat" some of the transfered energy by having a plate the shatters - thus taking some of the energy. May also have a gel-like layer, which absorbs momentum and the shockwave gets redirected throughout the armor itself, not the tissue. So, the "hard shell - shatter plate - soft absorbing lining - hard shell" design might help to reduce both the point impact and tissue damage. but still - momentum is conserved. Even if the organs are not liquified, significant enough momentum will shove the alien back.
Explotion: the flying pieces, for the most part, behave as bullets and we need not look at them. The shockwave, however, is a different story. In a nuke, btw, it is the shockwave, not the heat nor radiation that do the most immediate damage. It is the good old compressed air. The shockwave, in short, is the area of very high pressure traveling fast away from the center. The farther from center, the weaker the wave (falls as 1 / distance^3). This one need not be destributed by the armor - it affects every surface that the wavefront touches. It just transfers momentum, a solid wall of air. That feels like a cocrete wall. Again, the super-duper armor may keep the organs from liquifying, but being tosseed about is prety much mandatory.
39
Feature Requests / Re: Request: Headshot mode for sniper rifles
« on: July 01, 2008, 07:54:11 pm »
Nevasith, I like that idea: how about having the sniper rifle stay a one-kill weapon, but increasing the TU cost to some like 28 and removing snap shot. Reaction fire limited to 1 shot per round. Than the sniper has to either move or shoot. And really, really require protection.
Would that be a good balance?
Would that be a good balance?
40
Feature Requests / Re: Coding Smarter Aliens ?
« on: July 01, 2008, 07:41:42 pm »
I think he means it would be a higher priority target/area for the alien force. The wiki hints at the pretty bluntly in base facility descriptions - it tell you that aliens will ignore living quarters and team rooms and head straight for command center and the anti-matter storage.
41
Feature Requests / Re: Problems with base attack
« on: July 01, 2008, 07:39:43 pm »
Ha. Teleportation rules!
42
Feature Requests / Re: Auto-reload for Auto-shooters ?
« on: July 01, 2008, 07:38:37 pm »
scamo: very hard level - hard core, man! Respect.
IMHO: screw the reloads - the squad is small, the time is infinite, micromanagement is part of the fun. May well want to run, then reload. Better alive behind cover with empty weapon that dead in the open with a loaded one.
IMHO: screw the reloads - the squad is small, the time is infinite, micromanagement is part of the fun. May well want to run, then reload. Better alive behind cover with empty weapon that dead in the open with a loaded one.
43
Discussion / Re: Particle Beam Weapons: More Than Just Flashlights?
« on: July 01, 2008, 07:34:28 pm »
Hey, man - even in early 90s (when I did it) anyone who finished high school their ended up knowing a bit about nuclear and neutron bombs, payloads, kill zones, protective measures, etc. To say nothing of knowing the effects of various lovely chemicals in NATO arsenal.
44
Discussion / Re: Machine gun / Autocannon Discussion
« on: July 01, 2008, 07:31:37 pm »
Sirg, I am with you on that. Conservation of energy and momentum is an equal opportunity pain... I imagine, a well-armored alien, when hit by a rocket, should be thrown around same a sack of same size and weight would. In the process, it will be subject to such things as collision with shrapnel (stopped by armor) and rapid acceleration - which would cause a concussion in presence of brain and skull. I suppose the super-fancy armor can have anti-concussion gear...And Ortnocs may have no brain at all, just solid bone skulls... But, at the very least, they should get tossed about by the explosion.
Far as implementing that...Can it be possible that aliens (and humans) get tossed by explosions? I.e. moved a square or two? Be neat to throw them off roofs or into the back of the room, at least.
Far as implementing that...Can it be possible that aliens (and humans) get tossed by explosions? I.e. moved a square or two? Be neat to throw them off roofs or into the back of the room, at least.
45
Discussion / Re: Particle Beam Weapons: More Than Just Flashlights?
« on: July 01, 2008, 07:24:44 pm »
yea, that nuclear blast is a pain... old soviet army instruction: "in case of a nuclear detonation hold assault rifle in fully extended arms so that the molten metal does not drip on the government issued boots"