I've played the old d6 version and the first two d20 versions, and while I like a lot of what was in the d20 versions, the games that we remember the best were the old d6 campaigns.
I'm a little fuzzy on the reviewer's concern for balancing the Jedi class--as though they should be balanced with everyone else in combat. Jedi are badass in the previous d20 editions--but they pay for it in their skills, feats, and behavioral limitations. It doesn't make sense in terms of the game universe for them to be on anything resembling a level playing field in combat, but that's one of the reasons that good games are not just one combat after another.
Not necessarily. The last time I was laid off (from an IT support position), I suspected it was coming based solely on the volume of work that I was getting and subtle signs of belt-tightening in the company. I polished my resume, picked up a cert, and started applying. I was about to sit down and talk with my boss about my long-term prospects there when they called me in to a meeting to let me go. They felt bad; I can still go there five years later and pick up a free lunch and a lot of handshakes.
I started submitted resumes with a vengeance that night. Four months later, I was finally picked up for another support position nearby--it turned out to be the very first app I had submitted the day I was laid off.
The process sucks. It takes a long ass time for some companies to put together requirements, put out ads, and start really reviewing the resumes. They were in no particular rush, but it had a pretty profound impact on my life nonetheless.
Of course, in the mean time I had joined the National Guard, and after 7 months of contract work I went active duty for training and then deployed to Afghanistan. With small gaps, I have been full time in uniform ever since. The coffee is better and the people aren't so whiny.
Unfortunately, there is a serious disconnect between what is said to be the intent and what is written into the regulation. From AR 530-1, chapter 2 (Responsibilities), all Army personnel are required to:
g. Consult with their immediate supervisor and their OPSEC Officer for an OPSEC review prior to publishing or posting information in a public forum.
(1) This includes, but is not limited to letters, resumes, articles for publication, electronic mail (e-mail), Web site postings, web log (blog) postings, discussion in Internet information forums, discussion in Internet message boards or other forms of dissemination or documentation.
It doesn't specify what types or topics of information--just "information." Just saying "well, that's not practical, so it's obviously not what they meant" (as so many in this conversation have done) demonstrates a profound unfamiliarity with the way the Army works.
And yes, technically I am liable under UCMJ for posting this without review. The irony isn't lost on me.
We had one, and we used it quite a bit. However, they're pretty damned expensive--$1000 a pop, I think I was told--and are in supremely limited circulation for that reason. This sounds like something that could be in more widespread use and would probably be more practical for local point-to-point calling; using satellite phones to call the guy on the other side of the FOB is a bit much.
If it's any consolation, I just returned from Afghanistan in January and never even heard of this thing until now. Also, it's probably a hell of a lot easier to provide cell coverage to a few small areas with concentrations of US military personnel than to provide comprehensive coverage over North America. If you don't like your cell service, bitch to the company, not the military.
Many people did sign up for cell service on the base we were staged from, paying $40 or $50 per month for 500 minutes, though I think incoming calls did not count against that. I spent too much time out in the field for that to be worthwhile, though I did get internet access in my room whenever we'd come back to base for a week or two--again, $35/month for dial-up speeds (but worse latency; timeouts every fourth or fifth http request) with no English-speaking support and frequent DNS outages.
Yes, I'm horribly biased, but if DoD can provide something like this on the cheap for the guys downrange, more power to them. Very rarely was it worth it to me to wait in line for an hour to try to talk to someone from home for 15 minutes--assuming I could stay connected that long.
The troops have body armor. The troops have more body armor than most of them really want to wear--plates designed to stop armor piercing 7.62 rounds inside kevlar vests with supplemental side plates and extra shrapnel protection. Interesting red herring, but not a factor.
I find it hard to believe that the thing would really work as well as they claim in a peaceful urban noise environment, let alone a hostile one. Echoes, explosions, and just sheer volume of noise... Still, for an isolated shot in an otherwise peaceful scene, maybe it would be useful.
Even with a fairly tight grid coordinate, however, ground troops are still going to be restricted by rules of engagement and the all-important positive ID of the enemy. This is bar none the greatest difficulty in finding the bad guys and making them dead guys--you have to be absolutely certain of your target, and the bad guys know how to make it difficult. The dumb ones were already made into dead ones a while ago.
It was a pretty big one, actually. We couldn't believe it--I thought it would be leveled.
Their construction methods are surprisingly sturdy, considering the materials they have to work with. There is very little wood here, for example--the compound walls are some type of mud which seems to hold up really well against shrapnel and concussion.
So you're saying that violence breeds violence (and indifference)? Truly a provoking thought.
Actually, I'd say that's one of the most obvious comments ever made in the context of war.
I'll tell you how I justify it to myself. Maybe that will help you understand. It doesn't sound like you care to, from that comment, but someone else might be illuminated.
We're here to eliminate the power of remaining Taliban forces (and their allies) to wage war on the elected government of Afghanistan or any other nation, including my own. I'd never heard of the Taliban prior to September of 2001, but they had been grinding the people of this country under their heel for years, long before they supported a terrorist group who flew airplanes into some of our civilian structures.
We bend over backwards to avoid anything resembling collateral damage--the enemy knows that he only has to win in the press, not the battlefield--and as a result are often not terribly effective. Our own people die sometimes because we do not use the resources available to us for fear of civilian casualties. We value their civilians far more than they do. On the other hand, when we do call in close air support or an air strike, we know that we are reducing the Taliban's ability to wage war on us and on their own people.
I have not seen many battles, but in every one that I did see, they would have gotten by unscathed if they had just ignored our presence. We sat on a hill for 18 days during Operation Mountain Thrust, during which period they attacked us three times with rockets, mortars, and small arms fire. At no point did we open the ball--we watched them gather, prepare, and move into position because we couldn't be absolutely certain that they were planning mischief. This is how much we care about their civilians. For our pains, we were mortared.
So when we do eventually kill people, I don't have a lot of sympathy for them. They supported people who killed Americans. They kill their own people to try to stay in power. They kill anyone who helps us, or even sells us cigarettes. They kill anyone who accepts humanitarian aid from us. When a dog behaves like this, we put it down. A person is not a dog, but some of them are not far from it.
I rationalize it this way. And I have nightmares anyway. Along with whatever physical damage I take--and there's been a fair bit even without enemy fire--this is the price I pay so that you and people like you never meet these people or any of their friends on the streets--or in an airplane.
It does not mean however, that aerial gunners just go roaming from village to village shooting random people. I assure you our gunners are very disciplined and follow strict ROE. Most of the time those flying in to deliver the Close Air Support (CAS) are radioed in by a platoon or company that's pinned in some position on the ground and require these A-10s or AC-130s to come in and light the bad guys up.
This really needs to be emphasized. The restrictions on using CAS (over here, at least) are non-trivial. We once waited FIVE HOURS for approval to get an air strike on a compound that we KNEW had Taliban militants in it--we knew it because we'd watched them enter after retreating from an attack on our position. The strike would start to go in, and then get pulled because battalion or someone even higher wanted to make absolutely certain we had the right grid coordinates--even though we'd already confirmed and reconfirmed to the limits of our equipment. It was damned near miraculous that they stayed in one place (in such numbers) for the time it took. We stayed up half the night waiting for that damned bomb--and after it dropped, 40+ dudes with small arms flooded out of the remains of the compound, fleeing into the night.
On a target where you're only "pretty sure" you saw guys going in, you can forget it. Unless they're dumb enough to start setting up a mortar in the open, you just don't get a chance to shoot first--the rules are too restrictive, and they know the advantage that gives them.
I don't much care for Sony nor Microsoft, but that distrust sort of falls by the wayside whenever the next Halo* comes out (or whatever your franchise of choice is). We tend to go with the evil we know and purchase as if we had no choice, even those of us that really ought to know better.
*Mock away. I like what I like. And more importantly, my wife likes it.
The M-249 is a belt or cartridge fed light machine gun, also known as the SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon). It fires the same rounds as the M-16, just a bit faster. It's heavier, but very much man-portable, and is a personal weapon.
The M-240 is the 7.62mm replacement for the old M-60 of the Vietnam era. It is freaking heavy, and considered a crew-served weapon, but doesn't require a vehicle to move.
You CAN mount either weapon on a Humvee turret, but it's hardly required. Again, SAWs are usually considered personal weapons.
If I'm trying to break into an apartment, and I convince the unscrupulous complex manager to give me a key to get in, the fact that he has violated a trust and abused his authority does not mean that I am guiltless.
Downloaded, installed very quickly. Good interface, lots of options to play with, and with the RSS feeds it generates it can integrate with my existing site usefully. Good tip.
"There's this sort of bizarre belief that computers cast a spell over students and teachers and schools," says Christopher Dede, professor of learning technologies at the Harvard School of Education.
"Can you imagine what would happen if you had the same in business, asking if computers were interfering with performance? It would be a big joke."
Now is it a joke because it's funny, or a joke because it's true?
Rumor had it a year ago that Keyport was planning to pay to keep all of their legacy seats. They would rather pay EDS not to replace their stuff, and have to support it themselves, rather than get the NMCI standard solutions.
Worse, the sheer size of the NMCI contract pretty much precludes anyone but EDS from handling it. So what happens if their service levels suck? Or they go bankrupt from trying to juggle changeover?
Dude, you're totally not towing the retarded Slashdotter line by suggesting anything related to Windows or Micrsoft can possibly be the slightly bit useful.
You missed it, man. No one is arguing that Windows cannot be useful. My initial point was two-fold.
First, they've already concluded that Windows is not doing what they need, so their solution is, to, yeah, buy more Windows. Good thinking!
Second, they're consolidating all of their IT operations under one half-billion dollar contract with Dell and MS. I hope for the sake of the airmen who will have to use these systems that they've been paying attention to all of the screwups that Navy and Marine Corps has had with NMCI. The problem with One Big Vendor To Run Them All is that you are pretty much screwed when they run into problems and no one else can pick up the pieces. At least this contract is relatively "small" compared to NMCI...
That is because instead of lining up all the combatants in a field where they can battle it out (almost 100% of the dead being soldiers), politicians now think it is ok to bomb cities in the hope that there might be some enemy soldiers among the rubble and slaughtered innocents.
Wow. Congratulations. This is the silliest thing I've read yet in this discussion, and you had a LOT of competition.
Is there anyone who honestly believes that our military and government wouldn't prefer to line up all of the combatants in a field where we could battle it out? Unfortunately, we don't get to choose the playing field. If we're going to engage guerilla targets, that means going where the guerillas are. Definitely not a preferred state of being, given our strengths and weaknesses.
The description of my computer, I mean. A Slot-A (non Tbird!) Athlon 700 with 384M of RAM and a Rage Fury Pro 128 32M AGP4x video card.
It's our token Windows machine for running some apps for school and remembering how to fix Windows machines.
Of course, the machine I use day-to-day is my even older dual P3/450 PowerEdge server, but still...
Slashdot Mirror
I'm a little fuzzy on the reviewer's concern for balancing the Jedi class--as though they should be balanced with everyone else in combat. Jedi are badass in the previous d20 editions--but they pay for it in their skills, feats, and behavioral limitations. It doesn't make sense in terms of the game universe for them to be on anything resembling a level playing field in combat, but that's one of the reasons that good games are not just one combat after another.
Vehicle mechanics definitely needed help, though.
I started submitted resumes with a vengeance that night. Four months later, I was finally picked up for another support position nearby--it turned out to be the very first app I had submitted the day I was laid off.
The process sucks. It takes a long ass time for some companies to put together requirements, put out ads, and start really reviewing the resumes. They were in no particular rush, but it had a pretty profound impact on my life nonetheless.
Of course, in the mean time I had joined the National Guard, and after 7 months of contract work I went active duty for training and then deployed to Afghanistan. With small gaps, I have been full time in uniform ever since. The coffee is better and the people aren't so whiny.
And yes, technically I am liable under UCMJ for posting this without review. The irony isn't lost on me.
We had one, and we used it quite a bit. However, they're pretty damned expensive--$1000 a pop, I think I was told--and are in supremely limited circulation for that reason. This sounds like something that could be in more widespread use and would probably be more practical for local point-to-point calling; using satellite phones to call the guy on the other side of the FOB is a bit much.
If it's any consolation, I just returned from Afghanistan in January and never even heard of this thing until now. Also, it's probably a hell of a lot easier to provide cell coverage to a few small areas with concentrations of US military personnel than to provide comprehensive coverage over North America. If you don't like your cell service, bitch to the company, not the military.
Many people did sign up for cell service on the base we were staged from, paying $40 or $50 per month for 500 minutes, though I think incoming calls did not count against that. I spent too much time out in the field for that to be worthwhile, though I did get internet access in my room whenever we'd come back to base for a week or two--again, $35/month for dial-up speeds (but worse latency; timeouts every fourth or fifth http request) with no English-speaking support and frequent DNS outages.
Yes, I'm horribly biased, but if DoD can provide something like this on the cheap for the guys downrange, more power to them. Very rarely was it worth it to me to wait in line for an hour to try to talk to someone from home for 15 minutes--assuming I could stay connected that long.
I couldn't find the -1 Oblivion mod. A little help here?
The troops have body armor. The troops have more body armor than most of them really want to wear--plates designed to stop armor piercing 7.62 rounds inside kevlar vests with supplemental side plates and extra shrapnel protection. Interesting red herring, but not a factor.
I find it hard to believe that the thing would really work as well as they claim in a peaceful urban noise environment, let alone a hostile one. Echoes, explosions, and just sheer volume of noise... Still, for an isolated shot in an otherwise peaceful scene, maybe it would be useful.
Even with a fairly tight grid coordinate, however, ground troops are still going to be restricted by rules of engagement and the all-important positive ID of the enemy. This is bar none the greatest difficulty in finding the bad guys and making them dead guys--you have to be absolutely certain of your target, and the bad guys know how to make it difficult. The dumb ones were already made into dead ones a while ago.
It was a pretty big one, actually. We couldn't believe it--I thought it would be leveled.
Their construction methods are surprisingly sturdy, considering the materials they have to work with. There is very little wood here, for example--the compound walls are some type of mud which seems to hold up really well against shrapnel and concussion.
I'll tell you how I justify it to myself. Maybe that will help you understand. It doesn't sound like you care to, from that comment, but someone else might be illuminated.
We're here to eliminate the power of remaining Taliban forces (and their allies) to wage war on the elected government of Afghanistan or any other nation, including my own. I'd never heard of the Taliban prior to September of 2001, but they had been grinding the people of this country under their heel for years, long before they supported a terrorist group who flew airplanes into some of our civilian structures.
We bend over backwards to avoid anything resembling collateral damage--the enemy knows that he only has to win in the press, not the battlefield--and as a result are often not terribly effective. Our own people die sometimes because we do not use the resources available to us for fear of civilian casualties. We value their civilians far more than they do. On the other hand, when we do call in close air support or an air strike, we know that we are reducing the Taliban's ability to wage war on us and on their own people.
I have not seen many battles, but in every one that I did see, they would have gotten by unscathed if they had just ignored our presence. We sat on a hill for 18 days during Operation Mountain Thrust, during which period they attacked us three times with rockets, mortars, and small arms fire. At no point did we open the ball--we watched them gather, prepare, and move into position because we couldn't be absolutely certain that they were planning mischief. This is how much we care about their civilians. For our pains, we were mortared.
So when we do eventually kill people, I don't have a lot of sympathy for them. They supported people who killed Americans. They kill their own people to try to stay in power. They kill anyone who helps us, or even sells us cigarettes. They kill anyone who accepts humanitarian aid from us. When a dog behaves like this, we put it down. A person is not a dog, but some of them are not far from it.
I rationalize it this way. And I have nightmares anyway. Along with whatever physical damage I take--and there's been a fair bit even without enemy fire--this is the price I pay so that you and people like you never meet these people or any of their friends on the streets--or in an airplane.
On a target where you're only "pretty sure" you saw guys going in, you can forget it. Unless they're dumb enough to start setting up a mortar in the open, you just don't get a chance to shoot first--the rules are too restrictive, and they know the advantage that gives them.
Weren't we waiting interminably for a Duke Nukem game then, too?
- The extraordinarily detailed answers from people who spend a lot of time thinking about this sort of thing.
- The retarded answers from people who don't spend a lot of time thinking about this sort of thing.
- The retarded jokes forthcoming about people's pulsing hot lightsabers
- The prospect of spending all day sifting through stuff like this looking for real news
- The fact that I'm rather curious about this myself.
I know very little of physics, Star Wars or other. So I shall link to the disturbing Star Wars-related musings of my friend instead.I don't much care for Sony nor Microsoft, but that distrust sort of falls by the wayside whenever the next Halo* comes out (or whatever your franchise of choice is). We tend to go with the evil we know and purchase as if we had no choice, even those of us that really ought to know better.
*Mock away. I like what I like. And more importantly, my wife likes it.
The M-249 is a belt or cartridge fed light machine gun, also known as the SAW (Squad Automatic Weapon). It fires the same rounds as the M-16, just a bit faster. It's heavier, but very much man-portable, and is a personal weapon. The M-240 is the 7.62mm replacement for the old M-60 of the Vietnam era. It is freaking heavy, and considered a crew-served weapon, but doesn't require a vehicle to move. You CAN mount either weapon on a Humvee turret, but it's hardly required. Again, SAWs are usually considered personal weapons.
If I'm trying to break into an apartment, and I convince the unscrupulous complex manager to give me a key to get in, the fact that he has violated a trust and abused his authority does not mean that I am guiltless.
Downloaded, installed very quickly. Good interface, lots of options to play with, and with the RSS feeds it generates it can integrate with my existing site usefully. Good tip.
Rumor had it a year ago that Keyport was planning to pay to keep all of their legacy seats. They would rather pay EDS not to replace their stuff, and have to support it themselves, rather than get the NMCI standard solutions.
Worse, the sheer size of the NMCI contract pretty much precludes anyone but EDS from handling it. So what happens if their service levels suck? Or they go bankrupt from trying to juggle changeover?
First, they've already concluded that Windows is not doing what they need, so their solution is, to, yeah, buy more Windows. Good thinking!
Second, they're consolidating all of their IT operations under one half-billion dollar contract with Dell and MS. I hope for the sake of the airmen who will have to use these systems that they've been paying attention to all of the screwups that Navy and Marine Corps has had with NMCI. The problem with One Big Vendor To Run Them All is that you are pretty much screwed when they run into problems and no one else can pick up the pieces. At least this contract is relatively "small" compared to NMCI...
Guess you should have made fun of Highlander II. =)
Is there anyone who honestly believes that our military and government wouldn't prefer to line up all of the combatants in a field where we could battle it out? Unfortunately, we don't get to choose the playing field. If we're going to engage guerilla targets, that means going where the guerillas are. Definitely not a preferred state of being, given our strengths and weaknesses.
The description of my computer, I mean. A Slot-A (non Tbird!) Athlon 700 with 384M of RAM and a Rage Fury Pro 128 32M AGP4x video card. It's our token Windows machine for running some apps for school and remembering how to fix Windows machines. Of course, the machine I use day-to-day is my even older dual P3/450 PowerEdge server, but still...