ember3579

That would be a pretty good idea, really. Those things are freaking huge, somewhere around 50-100 feet tall on average? I can only really think of a few problems; 1) fires could own your entire area if you're unlucky, 2) food's going to be a very big problem, 3) I imagine that building this is going to be a very big problem with all the people protecting the area's trees, and 4) if someone DOES manage to get into your base, you're basically screwed without some means of quick escape. Care to address these?

If by cutbacks, you mean cut our guys back from Iraq, then yes. We don't need a military reduction, but Iraq is the most pointless waste of effort ever. Oh, I was speaking money-wise. Millions of dollars to bomb a place? Christ. -.- I understand your sentiment. However, I view that as less of cutting back and more of being less wasteful. Seriously, how can it possibly cost that much for that little unless if someone's price gouging? A search for ways to do things more efficiently and cheaply (with no cutbacks in quality) should be near the top of the list for the military's R&D department. The only thing holding them back is the lobbyists that get periodic control of the American military via Presidential elections. Corporations whose sole interest in war is profit should be forbidden from having any involvement in it. Too many people have died already because of greed in one form or another. I'm personally interested in signing up for the military after college. I'm trying to decide between Marines, Army, or Navy. In case you're wondering, I plan on working in robotics. Specifically, either the remote-controlled variety (think Predator, but my focus will be ground-based), AI controlled (obviously, I don't want Skynet to go up, so some failsafes will be designed into them), or the piloted variety (anything from Iron Man type stuff to Gundam-style war machines). I can think of little ways of maximizing the effectiveness of military personnel better than giving them potentially infinite backup capable of doing things that most humans couldn't even begin to try. The uses for robots in military operations are limitless.

We have Quake 3 Arena Demo on damn near all the computers at my school, and there's around 3-5 people playing a game almost around the clock reliably. I think that I'll probably be above average (not saying much, but it's alright). The real question is if you would be able to run this thing on dialup. If I can find that out, you can expect to see me on there pretty often. My name on there is Aleucard. Don't [bleep] if you find that I shoved a BFG up your @$% and fired while you were afk. :twisted: EDIT: Jesus f$%@ing Christ. I'm queue number 56086 right now, and counting. Might want to update the OP. :shock:

Well, since I'm at-present on dialup (will probably be in my dorm by mid-summer, if all goes well), I'm having problems with the vid. Can you give a few pics, some reviews of the beta, and maybe your own opinions/expectations? I'm entirely blank on this, but it looks interesting. Probably the first question that I'll ask is this; do you fly on one plane (like most top-down games and EVE), or can you fly wherever you want, in any manner you want? The second would be about customization of your ship/equipment. While I can do very well with whatever they give me, I'd love to be able to make basically anything my caffeine-addled brain can come up with. Just for grins, my e-mail is [email protected]. Don't send any porn to it! :D :? :shame: If you must know, write me off as a combat specialist (read: combat junkie of the highest order, and very interested in anything related to combat). I'll probably be one of the first to make something that the devs didn't foresee and beat the s@#% out of people with it. :thumbsup:

It's very twisted, but VERY funny. I just read through all of the sex stories on there.

Tunnels require a lot of a maintenance, and would be difficult, and there would be no way to get food. It would stop zombies, bandits, whatever, but we would only be able to stay alive as long as our food lasted. It might be a nice idea to have a tunnel system under a stronghold as a last ditch escape. An escape tunnel filled with supplies would probably be the best thing. If the exit of the tunnel was solid metal, there would be no way zombies could get in. So, living in a tunnel system probably wouldn't work too well, but tunnels along with a normal stronghold would be good. The food problem is why location is very important. If you can find an area where you can make a tunnel network and allow the general flora and fauna above your head to do it's thing, then you have both a very defensible location and a large food supply. Also, it shouldn't be extremely difficult to grow your own food, especially if you have one or more strongholds for the various entrances. For the maintenance problem, that's why you'd need to have both people who know that sort of thing well (miners might work, especially if you're in an area like West Virginia), and a good number of people to assist in the maintenance. I'm not sure what a good group size would be, but if you can get a large group to work together (shouldn't be hard when they know that zombies are inbound), it shouldn't be too hard to maintain anything you make. For the metal entrances idea, while that would help immensely against zombies and other similar-intelligence people, it would be a huge sign to anybody able to think that there's looting to be done. It wouldn't be ill-advised to make the non-fortified entrances fairly deep, so as to create the illusion that it's a natural one. Bandits might select it as a place to hang out at, but they probably wouldn't be suspecting an attack from deeper in the cave.

Uhh..... I'll just ignore the last dozen or so posts. Seriously, why is it that almost all topics in this forum degenerate into stuff like this once they go past 30 or so pages? -.- Here's something that I think few haven't thought up. How difficult would it be to make a tunnel network to move around in? It would deter most bandits, it would be almost limitless in expansion, and it's easily defensible. The only real problem that I can see is if people do something to the entrances. However, the best prevention I can see for this is to have both multiple entrances, and a good number of air holes. This sort of thing would require a large group to maintain properly (potentially creating crowding problems, if the structure isn't designed well), but it would be the best thing ever for keeping a low profile. Sorry about the pun. :D

1) High ground IS very much so advised, but not quite in a pre-built structure, with a few exceptions. The reason for this is that it's either 1) in or near a dense population (making you vulnerable to the Zombie Zerg), or 2) easily visible by looters and other undesirables, who CAN navigate a damaged stairway to some degree. Unless if you have something very out of the way of anybody and that looks too difficult to get to (or even better as if the road to your place looks like a dead end), I'd recommend relocating before too long. 2) That's a good idea, but keep in mind that at least for a little while the perishables should help feed your group. If at all possible, save the stuff that can keep for as long as you can. Finding someone who can prepare a meal from random stuff from the nature that surrounds you (hopefully) will magnify your survivability, if for no other reason than that they can feed you. Also, it's kind of obvious that it's a bad idea to try and eat re-killed zombies. There's a reason why they look like that. 3) Automatics will waste bullets. With your standard zombie, the ONLY thing that will neutralize the threat is heavy brain damage, otherwise known as a headshot. If you've ever fired a gun (in games or real life), you'd know that automatic weaponry works by putting up a wall of lead. You want to carry that around all day? Also, semiautomatics will help greatly, but ONLY if you're capable of restraint. On close range weapons, keep in mind durability of the weapon. Baseball bats are notorious for snapping in half when they hit something with force. Swords require a level of maintenance that few are willing to even consider (if you look at the way most treat their vehicles, for an example). Your best bets would be stuff that's quick, efficient, and easily maintainable. These would include knives, just so you know. It's ALREADY highly recommended that you keep at least a few different knives on you at all times, so why should you skimp on the combat ones? There's a good reason why Marines carry around Kabars and the like practically EVERYwhere they go. 4) That one's pretty obvious. A four man cell has been the generally recommended team size for just about any operation that needs to be done in existence, where numbers wouldn't be more effective. If you're smart, you can fit in a wide variety of specialties in a 4 man cell, AND keep mobility and stealth. 5) That generally is a problem with taking the high ground. However, any idiot should be able to come up with a few escape routes given 2-3 days, which I suspect is going to be the average person's advance warning. If you're digging your trench at your house or a similarly familiar area, then that should already be planned out. Hopefully, this was helpful. 1)High ground AND a forced bottleneck entrance.Maximum of two entrances,both within line of sight and firing range.Relocation is harsh,unless evacuation is in process.Maybe not even then. 2)Train yourself to eat raw meat.Since you're a human survivor,zombies will try to eat you before any animals.So you may hunt every now and then. 3)Automatics indeed work by wall of lead.Controlled bursts are much harder than you think,and recoil is hell.Unless you are in a military base with enough ammunition to sink a small country,don't even try to make your bullets last.Semi autos take great toll on your fingers,since to fire many,you go squeeze,release,squeeze,release.Shotguns are recommendable,though I much prefer an M16,or given choice,SAR21.On semi.Your gun suffices as a close range weapon.I hear in Quantico you're trained to butt people with your rifle butt.That alone can crush skulls. 4)If you're skilled and care little about dying,by all means go alone.But remember need for sleep and eating.Then going in a group becomes obvious.Remember to ensure you can run faster than your friends. 5)Which is why you must remember where your traps are,and basic architecture of the building. I still like my plan of going Father Grigori on the zombies with a Remington,though. 1) That forced bottleneck must be maintained with both near-constant shots fired (if you're under attack by the Zombie Zerg) and some means of waste disposal. If you can't provide either, then all you really done is give zombies easy access. You must also keep in mind the possibility of bandits finding you. 2) Raw meat is very easy to spoil, and it is quite probably diseased in some fashion. This is part of why cooking was invented. People who eat cooked meat get sick a lot less than people who eat raw meat. Even a minor amount of cooking helps. Also, I tend to think of the canned food as emergency rations. The only time you should break them out is if 1) they're about to go bad, 2) your food supply dried up (by which time you should relocate), or 3) you are under siege. The fewer canned goods and other non perishables that you have, the lower your overall survival expectancy is. 3) Most will be unable to get to or even make use of a military base, so it's pretty much a given that full automatic only weapons are out of the question aside from as temporary firepower for anti-human defense. Semis WILL take a toll on your hands after a while of fighting, but I think that most will be able to sacrifice hand pain for the ability to blow away more zombies in a given amount of time. Yes, shotguns are a very viable weapon for general use, but they're notorious for their lack of distance. It should be used for when they're knocking on your door. Also, while butting someone with a rifle or another firearm is effective, that would shorten their lifespan needlessly. I'd find it a lot more effective to just switch to a dedicated melee weapon if you can, when it's prudent. 4) Only those who have no will to live or are complete idiots would go alone for very long in a zombie apocalypse. You just stated a few of them. And yes, you just need to outrun your teammates to escape the Zombie Zerg. However, all that really does is buy time. 5) If someone is unable to remember their building's layout and where they set the traps, then they probably shouldn't be on the team. Who or what in all the Hells is Father Grigori?

1) High ground IS very much so advised, but not quite in a pre-built structure, with a few exceptions. The reason for this is that it's either 1) in or near a dense population (making you vulnerable to the Zombie Zerg), or 2) easily visible by looters and other undesirables, who CAN navigate a damaged stairway to some degree. Unless if you have something very out of the way of anybody and that looks too difficult to get to (or even better as if the road to your place looks like a dead end), I'd recommend relocating before too long. 2) That's a good idea, but keep in mind that at least for a little while the perishables should help feed your group. If at all possible, save the stuff that can keep for as long as you can. Finding someone who can prepare a meal from random stuff from the nature that surrounds you (hopefully) will magnify your survivability, if for no other reason than that they can feed you. Also, it's kind of obvious that it's a bad idea to try and eat re-killed zombies. There's a reason why they look like that. 3) Automatics will waste bullets. With your standard zombie, the ONLY thing that will neutralize the threat is heavy brain damage, otherwise known as a headshot. If you've ever fired a gun (in games or real life), you'd know that automatic weaponry works by putting up a wall of lead. You want to carry that around all day? Also, semiautomatics will help greatly, but ONLY if you're capable of restraint. On close range weapons, keep in mind durability of the weapon. Baseball bats are notorious for snapping in half when they hit something with force. Swords require a level of maintenance that few are willing to even consider (if you look at the way most treat their vehicles, for an example). Your best bets would be stuff that's quick, efficient, and easily maintainable. These would include knives, just so you know. It's ALREADY highly recommended that you keep at least a few different knives on you at all times, so why should you skimp on the combat ones? There's a good reason why Marines carry around Kabars and the like practically EVERYwhere they go. 4) That one's pretty obvious. A four man cell has been the generally recommended team size for just about any operation that needs to be done in existence, where numbers wouldn't be more effective. If you're smart, you can fit in a wide variety of specialties in a 4 man cell, AND keep mobility and stealth. 5) That generally is a problem with taking the high ground. However, any idiot should be able to come up with a few escape routes given 2-3 days, which I suspect is going to be the average person's advance warning. If you're digging your trench at your house or a similarly familiar area, then that should already be planned out. Hopefully, this was helpful.

Depending on how far the zombie apocalypse goes, there might be an entirely new currency that's used, rendering your USD and your Euros and all else basically worthless. When the sh** hits the fan, people need something physical of real value; for a good while, you can expect the main currency to be goods. This will probably persist until someone gets the international systems up and running again.

Biggest differences between that and this are 1) Robot Wars rarely has any walkers, whereas this is exclusively walkers, 2) Robot Wars doesn't really have first person support, whereas this has it mandatory (unless if it's autonomous), and 3) this (at least for the moment) doesn't have a focus of destroying the bots, whereas Robot Wars does. Still, it's pretty freaking sweet. I was grinning from ear to ear when I read about this in Robot (www.botmag.com). Can't wait until we can get into more heavy duty robots. :twisted:

Hello. If you have absolutely no idea what Mech Warfare is, go to this website. That's the official website of the competition. It's fairly new, and it's first run will be at Robogames 2009, in Fort Mason, San Francisco on June 12-14. Here's a few of the rules. 1) The mechs must be piloted in first person, meaning you have to have a camera mounted on it and ONLY view the fight from that perspective. I think that some radar systems are allowed, though. The purpose of this is to simulate the experience of actually piloting the mech you're using. 2) The mechs must use a walking system to move, with a min-max leg count of 2-4. 3) The mechs have a maximum weight of 5 Kg. I suspect that this is to both make them unable to do major damage to a human and help keep the necessary arena size to a minimum. There's no restrictions on how big you can make it, aside from the fact that the ceiling is 4' in the air and the "streets" are around 2-4' wide (this might be incorrect, tell me if you find anything on this). 4) The mechs CAN use an autonomous system to fight. All that is required in addition to the normal stuff is an operable kill-switch. To quote the people who wrote the rules page; "I won't have Skynet go live on my watch." 5) You have a limited weapons selection, which is mostly relaxed when you go from the "soft core" competition to the "hard core" competition. The only universal restrictions that I can see are no explosives and no liquid, chemical, or electricity weapons. 6) The way that the victor is decided in both match types is by a health point system. The mechs must have a target plate (3" diameter, I think) attached to the mech for each leg it has. These must be placed on reasonable areas of the mech. The amount of hp that mechs are going to have in either competition type is still being decided, but a good guess is at least 10. The most hp that can be lost in a second is 1, although if you're knocked over you will take some damage as well. Even more will be applied if you can't right yourself. These are the basic rules that you should know. You can find a more comprehensive list on the official site, as well as some discussion about them on the official forums. I highly recommend that you join the OF, if for no other reason than the help that they can provide. If you want to talk with me, I'm Alucard on those forums. What do you think about this contest, and other similar ones? Personally, I'm very interested in it. The things that this could help develop are mind-boggling. I imagine that when it gets in gear, the military might be interested in what these people can do for them. You can also give some ideas for various things in this contest, as well as some pointers. Any and all help/questions are appreciated!

At least more than a few of these are semi-plausible. His is just too far out in the field to possibly consider without some hard evidence. Besides, knowing the average person who goes to this website, I'd be amazed that they got any even from a NAMBLA convention, let alone a girl.

That one I do NOT believe. Have anything to back it up, like (for example) a pic of you+your girlfriend? It might be more plausible that way.

According to the guide, they kill everything, but if there was a human and a dog standing side by side, they'd go for the human. Oh, good. So I'll just have to make sure I'm in a crowd when they attack. With, perhaps, some tipiters that are too busy fighting to wonder why I'm not being attacked nearly as much. But once you all die, I'd have to come up with a new plan. Well, zombies still have use of their eyes. But, the lack of a human smell might deter them. Who knows. If I remember correctly, according to the Zombie Survival Guide, any form of scent masking is for the most part useless in this way. I might be wrong, though.

So will your average Christian Fundamentalist. Oooh...... For the record, the key word in that statement is Fundamentalist. The vast majority of Christians are interested in scientific efforts for various reasons; some want a more precise description of how the world was made than is shown in the Bible without having to ask after they die, some want to try and further the quality of life on this planet, some want to help fix the planet directly, some just want to see what humanity can reach without any outside assistance. I'm a bit of all of them, myself. Yeah, your average feminist isn't exactly the sharpest knife in the drawer. If they looked at most of the things they do logically, they'd realize that they're just trivializing their own cause by their actions. Really, from my perspective, most of these people are a form of the stereotypical "Attention [bleep]". If they tried being reasonable, then I'm certain a LOT more people would be sympathetic.

Yeah, varying attack speed is a must where melee is concerned. It's somewhat similar to the combo rule; the more attacks something can make in succession, the weaker each attack generally is by comparison. A revolver can fire six times, a missile only once. And yes, I got that from Bleach. Any questions? On aiming, that's really the way it should be. Later on they might throw in some limited magic-based homing abilities (with varying weaknesses and strengths, like for example something that homes in on the highest heat source in the area getting screwed up with targeting when someone throws around fire or ice magic in a thoughtful manner), but seeing as to how that would be limited to either straight up magic users of a considerable level or people willing to shell out large sums of money for that ammo, it won't be too common that it will become imbalancing. On projectile speeds, that also is the way it should be. An arrow isn't very varied from one form to the next, except for the ones designed for specific bows. However, considering the very nature of magic, it makes sense that some spell types would be at or less than walking speed while others would be near instantaneous. And if I discern it correctly, you just hinted at you being in beta. Is that true?

That's not this, that's the robot killing off everyone in the chain of command down to a chosen person in a misguided attempt at making the government less corrupt. This is a COMPLETE reset (with no intended deaths) of the government, with strings attatched. See the difference? Yeah, there's probably going to be some difficulty with going to a gold standard. But, from the looks of it, they probably already have that particular headache sorted out. If you look at the confirmations page on the home page, and take into account when this was officially passed, then you can probably figure out that they already have all this in order. Besides, we have no clue just how much precious metal is under government control. I don't think that this is presuming that the world is perfect. In fact, I think that this is presuming that the world is (at least the government is, anyway) pretty much gone to s**t. But yeah, this would leave us wide open for the 6 months-1 year it would take to get everything in order. We'd need some serious backup in order for this to work. However, if you look at the Confirmations page of the official website, at least a few nations are already prepared to help us during the transition. This might not be the best protection that could be offered, but it would help. I'm still waiting to get a transcript of this bill. If any of you can find it, I'd appreciate it. EDIT: Please look at the first post. I was a bit off in my guess as to which was the official website of the NESARA. You'll find it there. Oh, and by the way, am I the only one who thinks that the anacronym actually sounds like it could be a real word? I don't know, maybe I'm wierd. :ugeek:

What in the f***? I just have one question. Why isn't the US government going after these people for pedophilia?

That counds like a virtual purge of all government as we know it. Almost in a communist manner to with all that money balancing. Only more peaceful, due to the recall of troops. The problem is...it is destined to fail. Recalling troops would leave us rediculously vulnerable...the government purge would leave us with inexperienced representatives. So, on the positive side, everynoe would be financially better off. On the down side...we'd probably all be killed by a foreign nation. Yeah, the main problem to this is the fact that we need some time to get everything in order after the hard reset. However, from the looks of how it would turn out (for example, our currency would go back to being backed by gold and other precious materials), it would overall boost our stability and help streamline the government in general. The only real problem is whether other groups/nations would give us the grace period required to get everything straight. We'd have a hard time of dealing with any threats while the transition is in effect.

EDIT: It appears that I was a tad off about which was actually the official website for the proposed act. The page I previously linked to is apparently an offshoot act from the original. You can still find it here. I apologize for the inconvenience. http://nesara.org/main/index.htm That is the original bill, proposed by the original creator of it, a man by the name of Harvey Barnard. I'll look through it and tell you a little of what it looks to be, but right now it looks more like a financial reset rather than a full governmental one.

Archery and magic IS in. Also, I disagree slightly with skatedog. Equipment WILL be important, just not as big a factor as others, like player skill. Unless if they are VERY good at combat, an unequipped person will get laid out by an equipped one, if it works how I suspect it will. Also, keep in mind that all zerg tactics are supposedly kept in check by the game's mechanics, even the naked variety. If the difference between equipped and unequipped was TOO marginal, than crafters would be put out of a job.

At the moment, yes, it's going to be too costly to mine other planets. However, once we are capable of building both sizable space stations with suitable equipment and can travel cross-planet in a reasonable (1-2 weeks, I guess) time, mining will become very viable. Need iron? Mars is practically made out of it, or at least covered in it (that red dust is iron oxide, AKA rust). And we don't even know what sort of random things might show up in the asteroid belt. Yeah, this will probably be about 25-35 years off before we can even really consider this sort of thing, but we ARE going to have the tech to pull it off around that time. It's just a matter of patience.

Yeah, this is PROBABLY going to be worth the time and effort put into it. The whole part about wanting to live forever set off some alarm bells for me (who in their right mind would want an ETERNITY of putting up with humanity's bulls***?), but the rest of it sounds like it could be useful, and actually worth the effort. Sure, SOME measure of safeguards should be placed (see the Terminator series for an example) when we get to where this could become a problem that couldn't be contained otherwise, but other than that I say full steam ahead. You never know which rabbit hole you jump into will lead to Wonderland. Oh, and on the above post, I agree. Unless if we either use excess from mountains (to Hell with that; that would just make things worse overall) or scrape stuff from the sea floor (not even going to go into that), we can't create something without resources. Meaning, we'll need to be able to reach either other planets or (the best option, probably) the asteroid field(s) surrounding this solar system to be able to do anything on that scale. While strip-mining a barren planet might not screw any ecosystems over (what ecosystems? :P ), it might mess with the way that gravity holds our planet in place orbiting the sun. You know how when you remove an electron from an atom that the rest are held tighter? Same principle. We might move the planet out of the "golden path" and make it uninhabitable. Which is why the asteroid belts are a better option; a lot more of it, and the big ones are farther away from the star at the core of our system, helping mitigate the effect of mining them.

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