KnightDisciple
Love God. Do Right. Fear No Man.
- Location
- Midwest, USA
Story/game updates preferred above front-page updates. Turns are keeping things fluid enough they can change anyways...
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Ace Combat XCOM: Enemy Skies
- Thread starter hYGP
- Start date
Nixeu
Lord of Madness, Harbinger of Llamas
- Location
- Your nightmares.
Uh...I think you might actually be overestimating my intelligence, or at least my education and sense of speed. 300 m/s seemed low, but not entirely out of the question to me. At least at the time. In retrospect, yeah, that is insanely low for interplanetary travel. But I need to actively think about it to realize that.
I'm not actually very good with spatial reasoning, nor do I get into conversations like this much. Worse, my physics background is basically nonexistent, or at least highly limited, slanted towards concepts rather than numbers, and esoteric, because I was forced by circumstance to drop out of high school before physics came up. I know significantly more about quantum physics than I do about Newtonian or relativistic physics.
All I know is what I've taught myself through looking things up, the few conversations like this I've had, things I've picked up from family friends in the astronomy field, stuff from hard science fiction novels, and a few physics related calculus problems. I have to work to grasp the scales involved, and I'm afraid my mental "scale" was stuck on "orbital velocities" when I read that. That seemed reasonable enough on those scales. Which is also why my knee-jerk response was "wait, why km/s, I haven't seen a single thing using that in any of the stuff I've seen recently on the subject,it seems rare".
So yeah, the issue is I'm actually maybe even more poorly informed than most people, and certainly most of those you've discussed this with. I'm definitely the uninformed one here. Because you're absolutely right, I should have realized that speed was too low. I just don't deal with the math side of this kind of thing enough to know intuitively what's a reasonable speed. I don't have the numbers embedded firmly in my skull, including the exact distances between planets. Hell, I usually need to look up how much c is. Though, to be fair, I tend to need to look up Avogadro's Number, which I deal with much more frequently. Mostly for the exact power of the ten, which often evades me. Holding raw numbers in my head is not my strongest suit. Formulas, sure, but not raw values.
So yes, I am rather firmly in the "amateur enthusiast without much grasp of the math" category here. I apologize for the confusion and the argument, but I really would appreciate it if you made some concessions for those of us who aren't quite so apt with the numbers involved here. Some of us are, indeed, "painfully ignorant", and it is nice when people who actually have a feel for things make things nice and clear for those of us most likely to screw up, or not understand.
There's a decent chunk of this thread that is probably just taking your word for it, because you seem to know what you're talking about. I try not to, but then, I enjoy fact-checking. And even I'll do it when I don't see a point in doubting it, often when numbers come up, rather than stuff I feel more comfortable with. I think you're assuming a degree of knowledge from us that may not actually be there. Certainly are for me.
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
why not lithobrake
- Location
- Austria
This is not KSP quest.
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
CHARLIE BURNS: b-but
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
[pauses]
OK.
I can totally understand.
It felt like you were accusing me of being stupid, because you seemed to think I had specifically adopted a very unreasonable (absurdly low) speed estimate. There's a difference between deliberately adopting "300 m/s" as a reasonable speed, and not happening to notice that it's absurd when someone else adopts it. The latter requires you to make claims without doing your homework in the background; the latter just requires you to not have a head for figures.
I'm sure YOU wouldn't claim "300 m/s is a reasonable speed" without first doing some math and taking some care and realizing, well, it isn't. Despite all you say here and in the following paragraphs, I remain sure of it. By the same token, I implicitly thought "Nixeu thinks 300 m/s is unreasonable, and attributes to me the absurd claim that it is reasonable." Which I found somewhat insulting, because I do try to do my homework on mathematical things. Even if, well... sometimes I did that homework fifteen years ago, in effect, and learned certain skills then that I now use reflexively, I did that. And you'd do it too, if by different paths and with a different distribution of which tasks are easy or hard, if you were trying to answer the same questions.
With all of that being said, I'm glad you're pulling back from the "the way you wrote this is bad and unreasonable because I misunderstood it." I can totally respect and sympathize with misunderstandings over units, and it's not that I want to cause them... I just dislike being blamed for them. It's sort of like having someone who just listened to your song yelling at you because they misheard the lyrics.
I want us to work together going forwards... but for reference, criticizing other people's work because you misunderstood them is a really good way to infuriate them. I get it now, but...
...this is dumb, but I want to post it anyways.
From the Balcony
"Ugly son of a bitch, isn't it?"
"Damn ugly-hey do you think it's got a, you know..."
"What?"
"You know, any, alien junk?"
"I think he's got lots of alien junk"
"Not what I-Hey Vahlen! Doc, does the alien have a dick?"
Doctor Valhen groaned as she turned to face the slack-jawed peanut gallery who had invaded her research hanger. The sudden discovery of a live alien had outpaced efforts to lock down the interior of the base, and several of the off duty pilots had congregated in the research hanger to watch events and jabber on and on. She wished that the constant low-level alert didn't require most of them to hang around the base at all hours, which lead to many bored pilots looking for entertainment. Why couldn't they take up bowling, lifting weights, or video games? But no, from almost the moment they had tried to open up an alien spacecraft, one of another of the pilots was hanging around. She had banished them behind a line of yellow tape on the floor, but they kept cycling through. Now that the alien had been removed from the Bulb ship, they never seemed to leave and they kept up a constant chatter that was grating on her nerves.
"Thank you for that insightful question. I will make a note to make that the very last topic of investigation, however, as I do not believe that question of that nature are relevant or welcome here." The entire Razgriz squadron-all of whom were older than her, she was fairly certain-erupted in a variety of 'aw come on' and 'killjoy' and the like. Were all the pilots going to be like this-distracting her and the rest of the science crew with frivolous questions?
----
Trigger leaned on the freshly installed barrier set up dividing the 'viewing area' from the actual research hanger, which was sprouting even more partitions and subdivisions as he watched. Someone in a haz-mat suit was spraying disinfectant on the floor, and rolling screens had been moved in, but if you stood right here and looked through the crack... "Hey, Húxiān. What do you think? Did that alien volunteer...or was he like the Spare Squadron, a prisoner given wings, sealed away in a cell he couldn't escape from?"
The woman in question looked at him for a moment and then started to reply slowly. "Trigger, don't tell me you sympathize with them-we have no way of answering that anyways. If they're volunteers or prisoners, how would we even tell?"
Trigger looked at her, tearing his eyes away from the scene before him-someone with a camera had shown up and was apparently taking shots of the Alien. "Húxiān, they haven't exactly been trying to rescue their pilot. Nothing like a search-and-rescue flight. Somehow...I don't think they're very nice guys, whoever's in charge up there." She considered that and offered the opinion that maybe, the aliens didn't know there were any survivors, or maybe they expected the bulb ships to be more resiliant to disassembly, and would contain the pilots alive until the aliens won. Trigger had his own thoughts, considerably darker and more worrying ones. He didn't give voice to any of them though, as he could tell that she was just as worried as he was. If this was how the aliens treated their own...then what was the fate they had planned for humanity?
From the Balcony
"Ugly son of a bitch, isn't it?"
"Damn ugly-hey do you think it's got a, you know..."
"What?"
"You know, any, alien junk?"
"I think he's got lots of alien junk"
"Not what I-Hey Vahlen! Doc, does the alien have a dick?"
Doctor Valhen groaned as she turned to face the slack-jawed peanut gallery who had invaded her research hanger. The sudden discovery of a live alien had outpaced efforts to lock down the interior of the base, and several of the off duty pilots had congregated in the research hanger to watch events and jabber on and on. She wished that the constant low-level alert didn't require most of them to hang around the base at all hours, which lead to many bored pilots looking for entertainment. Why couldn't they take up bowling, lifting weights, or video games? But no, from almost the moment they had tried to open up an alien spacecraft, one of another of the pilots was hanging around. She had banished them behind a line of yellow tape on the floor, but they kept cycling through. Now that the alien had been removed from the Bulb ship, they never seemed to leave and they kept up a constant chatter that was grating on her nerves.
"Thank you for that insightful question. I will make a note to make that the very last topic of investigation, however, as I do not believe that question of that nature are relevant or welcome here." The entire Razgriz squadron-all of whom were older than her, she was fairly certain-erupted in a variety of 'aw come on' and 'killjoy' and the like. Were all the pilots going to be like this-distracting her and the rest of the science crew with frivolous questions?
----
Trigger leaned on the freshly installed barrier set up dividing the 'viewing area' from the actual research hanger, which was sprouting even more partitions and subdivisions as he watched. Someone in a haz-mat suit was spraying disinfectant on the floor, and rolling screens had been moved in, but if you stood right here and looked through the crack... "Hey, Húxiān. What do you think? Did that alien volunteer...or was he like the Spare Squadron, a prisoner given wings, sealed away in a cell he couldn't escape from?"
The woman in question looked at him for a moment and then started to reply slowly. "Trigger, don't tell me you sympathize with them-we have no way of answering that anyways. If they're volunteers or prisoners, how would we even tell?"
Trigger looked at her, tearing his eyes away from the scene before him-someone with a camera had shown up and was apparently taking shots of the Alien. "Húxiān, they haven't exactly been trying to rescue their pilot. Nothing like a search-and-rescue flight. Somehow...I don't think they're very nice guys, whoever's in charge up there." She considered that and offered the opinion that maybe, the aliens didn't know there were any survivors, or maybe they expected the bulb ships to be more resiliant to disassembly, and would contain the pilots alive until the aliens won. Trigger had his own thoughts, considerably darker and more worrying ones. He didn't give voice to any of them though, as he could tell that she was just as worried as he was. If this was how the aliens treated their own...then what was the fate they had planned for humanity?
Icipall
Don't worry, we can fanfix that!
- Location
- Cold snow fields of Finland
Truly, they're asking the important questions.
Good questions that make sense for them to think.
Nixeu
Lord of Madness, Harbinger of Llamas
- Location
- Your nightmares.
Nah, it's fine, I get you. It was less a critique of your work, and more a thing on presentation methods that minimize confusion. But yeah, sorry about all that. I'll try to be better about it in the future.[pauses]
OK.
I can totally understand.
It felt like you were accusing me of being stupid, because you seemed to think I had specifically adopted a very unreasonable (absurdly low) speed estimate. There's a difference between deliberately adopting "300 m/s" as a reasonable speed, and not happening to notice that it's absurd when someone else adopts it. The latter requires you to make claims without doing your homework in the background; the latter just requires you to not have a head for figures.
I'm sure YOU wouldn't claim "300 m/s is a reasonable speed" without first doing some math and taking some care and realizing, well, it isn't. Despite all you say here and in the following paragraphs, I remain sure of it. By the same token, I implicitly thought "Nixeu thinks 300 m/s is unreasonable, and attributes to me the absurd claim that it is reasonable." Which I found somewhat insulting, because I do try to do my homework on mathematical things. Even if, well... sometimes I did that homework fifteen years ago, in effect, and learned certain skills then that I now use reflexively, I did that. And you'd do it too, if by different paths and with a different distribution of which tasks are easy or hard, if you were trying to answer the same questions.
With all of that being said, I'm glad you're pulling back from the "the way you wrote this is bad and unreasonable because I misunderstood it." I can totally respect and sympathize with misunderstandings over units, and it's not that I want to cause them... I just dislike being blamed for them. It's sort of like having someone who just listened to your song yelling at you because they misheard the lyrics.
I want us to work together going forwards... but for reference, criticizing other people's work because you misunderstood them is a really good way to infuriate them. I get it now, but...
...Wait, isn't Trigger deaf? And thus he'd need to be looking at Huxian to "hear" her in the first place? Unless he's wearing a helmet that has a HUD and mic setup that translates audio into text, like how he has the HUD in his plane he set up to turn incoming audio messages into text form, I guess.
Other than that, I actually rather like this. Seems perfectly in-character for someone who has been through what Trigger has, and makes him more relatable.
Well shit, I haven't played AC7, so I didn't know that. His wiki page doesn't seem to include that either. Thanks for the tip, but now I don't know how to parse this or fix it.
Icipall
Don't worry, we can fanfix that!
- Location
- Cold snow fields of Finland
That's a thing for this quest, there were no indicators in AC7 that he was deaf.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Evil Vahlen Response:Truly, they're asking the important questions.
"I said the alien was seriously injured. I don't know."
[All male pilots cringe simultaneously]
Nixeu
Lord of Madness, Harbinger of Llamas
- Location
- Your nightmares.
There's a few ways. I could probably do a quick rewrite if I didn't currently have the attention span of a damn gnat, because lack of ADHD medication due to insurance giving us the run-around. This isn't a new medication, either. But it's fairly minor to tweak, honestly.
Or maybe Trigger picked up a text-to-speech app and that helmet thing I suggested, I dunno.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
Or Huxian has learned sign language fairly quickly?
Nixeu
Lord of Madness, Harbinger of Llamas
- Location
- Your nightmares.
I'm being charitable and assuming most of his team knows sign language. That still doesn't change the fact that him facing away from Huxian and beihg focused on the alien means he can't either read her lips or see any signs she might make.Or Huxian has learned sign language fairly quickly?
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
So she boops him on the elbow and gets his attention. She's Huxian, I can't imagine she's shy about getting people's attention when she wants it.
January 23rd to 28th, Part 2: Problems Solved and Unsolved
- Location
- Somewhere over the rainbow
Long Caster went to Daniel Snow's room with lots of things the Logistics Division could do. Then he walked into Daniel's room.
Energy drinks pile up on Daniel's desk and broken pencils litter the floor. Dark circles hang under his eyes as his hands shake just a little bit and his bloodshot eyes look up from Long Caster's first assignments.
"Nope. No can do, sir. Too fucking much to do, not enough time to do it. Can't handle the factory parts and the Usean industrial infrastructure and screwing with the market and the planes and the fuck i'm forgetting something but I know it's important. No way in hell it's all happening this week," Daniel Snow replied, shakily drinking another swig of his seventh or ninth can.
"Okay," Long Caster said, and modified his assignments. "Better?"
Daniel glanced at them. "Industrial market shit's gonna wait until we have our shit under control. I'll get you your fuckin' planes and factory, and maybe some of the defenses. No promises."
"That's all I need from you," Long Caster said, getting up. "Thanks, Daniel."
"Sweat it," Daniel Snow tiredly waved off.
Industrial Market Manipulation paused.
As a result of this mess, Bradford has begun to tighten things up. Logistics now gets Projects; a certain number will be dedicated to keeping track of incoming IC, another number of logisticians dedicated to purchases, etc.
Plane factory complete.
Current Project: Selatapuran Base Defenses
Finally, the Fort Grays Island Base integration completes. Unfortunately, the situation is pretty much exactly what Bradford hinted at: Few planes, fewer pilots. Most of the squadrons had been allowed to leave at the end of hostilities, or something approximating it, and the few remaining were relatively untrained. Druid and Bard Squadrons were the only squadrons remaining on that base, nowadays, and they weren't the comparative heavy hitters that Golem and Mage squadrons were said to be.
Their logistical arms, however, were exactly as intact as hoped.
Much to the relief of Daniel Snow, who immediately put them to work managing defense construction.
Fort Grays Island Base now listed. B-tier Druid and Bard Squadrons on station. New aircraft:
2x E-767 AWACS platforms.
4x KC-10 Tankers.
7x F-16 Falcons.
5x F/A-18E/F Super Hornets.
Bradford nods. "I'll get right on that, sir, just as soon as I get through the pile of other reports demanding your attention."
Squadrons are in three states of Readiness: HIGH ALERT, ACTIVE DUTY, and UNAVAILABLE. At high alert, everyone is ready to scramble in under five minutes. It is a very stressful state of existence, and leaves them unable to work on other projects. At Active Duty, pilots are able to contribute to other tasks, but will be later to scramble than high alert. They will be slightly less stressed, but it does not permit pilots to rest. UNAVAILABLE allows your pilots to go on vacation and rest, but they will be unavailable to scramble or for other projects.
All full Squadrons are on HIGH ALERT. Waltz Squadron is on ACTIVE DUTY.
...
"Long Caster, I know we've got aliens to worry about, but...sorry, I can't find a good way to say this. Please, Long Caster, can you tell me when I can visit my son again?" Jaeger asks one day.
Keep Squadrons at current readiness state at current locations?
[] [READ] Yes
[] [READ] No, Reassign (write-in).
"Sir, uh, thank you for trusting me so much, but...are you sure we need to hire quite these many experts? It's a lot of money, even if we paid them less than industry standard," he said, scratching his head abashedly.
"...how much is industry standard, again?" Long Caster asked.
"Oh, five or six digits, depending on how good they are," Adam replied.
Long Caster ran some mental math. According to that...
"We're, uh, paying our guys about four to five times that much," Long Caster sheepishly said.
Adam blinked.
"Excuse me?"
"We're paying our guys four to five times that much?" Long Caster asked. "I think we can afford that much, at least."
"Pardon. How big is our budget again?"
When he heard the number, Adam Khatuna's jaw dropped. Raising his hands to his lips, he began to breathe rapidly.
"Are you....alright, Adam?"
"Yes, perfectly fine, I think I just need to sit down for a minute or sixty," Adam dazedly replied.
Training and Tactics Department Established! 15 analysts recruited for Training and Tactics Department. Both analysts will join the pool, but the lead one sets the tone.
Choose the lead analyst.
[] [Tac] Jasper Rhodes
One of Osea's many, many think tank leaders, he agreed to the request from the IUN to contribute to XCOM USEA. He believes in an approach centered around a decisive aerial battle, and will likely advocate for such an approach as leader of the project.
[] [Tac] Georgie Lang
Hailing from Comona Islands, Georgie has seen his fair share of large aerial battles, and thus completely disagrees with Jasper Rhodes on the importance of a decisive aerial battle. Georgie holds instead that the critical component is for air forces to strike disproportionately at critical targets and refuse battle until the hostile air force is completely hobbled.
[] [Tac] Angus Irwin
The lone Emmerian out of the fifteen analysts, Angus actually disagrees with the other two lead thinkers; after all, Emmeria decisively lost aerial supremacy and won the war anyway. No, Angus holds; since a military does not hold territory without its own soldiers on the ground the most critical thing an air force has to do is ground support.
Dispute mediation is...going, considering the two of them are cranky old men who are convinced of their own experience and don't need advice on how to be a functioning adult from kids half their age.
Ugh. Elderly.
At least they're speaking to each other, even if it's one word at a time.
Mobius Three through Five arrive on the base on Wednesday. The whole crew is there to welcome them; Strider and Cyclops and Waltz in the back fending off his squadron with his one working arm. In the front, Mobius One and Baker stand in wingman formation, even on the ground.
The very first thing Mobius Three does when he gets off the plane is to look at Mobius One, and then Baker.
"Wow, starting on them young, boss?"
"And fuck you too," Baker said.
"Are you offering?" Mobius Three asked, spreading his arms and grin wide.
Baker rolled her head and cracked her knuckles.
"I guess I am," she replied. "Bend over."
Mobius Three blinked. Behind him, Mobius Four and Five started laughing.
"Boss, she's funny. Can we keep her?" Mobius Five said, laughing.
Everyone in the crowd could practically feel Mobius One's eyeroll.
"Bah. If anything, you should be asking me whether you get to stay on, lugnuts," he replied.
"Sheesh, so harsh, boss. No love for us?" Mobius Four said.
"Meh, we'll see after a battle or four," Mobius One casually said.
And that was that.
A-tier pilots Mobius Three, Four, and Five added to Selatapura Air Force Base Active Duty, under Mobius Squadron.
International enthusiasm for Orbital-clearing satellite project is enthusiastic; many nations are downright happy that you're choosing to ressurrect these projects. An old design from before the Usean coup d'etat is floated; codename MEDUSA, it was a satellite designed to shoot down and deflect Stonehenge debris. Osea's president insists that an Arkbird would do it and properly cow the aliens into submission like the Arsenal Bird Vigilance did, etc.
In all of this, Avril and Captain Nagase on her walker point out that XCOM USEA has the Pilgrim One in the Lighthouse and a TLS system that doesn't look like it'd work on the aliens but might as a giant laser broom. This seems like a self-solving problem, they all but state.
Approve Project Dove?
[] [Dove] Yes (New Engineering project started, Pilgrim One and TLS consumed, 100 IC required)
[] [Dove] No
Finding Mihaly is surprisingly difficult. Trying to get through his granddaughters running a protective detail on him is equally difficult. Both tasks pale in comparison to the difficulty of convincing Mihaly.
"Not interested."
Long Caster tries to convince him otherwise. Mihaly simply says nothing for the rest of Long Caster's short stay, staring up at the blue sky out of the window.
It's obvious that Mihaly doesn't really care about everything Long Caster tries to levy.
His heart is somewhere else.
Stephen Pulford happily agrees, and takes this to mean Long Caster agrees with him in the ongoing dispute, which does not help things.
Rosa Cossette D'Elise consents, and suggests some of her own people for the Gunther Bay Emergency Administration liaison office. She also pointedly asks for help since XCOM USEA is kind of taking a lot of international aid and not sending much over to, you know, their hosts.
Voslage's interim Prime Minister Mira Vacik is initially guarded, but throws her support behind the initiative completely when she hears about the international recognition part.
The Erusean Restorationist Forces simply responds that they will put down the insurrectionists, and will not recognize these illegitimate claims. And then they go and launch an offensive on all fronts, as the Free Eruseans begin to seriously stagger following the rebellion against the Free Eruseans from the newly formed state of Directory of Rainier, to the north.
The Directory of Rainier, of course, is all too happy to proactively send out messages asking for international recognition against the terrible Free Eruseans and Erusean Restorationist Forces. The Erusean Resotorationist Forces turn right around and declare that they have hard evidence of the Directory of Rainier's war crimes on behest of their warlord military junta.
Just when things were looking up.
"This would be pretty easily resolved if you agreed to launch a strike mission," Pulford drily responded. Mira Vacik agreed too, though she seemed more pragmatically interested in getting the Restorationist and Free Erusean forces to spend their energies against XCOM USEA than her own people. Princess D'Elise voiced skepticism; how would this mission to "bomb the Restorationists to the negotiating table" work this time, when historically it's never really worked?
Ultimately, however, since Long Caster has command over the pilots, they agreed to defer to Long Caster's opinion.
Launch Operation?
[] [Op] Yes (Costs assigned pilots, 0 Focus, ???)
[] [Op] No (Costs nothing, diplomacy continues, ???)
Towards the end of the week, Adam finally comes through.
"So run me through what you did here?" Long Caster asks again.
"Sir, I, uh, was thinking that to hire enough staff we'd need to hire a consulting firm to do most of the work for us. Then, well, I remembered the size of our budget, and realized that we could just... buy one outright. Then I double checked our budget, and, uh, that's why we now own a majority share in Zane Consulting Group?"
"Huh," Long Caster said. "I think I need to sit down for a minute."
"Me too," Adam said. "Me too."
Zane Consulting Group "hired"! Will need four weeks to fully transfer, but they can send three teams of twenty over right now to boost the numbers of relevant divisions. Can only be assigned to Administration sections.
[] [Zane] Which divisions inside Administration get how many teams?
ngl not very happy with the update, but have it anyway
again, standard disclaimers about NPCs not being QM mouthpieces and should be considered characters voicing their own opinions and fucking themselves up
- Location
- Somewhere over the rainbow
Ahh. Couldn't respond earlier because I needed the update in my text box, but I have the Sotoan region down as being inspired by Arabic and Persian influences; Arabic influences in towards the western deserts, Persian influences towards the eastern sea. Raikala, basically on the eastern border of the Sotoan Treaty Organization, is mostly inspired by Persian. Likewise, the western coast of the Verusan Federation is Persian-ish, but the eastern coast draws more from Indian influences (there's a pretty big mountain range between the eastern and western halves that kept them relatively culturally distinct before).
i haven't threadmarked this yet because if you literally just replaced Trigger with Count this would be 1000% top level canon.
From the Balcony: After Technicals: (1000% top level canon, ???)
Aw hey that works. Keeping Trigger in the scene as well thought because...well whatever.
From the Balcony: After Technicals
"Ugly son of a bitch, isn't it?"
"Damn ugly-hey do you think it's got a, you know..."
"What?"
"You know, any, alien junk?"
"I think he's got lots of alien junk"
"Not what I-Hey Vahlen! Doc, does the alien have a dick?"
Doctor Valhen groaned as she turned to face the slack-jawed peanut gallery who had invaded her research hanger. The sudden discovery of a live alien had outpaced efforts to lock down the interior of the base, and several of the off duty pilots had congregated in the research hanger to watch events and jabber on and on. She wished that the constant low-level alert didn't require most of them to hang around the base at all hours, which lead to many bored pilots looking for entertainment. Why couldn't they take up bowling, lifting weights, or video games? But no, from almost the moment they had tried to open up an alien spacecraft, one of another of the pilots was hanging around. She had banished them behind a line of yellow tape on the floor, but they kept cycling through. Now that the alien had been removed from the Bulb ship, they never seemed to leave and they kept up a constant chatter that was grating on her nerves.
"Thank you for that insightful question. I will make a note to make that the very last topic of investigation, however, as I do not believe that question of that nature are relevant or welcome here." The entire Razgriz squadron-all of whom were older than her, she was fairly certain-erupted in a variety of 'aw come on' and 'killjoy' and the like. Were all the pilots going to be like this-distracting her and the rest of the science crew with frivolous questions?
----
Count leaned on the freshly installed barrier set up dividing the 'viewing area' from the actual research hanger, which was sprouting even more partitions and subdivisions as Count watched. He wasn't alone-Trigger was leaning against the wall, and Húxiān was also leaning on the metal barrier. It wasn't really meant to stop anything, it was just a polite request to stay on this side of it while the researchers worked. Someone in a haz-mat suit was spraying disinfectant on the floor, and rolling screens had been moved in, but if you stood right here and looked through the crack... "Hey, Húxiān. What do you think? Did that alien volunteer...or was he like the Spare Squadron, a prisoner given wings, sealed away in a cell he couldn't escape from?" He was glad Trigger couldn't read his lips, even if the other man had similar thoughts. They'd been in the Spares together, after all.
The woman in question looked at him for a moment and then started to reply slowly. "Count, don't tell me you sympathize with them-we have no way of answering that anyways. If they're volunteers or prisoners, how would we even tell?"
Count looked at her, tearing his eyes away from the scene before him-someone with a camera had shown up and was apparently taking shots of the Alien. "Húxiān, they haven't exactly been trying to rescue their pilot. Nothing like a search-and-rescue flight. Somehow...I don't think they're very nice guys, whoever's in charge up there." She considered that and offered the opinion that maybe, the aliens didn't know there were any survivors, or maybe they expected the bulb ships to be more resilient to disassembly, and would contain the pilots alive until the aliens won. Count had his own thoughts, considerably darker and more worrying ones. He didn't give voice to any of them though, as he could tell that she was just as worried as he was, and Trigger might be thinking the same thing. If this was how the aliens treated their own...then what was the fate they had planned for humanity?
- Location
- Meycauayan, Bulacan, Philippines
Ok. So... @huhYeahGoodPoint, for Jaeger to be able to see his son again, do we have to reassign Strider Squadron to XCOM Osea? Or not necessarily?
Folks, what do you think about trading Strider Squadron and Cyclops Squadron for Falco and Gryphus Squadron?
Remember what the XCOM Osea commander said? They lack skilled pilots as opposed to planes.
And wow. Mihaly is a bust. My hopes for RC drone fighters now completely lies in the hands of omakes and Tracers in the Sky players.
Speaking of that...will Annabelle "Pixy's #1 fan" Scarborough make an appearance in your update, @huhYeahGoodPoint?
Folks, what do you think about trading Strider Squadron and Cyclops Squadron for Falco and Gryphus Squadron?
Remember what the XCOM Osea commander said? They lack skilled pilots as opposed to planes.
And wow. Mihaly is a bust. My hopes for RC drone fighters now completely lies in the hands of omakes and Tracers in the Sky players.
Speaking of that...will Annabelle "Pixy's #1 fan" Scarborough make an appearance in your update, @huhYeahGoodPoint?
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Nixeu
Lord of Madness, Harbinger of Llamas
- Location
- Your nightmares.
I'm guessing more "don't keep every squadron on High Alert constantly". A rotation would probably be best.
Everyone is lacking more in skilled pilots than planes. I'd very much prefer to keep Strider Squadron here. Cyclops Squadron is more acceptable, but possibly less of a gain for them. Falco 1 is SS, and Gryphus 1 is S.
I'll also note that the numbers directly under the other XCOM branches aren't the full story, as we saw during our last engagement. "Elcero" is currently employed by the Nordlands, not XCOM, and there are other cases of countries with their own Aces, that aren't part of XCOM, who seem to join in on fighting defensive fights. That we get thst much less probably has something to do with having a huge chunk of our continent caught up in a civil war.
Actually, Osea has a lot of high-level pilots. Just not that many under direct control of XCOM. What that means is that, at least for repelling alien attacks, Osea is probably doing the best of all the other continents. Of course, they've also got Belka. But then, every silver lining's got a touch of grey, doesn't it?
Icipall
Don't worry, we can fanfix that!
- Location
- Cold snow fields of Finland
More pilots, good. Spare AWACS platforms, good. Increasing the number of our tankers to 6, good. New planes, trash. We need to buy more F14Xs in the future.
Hell yeah!
Nice to see a plan come together.
I was afraid of this, but had to try.
God fucking dammit, those *grumblegtumblegrumble*.
We need to put those two in the same room more often, these guys are a riot!
To give people vacations so that they could, for example, visit their relatives, we need to assign them as UNAVAILABLE.
@huhYeahGoodPoint
What are the stress levels of our squadrons looking like? Also, will starting Project Dove take any of our engineers away from their current projects?
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
I am short on time so this reaction post is all I've got for about 8 hours.
Notably, Strider Squadron has been on deployment a LONG damn time- this war, and the Lighthouse War. Many others have had at least some down-time of some kind.
OK, we need to be mindful of this. At least SOME squadrons should be pushed back to ACTIVE DUTY, while others are kept on HIGH ALERT. That, sadly, even goes for our SSR-tier ace squadrons.
I nominate Pixy, who's a lunatic, for continuous HIGH ALERT duty. I'll need more time to think than I have right now to figure out the rest.
This is part of why I wanted to vote 'funny.'
Therefore, Rhodes.
Also, obligatory chills at five-ship formations.
Well, @kilopi505 , that explains why we haven't been able to recruit her. Years of zero-g exposure, and possibly radiation exposure, on Pilgrim One. She probably needs extensive physical therapy to be combat-ready, at a minimum, and may never be. I kind of hoped the craft had spin-gravity or something, but I guess... not?
Also notably, lasers don't work for shit against alien hull armor, so this is no longer viable as a space-based superweapon platform or defense installation. This would be, specifically, a choice to put down space debris. We can surely do it, but maybe/maybe not this week.
But I want to hear what other people think.
Reading down, I think we need to throw most of the consultants at Logistics. I recommend one team for market manipulation (like what much of civilian industry already does) and one for finishing the base defenses quickly, because if we try to bomb the Restorationists to the peace table, we're gonna need some good base defenses.
Hm. Fort Grays is a long way away, so the bases can only more or less support each other. For right now I'd say we need to keep our striking force concentrated near the Lighthouse, and have Fort Grays mostly just defending itself and sort of the immediate area around it. This is especially true if we're engaging in ongoing operations against the Eruseans.
I want to hug. I want to let Jaeger have a vacation. Maybe not right away, but soon.
Notably, Strider Squadron has been on deployment a LONG damn time- this war, and the Lighthouse War. Many others have had at least some down-time of some kind.
OK, we need to be mindful of this. At least SOME squadrons should be pushed back to ACTIVE DUTY, while others are kept on HIGH ALERT. That, sadly, even goes for our SSR-tier ace squadrons.
I nominate Pixy, who's a lunatic, for continuous HIGH ALERT duty. I'll need more time to think than I have right now to figure out the rest.
This is part of why I wanted to vote 'funny.'
Since the aliens get to engage and disengage at will, and fight primarily in the air, I'm pretty sure Irwin's out of the question. Since we lose face rapidly if aliens get to operate freely over Strangereal while we "wait to expose a critical target" and since we learn more with every battle, I'm pretty sure Lang is out of the question.
Therefore, Rhodes.
We may need to keep at this.
OK, I guess I am, and this is good. Hopefully we can get them up to S-rank.
Also, obligatory chills at five-ship formations.
Captain Nagase... on her walker... SHIT.
Well, @kilopi505 , that explains why we haven't been able to recruit her. Years of zero-g exposure, and possibly radiation exposure, on Pilgrim One. She probably needs extensive physical therapy to be combat-ready, at a minimum, and may never be. I kind of hoped the craft had spin-gravity or something, but I guess... not?
Also notably, lasers don't work for shit against alien hull armor, so this is no longer viable as a space-based superweapon platform or defense installation. This would be, specifically, a choice to put down space debris. We can surely do it, but maybe/maybe not this week.
And this is why I decided to vote 'hug.'
I say we sic Strider and Mobius squadrons on them and see what happens. Erusean Worst Nightmare will continue until they stop squabbling.
But I want to hear what other people think.
God I wanted to laugh and hug for this post at the same time, and this was a laugh moment.
Let's see, how about "two to Logistics, one to Human Resources?" Can we do that ,@huhYeahGoodPoint ?
Nixeu
Lord of Madness, Harbinger of Llamas
- Location
- Your nightmares.
Still has the same solution, that being "set up a rotation of some kind". That said, it might be good to move any family our pilots have to the base from which they operate, as is rather common IRL.
Sounds about right, though we might consider swapping one of our teams that's mostly A-class for one of the two solidly B-class Squadrons, just so that base has a slightly better defense. Two squadrons of only B-class pilots isn't great, when it comes to fighting off alien attacks.
Assuming we want to have some number of pilots in the states of High Alert, On Duty, and Unavailable at any given time, the best rotation would likely be to have Strider, Mobius, and Razgriz Squadrons on different "shifts". Division of the remaining forces might be trickier, as Salamander, Cyclops, Rigel, and Waltz squadrons are all very different in terms of pilot skill. Could probably get by with grouping Salamander and Waltz together, then pairing Pixy with Rigel and calling that roughly equivalent to the other two.
Having only two states (High Alert and On Duty, most likely) makes that slightly trickier, but I think we could probably manage by grouping Pixy with some other Squadron, and calling that equivalent to one of the protagonist wings.
Honestly, looking at our current squadron make-up, I'm half tempted to break up Cyclops Squadron and reassign them all to lead other teams. They're our strongest non-former protagonist Squadron, by a long-shot, and that means they unbalance work shifts, if we're attempting to make them. I'm very tempted to rework all of our non-protagonist wings, in-fact, so that the distribution of skilled pilots is more even.
Seconded. Amongst other things, I rather strongly disagree with Irwin on why Emmeria won the war: they did have aerial supremacy...in the form of Talisman and Garuda Team. The hell else do you call taking down the entire Aerial Fleet?
Sounds like a decent use of our existing resources, since lasers don't seem particularly effective against this foe.
I'm thinking we give some of the lower-ranked Squadrons a chance to hone themselves on a foe that can't easily outmaneuver them. Mobius Squadron is an excellent choice for team lead, as most of Mobius is currently A-class, and Mobius himself is excellent for intimidation. But I'm thinking their backup should be Rigel and either Salamander or Waltz Squadrons. Or maybe one of our new solid B-Ranker Squadrons, though their planes aren't great for the job.I say we sic Strider and Mobius squadrons on them and see what happens. Erusean Worst Nightmare will continue until they stop squabbling.
But I want to hear what other people think.
Mind you, a big chunk of our current planes lack stealth coating. May want to run with some of the older planes for this mission. If so, one or both of the B-Ranker Squadrons from Fort Grey would make good backup. Otherwise, we should break out the older planes, for those currently piloting the new Hellcat IIs.
- Location
- Mid-Atlantic
You're right in the medium term.
Right now the aliens may not even know that Fort Grays is a significant base of X-COM forces, so they're unlikely to attack it directly. For a turn or two I'd like to keep our forces concentrated and focus on fortifying Fort Grays into a tenable second base of operations.
Hm. Tempting.
Personally I think we should have a roughly "three up, one down" approach. Divide our force into quarters (say, Mobius, Razgriz, Strider, and Pixy+Cyclops), and have one quarter Unavailable, while the other three quarters are High Alert or Active Duty. I know it's stressful, but there IS a war on, and frankly it's probably a more favorable R&R schedule than most wartime militaries get. Obviously the division of forces above does not factor in Salamander, Waltz, Rigel, Druid, and Bard, but they can be fitted in with a comparable rotation among the 'junior varsity' forces.
I'm not so sure. Remember that in battle there are sharp differences between the kinds of tasks we give different units. High concentration of skill is a very useful asset to us, and dispersing talent widely doesn't necessarily make us more effective across the board.
"Air supremacy" means you have overwhelming air power everywhere you want it. "Air superiority" means you have enough power to do any one thing you want, but are not dominant at all times and in all places. During Ace Combat 6, the Estovakians enjoy air superiority for most of the game: their aerial fleet can show up at any one place and do more or less whatever it pleases. The Emmerians manage to preserve their own air force, and to prevent the Estovakians from leveraging their air superiority into supremacy, though. Eventually the Emmerians destroy the Aerial Fleet and the Estovakians lose air superiority entirely.
The main issue with this is that the Eruseans (all factions) no doubt have plenty of A-rank and B-rank pilots of their own, in planes of a quality not to be despised. If we don't send in our best against them, our forces are much more likely to take casualties during the battle.
I would suggest making the stealth planes available to our pilots but not, ah, required. We don't actually have that many F-22s and F-35s not already in use by one pilot or another, certainly not enough to equip entire squadrons.
We need to put Strider Squadron on vacation, basically- or at least rearrange squadrons so that Jaeger personally is on vacation.
Well, that, or build dependent housing here and get Jaeger's family here. That would work too, assuming Jaeger's family agrees. We could do that.
Osea itself, Osea the country, has a very large air force and presumably plenty of good pilots. The home nations of Falco and Gryphus One are smaller, and those aces are probably their only aces of note. Therefore, they will be more reluctant to accept their nations' aces going overseas to support another continent's X-COM operations.
That and, well, a big part of why we're doing well is that we have really good SSR-tier aces. Three of them, now. And a highly concentrated superplane force. Until we've done more to consolidate the defenses of Usea (reactivate Stonehenge, train up more S-tier local talent), we probably shouldn't be open to trading people away.
If we DID start trading people away, I'd start with Cyclops Squadron. They're S-tier and SS-tier, so they're good, but not so amazing that losing them would cripple us, especially if Mobius One can get his old war buddies whipped into shape soon.
...
Mysterious doddering babushka
[sets down one of the two canes she came in with]
[cackles evilly in Yuktobanian]
[smiles at Captain Bartlett, who blanches]
[X] [Zane] Two 20-person teams to Logistics, one 20-person team to Human Resources
It is immediately obvious that Logistics is desperately overworked given the scale of the tasks they're carrying out, and that Snow needs immediate relief and a huge pile of extra labor to get the job done without a complete meltdown. At the same time, we also need further expansion of personnel. So, there it is.
[X] [Tac] Jasper Rhodes
As noted earlier, I think this guy is the only reasonable choice.
Lang's doctrine is based on avoiding unwanted battle and hitting the enemy's critical weaknesses. We don't really have the political option of avoiding battle against the aliens, and we don't KNOW the aliens' weaknesses. This being an X-COM game, one of our big goals is to 'fight for information,' to learn more about the aliens themselves through the results of our battles. We can't do that by avoiding combat.
Irwin's doctrine is probably extremely good for fighting wars against Earthly opponents (remember that Emmeria has "Emmerian combined arms doctrine" listed as a special asset the same way that Osea has "an Arsenal Bird" listed). However, the aliens have yet to deploy ground troops, and our own ground troops aren't mobile enough to react in a timely manner to alien attacks that can hit anywhere on the continent at any time.
[X] [Dove] Write-In: Project Dove proposal noted and viewed favorably, pending personnel availability.
Just to be clear, Project Dove is a proposal to mount the TLS laser cannon we already have on the spacecraft Pilgrim One, to convert it into a sort of poor man's Arkbird for space debris clearance. Since we now know that TLS lasers are virtually useless against alien hull metal, this is probably the most productive thing we can do with the hardware.
I don't want to shut down Project Dove as in "NO! BAD IDEA!" but I also am wary of beginning it while we've got two significant engineering projects rolling. I'm also a bit concerned that if we put weapons on a spacecraft the aliens may react in dangerous ways. Hard to say.
Basically, I want to initiate Project Dove when we're prepared to do something with space, or when we have a clearer picture of what the aliens' own space presence is like.
[] [Op] Yes (Costs assigned pilots, 0 Focus, ???)
[] [Op] No (Costs nothing, diplomacy continues, ???)
[] [READ] No, Reassign (write-in).
Note that the decision to launch the mission against the Erusean conservatives is tied into our decision about which squadrons to use for the purpose, and correspondingly our decision to set alert status.
Now let's see, our order of battle is listed below, formatted as follows:
SquadronName (PilotDistribution, Equipment)
[Note: the F-18E is the single seat Super Hornet, the F-18F is the twin seat Super Hornet, so there is a very real difference in practice, but one that mostly matters for the kind of mission where your plane needs a weapons officer]
SELATAPURA
Strider (SSR+SS+2S, 1*CFA-44, 2*F-22, 1*F-14X-EML)
Mobius (SSR+S+3A, 1*CFA-44, 3*F-14X-EML, 1*F-35)
Razgriz (SSR+SS+2S, X-02A)
Cyclops (SS+3S, F-14X-EML)
Rigel (2A+2B, F-14X-EML)
Waltz (3B, F-14X, 1 EML)
FORT GRAYS
Druid (4B, F-18E?)
Bard (4B, F-16)
Fort Grays is at the moment basically incapable of responding to anything but minor alien probing attacks; a single squadron of alien fighters would probably beat or chew them up. We pressingly need to re-equip them with F-14Xs and distribute railguns; if we can't get EMLs to all eight, I propose that we equip two element leads each in Druid and Bard with them, then have the two wingmen in each of those squadrons cover the EML planes. But that's a side issue.
Now, who do we need doing what? Squadrons on high alert can't contribute to airstrikes agaist targets in Erusea.
@huhYeahGoodPoint , I think you left Pixy out of the latest update on the front page.
If we want to go for the airstrike option, well... bombing people to the peace table doesn't usually work, but on the other hand, we have Erusea's two worst nightmares on speed-dial.
Erusean General: "The old men told fearful stories of the Ribbon, the Grim Reaper, breaker of our superweapons, slayer of the Yellow five-ship. The young men told fearful stories of the Three Strikes, the Bigshot, breaker of our other superweapons, slayer of the Sol five-ship. But then came the Day of Woe... both at the same time."
[] Plan OH GOD BOTH AIEEE
-[][READ] No, Reassign
--[] Razgriz and Cyclops Squadrons, Salamander Flight, and Pixy on High Alert
--[] Strider, Mobius, Waltz and Rigel squadrons on Active Duty
--[] Fort Grays forces remain on Active Duty readiness
-[][OP] Yes
--[] Assign Strider and Mobius Squadrons.
--[] Pilots are free to select stealth aircraft from the equipment reserve pool if they consider that preferable for this mission.
Note that I'm leaving the Fort Grays forces on Active Duty because frankly, they're not ready for prime-time.
On the other hand, we miiight want to NOT try to terrify the Eruseans to the peace table. This would give our forces more of a chance to rest and reduce the risk of being caught out. In that case, I think we could get away with standing down one squadron for the week, and Jaeger's appeal... really appeals.
Also, Strider Squadron has (importantly) fought through two wars with minimal downtime lately. Almost all our other forces either had more rest time during the Lighthouse War, or had forced downtime in the recent past. In this plan, I think we need more weight in our 'high alert' force simply because Trigger's not going to be there to pull the first responders' ass out of the fire. Thickening the ranks with Rigel Squadron's F-14X-EMLs may help there.[] Plan Give Peace A Chance
-[][READ] No, Reassign
--[] Rigel, Razgriz, and Cyclops Squadrons, and Pixy, on High Alert
--[] Mobius and Waltz squadrons, and Salamander Flight on Active Duty
--[] Strider Squadron on Unavailable
--[] Fort Grays forces remain on Active Duty readiness
-[][OP] No
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