rocketman

I wrote a little python script to set the elevation in the editor according to a digital elevation model. Those come in various resolutions, for instance, in Germany data for the whole of Northrhine Westfalia is available for free with a 1mx1m granularity. I then use PyAutoGui in order to automate setting the correcting height and clicking/scrolling in the editor. The script currently sets the height information for every square in the editor, not just contours.
An example height map:

The resulting terrain in the editor (3328mx1920m):

Vista somewhere in there.

The script is not terribly fast, making this map took about 7h, but it beats doing all the clicking yourself. The limitation, btw., is the editor, the script could go faster. The advantage is that you can do much better micro-terrain, I think, the disadvantage is that you can't just use an old topographical map and draw the contour lines. It would be possible to do contour lines but you'd need to have those in a machine readable format.
Anyway, if people here are interested, I could polish the code a bit and make it available to everyone, e.g. via github. If there is additional interest, I could imagine doing other stuff that way, like, for instance, drawing roads from Open Street Map.

What's so funny about that?

Russian tank launched to the space 
 

Early report, fantastic if true.

As it was said Dagestan is flaring up. Sample messages from what seems to be coordination channel:
Morning announcement.
During day 
Rumor
An another one
 

Just like this.

Small update - in latest Rybar English speaking post (cannot post link right now) he says at Ridkodub UKR advancing toward Borove-Svatove highway reached operational space means UKR broke through RU defenses completely and now have freedom of maneuver. 
 

Good to see this messaging is ongoing (been repeated over several days) and at the highest levels of state.
 

Per my earlier comments, here's Ireland going out of its way to force a public discussion on the idea of kicking Russia out of the UNSC. That's a *very* unusual sort of gesture from a country that's normally very cautious in foreign policy. 

UKR claimed for today 4 Russian jets - 2 Su-25, Su-30SM and Su-34
SU-30SM (though Russians claimed this is just compressor surge)
As if Su-34, downed with Igla MANPAD, by SOF operator
Bad quality video, but it's claimed Ka-52 shot down
Partially such high losses are confirmed by Russian Fighterbomber TG channel: "Fu...g day"

And this:  "Attention, the question to trouser-stripe-holders [meant "generals"], where we will mobiulize jets if all go on as today?"

Gawd, I hate when that happens.
Ok, that is a major unsupported leap of logic, and frankly we are get way too many of these in the last 50 pages - at some point this is going to devolve this venture into the same rhetorical and propaganda spaces we see all over the internet, and at that point I will be lobbying to close the thread down because it is no longer keeping people informed, it will have become a dogmatic platform.
If Russia employs battlefield nuclear weapons, there will be a response, there must be.  However, let's say hypothetically that the West backs down and says "ok, well now it is getting real - let's negotiate an endstate".  Yes, it is not a good thing for the future risk the employment of nuclear weapons may have on imperialist expansion.  Russia will likely try the same game elsewhere; however what is missing between the Baltic nations and Ukraine is certainty. 
If Russia annexes, invades or attacks a Baltic nation, and IF that nation declares an article 5 then Russia is not getting handsie on some side hustle, it is declaring war on NATO.  "Oh, sure but who says NATO will actually do anything about it?" some say cynically - well 1) NATO nations sure as hell have done something about Ukraine and 2) NATO is too big to fail, and 3) if NATO does fail - and don't take this too personally - but we individually won't give two figs what happens in Baltics or the entirety of Eastern Europe, and even more bluntly in North America, we might not even really care too much about all of Europe anymore - at least as far as collective defence goes.
1) You know, a simple "thank you for having our backs" would go a long way once and awhile.  Instead we get "well what have you done for me lately" and "what do you mean you are not willing to risk nuclear escalation for Ukraine?!  How dare you!!"  I am very grateful that those voices are in the minority.  NATO has already committed to the defence of Ukraine, the question is how far will that will last in a nuclear exchange...good question, but I suspect it isn't to drop everything and declare unconditional surrender.  But we are not likely to be interested in a bottomless pit of cost and risk either.  And before anyone crawls on a morality high horse - take a long look at Africa and the Middle East, we have and will let places burn to the ground outside of our orbit/key interests or if risk/cost gets too high - "change the channel Marge."
2) In NATO and out of NATO is a very significant different state - kinda why we make such a big deal about entry.  By definition NATO is a collective defensive alliance, supported by a very complex and political treaty.  NATO is, in effect, the military power of the western world and the hard power that backs up the western rules-based order.  Without it, that order starts to unravel.  If Russia pushes the West into "well let us do what we want, and NATO collapses" situation, we are living in the End Times.  Russia, as immensely stupid as they have been, has yet to try and back the West into a corner, even though they themselves are being rammed into one.  Why?  Because the West would crush Russia beyond recognition to protect itself...and NATO is central to that equation.  I expect that NATO would accept nuclear exchange losses, leaving Russia a radioactive wasteland for a few centuries, before it is going to allow itself to fall apart through direct force.  Oddly enough,  Putin was on the right track to actually defeat NATO by continuing to support narratives that "NATO was irrelevant" - NATO could have evolved into something less than it is now, that would have given Russia more....wait for it...options space.  But then they did this useless war and pushed NATO in the exact opposite direction.  Maybe Russia needs NATO to be big and strong and scary so that it can hold itself together, but they even have to be smart enough to realize...they just made NATO big strong and scary.
3) If NATO collapses under direct pressure.  The whole edifice falls apart.  Then, and try not to be too hurt, we got much bigger problems than Ukraine, the Baltics or Russia to worry about.  We would likely see a series of new collective defensive bodies arise from the ashes, and a fair number of them can't even find Ukraine or the Baltics on the map.  The EU might hold together militarily but Europe has a bit of shaky history in that regard.  I suspect it may fall back on internal alignment, most of which won't care what happens in the Baltics.  The bigger players will likely try to hold it together, 5 EYES+ for example but even then, the most liberal humanist nations are going to start to contract back to their own borders and interests.  This will have economic repercussions as we no longer have unified collective military power to secure globalization. I expect China will be invading Taiwan the following Tues - at which point all of this Eastern Europe/Russia noise is going to fade to background while we hit a singularity decision point in Asia. 
So as bluntly as I can - The Baltics are more important to NATO and the West because  they are in NATO under the collective defence mechanism that affords.  We will take far fewer risks or BS from Russia in these countries because  they are within that framework.  I suspect that there are more than a few politicians that are quietly thanking whatever gods they pray to that Ukraine is not in NATO right now because we would not even have the option to pull back. 
That said, the issue of having Ukraine in NATO is likely largely settled at this point, so once this war is over, it will also come under that collective protection - for the love of god, just take the freakin win!  Russia nuclear deterrence is working in this war, that is why we are not Shock and Awing Moscow, Bagdad Style.  In this game of chicken Ukraine may lose - I personally do not think that is the most probable outcome but, dare we admit it and not get yelled at for 15 pages - it is a possibility.
Lastly, I am going to put out the question of "what are we doing here?"  On this thread?  If we are continuing the collective and distributed objective analysis and assessment of this war as it unfolds, then let's do that.  I think we are safe to say that we all agree Russia's war is illegal and immoral and they deserve everything they are getting.  However, if this is turning into a maximalist Pro-Ukrainian propaganda machine, I am out - lock it down and people can go elsewhere for their information.

Yeah, I'm getting married tomorrow (it's 11 PM now in Poland, we are saying the vows at 2PM). Just as we speak the missus is getting annoyed that I nerd about the war on the internet  But it is 100% worth it!

Apart from RU Nats the public is in internal panic. The semi-comfortable world they lived in until 21 is collapsing now. Everybody is looking for the ways for long term escape. 
Everybody is confused and trying to cope now with the prospect of conscription. They are like fish thrown out on the shore - grasping for air not understanding what is going on and trying to think of a way to return to an old semi-comfortable life.  

Ok, on mobilization.  I hope I am not repeating myself too much but my assessment is that it won't help Russia much at this point in the war.  If they were serious they should have done whatever this is back in March.  Why?
- It does not fix the Russian operational system, in fact it might make it worse.  The Russian logistical and C4ISR systems are already strained under the current load, and the UA are not making life easier by hitting them all over the place.  Adding another 300k troops to that system, may do as much damage as HIMARs on a good day.  This is everything from uniforms, weapons, equipment, food/water/consumables and medical support - dear gawd, the medical support plan just got burned badly.  Further, unless Russia is recruiting from a 5 EYES nation or possible China, they are not going to get the technical expertise to even start to try and get their C4ISR to a competitive level.  I am sure Russia has switched on tech savvy young people but intake into these trades is not quick or easy.  Nor is getting the equipment they need to do the job.  No, my bet is that IT specialist is going to wind up in a freezing trench with a Cold War era AK-47.
- It does not fix the joint force - which for Russia may as well be a magical/mythical concept along with fairies and functional democracy.  It takes years to create pilot and air weapons controllers, let alone integrating that at an operational level.  Maritime crews are in the same boat (bah-dump, bump).  So 300k barely trained infantry are not going to solve the lack of joint force integration in the RA.
- It does not create offensive capability.  Even if the RA could magically create the logistics and C4ISR system to support them.  Turning 300k individual troops into fighting units and formations is a very large time bill.  We are talking Lvl 1 - 7 training, to start with. Training formation staff that can actually plan and synchronize offensive operations is also a years long effort. This mobilization creates, at best (or worse, depending on how one looks at it), defensive capability.  Which means that with the exception of tactical surges, the operationally offensive phase for the RA in this was is likely over.  I strongly suspect this signals a "dig in and hold onto whatever ground you can so Putin can call it a win" warfare for Russia from here on out. 
- It creates massive political exposure.  Hence why I think this is endgame.  It forces people who wanted to sit on the sidelines into the fire.  It puts pressure on home front that wasn't there before.  It is the last card in conventional warfare, done in desperation to try and keep things afloat.  The equation is upside down for Russia on this.  It cannot create wins on the battlefield, and will only create losses politically.  Were I Steve, I would call it the death spiral.  
- This is 2022, not 1941.  The lethality of warfare is frankly pants-wettingly scary.  300k poorly trained and equipped troops are going to get cut to pieces by modern precision artillery backed up with ISR of the gods.  It is going to be brutal and nasty.  These units are going to have a very rough time of it and their morale is going to iffy from the start.  That, or they will feed these poor sods in as replacements into existing line units, which does nothing for cohesion.  You can integrate replacements but you need a period of unit integration, and I am doubting the RA has that time.  I am betting RSOMI is going to look like the opening of Enemy at the Gates.
- Last point, it does not change the simple fact that also unlike 1941 these lads are not fighting on Russian soil.  No matter how many times Putin or the generals say it, they are not stupid.  They are in a foreign country dying for "what?"  exactly.  Conscript troops will fight and die like mad dogs for their homes and families.  Fighting over a few yards in a country that isn't theirs is the land of professional militaries with years of training and experience.  There are plenty of examples from Afghanistan back in the 80s to back this up.
So basically, mobilization is not a sign of much beyond just how bad thing have gotten on the RA side.  My bet is that casualty rates are in the higher ranges we have seen.  300k is not enough to cover the now-700 km frontage in any kind of depth, so hardpoints and isolated fort is the likely plan.
The only question I have left is - how much time does it actually buy the RA?  
 

"Faith, belief" - you guys toss these around like they are hard truths and it is starting to irritate.  Second is the black and white calculus that anyone does not align with as "defeatists etc".
We are not investing billions, in the middle of post-pandemic recession, and risking a slow roll towards nuclear Armageddon because we have "faith and hope" that anyone will "do the right thing" - a concept we cannot even agree on internally.
We are doing it because of what we know.  We know Russia cannot win this war and we know Ukraine cannot lose the peace.  A significant portion of the populations of the west don't have faith in their own governments, let alone one 7-time zones away.
I honestly have watched the Ukrainian government steer a brilliant narrative, a few missteps but rock solid.  But Reconstruction/Post Conflict is like wedding - everyone loses their freaking minds!
You want to propose a non-negotiable push to the pre-2014 borders, then you need to answer the question of how to deal with those regions who have been outside of Ukraine for 8 years, because that post-game show directly impacts what we know.   
 

Ok, so let's try and have an actual conversation about all this.  Why not?  It is "forbidden discussions" week on the thread while we wait for the UA to reload.
First, lets put the emotion to one side for a moment - we saw how well that worked last time - and try to arrive at common ground.  I am not going to comment on forum policy or poor BFCElvis' endless and thankless work in trying to keep this place from become another internet cesspool - if you have a problem with forum policy, or felt you have been wronged in some way, take it up with him and BFC.
So what to do about Russia?  Russians everywhere?  They started a land war in Europe and they are supporting it, to some extent, for 6 months while their military is, in part, committing what is pretty much confirmed as systemic war crimes.
So how will justice be served in the prosecution of this war?  How will the offenders be made to pay so that it serves as an example to those that would re-offend?
Legally.  
The whole point of this war, and one of the big reasons why we care so much is that this is not just an unjustified invasion of Ukraine, it is an attack on the entire rules based international order.  In 1949, we all sat down, even Russia within the USSR, and said that this sort of action was illegal.  Its premise and definitely in its prosecution, by Russia, have been illegal within international law and the Law of Armed Conflict.  Russia's position, beyond some very weak tea technical arguments - SMO, has been - "ya, so what are you going to do about it...we are Russia and have nukes?"
That will not stand.  It cannot stand.  It threatens the entire scheme at its heart.  That scheme, btw, pays for our lifestyles and guarantors the stability and security we need to thrive, get richer and fatter, and have the freedom to yell at each other over all sorts of stuff.
So how will we put Russia back in the box?  Well first steps are to ensure it gets the spanking it so much deserves on the battlefield.  The next step, and it is very important, is to prosecute those responsible in Russia for this atrocity, within the frameworks of the law.
"Oh but the law is so "woke", we need to get medieval here to send a real message!"
1.  Shh, grown ups talking.
2.  If we step outside the legal framework, the one we built, we will break it ourselves, which in many ways is worse.
Don't believe me, well we have a convenient historical example - Iraq 2003. 
And before anyone freaks out, let me start by saying that the invasion of Iraq in 2003 is not anywhere near what is happening in Ukraine.  The legal justification for that war was "thin" but it adhered to the rules far closer than what we are seeing today.  It was unsanctioned by UN, the evidence for the whole thing turned out to be incorrect; however, the US made a case for self-defence against a known international offender, one who had not only invaded another country but also threatened "the great Satan" repeatedly.  Further the US prosecuted that war under the LOAC.
However the repurcutions of that action, one the edge of legality in some places are still being felt today.  In Putin's last speech he references "terror/terrorism" 5 times as as a justification for this war.  The lesson here is that if we fracture to system of order, very bad things start to happen.
So we will hold Russia accountable.  We will demand reparations for lifting sanctions.  We will demand the turning over of war criminals for prosecution.  We will employ national security mechanisms to find and arrest anyone who supported Russia's war outside of the laws of whatever country they are in.  And we will do so within the defined limitations of the law.
Anything beyond that is a revenge fantasy that serves no real purpose in discussing this war.  Now are we able to continue on in peace and harmony?

Exactly.
 

Slowly sinking:
 

Interesting stuff from Le Monde :
"The political apathy of the Russians, long favored by the power, is put to the test by the announcements made by Vladimir Putin. Like on a WhatsApp discussion between inhabitants of a small town near Moscow, where we usually discuss everything, except politics.
In the local residents' chat, reality knocks on the window: "It's not about panic, just my nephew... His last leave has been canceled, now we can send him there at any time. “My uncle has just had a heart attack, but we made him sign a paper assuring that everything is fine. And there, at work, they were asked to bring their military booklet! “My husband has been stressing about this case for two weeks trying to figure out if he will. Frankly, it's going to be genocide on both sides. »
In the exchanges, one word keeps coming back: “war”. Taboo for seven months, removed from the official vocabulary, and which now flies from house to house. With him, the very clear feeling of switching into something new. For thirty years, in villages without pipes, in cities with broken pavements, a mantra served to justify everything: “At least there is no war…”
On thousands of other chats comparable to those of the anonymous small town, on social networks, for the less cautious, it is the same explosion of sourness: “Where are our famous supersonic weapons? “I am not ready to die for the ruins of Donbass or for Putin” “Let the deputies go there first, remembering to take their children living abroad. Because me, during my service, I mainly learned to wash the floors. »
For such messages, in recent weeks Russian citizens have been prosecuted."

Quite disgusting remark. With a father as Dan he must be. Gay or straight, who cares?
 

All war is negotiation and sacrifice - all war is negotiation with sacrifice.
So Putin dropped the 'mobilization' boogey man, kinda.  And of course threatened nuclear war without saying it...oh my.
Well I think Phase 2-3 of this war were positioning for endgame - Russia's point "Imma gonna take the Donbas, cause that was what I wanted all along...well that plus Kherson and everything I did not lose in Phase I".  And Ukraine's counter-point "No you are not."  This could have gone on for some time longer but clearly things are coming to a head in Moscow.
So I think this is endgame.  What does a soft-mobilization/slightly-louder-threat-of-nuclear-war-based-on-bizarro -annexation-internal-legalities-that-no-one-else-is-going-to-recognize-for-a-century, really tell us?
- Well first it tells us that Russia is desperate. Putin and the gang are opening themselves up to significant political exposure here.  You average Russian may, or may not, have actually supported this war but they all had the luxury of staying out of it - changing that is a major shift.  We are already hearing rumblings in opposition, who knows how far that will go; however, we do know that Putin would not have pulled on this lever if Russia was winning.  This is a pretty clear sign of losses and the impact it is having on his war machine.
- Next, this is not an escalation, it is desperation.  This is an attempt to preserve military capability in the field and re-assert a status quo, not raise enough forces to re-take Kyiv.  In short, whatever the UA is doing, it is working very well.
- Russia is clearly on the defensive, and likely will stay there until this is over.  Throwing 300,000 conscripts in any variation is not going to create offensive military capability - unable to create positive decision, so at best negative and null (i.e. denial).  This signals a shift into a strategy of exhaustion, annihilation for the Russians has left the building.  This puts Russia a couple rungs above an insurgency as far as military strategy goes.  They are going to try and dig in an hold on to what they have until the other side gets tired.
-  We could be heading towards a nuclear decision point.  The battlefield use of nuclear weapons has always been a grey area in warfare.  It is an escalation but the West and USSR went around and around on whether one could have a limited nuclear war.  I suspect that Putin might be thinking about testing the norms around this by declaring all the territory they have taken as "mother Russia" - we freakin knew that Russian doctrine and law were useless to refer to because autocrats just move the goalposts.  So I suspect the redline is the Crimea, and maybe somewhere in the LNR/DPR.  If the UA push that far, we might actually see Putin try to go that way - I say "try" because he 1) might already be removed from power by then, or 2) someone will put a bullet in his dome before they drag Russia into a doomsday scenario.  If one does go off well it won't be the end of days, tactical nuclear weapons can effect a couple grid squares and were designed for heavy armor concentrations at Fulda - this war is far to spread out.  We will likely lose our minds in the West and the response will be key to what happens next. I suspect conventional escalation or other options to send a strong signal to Russia that they will be the first country in history to lose a strategic nuclear war.  Regardless, if Russia employs a nuclear weapon, we are off the map, beyond the Cuban Missile crisis; however, I also still think this actually happening is a long shot.  For those in Europe and NA, I would not start getting too excited until strange looking Patriot systems start being deployed around major urban areas and/or in the Canadian north.
  So the biggest question on the table is - "what does endgame look like?"  This is in the weird political space as militarily Ukraine has demonstrated that given time they can likely retake everything back to the pre-2014 border - the question is do they want to?  Do they need to?  Putting emotions to one side - I suspect the West will be putting a lot of incentives for Ukraine to push to 2014 borders and then stop.  Why?  Well some possible reasons:
- DNR and LNR are burned out wrecks with large sections of the population that clearly do not want to be Ukrainian, so let em go.  Ukraine gains nothing but a couple Northern Ireland scenarios if they re-occupy, that and a massive reconstruction bill.  Walk away and wish them luck with their sugar daddy.
- Crimea.  Here we could see "neutral and open" tossed around a lot more.  Without Sevastopol Russia is pretty much cut out of the Black Sea, and if they are out of the Black Sea they are out of the Med.  If Russia is going to go nuclear, it will be over Crimea...and to this guy over in NA, it is not worth it.
- Ok, so that is the unthinkable "bad", what is the carrot?  Fast tracked entry in NATO - this entire bullsh#t goes away if Ukraine has Article 5 to lean on, because that is simply too big to fail for the West.  Hell Ukraine is already armed better than most NATO nations, with NATO STANAG equipment.  Their training is US/UK standard and I have no doubt we have already built most of their ISR infrastructure.  Ukraine in NATO next week is a clear win for the west. 
Next, entry into the EU.  Bureaucratic nightmare that it is, this would cement Ukraine into Europe economically and set them up for post-war success.
Last, a reconstruction plan to rival Marshal.  The West commits hundreds of billions to turn Ukraine into a shining example of what our money can do as a counter-point to China's game these last 15 years or so.
As to Russia?  Well it made its bed. Sanctions stay in place until 1) reparation deal is cut and in motion, 2) war crimes of all sorts are investigated and prosecuted and 3) Putin regime is gone enough that we can pretend whoever replaces it is clean...or clean enough. If Russia refuses any of the above, well enjoy being a Chinese satellite with a Cold War Soviet standard of living and we will see you again in 30 years - we will risk manage Russia, we are good at that in the West.
So What War?  Well UA will likely focus on taking bights out of Donbas just to ensure 300,000 Russian conscripts don't feel left out.  They will re-take Kherson and push south over the Dnipro up to the Crimean border.  And Melitopol, cut that stupid land bridge and box the Russians and their cronies back to where they were before this nonsense started.
Anyway, crazy days and keep your head up because it might get crazier.
 

There's more. At this point I imagine interesting stuff must be happening on Finnish border near St. Petersburg, as it is basically the only way out. @The_MonkeyKing anything about it in local media?
 

Since it the season for nonsensical annexation referenda, I think Poland should hold a vote on annexing Belarus. I think it is 80/20 they could win an honest vote since it would effectively put them in the EU. I am 100% sure they could win the farcical "on line voting" publicity exercise I have in mind. Who knows, with some well placed bribes the Belarusian army might decide to take orders from Warsaw, and that would be that.

I wish I could give you a good reason for why you're wrong, but all arguments I've seen against Putin using nukes seem to rest on "it basically doesn't make any sense militarily" or "it wouldn't be rational" or "it would isolate Russia".
But I don't think it was rational to start this war in the first place, so that's not much comfort.

the google search "how to leave russia" certainly started making waves exactly at the time of supposed streaming of a prerecorded putin's speech