Lethaface
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Posts posted by Lethaface
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On 10/18/2023 at 9:14 PM, BFCElvis said:
Ah. You're referring to somefink different than I thought you were. I thought you were referring to things like release dates. Battlefront, since way before I was an employee, has always been a "it will be released when it's finished" company. Bristling at giving release estimates. Even more so now that Slitherine's marketing department does so much with Steam. A good example is the CMFI release on Steam recently. Unlike other releases they wanted to announce it's Steam release live during their big annual wargaming stream. So, even though I knew the exact date for that, they wanted to make the announcement.
Do we interact about the nuts and bolts more than most other game makers? I don't know. I'd defer to Steve's quote above on that because my experience is kinda limited to just Battlefront. So, I have no point of comparison. There has never been another game, for me, that I cared enough about to follow the developers and notice what kind of interaction they have. You, and probably everyone who sees this post, likely have far more experience with that kind of thing than me. My sample size is : 1.
I guess it depends on the beholder. I have never made a study or analysis about this subject (nor will I ever) but I'd say it is pretty rare to read about why certain decision, positive or negative, have been made in 'plain text' right from the decision maker. Usually there's some layers of PR people (window) dressing such communication.
Whether that's a good or bad thing depends on what communication styles people prefer.
I personally subscribe to the 'no news is good news' adagium and think empty updates or window dressing are a waste of (my) time. But other people obviously differ.
In the end it is what it is, everything can theoretically be improved upon but energy can only spend once so choices have to be made.
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43 minutes ago, Seedorf81 said:
I've seen nasty things in my life, and I consider myself to be as "neutral" as one possibly can be. But the live-footage of the very young kids with horrific wounds impacted even my "neutrality". And so I expect that the average "Arab/Muslim"-viewer gets infuriated beyond limits. And even if there were solid proof that the deaths were a direct result from a Hamas-rocket launch gone wrong, they blame the Israeli's anyway.
Both parties will show their real hate, compromises are gone.
My soul has also been scratched enough so no desire to watch that footage in detail. And indeed, whomever was behind this the blame has probably been cast already in the hearts and minds of those involved.
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1 minute ago, dan/california said:
Israel hitting the Hospital with Biden literally due to visit tomorrow would make less than no sense. A Palestinian rocket either gone wrong, or intentionally fired at the hospital is entirely believable. More to the point than believability is that there will be multiple drone feeds, satellite data, radar, and who knows what else. Given the U.s. carrier group in the area some of those assets are probably U.S. instead of Israeli. They Israelis are not going to lie to Biden's face about this when he probably has independent data. It would just be dumb. And some of that data will be public shortly is my guess. Iron Dome radar probably has the exact track.
Not everything makes sense, I don't agree with the preoccupation that it must be Palestinians or that the Israeli regime won't lie. It would indeed be dumb, but believing that no other explanation could exist is just plain naive imo. Especially given the history of this conflict. It wouldn't be the first time.
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46 minutes ago, Splinty said:
That particular like was to the killing terrorists part of the post. As an Iraq vet I have a deep hatred of terrorists and terrorism. I've seen and experienced first hand the chaos and death they cause.
I can understand, but I thought the post was rather inhumane. My grandfather has served in the Dutch colonial war for Indonesia and has probably killed several hundreds of Indonesian 'rampokkers' or rather armed mobs / militia's who were also terrorizing the local populace. He was there 4 years on daily patrols and 'cleansing' operations (that's what they were called at the time, not ordered against the populace to be clear). I recently did a deep dive into his experiences.
In the end my personal opinion is that both wars were (politically) unjust, but that doesn't mean the soldiers involved are or were 'guilty' by definition. They were mostly trying to do the right thing / their assignment, although of course not everything was 'shining'.FWIW I don't want to put anything in your mouth with regards to the justification of killing of Palestinians who just try to live their life, given the circumstances they were born in. But I had to refrain myself reacting to that post more harshly. I thought it was, inhumane to put it mildly.
I respect soldiers who do their duty.
Edit: I also respect the fact you replied, we might not agree on everything but that in itself is not necessarily something bad. -
7 minutes ago, Seedorf81 said:
Depends on the amount of explosives, of course. Hamas has been known for storing ammo and weapons in places full of civilians, and a relative small amount of stored rockets could have exacerbate the possible Israeli bomb-detonation.
Doesn't really matter what blew up, even if it was Hamas-stuff, because this horrible death-toll could be a game-changer in the sense that "the Arabic/Muslim"-world is going to retaliate now. Somewhere, somehow.
And we probably all thought that the Ukraine-war was the biggest threat to world-peace..
Agreed. First and foremost this is a humanitarian disaster, I got send a video of aftermath but didn't want to watch it.
Edit: to be fully clear, same goes for any civilian casualties on any side. Israeli, Palestinian, Jew, Muslim, whatever; we are all human. -
1 minute ago, acrashb said:
Israel says it was a Hamas rocket that fell short, as 30-40% do, so I'm told. As they are somewhat home made, it's a credible number.
So maybe best to reserve judgement for a bit.
That video is said to be an old video, although I agree that it is best to reserve judgement for a bit.
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13 minutes ago, Splinty said:
Did you just call Jews Nazis?
Not that I concur with that statement but you liked a post which called Palestinians rabid dogs who need to be shot.
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30 minutes ago, Seedorf81 said:
I know for a fact that, before the Hamas-attack at least, the Israeli's usually tried to minimize civilian casualties.
By using stuff like this https://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/blu-129.htm ,
so either they do not care about civilians anymore, or they hit hidden ammo-storage, or something else happened.
But airstrike seems pretty certain, so far.
The explosion doesn't look like an ammo storage hit. In that case the whole hospital would have been gone.
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6 minutes ago, Redwolf said:
You have one of those link thingies for that?
There is now many speculation and misinformation, probably both sides will blame each other whatever the reality is. Let's see.
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18 minutes ago, Seedorf81 said:
This late afternoon: Israel airstrike hits hospital area with loads of refugees. Slaughterhouse, also young kids, already 200-300 deaths, possible more trapped under rubble.
Whether Hamas was under this hospital or not, this number of deaths doesn't justify that.
O most recent update, deathtoll already 500 deaths.
And these deaths are by far not the last in this endless conflict. You can expect that Israel and "the West" are going to have to deal with suicide-bombers, lone wolf shootings, knife-attacks and the lot.
And the most terrible thing is that most of those Hamas-****ers are in more or less safe places..
People who order the bombing of a hospital deserve the same faith as the Hamas leaders who order slaughter of innocents or Russians who order hospital bombings. They don't deserve drawing breath imo.
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2 minutes ago, dan/california said:
The Egyptian government depends entirely on the the people who pay its bills, its grain import bill most of all. Those people have not been Egyptian for a very long time. At the moment the Egyptian government is a solely own subsidiary of the Saudi's with minority shares held by various other Gulf monarchies. Why anybody is bothering to talk to the Egyptians themselves is a mystery to me.
So stop giving Sisi millions per year in (military) aid. He is a dictator, like Mubarak was before him. So is MBS / S. Arabia and all the other Arabian regimes where we are happy to do business with. Egypt is dirtpoor, why do we expect them to fix Israels problem? We also don't want more refugees. Lebanon has MANY Syrian refugees and is also dirtpoor.
I understand their position, even if they are dictators. The west is rather hypocrite when it comes to the middle east. If they, one day, realize the power they hold and start caring about people they can use their influence over oil. But that will cost the rich autocracy money, and us.PS All governments depend entirely on the people who pay their bills.
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3 hours ago, Twisk said:
Did we not just watch a video where the "so what" was the drone crew being tracked and killed?
Like you might have some points but you are talking about it as if you we didn't just watch the UAV recovery guy and whoever else was in that structure turned to mince meat.The question imho is whether they wouldn't have been spotted and tracked if the top side of the drone would have been painted. And if so, how often does that exact feat occur and is painting every drones topside worth that offset?
I don't know, it sure sticks out on this video but wouldn't it have stuck out anyway? It's a rather large moving object. Usually drones are up in the sky flying around, you'd have to be observing their launch/retrieval area anyway to notice it; which is usually quite far from the front I presume and it's rather lazy of them to launch them directly from their command post, if that is what it was. -
9 hours ago, Battlefront.com said:
Just reading the description caused me to think this very same thing. That's a pretty expensive way to take out a drone operator, regardless of how easily replaced it is. Ukraine isn't known for wasting its ammo, especially not special forces, so my assumption is that this is no ordinary asset they knocked out. I'm also curious about it being in a civilian type mobile office. Is this an attempt to disguise it or is it a sign that Russia ran out of purpose built command centers? Either way, it also stuck out like a sore thumb due to it being white and stuck in the middle of an unlikely environment for such a thing.
To my eyes this didn't look like an HIMARS strike, I mean it was a small shack probably not too sturdy and it was still standing with a a hole of a few m wide blown in it. There were many smaller 'shrapnel' impacts around it though, so could be the tungsten ball HIMARS round?
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Hamas surely isn't going to bring any solution except for more violence. In a way both the extreme sides of the political spectrum in Israel and 'Palestine' need eachother. The only country which can, imo, actually change the situation is Israel. But obviously at the moment they aren't occupied with such changes.
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26 minutes ago, dan/california said:
But regardless of the details of Hamas atrocities, what they did would be sufficient to start a full scale war at literally any point in human, between any two countries/tribes/entities you care to name. There is nothing to be done now except hammer them so hard most of the other crazies remember the lesson for the best part of a century. That seems to be as long as humaanity is capable of remembering anything.
If it is only hammering while the situation stays the same it is guaranteed to repeat in a dozen years orso. Unfortunately people seem to forget about that until it happens again and again.
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46 minutes ago, Astrophel said:
Hamas are allowing full access to journalists, israel is not bombing hospitals, and so every wounded child and traumatised medic is making instant headlines around the world. Probably only a matter of time before a hospital explodes and Israel gets the blame. I never thought Israel would be on the wrong foot so often.
I have no qualms about Hamas they will probably fight from hospitals. Anyway personally I was no fan (understatement) of the Israeli regime because of their conduct, but indeed they don't bomb hospital intentionally afaik.
The matter was more how to move people from a hospital given the order to move out or North Gaza.
I just read reports about Israel in conclave with USA and UN regarding safe zones so hopefully that will allow civilians a way out of the destruction.
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NL will (also) deliver more Patriot missiles for the winter. Fwiw at significant cost of own operational strength.
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3 hours ago, Ultradave said:
Doubling the population of the southern half of Gaza while Israel removes Hamas from the north, possibly followed in a couple weeks? by an evacuation order for the southern half of Gaza so they can remove Hamas from the souther half. So all 2 million people then displace back to the north? To Egypt? Build rafts?
On top of the blockade, this has the makings of a humanitarian catastrophe.
DaveIndeed, apart from the logistical challenges of moving such a mass of people in such a short time without (probably) sufficient electricity/fuel/water/food/medicine there are many people in hospitals who would have issues moving even in a fully functioning western country.
Plus Hamas will probably hinder the movement as they (also) don't care about Palestinian lives
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42 minutes ago, Haiduk said:
Alas, all ok with this ship. This was not missile corvette, but pr.22160 patrol ship. It's just coincided - likely technical issue (oil went to engine, causing a dense smoke from the stack) + underwater explosion during anti-sabateur training
thanks for clarification, too bad!
In that case strange why they blur the lower side of the foto , or was it Ukr asset that made the foto?.
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Another ship seem to have issues with smokers in Sevastopol:
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57 minutes ago, ALBY said:
Howdy friend.
Your analogy is flawed. Russia is an aggressor. Israel is not. Israel is besieging a military target that is firing rockets and hiding an army. Whether the Gazans are human shields or not is on Hamas. The entirety of Gaza is a weapons free zone for targeting and it will all be legal.
Hamas broke every rule of war in their attack. They must all die
We all feel bad when we have to shoot a rabid dog. But obviously, Israel cannot be expected to live next to baby murderers. War is hell, But it’s much worse if you lose. We’ve seen this movie before. Don’t awaken your giant of an enemy and fill them with a terrible resolve.
Delenda est Carthago.
Ok good to know you support laws of war only for agressors and don't care about innocent lives of 'human shield'. You are calling for genocide?
Gazans have babies too you know, if you see them as humans that is.
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3 minutes ago, warrenpeace said:
"People driven out of those area's were a direct consequence of the war and Germany's behavior". One might argue the same thing happened in Palestine. The Jews accepted the UN resolution, the Arabs did not.
"The United Nations resolution sparked conflict between Jewish and Arab groups within Palestine. Fighting began with attacks by irregular bands of Palestinian Arabs attached to local units of the Arab Liberation Army composed of volunteers from Palestine and neighboring Arab countries. These groups launched their attacks against Jewish cities, settlements, and armed forces. The Jewish forces were composed of the Haganah, the underground militia of the Jewish community in Palestine, and two small irregular groups, the Irgun, and LEHI. The goal of the Arabs was initially to block the Partition Resolution and to prevent the establishment of the Jewish state. The Jews, on the other hand, hoped to gain control over the territory allotted to them under the Partition Plan.
After Israel declared its independence on May 14, 1948, the fighting intensified with other Arab forces joining the Palestinian Arabs in attacking territory in the former Palestinian mandate. On the eve of May 14, the Arabs launched an air attack on Tel Aviv, which the Israelis resisted. This action was followed by the invasion of the former Palestinian mandate by Arab armies from Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and Egypt. Saudi Arabia sent a formation that fought under the Egyptian command. British trained forces from Transjordan eventually intervened in the conflict, but only in areas that had been designated as part of the Arab state under the United Nations Partition Plan and the corpus separatum of Jerusalem. After tense early fighting, Israeli forces, now under joint command, were able to gain the offensive."
MMM you know how the UN views the current occupation?
Also, you are quoting but don't post the source. You are also missing out the ethical cleansing of groups like stern. Still my point was that the people living in the area which were driven out from their homes didn't do anything to deserve that.
At the same time I think it is better to keep this thread about the current war. -
6 hours ago, Splinty said:
It it an RTS, or WEGO?
If it is same as the first one, RTS.
I have the first edition, just looked it up and played it for 5.4 hours total. Each to his own but compared to the depth / immersion I get from CM I thought it was like 'meh'. Some interesting features of course, but imo CM was way ahead.
Who knows this one is much better, but I'll surely won't buy it unless reviews/let's play manage to convince me this one is very different. -
6 minutes ago, dan/california said:
The thing that makes EVERYTHING, Russia does in Ukraine a criminal act is the utterly unprovoked, and illegal nature of the war itself. You can argue a great deal about who did the first bad/provocative thing in the middle east, but there is zero doubt who did the last one. And it was so bad they just don't get to run Gaza anymore, period.
Oh I agree that it would be good if Hamas leadership and ideology is surgically removed from this plane of existence.
But that doesn't mean the laws of war should be applied selectively.
How Hot is Israel Gonna Get?
in Combat Mission Shock Force 2
Posted · Edited by Lethaface
These weren't 'police actions' but just offensive phases in a (bloody) asymmetric war for control of Indonesia which began shortly after Japan surrendered and ended in 1950.
Part of the mission during the whole deployment was protecting local communities against militia's using them for their own purposes in the battle. Similar like the hearts and minds idea of Vietnam, Afghanistan, etc.