costard

Great post - thanks Boeman.

Vampire bats, leeches and mozzies - the Gnome will leave a trail of comatose blood-suckers bobbing in his wake (along with the rum bottles and cigar butts). With any luck, he'll catch Dengue fever or rabies (heh, hydrophobia would be poetic justice). Or a tropical strength case of jock itch.

I'm going for the manatee, with a side bet on a very disturbed donkey (what a way to go!)

I seem to remember that when Rommel asked for 200 lorries for the North Africa campaign, Hitler said something like "Sure - but I'll have to strip the eastern front to get them." Another snippet concerns the relative mechanical aptitude of the US vs German soldiers - the Yank peasantry (farming boys gone to war) used tractors and motorcars far more frequently than the German and had more experience maintaining them, so the vehicles remained in service longer without having to go to depots for maintenance. The Germans in western Europe were somewhat envious of the amount of materiel available to the Allies - "fighting a rich man's war". Imagine trying to mount an amphibious operation with horses? You'd be better off dropping them out of heavy bombers and hoping some would learn to fly on the way down.

So Michael is Boo and Joe is a bath mat? Brain transplants not being an option (for lack of the indicated organ as opposed to there being a limit on surgical skill), I'd say that Boo should have gone for the poke in the eye with a sharp stick rather than have his reputation slandered in such a fashion. And Emrys, what were you trying to think with? Congratulations all, you may yet make it to a higher place on the wheel (except for the mighty Pshaw - he's already achieved the status of a god according to the multiple fungi and biting critters living in his fur). Best if we get the next phase of the journey under way soon though - Michael, would you like to go first? Please?

Fair 'nuff then - and happy holidays to you too Plugger.

..but it gets complex fast. For example, giving choices to the AI is one thing, getting it to make the right choice is a little more difficult. For your example above, what does the AI do if both triggers occur and it finds itself wanting to counter both threats? - it now has to have an algorithm to assess the relative threat (the player has an intelligence brief of sorts to base their decisions on), then institute two counters - and allocate resources in such a way as to make the exercise worthwhile. It might well be best to do nothing and remain static: so there's a third choice. I'm not sure binary deals with trinary terribly well. At some point its a case of - "The plan is this, lets go." but between then and the final minute a little thing like a well concealed ATGM can happen - and all the AI's armour moves through the same point and gets taken out, or the AI has to figure that another type of trigger has occurred and the assessment process has to begin again. For the player the trigger might be a previously unknown trench system - the AI has to recognise that this means a need to change tactics. The micro AI is the way to go - build up the sets of basic behaviours in units (reaction to stimuli at the organic level), then try to develop a methodology for understanding how all the data fits together and how it might best lead the AI to a better chance of survival (reaction at an intellectual level). You can then start talking about AI as capable of outperforming a human in a complex environment. (2 cents worth there I think)

You're a little harsh on your gear, Utb. Figure yourself due for a mutiny. I'm curious - does the spotting spread relative to the equipment level of the unit? That is, a Stryker has the mobile computer system: does that mean that an item entered into the system (by another Stryker, say) appear for all the Strykers? I know that the Abrams will communicate the presence of an enemy unit - but it generally only shows up as a "?" to units not in LOS and doesn't necessarily update immediately. So you can have an Abrams not in contact showing a "?" symbol a little way from the smoking hulk of a T72 taken out by the Abrams that first reported the enemy. I guess the intelligence environment in real life is pretty messy - guys are just too busy to be entering data onto a computer (and then you have to hope they got it right). Or, in your battle, really, really slow.

The boy is now old enough to unwrap his own presents and I finally understand what Christmas is all about. Merry Christmas everyone.

We're way ahead of you there - velcro runways.

Superlatives fail me - I want to take one of those Marders for a spin. Thanks BFC.

Are you a politician by any chance Michael? That sentence is straight out of Sir Humphrey's handbook: it makes sense but is entirely unhelpful.

A bottle-brush, for the gnomectomy? Try the rough end of a pineapple.

Dribble is it? I'll give you dribble you sporran-stuffer you. Admit it - you do! With sock in jock you impress the ladies, but your clan loves you anyway.

I second this motion - such a deserving case should cease to be deserving.

Whoever gets the supply contract should make money - I doubt it's just the Chinese who are interested. Of course, becoming a high priority target for the US/NATO militaries is the risk you run: it'd want to be a high return. As I see it, at the moment the US/NATO forces are keeping the highway through Pakistan open for the Chinese by keeping the militants in Afghanistan busy. If the US pulled out, I think the Chinese would need to send in their military - or, at least, a few thousand "advisers". They'd be unlikely to want to face militants armed with their own missiles.

Well, grape juice is mostly water. So's wine. So it's turning sugar into alcohol where the miracle lies: lets hear it for the single cell organism, yeast.

It is turning out that the only way we can guarantee a competitive drugs industry is to remove patent protection - then the management of those companies won't have the time or money to play counterproductive legal games with people's lives.

Hi ravells. First thing to realize is that all the numbers are metric - millimetres for armour thickness and metres for range. So your 20mm cannon in the IIC is capable of penetrating a 30mm armour plate at 100m, provided that plate is square on, not angled. This same IIC has a skin of 15mm armour with more armour (20mm) bolted or welded on to the front of the vehicle. Figure any shot coming in on an angle to have less armour penetration. Pay attention to the fact that although your 20mm doesn't penetrate much at 2km, it still gets there. It's an explosive shell, with blast of 4. Figure a half track killer out to 1000m, early war tanks might have real difficulties staying whole at ranges out to 500m when taken in the flank or rear.

That was quick - already you can't be arsed with the damned colonials. You've been brainwashed - how's it compare to the rock? Back-pedalling now, yeah? You disgust me, you little feral Scotch Git wanabee. Do you wish to pitch or receive, sir?

Ok - here you can look at USGS data, topographical and shaded down to about 1cm = 500m. New Earth Explorer. Choose the Terrain view and zoom right in.

Soop, I found them last year but I think they were at the University of Texas website - there's an online library. I'm not sure if the link will still be good.. Try here

My guess is that real time, accurate C2 is hard enough to reproduce on a net of machines - getting the game to do it on one machine, faithfully, might be a little ambitious. I'd expect misinformation and lack of information to be part of my intelligence environment.

We're supposed to be in the sewer, not the gutter.

Hi cameron. The basics - water runs downhill, towns are built on roads, roads are built as flat as possible, bigger towns have better, bigger roads and more flats around for farming, particularly in river valleys. Clavicula Nox has it right - take a look at some maps. American Geographical Society had some good topographical maps of Afghanistan available - try there maybe? Buildings can be tricky - but again, Google earth and changing the altitude of your viewpoint will give you good information. Have you tried some different lighting? Time of day and shadows lend atmosphere too - and they're in the engine :cool: Ultimately you'll have to submit the map for examination - don't see it as your perfect map, just one you've made. If people like the scenario they'll say so, but they'll tell you if they like the map.