SDNWorld Redux - Casting Call & Planning MK II

[Shroom Man 777]

Look, the UK is buying the Eurofighter because the F-22 is obscenely expensive (and American only). My F-15s and F-16s are as good as any Eurofighter and are cheaper, with the discounts.

Fingolfin, you bought some of mein F-15s last time, why not now? You're even RICHER now! RICHER! With MOAR MONEY!

F-16XLs would be totally awesome in blowing up those Arabians if they get too uppity - TWENTY SEVEN HARDPOINTS!

You can arm your favored Arabians with the F-16s too. Who were they, again? The ones who weren't Egyptians.


EDIT:

How much should I sell my stratellites for?

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Look, the UK is buying the Eurofighter because the F-22 is obscenely expensive (and American only). My F-15s and F-16s are as good as any Eurofighter and are cheaper, with the discounts.

Fingolfin, you bought some of mein F-15s last time, why not now? You're even RICHER now! RICHER! With MOAR MONEY!

F-16XLs would be totally awesome in blowing up those Arabians if they get too uppity - TWENTY SEVEN HARDPOINTS!

You can arm your favored Arabians with the F-16s too. Who were they, again? The ones who weren't Egyptians.


EDIT:

How much should I sell my stratellites for?

You mean our.

They are pretty expensive, if you throw in a mini-reactor inside.. so.. hmm... something like 300-400 million?

[Shroom Man 777]

Um... does it NEED a nuclear reactor? I just read some stuff on the stratellites, they say it costs around 20 million - since the average satellite costs, like, 40 million.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Um... does it NEED a nuclear reactor? I just read some stuff on the stratellites, they say it costs around 20 million - since the average satellite costs, like, 40 million.

Well, I was thinking of mounting a radar on one of these things...

But otherwise, yeah, 40million.

[Shroom Man 777]

20mil for the conventional telecommunications ones. $40mil + for the military satellites, which can get HUEG!

[Coyote]

BZ will penetrate the skin like nerve gas , but that’s going to take higher concentrations then inhaled vapor to produce strong effects.

...

I did go delete that gas attack post BTW.

Yeah, but a report of low-flying aircraft will be a good impetus for any random ground commander in the area to remind his guys to always have their masks and injectors nearby. Oddly enough, the only time I ever did not get hounded about having my mask and kit was the one time I actually deployed to a RL combat zone-- go figure.

Just out of curiosity, is DMSO a compund of BZ? That was the only skin-absorbtion compound I knew of, heh...

[Coyote]

BTW, I did mention to the Duchess earlier that Canissia was 'adopting' al-Akharabat in an attempt to bring humaintarian assistance, etc, so it's not something I cooked up as a justification. The warlords are asking for Canissian prescence, but of course each of them is really just intending to milk the RPRC for their own benefit...

[Shroom Man 777]

Hey, want to collaborate on some projects, Coyote?

[K. A. Pital]

So, Byzantium and USSR, up to a yearly Joint Naval Exercise?

After all, the SNC Navy should be powerful enough to have fun with some dickwaiving.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

So, Byzantium and USSR, up to a yearly Joint Naval Exercise?

After all, the SNC Navy should be powerful enough to have fun with some dickwaiving.

I have 3 carrier groups available. We can have a go at it.

[Coyote]

Hey, want to collaborate on some projects, Coyote?

Already on it. Working up a post.

[Coyote]

I also want to add, for the record, that with Stas, now the game finally feels complete!

[Shroom Man 777]

I'm going to sleep now.

COYOTE: Anyway, I'm cool with whatever trade agreements we come up with. As for the Anuket-class Corvette, if you're going to buy our F-16s, then Shroomania is gonna buy your Corvettes.

Since Canissia is an Imperium and Shroomania is a Tsardom, I'll just order exactly 1/2 of your own order of Corvettes.


BTW DUDES!

From this Sunday up to next-next week, I will be off to the provinces to do nursing crap and I will have limited internet access.

So, basically, I'll entrust Shroomania to PeZook, and the nation will basically be... auto-piloting.

Um, if you guys make trade agreements with FUN, or whatever, then it's cool. Just drag Shroomania into any FUN-related stuff and have the Prime Minister approve and agree and nod his head, as long as it isn't totally mad!

If you made any direct agreements with Shroomania in regards to trade or defense - then don't wait on me. Like, if you ordered F-16s and the due date (late 2009 in-game time) comes, then just announce that you "acquired them".

Don't wait on me to announce stuff, since I won't be here - and I'll take a LOOOOOONG time to get up to speed when I get back, since this game is totally fucking fast.

(I'll probably end up having to catch up on fifty pages or some shit!)


Um, please don't fuck up my nation with invasions or accidental-nukings while I'm gone!

[Shroom Man 777]

OH - and we totally NEED to figure out WHO is in the FUN and stuff.

[K. A. Pital]

I have 3 carrier groups available. We can have a go at it

Sure. You could write in the post. I would use the Eastern Open Seas Fleet carrier group with CVN, and nuclear command/ELINT/spy ship SSV-33 in a taskforce of cruisers.

Group 1:
1x Nuclear SSV-33 "Ural" - Fleet Flagship
2x Kirov CGNs: "Hammer" and "Vladimir"
2x Slava class
2x Sovremenny
2x BPK Udaloy-II
1x Moskva class helicarrier: "Moskva"

Group 2:
1x Ulyanovsk-class heavy air-carrying cruiser "Crimson Revolution" - group flagship
1x Kirov CGNs: "Comrade Kirov"
2x Slava class
2x Sovremenny
2x BPK Udaloy-II

[Sea Skimmer]

F-15 is a fighter, not an interceptor. The realistic combat speed of the F-15 is also no more then mach 1.6 with external tanks and weapons. Mach 2.5 is outright impossible for current versions of the plane, the A model could reach in bursts, with no external stores at all, latter versions are heavier and slower and can’t go much past mach 2 with no external stores. That leaves you with the 20mm cannon and not much fuel to engage the enemy. Not good. Now of course you don’t always have to be able to match target speed to engage it, especially with missile attacks, but it sure helps.

Most modern fighters also share this supersonic limitation. The paper specs might say mach 2.2 or mach 2.3 on many planes… but they’ll never even come close to that with a realistic payload.

MiG-31 meanwhile is a mach 2.8 aircraft and can actually exceed mach 2 with four external missiles. It doesn’t supercruise, but it does have a very large internal fuel capacity, so it can sustain supersonic speed with afterburners for a useful period of time. Its weapons and radar are also just heavier and longer ranged, and it has a second guy in the back to handle long range radar intercepts. F-15s main advantage is tremendously greater subsonic agility and acceleration, which is directly linked to its limited internal fuel and limited supersonic performance.

I think around half the game is using the MiG-31 already too, though the Japanistani JI-75 Demon Queller version is actually based on the proposed swing wing version of the aircraft, the only advantage of which is excellent STOL capability. Pretty much the plane is the only remotely modern heavy interceptor the real world has gotten into production besides the F-14, which is more agile but which also has supersonic performance limitations much as those of the F-15.

[Sea Skimmer]

Just out of curiosity, is DMSO a compund of BZ? That was the only skin-absorbtion compound I knew of, heh...

DMSO is its own thing, it’s an industrial solvent which penetrates human skin and internal issue better then just about anything else. Because of this it’s been blended with a large number of chemical weapons (also a couple cancer drugs) to increase effectiveness. Among those weapons are BZ and LSD (I forget what the US Army code for LSD actually is, but it does have one!), however BZ and LSD will both penetrate the skin unaided, so will blister and nerve agents.

I did some checking to make sure I was remembering this right… and it seems DMSO was also marketed as a ‘cure all’ wonder drug in the 1960s and is still used for detoxification bullshit. Amazing how chemicals get around.

[Shroom Man 777]

Uhh... Goddamn!

Well, I think F-15s would be preferable in general purpose applications (which is what I'm marketing them for). I mean, with surface-to-air missiles and all... there is a reason why the Mig-31 is practically the only interceptor still in service - along with the Tornado.

The F-15 can do stuff like bomb the living crap out of things on the ground, as well as shoot air-to-air missiles at other airplanes

I think around half the game is using the MiG-31 already too

Really? I thought Stas was the only one, aside from you, who employs Russian stuff en masse. Oh, there's Shady too.

EDIT:

I checked. Only Stas, Skim, Shep and Shady have Migs.

[Lonestar]

From this Sunday up to next-next week, I will be off to the provinces to do nursing crap and I will have limited internet access.

You know, I have heard that the American slang "Boonies/Boondocks"(for rural areas) was actually picked up during the Philippines Insurrection from the locals.

Any truth to that?

[Shroom Man 777]

"Boondocks" is taken from the Filipino word for "mountain"

EDIT:

And, come on, your Colt 1911 was also made so Americans could have an easier time killing Moros (Mohammedians) down South in Mindanao. Today, they're still causing trouble for our government too!

[Lonestar]

"Boondocks" is taken from the Filipino word for "mountain"

EDIT:

And, come on, your Colt 1911 was also made so Americans could have an easier time killing Moro (Mohammedians) down South in Mindanao. Today, they're still causing trouble for our government too!

So...is that a "yes" then?

I was just curious if you were thinking "Boondocks" when you wrote "out in the provinces" or not.

[Sea Skimmer]

Uhh... Goddamn!

Well, I think F-15s would be preferable in general purpose applications (which is what I'm marketing them for). I mean, with surface-to-air missiles and all... there is a reason why the Mig-31 is practically the only interceptor still in service - along with the Tornado.

Ugh… Tornado ADV was an awful aircraft. Turn a low level attack plane into a high flying interceptor… why what a brilliant idea, worthy of Mcnamara and the F-111B fiasco… (RAF wanted F-14s BTW, got told no, go find or invent the cheapest piece of crap you can).

SAMs are nice… but they get really expensive really quickly (one battery of SAMs costs as much or even more then a good fighter/interceptor), and unlike an aircraft, you can’t concentrate all the SAMs you have against one raid, because they have to be spread out to defend various specific targets. Also SAM performance against low flying cruise missiles is just never very good, because a SAM radar is looking up into the sky, and the missile is fling very absurdly low. Putting the SAM radars on hills helps. But that means you need to have a hill… and then the missiles may be programmed to hide behind other hills as they approach.

The Soviet solution to this problem was to give the S-300 SAM system a very specialized low altitude radar called ‘Clam Shell’ by NATO, mounted on a freaking 127 foot high mast that could sort of be moved on a giant trailer, but that’s not exactly a low cost solution. The US Army is currently working on balloon mounted radar for the same job, but the balloon can’t operate in bad weather ( desire is to fly it at about 12-15,000 feet) A fighter meanwhile can ‘look down’ with its radar and pick even very low missiles out of clutter, and it can dash around to engage targets over a wide area, or at very long range.

Clam Shell Radar
Simplified diagram of S-300 radar envolopes including Clam Shell

The look down performance of many radars on AEW aircraft like the E-3 Sentry and A-50 Mainstay is also poor, because the radars are mounted on top of the aircraft and thus cannot see the ground at anything but very long range. This makes flying fighters or interceptors with high power radars all the more important.

The F-15 can do stuff like bomb the living crap out of things on the ground, as well as shoot air-to-air missiles at other airplanes

That is very true, all the recently built F-15E/K/SGs have had excellent ground attack capability, and even the early models can be modified to drop iron bombs (only Saudi Arabia has done this as far as I’m aware)… but theoretically you could do the same thing with a MiG-31. The previous MiG-25 interceptor after all was turned into a fighter bomber in the MiG-25BM version, and also given photo recon and SEAD capabilities.

In fact… I think I’ll be rolling out a prototype JI-75 Demon Queller SEAD variant shortly. Real multi role capability will take longer to develop…. But who wont want a swing wing mulitrole interceptor built by the lowest bidder in all of Japanistan?

[Coyote]

OOB updated with appropriate Reserve forces-- mostly light infantry and light armor (armored cars) for Army, with a couple Cavalry/Medium Armor units, Motor-Rifle units, and one Mechanized Infantry unit.

Also Reserve Air Force; essentially a bunch of "half-wing" size elements using older aircraft.

[TimothyC]

Skimmer - Depending on the price I might be up for that. The only condition I have is that the JI-75s have data links that work with my F-86Zs.

[DarthShady]

So, Byzantium and USSR, up to a yearly Joint Naval Exercise?

After all, the SNC Navy should be powerful enough to have fun with some dickwaiving.

Works for me. Feel free to include my entire navy in this endeavour.