2014 STGOD OOC Commentary Thread 1

[Steve]

And more invitations are sent.

[Thanas]

BTW, I know we've got like three carriers off Champas, or at least will soon, but is anyone sending a lot of humanitarian supplies? The Cascadian Air Force is maintaining an "Air bridge" via refueling aircraft across the Pacific. If anyone wants to participate we can make it smoother. Refuelers flying from Umeria, for instance, to take the pressure off of the Chuuk-based ones.

Rheinland has much of the strategic airlift engaged in there and has sent several hundred tons of aid with the engineering bataillon.

[madd0ct0r]

What sort of aid that Champa need anyway? Not much by way of official statements has been doled out yet.

I would imagine quite a few towns, even cities have to be evacuated. That means refugees, and thus the need for tents and medicine and food and bottled water and such.

And probably lots of iodine...

Lots of refugees, but since Champa is hit by storms and floods so often, theres refugee points built across the country. Normally people would go to their local one, but in this case they've been bused further out.

Iodine is deperetly needed. I'm fecking writing, but can barely keep up with the rest of you!

[The Romulan Republic]

Corona offered to send medical aid (granted not very much). I could have that include some iodine if you want.

[Steve]

Ships will also be carrying supplies out, since it's cheaper and more efficient, but priority stuff is going by airlift.

If Jester agrees Cascadia can temporarily post airlift support assets (refueling tankers) in Umeria to make the trans-Pacific flights easier.

[Simon_Jester]

Sure. Jet fuel we've got. Military airfields capable of handling you people's giant-ass cargo planes we've got. We just don't have anything that heavy ourselves.

Iodine supplements... iffier. The main problem there is that while the Umerians actually do have a huge stockpile of iodine pills and other medical supplies related to monitoring radiation levels in the population, they need these things for themselves because they're directly in the fallout plume from the reactor.

My "what's happening at the reactor" storyline is kind of stalled for now, my "rest of the engineering regiment" is pending my own momentary writer's block cracking.

Madd0ct0r, do you have a gmail account? At some point we might want to write collaborative accounts in which our own characters are all more than cardboard cutouts with a few throwaway lines.

[RogueIce]

I could also help in that regard, being more of a mid-point than Umeria is.

Depending on the extent of the need, which I'm waiting to hear about, I'll be sending out a Hospital Ship. And I'm pretty close and could send aid fairly rapidly. And any theoretical air bridge I might make will be much shorter to boot.

Actually, come to think of it, would it be practical for Cascadia to fly to my country and then just load their pallets on my aircraft for the final leg? It would save you some flight-time, at least, and airframe hours and so on. I just don't know if whatever the extra cost in time of switching cargoes would be worth it.

[madd0ct0r]

@simon-jester - fair, you've asked me for one twice now.
gmail at
padjbarry

[Steve]

I can't see the map at work, they have image blockers. I couldn't remember if Shinra was on the way or not.

If Shinra offers to join our effort, we would accept. We could airlift stuff to Shinra direct or to Chuuk, where Shinra airlift could move it on to Champa. Aerial refueling can be used to get priority loads (equipment needed ASAP for fighting the meltdown) to Champa without the delays of landing and refueling and/or transferring the cargo.

High priority stuff - air bridge with refuelers based out of Umeria and/or Shinra
Medium priority - airlift with stops at Chuuk and Shinra
Low priority/high quantity - by sea

[Simon_Jester]

Madd0ct0r:

Thanks, although I didn't mean for you to put it up publicly if you didn't want to.

I have created a Googledoc for us to store and mutually review drafts in.
________________

As to the air bridge. Reading off the map and using this calculator for distances along great circle routes...

Interestingly, the great circle routes from Cascadia to Champa fly over the arctic zones, because the two countries are almost exactly on opposite sides of the planet- it's the equivalent of airlifting supplies from the US to the middle of the Indian Ocean. Then again, as a corollary that means it hardly matters which way you go; if you're flying to a point exactly the other side of the Earth all paths are great circle paths.

It's relatively easy, though, to draw a great circle route that runs from Cascadia over Fuso and on to Umeria. I'm sure the people of Fuso are willing to help top off the Cascadian planes. Cargo planes heavily loaded don't have that long an unrefueled range, and minimizing the number of times you need to refuel in midair plays a huge role in making sure you can actually get your cargo to the destination.

Going Fuso -> Shinra -> Umeria is... in my opinion of questionable advantage, though it depends on the exact ranges of the aircraft involved (Steve's C-5 and C-17 clones). I could probably figure out all the details, but would like to concentrate my creative energies on hammering out a couple of storyposts today.

Depending on the extent of the need, which I'm waiting to hear about, I'll be sending out a Hospital Ship. And I'm pretty close and could send aid fairly rapidly. And any theoretical air bridge I might make will be much shorter to boot.

Ours is even closer- closer than we'd like...

Actually, come to think of it, would it be practical for Cascadia to fly to my country and then just load their pallets on my aircraft for the final leg? It would save you some flight-time, at least, and airframe hours and so on. I just don't know if whatever the extra cost in time of switching cargoes would be worth it.

The main problem is that this imposes a delay and forces the Cascadian aircraft to fly pretty far away from their natural great circle route.

[Steve]

Are you counting Chuuk? It's southeast of Fuso, just under the equator in the eastern-most part of the map.

[Steve]

Wait, 100th anniversary of the air bridge? Wasn't that done in 1942? It'd be 72 years.

[Thanas]

Wait, 100th anniversary of the air bridge? Wasn't that done in 1942? It'd be 72 years.

Eh...1944? So 70th.

[Thanas]

Oh and steve, just so you know - the Rheinland refusal to surrender and accept anything but surrender in return happened after Britain started bombing, not before.

[Steve]

I couldn't remember which way it was, but on the other hand, little factoids like that mean little to men like Harris. He's a True Believer in this thing and not above twisting such a fact or dismissing it as "Rhenish propaganda".

Just for academic purposes, what was Rheinland's peace offer to them before the bombers flew?

[Eternal_Freedom]

Hmm...New Britonia is trying to crown a new monarch? That's not good. I know that Steve and I had a treaty where we guarantee their borders but my people will not be happy about the idea.

[Steve]

Wait, 100th anniversary of the air bridge? Wasn't that done in 1942? It'd be 72 years.

Eh...1944? So 70th.

Hrm, I forgot the exact date then. I thought you wrote 1942 as the year that the Rhenish got sufficient fighters to thwart the bombing campaign.

It works though. 70th anniversary.

In Cascadia there be an event around V-A day to commemorate the 70th anniversary of liberation, that is, when the last piece of Cascadian land was liberated from Klavostani troops (as a result of Cascadia's 1944 offensives).

E_F: Hrm? Rheinland's worry is that they'll state a claim to the old homeland, since the Britonian exiles are involved in the desire for the monarchy. What is Orion's beef with the idea of New Britonia becoming a monarchy?

[Eternal_Freedom]

We would see it as a logical first step to claiming Rheinland's territory and attempting to make Britonia a major player again, something we are bitterly opposed to. Sure, now it's just crowning someone Queen, but it's the first step.

Should have a story post up in ten minutes or so btw.

[Simon_Jester]

I like Drax's homicidal indifference to the lives of Orions. It seems... fair.

Every country should have people who Do Not Love Them; it makes the country more interesting.

Also, is that a GLOURIOUS EKRANOPLAN-type vehicle the Delta Dukes are flying in? Or more of a conventional large flying boat?

[Eternal_Freedom]

Yeah I liked that touch.

Story post is up. No doubt it will anger those who oppose the death penalty in-game.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Half of the Arcadians will be angry, half will be cheering probably

On a different note, I'm sure there is someone out there who hates Arcadia. I just don't know who that would be with our whole 'stays out of world events most of the time' thing.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Have you actually read it? I had my King publicly execute five terrorists live on international television.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Yeah, I read it.

I just know how I'm writing Arcadia. I was exaggerating, but there are literally people who would be cheering that.

EDIT: To clarify: While its coming up in my next story post, we've had some issues with separatist terrorists pretty much from when the 'unification' happened. There are people who really don't like terrorists. They would be the ones cheering Alexander for what he did.

[Eternal_Freedom]

Yeah the worrying thing is that there are people in the real world who'd be cheering.

[Skywalker_T-65]

Yup.

Anyway, I clarified what I meant with an edit. Now to figure out how to write the post in question.