SD.Net World Redux Comment Thread III

[Steve]

They were the Emperor's Finest Legion!

IOW, "commandoes" picked for their political loyalty and not their capability.

[PeZook]

Unreal time, mang.

Will this be the first time Paul's seen other world leaders ever since the attack, BTW?

I think so, yes.

[Shroom Man 777]

Then Prime Minister Shroom will be so happy to meet Paul again!

*tears*

[Siege]

Yes, I know they are special forces. However, the way it was done was exactly what the Misterians should have been expecting, and since in San Dorado you can buy anything you want, they'd arm and plan accordingly.

They would expect APCs driving through gates and walls and into the building? Well, hokay...

In Magdalenka, there were a grand total of two (yes, TWO) gangsters, one of whom was former Spetznaz, versus something like fifty counter terrorists. The house was smaller, too - and yet it took two hours, 17 wounded and 1 dead cop to kill only one of those two, while the other blew himself up. This is why I think those Misterians were comically incompetent.

Oh, well, that would at least explain why the tsar would need Mr. Karic' help . Though two hours to take out two guys? That sounds more like the cops were incompetent to me...

Trained and competent opponents who know how to handle defence of a fixed object and have access to explosives and expertise in using them will always be dangerous, no matter how well armed your people are, yet you took them all down with contemptous ease. Hence, Misterian commandoes are a bunch of incompetents

Really, even if they were twenty John Rambo clones, there's only so much you can do when you have to defend a huge mansion against an opponent that has access to IR sensors, APCs, helicopters, vastly more (competent) manpower and the best weapons money can buy. And I find it hard to believe that even in San Dorado they would've been able to procure anything heavier than fully automatic weapons and grenades in less than two weeks. You can buy RPGs and stuff, but you need to know where to buy them, and these guys are not familiar with the local underworld, proliferate as it might be.

[PeZook]

They would expect APCs driving through gates and walls and into the building? Well, hokay...

Why not? The only thing you'd need to counter them would be bombs buried in the yard. Police all over the world use APCs equipped with battering rams, so its not like they're a new revolutionary idea.

Oh, well, that would at least explain why the tsar would need Mr. Karic' help . Though two hours to take out two guys? That sounds more like the cops were incompetent to me...

The yard and house was turned into a minefield ; The initial assault was literally blown up by a hidden two kilogram nailbomb remotely detonated from inside the house.

Then a firefight ensued, with cops trying to pull out their wounded while being attacked with remotely-detonated explosives in the yard and fired upon (accurately) with AKs.

Finally a cop managed to hit one of them, and the other guy blew himself up.

Really, even if they were twenty John Rambo clones, there's only so much you can do when you have to defend a huge mansion against an opponent that has access to IR sensors, APCs, helicopters, vastly more (competent) manpower and the best weapons money can buy. And I find it hard to believe that even in San Dorado they would've been able to procure anything heavier than fully automatic weapons and grenades in less than two weeks. You can buy RPGs and stuff, but you need to know where to buy them, and these guys are not familiar with the local underworld, proliferate as it might be.

Ah, but you don't have to defend the entire mansion. IR sensors can't see through walls, anyway, so that's kind of moot.

You need to cause confusion, chaos and casualties - enough to allow the tsar to slip out.

You can use nailbombs, grenades, booby traps and assault rifles with armor-piercing rounds to inflict pretty heavy casualties against any attacking force. Partisans have been fighting regular armies with far less throughout the XX century.

[Shroom Man 777]

Oh well. At least we all know PM Shroom loves King Paul?

[PeZook]

Awww...emotional!

[Siege]

The yard and house was turned into a minefield ; The initial assault was literally blown up by a hidden two kilogram nailbomb remotely detonated from inside the house.

The tsar's mansion had been under 24/7 surveillance since the tsar arrived; had they turned the lawn into a minefield the AIP would have known about it, and done something about it.

(You can legally do a lot of things in San Dorado - shoot up hard drugs, pack concealed heat in public, visit prostitutes - but you can't turn your lawn into a minefield. We have our standards, you know.)

You can use nailbombs, grenades, booby traps and assault rifles with armor-piercing rounds to inflict pretty heavy casualties against any attacking force. Partisans have been fighting regular armies with far less throughout the XX century.

The Armed Interdiction Police would be more than intimately familiar with those (and far worse) techniques. There's a reason why I didn't go into detail on how they did what they did inside the house - I don't know exactly how they did it, but I assumed that eighty-odd years of fighting people trying to work magic with pipe bombs, assault rifles and booby traps has paid off for them. They've been fighting armed-up bad guys since the days of Capone, and there's preciously little holding the AIP back from fighting dirty.

[K. A. Pital]

Wow. That's a gigantic fuckup Siege. Titanic one.

*smiles*

The CSR won't be involving itself.

[Shroom Man 777]

Wow... and if Karic gets his hands on this...


Siege, I love you!

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Wow... and if Karic gets his hands on this...


Siege, I love you!

Hmm... you know, this could get interesting...

*orders intel agents to extra vigiliant*

[Shroom Man 777]

Man, I was thinking of having Shroomania accidentally release some Rage-infected monkeys!

But it's okay if Siege has the horrible plague.

[Fingolfin_Noldor]

Man, I was thinking of having Shroomania accidentally release some Rage-infected monkeys!

But it's okay if Siege has the horrible plague.

We are all fine if the monkeys stay on Shroomania and not cross the Channel.

[Shroom Man 777]

Yeah... well, movie references aren't enough to make me ruin my country, though.

(It's ALMOST enough though!)

[Coyote]

How funny. I was actually contemplating a Rage Virus as well. Doesn't matter; all in fun. I'm looking forward to hordes of furiously angry psycopathic 'mutant' types tearing through the streets...

[Shroom Man 777]

Well... I hope those cybernetic organisms Stas and I have been developing end up being useful in the near future...

[Grand Moff Yenchin]

I love the "biological agent detection pen" that Yenchin came up with.

It's so full of shit that it's brown.

It took a major concerted effort by the US and NATO countries etc to get a biological agent detection system that could fit into a relatively large trailer; and we're to believe that Byzantium, etc have managed to produce a multi-agent detection system that fits into a relatively large pen?



At best, it can only look for one type of agent, and has a ludicrously high rate of false positives.

Incorrect. ELISA is multi welled. The detection is depended on what antibodies are used. Antibodies are specific and these can be worked out for specificity.

Realistically, the best way of finding out if your guys have been hit with BW is when they start throwing their guts up...

EDIT: looking at the interview with the author of it; he says "The BioPen is a patented technology. DARPA has not responded to-date"

Yeah; because DARPA knows their homework and knows that it's utter bullshit.

Whatever.

[Coyote]

Whatever.

You know better. Go out and count all the rivets in every single battleship ever produced since 1895 and then calculate barnicle density vs. rivet drag in water under arctic conditions for a 30-day period of time, do a power-to-weight distribution analysis and then come up with the maximum potential speed of said battleships if an application of RAID is used to spray the barnicles off at 1-week intervals, and then you can talk.

[RogueIce]

Some people are deciding the Sabikan revanchists will try some Machiavellian schemes to provoke foreign powers into getting involved, either against Sabika and thus further undermining the FTO, or by tricking them into thinking that FTO groups are responsible.

As unrealistic as you told me they were last night on IM, I do think that in our world of vampire retro-virii, the Rage Virus now (apparently) and then Karic's attack which almost worked but by the grace of writer's fiat (despite the whole bomb factory exploding thing and Pezookia's security measures) plus any other silliness we've had that I've forgotten...

I don't think it totally out there some Sabikan militiaman will be "smarter than the average bear" and try some scheme like this. Especially since the concept of "kill CSR naval personnel = near automatic CSR military response = nasty shit for the FTO" probably isn't too difficult to grasp.

I mean if they were just about Sabika sure, but since the whole "striking at the heart of the FTO" bit was included I didn't think them trying some plot to weaken the FTO, whether in a political sense or even military one, would be that far off.

We live in a different world than Earth, after all.

EDIT: Ultimately, we have shown a fine talent for inventing probably unlikely situations out of seemingly nowhere for the sake of a story point. So if somebody really wanted to do it, then yes, some Machiavellian genius will somehow show up and be the Grand Master Planner of the Sons of Sabika.

And it doesn't have to be the "Sons of Sabika" specifically. Any anti-FTO group could think of such a thing. They're just a handy example to speak of at the time.

[Siege]

I'd like to point out that the psychoactive substance developed by SinTEK is not a virus but a biochemical compound that isn't any more contagious than Sarin, VX or other such chemical weapons. It's really nasty stuff that will kill people (indirectly), but it isn't like infected people will spread their condition by biting others. Sure, we like our nasty weapons, and sure the effects of the stuff are similar to Rage, but we're not totally barking mad - we're not at all interested in potentially causing the zombie apocalypse...

EDIT: Also, call me mad, but I don't see how the Sons of Sabika are going to accomplish anything by, say, attacking the CSR harbor in Livorno. All that's going to accomplish is bring the CSR down on Sabika like a ton of bricks. And if they think their treatment by the FTO was bad, they clearly haven't been paying attention to what happened to Astaria... Seriously, how is a bunch of extremists going to make such an attack look like it was the FTO?

[phongn]

Gentlemen, the plural of "virus" is "viruses."

[PeZook]

So...can I launch the little turtles, finally?

And Coyote: why ion engines? Maneuvering requires short bursts of thrust, repeated, and frequent on/off cycles. Ion engines aren't really good at that.

[Karmic Knight]

So...can I launch the little turtles, finally?

Fire the turtles.

[Siege]

So...can I launch the little turtles, finally?

Sure, as soon as I get there (just in time for the new year I guess - doesn't 2010 start on the 15th?)

[PeZook]

So...can I launch the little turtles, finally?

Sure, as soon as I get there (just in time for the new year I guess - doesn't 2010 start on the 15th?)

It, does but I guess the launch will have to be retconned to sometime in the first week of December