DirtsideII eval (fwd)

> Oerjan Ohlson wrote:

(*** Discussing Morale effects for Dirtside II***)

> There should be a way to scale morale effects up to the company level

I doubt that the Comm systems would be that interlinked. In a company you
may have as few as fifty or as many as one-hundred combat personell on
the same network (depending on composition, mission paramaters, ect.) The
general effect would be like trying to listen to one person in a crowded room,
AND the accoustics are directing all the sound at you. Secondly it would make
scouting operations by infantry impossible as the buzz from their headsets
would give away their position.

It's more likely that the comm system would be tiered: a tank or a squad would
be talking amongst themselves, while the commander (Or Comm Offcer) has access
to the network up one level (squad to platoon, platoon command to company
command, ect..) The Comm operator can communicate past the level
above them by re-tuning the radio (setting it to a diffrent channel) and
yelling loud enough to be heard. Part of the difficulty in getting higher
tiers in listening to you is getting the comm operator on the other end to
believe that your signal is NOT a misrouted communication.

I have no doubt that comm technology can be advanced to a level where an
entire battalion could talk at the same time, but the limiting factor now is
not technology but humanity. We, the third most intelligent carbon based life
forms of an unremarkeable blue green world orbiting an unregarded yellow star
in the unfashonable end of the western spiral arm of the Milky way Galaxy who
still think that the internet is a really neat idea..., simply cannot process
that many signals at once.

Now if someone comes up with some rules for a Hive Minded race.... (Highest
command level makes all morale checks, but any morale test affects all forces
on table? Just an idea.)

> 4) ADA

> Yes and yes. So should the ordnance used by aircraft, however - and the

Ugh. Record keeping. Bad.

> Chen-Song Quin wrote:

Depends. If you use something that we are currently not willing to use, you
might be able to. That is Airburst Munitions. Airburst munitions have the
explosive power of a small nuclear warhead with none of the radiation. This is
the primary reason that nobody uses them, with an enitre quarter of the planet
trigger happy, and carrying nukes, the use of an airburst round might be
mistaken as a nuclear blast, and trigger countries to fire their own nuclear
aersenals.

The difficulty in disposing of mines with ground effect artillery is that the
mines are just picked up and thrown around by the blast, the field is still
there if a little *more* randomised. "Bouncing Buddy" mines may be made less
effective, but they will still be armed, and can certanly take off a leg or
two. The airburst effect creates a shockwave that compresses trigger
mechanisms, actually tricking the mines into believing that they have been
stepped on (rolled over ect.) and so anything in the minefield will take
damage from the artillery and the mines. (wait for some fool to get into a
minefield and blow the lot with heavy artillery. HAHAHAHA...)

Obviously Command Detonated Mines and Magnetic Proximity Mines aren't
necessairily afffected by this, unless thay have a secondary trigger
mechanism, but if you figure that in a few centuries placing "EMP Bomblets" in
a submunition artillery missile may be standard practice (partly to disrupt
electronics and communications but mostly to give arms manufacturers another
white elephant the government can squeeze the taxpayers for...) the EMP may
trigger magnetic mines, or teporarily disrupt communications to CDMs (A CDM
field being rendered inactive for the turn the artillery mission is taking
progress?)